Feature Article

Among the non-believers

Recently, on discovering that I work in the forest department, a lady co-passenger in a flight asked, “Are you people really doing anything for the forests?” The unconcealed taunt set me and my friends discussing with the sceptic the scenario of green governance in India. How are we managing our forests? Is it time to hand over the forest resources to panchayats with the hope that they can manage better? Is the forest department guilty of propagating a management model that excludes people? Should we continue with the Indian Forest Service at all?

Sep 15, 2011
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15/09/2011
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A road set free

Sep 15, 2011
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15/09/2011

The residents of Bamni were fed up with the constant feud between two farmers in their village. Their quarrels, which often came to fisticuffs, went on day and night, at home and in the farms, for years. Occasionally their neighbours had to rush them to a doctor after they had injured each other. But in February, the hostility disappeared like a whiff of smoke after the road passing between their fields, encroached for farming, was cleared. “They have forgotten their legal battle over the encroached area and are beginning to remember that their wives are first cousins,” says Sachin Bandapalle, a farmer of the village, with a chuckle.

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Energy V Environment

Matters reached a head earlier this year when the prime minister assured the power ministers’ conference the government would decide within a month about power projects which were ready in all respects except for environment clearance. At a meeting convened by the prime minister’s office, the Kayamkulam project in Kerala was the only one granted clearance. The rest were returned for further clarifications. The meeting, at a later date, drew up an action plan to decide the fate of 33 projects.

Sep 15, 2011
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15/09/2011
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Malaria hits anti-poaching efforts

Sep 15, 2011
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15/09/2011

Describe your study and its findings.

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A brewing scandal

Sep 15, 2011
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15/09/2011

CARE for some tea? Before reaching out for that cuppa here is some information: herbal brews and some tea brands contain ingredients unlisted on the packet. The unlisted contents include weeds that could result in allergic reactions.

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Toxins in the womb

Sep 15, 2011
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15/09/2011

EXPOSURE to organic pollutants can disrupt the formation of nervous system in a foetus. This in turn may lead to neural tube defects. The disease affects over 320,000 infants worldwide every year.

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The path popped pills tread

WHILE waste from drug factories continues to be a major concern for the environment, not much attention is paid to pollution that results from household consumption of drugs. Very few models exist to trace the trajectory of drugs and determine their fate.

Sep 15, 2011
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15/09/2011
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Peel filter

Sep 15, 2011
Publication Date: 
15/09/2011

GRAPEFRUIT or chakotra is widely used in bodywashes and gels. But its peel finds limited use. Now, Indian researchers have shown the peel can be effectively used to filter methylene blue, a dye which is used to colour silk and cotton and is the main ingredient of the textile industry effluent. If ingested, water contaminated with the chemical can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

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Curbing TB still a challenge

Sep 15, 2011
Publication Date: 
15/09/2011

IT IS no mean task to detect tuberculosis. Suspects are subjected to a battery of tests, including sputum and molecular, to ascertain the disease. One of the most expensive and widely used by private pathological labs is the blood test. But the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued advisory asking countries to discontinue the use of blood test to detect tuberculosis as it “misdiagnoses and gives inaccurate results”.

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Who messed it up?

Sep 15, 2011
Publication Date: 
15/09/2011

The overpowering stench of municipal waste hits one hard on entering Boragaon. Women and children from the nearby squatter’s colony squabble over the garbage unloaded by trucks from Guwahati, the sprawling business hub of northeastern India and a million-plus city of Assam. A sole adjutant stork, an endangered bird, meditates on the high rise of waste before being chased away by a dog.

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