Dying wisdom

the year 1979 had seen a debilitating drought sweep across India. As rains failed, agricultural production dropped, resulting in enormous human misery. Nestled in the denuded sub-Himalayan Shivalik hills, the poor villagers of Sukhomajri in Haryana were not spared either.

Water strongholds

THE vision that Rajasthan invokes in most is one of magnificent, awesome and impregnable medieval fortresses. in fact, the most attractive features of the Aravalli hills in the state are its fortified cities and palaces. Some forts have been built on a hill overlooking the city, as is the case in Alwar. At Amber and Bundi, the palace stands on the hillside, while the fort is situated on the summit.

On the Edge

A. The quick and the dead Human pressure, lack of research and shrinking forests coupled with a thriving international trade in wildlife threatens to turn a zoologist's Garden of Eden into a poacher's paradise

The other course

Science of the Common people

INDIA'S long history of excellence in science and technology is well known. There are several examples of Indian products -- not just textiles and spices -- that other civilisations admired for a long time. In AD 662, Syrian astronomer-monk Severus Sebokht wrote of the knowledge of the Hindus, "...of their subtle discoveries in the science of astronomy...of their rational system of mathematics, or of their method of calculation...using nine symbols."

The spirit of the sanctuary

FIVE YEARS ago, the social forestry department in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra cleared several trees from a forest near Nandivse village to plant acacia trees. It did not know that the 4-ha patch was a sacred grove surrounding the temple of a powerful local deity, Kal Bhairon. The villagers, too, joined in because they were paid for the felling and planting.

The wood femine

IN THE small workshops of Purani Mandi in Saharanpur, woodcarvers fret, fit and polish their carvings for a revitalised urban market in India and abroad. Their own future, however, is precarious. Spiralling prices of fast-depleting raw materials and a market controlled by middlemen threaten to choke this once thriving trade.

Letters - January 15, 2012

It is not a Zoo Apropos of the article, “Don’t just cash in on tigers” (December 1-15, 2011), “eco-tourism” is restricted to brochures, books, and talks by wildlife resorts. One should understand that anything done in the name of tourism is not always right.

Idea of farmer wisdom is relentlessly manipulated

You speak of a seed and pesticide treadmill that farmers are on. Why is it worrying? Interviewee:  Glenn Davis

Gulp it down the cool way

Bite into anything in this richly forested taluk of Karnataka and be sure it would be organic. Chemical cultivation practices have not been introduced in Sirsi. What’s more, all the healthy traditional food practices of Malnad, disappearing fast elsewhere, are retained here in near-exact form.