Feature Article

The first-ever nation-wide elephant census in Sri Lanka has found that there are about 7,379 jumbos in the country. As many as 5,879 of them were spotted near parks and sanctuaries and another 1,500 were estimated to be living in other areas.

Developed countries are not transparent about their plans to help developing countries financially deal with climate change. The transparency quotient is weak, revealed a recent report by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). The institute studied fast-start climate finance reports, which developed countries submitted to the UN in May this year.

West Bengal has completed culling of chicken after a spate of unnatural bird deaths reported in some poultry farms in Nadia district's Tehatta block. While it has been confirmed that the organism infecting the birds is the H5 strain of influenza, it is still not known if it is the mutant variety. On August 29, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization had raised concerns that the virus circulating in Vietnam and Cambodia are a mutant variety. India was identified as one of the countries at risk of contracting this mutant.

Mendha Lekha village in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra has proved wrong the forest department’s stand that gram sabhas cannot manage forest produce.

The forest staff at the Panna Tiger Reserve was working in close nexus with the poachers and this ultimately led to the big cat disappearing from the area in 2008, reveals an internal report of the Madhya Pradesh forest department.

Amidst concerns over nuclear security in the wake of the Fukushima accident in Japan, 151 member states passed an action plan on nuclear safety at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) general conference in Vienna on September 23.

The Madras High Court has revoked the ban on the drug formulation phenylpropanolamine (PPA) and all its combination drugs available in the market. PPA is commonly used in cough and cold medications and is also used as a nasal decongestant; it was approved by the drug controller's office about 20 years ago. The ban was imposed by the Centre in February this year following a recommendation of an expert committee. The court revoked the ban on September 9 following a petition filed by pharmaceutical giant Cipla.