Feature Article

PUZZLED why plants like congress grass, or Parthenium hysterophorus, spread fast? Any attempt to remove it is a failure as it would grow back quickly, while a plant like bracted arrowwood (Viburnum bracteatum) is slow to spread.

EARLY humans arrived in India from Africa more than a million years ago, indicate newly discovered stone tools. The discovery overturns the earlier assumption that our ancestors reached India about half a million years ago.

Tea grown on the steep slopes of Darjeeling hills, connoisseurs swear, is unlike anywhere else in the world. Epicures use a plethora of adjectives to describe the “champagne of teas”: brisk, flowery, round, mellow and sparkling. Brewed properly, the Darjeeling tea leaves yield a thin-bodied, light-coloured liquor with a floral aroma and a musky spiciness leading tea connoisseurs to label a variety of the tea as muscatel. At the luxury Harrod’s store in London a muscatel retails at over Rs 9,000 a kg. The famed Makaibari gardens sell what the estate calls “the world’s most expensive tea—Silver Tips Imperial. Reputed to “cull one to celestial slumber”, it is priced at US $20 (Rs 900) for a 50 gm pack.

Wind energy has been the poster child of India’s renewable energy programme. Data released by the government shows the staggering pace at which wind farms have been added across the country. But most of them deliver only a fraction of their generation potential, according to the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). This is due to use of obsolete equipment. The electricity regulators now want to discipline this errant child—no tax holidays, and payment subject to performance. But this is likely to happen if the industry agrees to the new direct tax code, which withdraws sops to the industry.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday banned the manufacture, sale, use and export of endosulfan throughout the country, citing its harmful health effects.

With more than half the world’s population now living in urban areas and with much of the world still urbanizing, there are concerns that urbanization is a key driver of unsustainable resource demands. Urbanization also appears to contribute to ever-growing levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.