MONEYMAKERS

left in the lurch: Enron Corp has withdrawn its plan to set up a US $ 6 billion hydroelectric-power project in Nepal. With this, the company's grand plan has been stalled for South Asia. Enron's decision to withdraw from the proposed 10,800 megawatt project clearly shows the wide ripple effects of economic turmoil elsewhere in Asia. The financial viability of the project has received a jolt after the forecasts of slower growth for China, a major market to which Enron had planned to suppy power from Nepal.

Sordid saga

a gujarat high court order, directing the Union government to reconsider the request of Sanghi Industries Limited (sil) for permission to put up a captive jetty in the Khauthar belt in the reserved forests of Kutch, has brought into open many startling facts about the project that has already drawn flak from environmentalists and other pressure groups.

Send your garbage

In a recently published story, a US newspaper, The Baltimore Sun , said that the US may be looking towards South Asian countries -- India, Pakistan and Bangladesh -- to export its obsolete ships laden with asbestos, PCBs, lead, toxic wastes and other hazardous substances. Earlier, US shipping companies and the Navy had been sending their ships to yards in the US itself for scrapping. But workers and environmental groups started suing the ship yards as they were not meeting environmental norms.

HEALTH RISK

The Gujarat High Court has issued notices to the Gujarat State Fertiliser Corporation, Vadodara, Gujarat Pollution Control Board and the State government regarding air pollution. The Court's directive has come in the wake of a petition filed by Badodara Gramya Pradushan Nivaran Samiti protesting the rise in air pollution around the Fertiliser Corporation. According to the Samiti, even when the Corporation is operating at around 80 per cent of its capacity, the quality of air around the plant is not good for health.

Clean-up acts

Relief and compensation for life and property from a disaster is provided in Australia under the State Disaster Act, 1980. The State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) is responsible for collecting money for material and personal harm and for administering the fund. The SDRF committee can take decisions in awarding claims for compensation. Money left over in the fund may be utilised in future emergencies. The New South Wales Consolidated Acts, 1990, also provide for an Environmental Restoration and Rehabilitation Trust, which is responsible for cost of clean-up and recovery.

Baised against the poor

Year Corporation Country Cause

The red triangle

l Solur, Tamil Nadu, May 1983. Investigations reveal that tanneries in nearby Ambur town have been releasing acidic waste into the river Palar, making the water toxic and unfit for drinking. l Bhopal, December 2, 1984. Methyl isocyanate leaks out of containers in the Union Carbide factory. Many die, thousands affected .

Hone the homemade

THE relatively new field of ethnoveterinary medicine, which is establishing itself as a serious discipline, has far-reaching implications for the well-being of livestock in the developing world. Ethnoveterinary medicine is the knowledge possessed by non-literate cultures with regard to animal health and disease that is passed on in the form of an oral tradition down the generations.

Never give up

More than 200 villagers of Ghatvad village in Amreli district of Gujarat, have been on dharna (sit-in demonstration) for the past 25 days. They are protesting against the granting of a mining lease by the state government to the Gujarat Ambuja Cement Company. The proposed 905-ha site includes revenue and private land, and reserved forests.

High but not dry

The Koliyari dam in the Panchmahals district of Gujarat is yet another project that has elicited heated reactions. The dam is estimated to render about 8,000 tribals and double the number of cattle homeless. Although officials claim that only three villages - Patangdi, Guna and Navagam - would be submerged, it is estimated that much more land and many more villages would be affected. Cons-truction on this Rs 689.13 lakh-dam, which began on January 1, this year, is aimed at benefiting 1910 ha of agricultural land. But in doing so it is also likely to submerge 1620 ha.