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I smelt the air of Ahmedabad city this week. It took me back to the time when Delhi's air was much the same. When breathing was like wheezing, and everyone complained about constantly feeling ill. Delhi is a little better now. The air has less poison. But it was like a diseased city then. Now Ahmedabad, it seems to me, has taken over this dubious distinction. Or should I say Pune or Kolkata or Hyderabad -- all fighting for the pollution top spot? This when we know pollution is not a benign growth. It is a fast growing cancer. Toxic and deadly.

News

Toothless at 10

A decade after their inception, Panchayati Raj bodies are yet to be granted adequate powers

Mission impossible?

The sheer scope of the biodiversity action plan may militate against its successful implementation

Sylvan overhaul

Constitution and agenda declared for forestry panel

Canada ratifies Kyoto pact

Approval comes amid stiff opposition from oil-rich provinces

Microbe hunt

Will people gain from project to find beneficial microbes?

Polluting oligopoly

A clutch of automakers to blame for almost all of the tailpipe emissions in the US

In Short

Science & Technology

Too hot for Bush

Global warming would affect water availability in the US

Curtain raiser

Ways to prevent skin ulcers

Duping pests

Pesticides are not the only way

Implicated again

Pesticides cause Parkinson's disease

Oil find

...threatens the Caspian sea

Mouse make up

Mice are genetically similar to humans

A beauty tip

Cosmetics can cause infertility

Survival tactic

Fungus help plants in adversity

Cellular signal

Of an impeding asthma attack

Bytes

On the right track

Bacteria to battle waste on trains

Foul-free

Quick way to make compost

Weathering the drought

Meteorological Department attempts to get its act together after bungling with monsoon predictions

Factsheet

"All-India drought"

Obituary

Ivan Illich <br> (1926-2002)

"His thought leads out of the prison of routinized, sterile, preconceived notions"

Analysis

The battle over forests

Are the recent eviction drives misdirected?

(Read full article)

Special Report

Dictating terms

The US forces its agenda upon other member states at the fifth review conference of the bioweapons convention

Faith in spate

Sabarimala bursting at the seams with devotees but environmental concerns ignored

The Fortnight

Ignorance is bliss

Regulator under a cloud

Safeguarding tradition

Corn cleared

Whitewashed by nature

Germans up in arms

Tapping technology

Fund flow problem

Water mismanagement

Baring for a cause

Cops most corrupt

Nepal exodus

Positive step

Order toned down

Penalised for polluting

Preservative row

Food

Cultural constant

There is no escaping the ubiquitous 'kanhi' in Kerala

Leader

Prickly plans

in the last two months or so the Union ministry of environment and forests (mef) has not been its usual bovine self. First, it got the Biodiversity bill approved by parliament. It then ensured an amendment to the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972. Collaborating with others, the ministry has chalked out the capacious national biodiversity strategy and action plan (nbsap); moreover, a forestry commission will review the nation's management of forestry.

Whether report

which was the cruellest month of the year 2002? April, pace T S Eliot but also the unnaturally high temperature. June, or July, or August, if you thought the rains would come. November, when it was announced that India is in the grip of a full-country drought. Even December, with a winter sun too hot to bask in.

2002 should perhaps be called the year of cruelly visible climate change. The weather's been completely topsy-turvy. That is to say, its been like our scientists at the Indian meteorological department (imd).

Review

Conversing on conservation

Media

Practise what you preach

RECYCLED PAPER . Magazine PAPER Project

Four leading nature and wildlife magazines - National Geographic, Smithsonian, Sunset and Cond Nast Traveler - have been pulled up by the publishers of nine environmental magazines for using virgin fibre paper in their publications. According to estimates, 737,809 trees were cut down in 2001 to provide paper for these four magazines alone, some of which, ironically, often celebrate nature with the finest photographs.

Superstars lend a voice

WORLD AIDS DAY . MTV

To mark the occasion of World AIDS Day on December 1, MTV organised concerts at Cape Town, South Africa and Seattle, USA, featuring well-known performers such as Puff Diddy, Alicia Keyes and others.

The show was broadcast on global MTV channels and on more than 60 additional broadcasters to promote HIV/AIDS awareness.

Award for a better world

Nobel Prize for Sustainable Development

An initiative, led by Dutch Member of Parliament Boris Van Der Ham, British Member of the European Parliament Chris Davies, former youth-representative for the United Nations Ingrid Aaldijk and US-Congress member James Greenwood, will appeal to the Nobel Foundation for a new category - the Nobel Prize for Sustainable Development.

Wizkids have their day

SIEMENS WESTINGHOUSE COMPETITION IN MATH, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY . USA

Learning from experience

LIVING WITH THE AIDS VIRUS: THE EPIDEMIC AND THE RESPONSE IN INDIA . Editors: Samiran Panda, Anindya Chatterjee, Abu S Abdul-Quader . Sage Publications . Rs 250 . 204 pages

Healthy news

http://www.cmhealth.org

The World Health Organization (WHO) Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (CMH) was launched in January 2000 by WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland. The CMH has been analysing the impact of health on development issues and producing reports and studies on health-related interventions and their influence on economic growth and equity in developing nations.

Courage under fire

SANCTUARY AWARDS . Sanctuary Magazine . ABN-Amro . India

Sanctuary magazine and ABN-Amro bank have chosen four forest officers and a grassroots activist as Earth Heroes for this year's Sanctuary Wildlife Service Awards for their services to wildlife conservation in the face of opposition.

Grassroots

Learning games

Educational tools need not be the prerogative of the privileged

Reviving Kottayam

The healthy city project is, if nothing else, a pointer to the direction that Indian cities need to move in

Letters

Pick of the post bag

Mafia rules
The story 'City of Fire' (Down To Earth, Vol 11, No 13; November 30, 2002) and the report on the proposed evacuation of Jharia (near Dhanbad in Jharkhand) (Vol 11, No 12; November 15, 2002), highlight important issues, previously put on the backburner. While concerns about the evacuation hitting poor people most strongly are valid, if there is any major gas leak, these people will be the most severely hit.

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