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Contents page
Mar 15-31, 2003
Cover Story
Afterwards, an eerie silence envelops the field. There is only the crop -- no longer standing -- and the heavy tread gouged in the mud. This is not what the farmer wanted. Nor is this what the elephant intended. But somewhere else, these signs will appear again. And the two might antagonistically meet. nitin sethi on elephant-human conflicts in the post-Project Elephant era
Editor's page
News
Central Uttar Pradesh is literally on shaky ground. Land subsidence has been reported from several districts of the region, including Fatehpur, Farrukhabad, Kannauj and Unnao. Alarmingly, the culprit is neither seismic nor mining activity, but excessive groundwater extraction
Breaking with tradition, Union finance minister Jaswant Singh chose not to conform to the two-part format while delivering his maiden budget speech on February 28. But there was no departure from practice in this year's Union budget as it was at the end of the day another populist document. No sign of long-term planning or any strategy beyond the coming fiscal
Asbestos-related litigation in the us runs into billions of dollars today. So much so that the amount is estimated to exceed the combined cost of destruction caused by 9/11 and Hurricane Andrew
Air pollution is certainly an enemy of health. But there are others that may be even nastier. Chlorpyrifos -- a pesticide that can easily enter the human foodchain -- has more victims to its credit than carcinogenic air pollutants such as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). This is the finding of a study conducted by researchers from US-based Columbia University
Compromising with a necessary evil: this is literally true for chlorination -- the most widely used technology for disinfecting drinking water. A recent study by Spain-based Municipal Institute of Medical Research once again establishes that long-term exposure to the by-products of the process can make consumers prone to cancers of the gastro-intestinal tract and the urinary tract
Interview
In the context of the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) study on pesticides in bottled water, Sharad Yadav, Union minister of c...
Factsheet
A warning about an oceanic problem
Feature
The Sundarban delta region in the Bay of Bengal, with 10,000 square kilometres of estuarine mangrove forest and 102 islands, is the world's largest delta. The land here is an eerie muddle of landmass and sea, with mudflats and waves engaged in unrelenting battle. Constantly lashed by cyclonic storms and the sinking -- or birth -- of landforms, the region is also economically underdeveloped, and poverty here is abject and endemic.
The delta is also becoming a hotter place to live in. Analysis of surface data near Sagar island in the Sundarbans reveals a temperature increase of 0.9 degree celsius per year. Experts are of the opinion that this is one of the first regions bearing the brunt of climate change
When bad management and increasing demand for inland fish led to plummeting stocks, fishing villages around the Ashtamudi estuary in Kollam district, Kerala, have come up with their own solution. Fisherfolk, now earmark a certain area of the estuary to allow young fish to grow -- a sort of rough-and-ready fish reserve. In view of how quickly their resources were falling, the fisherfolk did not even wait for official help. They fenced off 1.5 hectares (ha) of the estuary in January 1997, six months before the fisheries department woke up to the fact that Ashtamudi needs help
Kheechan village on the edge of the Thar desert lies on the migration route of demoiselle cranes travelling from their breeding grounds in Eurasia to bask in India's milder winter. In late September, the first flocks take to the skies from the plateaus, steppes and wetlands of Mongolia and the Caucasus region. They cover the 5,000-kilometre journey in about two weeks, flying across many international frontiers and soaring over the Himalaya. By November thousands of birds land and for five months Kheechan becomes a 'crane village'...
Debate
Fluoride is an acute toxin, with a rating slightly higher than lead. It is, in fact, one of the most bone-seeking elements known to human beings. And groundwater in India shows the presence of unhealthy quantities of fluoride. A worrying scenario: daily ingestion of just 2 milligram (mg) of fluoride could result in crippling skeletal fluorosis after 40 years. Excess fluoride causes several diseases, like osteoporosis, arthritis, brittle bones, cancer, infertility in women, brain damage, Alzheimer's disease and thyroid disorders
Northeast India occupies 8 per cent of the country's geographic area, and supports 3.8 per cent of India's total population (2001 census figures). The average population density of the Northeast is 149 persons per square kilometre (sq km), a figure far below India's population density (324 persons per sq km). The state of Assam has the highest population density in the region (340 persons per sq km), while Arunachal Pradesh has the lowest (13 persons per sq km). The population density for this region registered a growth of 44.7 per cent from 1981 to 2001. This is still far below the Indian average of 55.8 per cent
Opinion
On march 6, 2003 all of us came to know what Parbati Barua had done. It made sensational news: she had -- sin of sins -- killed an elephant. As with any news flash, the context was made invisible. In September last year, 40 elephants strayed into Chattisgarh from Orissa and Jharkhand. Now they had to be handled. The state government earmarked Rs 36 lakh to catch 4 elephants. Parbati Barua was given that task (the media hailed her; she was "elephant queen"). By the time she managed to catch one, 30 people were killed and crops worth thousands of rupees were destroyed.
Parbati Barua stands at the intersection of a larger predicament
The Union budget provides cancer-stick manufacturers and sellers huge reasons to feel puffed. The excise duty on nicotine (the narcotic used to spike tobacco with) has been reduced from 16 per cent to 8 per cent. An excise duty has been levied on chewing tobacco; since demand may now shift to cigarettes, this favours companies such as itc and Godfrey Philips. Jaswant Singh is joyous that the coming of value added tax "will give states the additional 1.5 per cent of all shareable taxes and duties, in order to enable them to generate more revenues, specially on textiles, sugar and tobacco products". So will the tobacco industry have to cough up more money? No...
Is Narmada water being made to flow in Sabarmati not supplied to city of Ahmedabad? This has furthered the idea of river...
Hello,
I have been selling glass for commercial buildings talking about light, thermal/solar heat gain etc.etc..but I...
Dear Saxena ji,
Thank you for inquiry.
West facing windows can be a big source of heat, first measure which you...