Great Siberian thaw

this phenomenon has dangerous portents for climate change -- parts of the world's largest frozen peat bog in Russia's western Siberia region, which accounts for 60 per cent of the world's peatlands, is undergoing a sudden thaw. The thaw in the northernmost parts of the frozen peatland, over one million square kilometres, is due to rise in global surface temperature, says a team of Russian scientists led by Sergei Kirpoten of Tomsk State University, Tomsk.

Human killer strain

Russia is currently battling a strain of bird flu that can infect humans. On August 2, 2005, authorities of Novosibirsk in Siberia said they had decided to slaughter 65,000 birds at 13 locations; the move followed detection of more cases of the h5n1 strain of bird flu. The government has also confirmed the spread of the strain in Siberia's Altai and Tyumen regions. The Altai region has announced that all birds at private farms, where the virus has been detected, will be killed. No cases of human infection have been registered so far in any area.

In Short

bird flu in russia: Russia's emergencies ministry declared on July 21, 2005, that the country's first case of bird flu, the strains of which can infect humans and be fatal, had been detected in a village in Siberia's Novosibirsk region. "Numerous birds have died...and an investigation showed the presence of the AH5-type bird flu virus," said Viktor Beltsov, spokesperson for the ministry.

Unprotective Shell

Conservationists have disapproved as inadequate a recent move by oil major Shell to protect the western grey whales along the eastern shore of Russia's Sakhalin Island. Shell announced on March 30, 2005 that it will not route its multibillion-dollar oil pipeline through the whales' feeding ground.

'Ours naturally!'

Sidelining widespread complaints, Russia's natural resources minister Yurii Trutnev has supported his government's move to ban the access of foreign companies to the country's mineral resources. Trutnev's ministry had recently proposed a draft amendment to the natural resources law. It included a ban on foreign companies from participating in tenders for exploiting the country's major mineral deposits.

In Short

water distress: The Andhra Pradesh government has embarked upon a new programme to meet the water requirements of its parched villages. It is forcibly taking over private agricultural borewells to supply drinking water. Media reports quoted officials as saying that 528 borewells have already been taken over. The government is offering the farmers a payment equivalent to one season's yield for the water drawn from their wells. Of the 1,67,000 borewells in the state that provide drinking water, 14,000 have dried up.

Winter's swan song?

Caught vulnerable

Turkmenistan is trying to cash in on Russia's and Ukraine's need for its gas during the severe winter. It has stopped gas supplies to the two countries, saying it wants to negotiate a new price. "The gas pressure gauge at Daryalyk compressor station (DCS)stands at zero mark now," said a Turkmenistan foreign office press statement recently.

Russia ratifies Kyoto Protocol

4th major oil shock in 30 years

THE Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has decided to ratify the Kyoto Protocol (it seeks to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere). That should soon propel the languishing pact into force, making it international law, once he has sought the Russian Duma's approval (see Almost there).