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Cover Story

The cost-effectiveness of sky-spying

ABOUT 500 active users utilise more than 10,000 items of data each year in India. And, about 72 per cent of the data is from IRS-1A and IRS-1B satellites, with the government subsidising the space segment. Cost-benefit analyses have been made in some applications. For example, using satellite data for flood mapping of the river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh during the 1986 monsoons proved to be 15 times cheaper and 20 times faster than using conventional methods.

Waging battles for a better environment

HIS NAME has lent credibility to Goa's environmental and human rights agitations. Matanhy Saldanha, the self-effacing, 42-year-old biology teacher in Panaji's Don Bosco has been involved with these agitations from the early 1980s. In fact, Saldanha's recollections sound like a historical narrative of independent Goa's environmental and human rights activism.

The case for and against.

Ecological factors • The present alignment passes through densely populated and cultivated coastal land. • The alternative alignment also passes through forest areas. • Trains running at a high speed will have an impact on historic buildings and disturb the peace of the residents.

Case dismissed

SINCE THE Konkan Railway Corporation was adamant about going ahead with the project despite protests from environmentalists, Goa Foundation secretary and activist Claude Alvares decided to take the matter to court. In April, shortly before the court adjourned for the summer vacation, he filed a writ petition, but it was immediately dismissed.

Facts and figures

• Total length of the Konkan railway : 760 km • Cost (at 1991-92 prices) : Rs 1,391 crore • Completion date : October 1994 • Length in Goa : 106 km • Number of bridges proposed : 84

Neem-based products

Pesticides 1. Wellgro, produced by India Tobacco Company, reportedly repels tobacco caterpillar, prevents the spread of tobacco mosaic virus and prevents nitrogen leaching. 2. Neemguard, marketed by Gharda Chemicals, Bombay. Recommended by the company for use on cotton, groundnut, pulses, rice, vegetables, fruit trees and plantation crops. 3. Neemark, marketed by West Coast Herbochem, Bombay. 4. Neemta 2100, a neem kernel suspension with antifeedant and repellant effects.

Neem curbs fungal carcinogens

While growing up in Rajasthan, Deepak Bhatnagar often saw his parents using neem leaves to keep insects out of the wheat they stored in their home. He also saw how well the leaves worked against skin infections when they cured a persistent ulcer on his leg -- one that had baffled the best doctors.

Efforts to collect germplasm gather momentum

THE EXACT origin of neem is uncertain, but today it is found almost everywhere in the tropical belt. Some say neem is native to the entire Indian subcontinent, but others expand this to dry forest areas throughout south and southeast Asia, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

A promising contraceptive

THE VILLAGE midwife's claims have been substantiated by recent scientific research on the contraceptive qualities of neem. "The ancient Ayurvedic treatises indicate neem was used to induce abortions," says M R Unniyal, assistant director at the Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha in Delhi.

Tapping commercial potential

ANJANI KHANNA HYDERABAD & S GOPIKRISHNA WARRIER MADRAS INDUSTRIAL giants across India are taking a keen interest in neem. ITC, a major cigarette manufacturer, has found that neem extracts are extremely effective against the dreaded tobacco mosaic virus and the tobacco caterpillar moth (Spodoptera litura) which can extensively damage tobacco crops. ITC was forced to seek natural pesticides because "synthetic residues could find their way into cigarette smoke and this could be dangerous," according to V V L N Prasad, a scientist with ITC.
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