INDIA

India's first agro-industrial park will
set up in Tapukara -village in
jasthan. The park, to be set up
der the aegis of the Delhi-based
ant group will be utilised to grow
,dicinal plants and herbal extraction units.

A Forest Research centre under the
WorId Bank-aided Forest Research
Education and Extension project
would come up in the Ranga Reddy
district of Andhra Pradesh. The
centre will mainly involve itself
in eco-restoration of the mined
area of the Eastern Ghats, man-
groves, and afforestation of semi-arid
zones.

Traditional medkine is set to receive
a boost as a national institute for siddha medicine is proposed in the state
of Tamil Nadu. The Ayurveda and the
Unani medical systems already have
national-level institutes at Jaipur and
Hyderabad respectively.

The beginning of the year 1996 will
see India free from the menace of
guinea worm disease. India will
become the 6th Asian country after
Bangladesh, Burma, Iraq, Iran and
Pakistan, to reach the zero-guineaworm status. While most of the
Indian states have eradicated guinea
worm from their zones, Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan still
remain on the list.

The setting up of a Wetland Conservation Fund was one of the issues discussed in a recent 2-day Asian meeting of the Ramsar Convention on
wetlands. Afi6,4t 30 countries and
representatives 'of various institutions attended the meeting.

The World Health Organization has
dedicated this year to Polio eradication. On April 7, the World Health
Day, the Delhi government will focus
its activities on Polio eradicatio and
rehabilitation.

The Centre for Cellular and
Molecular Biology in Hyderabad was
host to a 7-day workshop on gem
expression, held between March 28
and April 2.

In Gujarat, non-agriculturists cm
now buy farmlands@ thanks to the T1w
Bombay Tenancy and Agriculturd
Lands (Gujarat Amendment) Act
passed by the state government
March 31.