Sanctuary in peril

THE inhabitants of Radhanagri taluka in Maharashtra today are suspicious of both the state forest department and the Indian Aluminium Company (INDAL). In the increasing list of protected areas (PA) in India, threatened by industrial pressures and demanding their denotification, Radhanagri Sanctuary is another recent inclusion. Located in the Kolhapur disrict in the Western Ghats region, Radhanagri

Prioritising people

MUCH water has flown under the bridge ever since the Flood Action Plan (FAP) - jointly developed by the World Bank (WB) and the Bangladesh government - was launched in 1988 in Bangladesh. The FAP can be fruitfully implemented only if its coordinators succeed in involving the people: this verdict was reached at the two -day meeting of the donor agencies organised in Dhaka from December 3-4, 1995. The FAP was conceived in 1985 primarily to protect

A leaf from history

PESTICIDES: universally derided for being the bane of today's environment. Used worldwide without adequate checks and safeguards, they infiltrate soil, air and water, ravage food chains and play havoc with human as well ecological health. India accounts for one-third of the total pesticide poisoning cases in the world.

Crisis in Krishna

THE hammer and sickle insignia flashes on fluttering red flags over 'Porattu

Plant prospects

IN KILLUKULAVAIPATTI village in the drought prone Pudukottai district of Tamil Nadu, M Thangappa - a 45 -year old marginal farmer - earns his livelihood from the thorny, bushy plant, Prosopis juliflora, popularly called Kattukaruvel. Like him, many subsistence farmers and landless labourers use juliflora not only as fuelwood, but also as other means of livelihood.

For the people

WITH problems mounting around the issue of conservation of national parks and sanctuaries, the present state of India's wildlife and protected areas (PA) is in Jeopardy. In most of the cases, the malady has been identified as the largely unscientific and anti-people approaches adopted in dealing with the management of these regions. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, strongly believes that India needs

Seeds for Iife

INDIA'S fields and seed stores are the cradles of tremendous biological wealth in the form of diverse crop varieties. These varieties or 'landraces' have been shaped by farmers over generations to fit the requirements of often harsh environments, the opportunities of diverse production 'niches' and people's preferences for different products and qualities. But recent years have seen the erosion of this homespun diversity as 'improved' varieties, developed by research institutions,

Patent paradox

ETHIOPIA, one of the poorest nations of the world, contains a treasure trove of a particular plant species - C arabica, a coffee germplasm. But it cannot develop the germplasm commercially and mint money by selling high-tech coffee varieties to the rich inclustrialised countries. This is because Escagenetics Corp, a us biotechnology firm, holds patent claims on all transgenic (genetically engineered by inserting a foreign DNA) varieties of C

The price of power

FAST track power projects ha of late, become stages I macting'the theatrics of en ronment politics in India. was first evident this July, wh the Bharatiya Janata Pa (sip)-Shiv Sena government Maharashtra cancelled the t*s-based 2,015 mw Enron project proposed at Dabhol in Ratnagiri district. The target immediately after the Dabhol pro- Oct has been the 1,000 mw thermal power station proposed for Karnataka's

First among equals

WITH the ivory towers of Indian science Cracking up under economic pressure And the winds I of liberalisation blowing fircely into the cobwebbed windows of the scientific edifice, the talk in scientif- ft bes. all of a sudden, hinged on hmm accountability and com- e - words that had apparently id to evist in the Indian scientist's lexicon. Survival is the keyword now. And a another name for survival. dwindling iritty and more hands pft ims iL the jungle of Indian sci