Mautak will flower

The abundance of seeds in moist areas then invites rats and rodents, whose fertility, as nature would have it, increases when they feed on bamboo seeds. A study by Fabian M Jaksic and Mauricio Lima, ecologists at the Center for Advanced Studies in Ecology and Biodiversity in Chile, records a clear relation between rodent outbreaks in South America since in the 16th century and bamboo flowering and high rainfall.

Logjam

Unquiet woods With the ban and without access to forest revenue, Northeast economy is in doldrums

Letter

Play safe with forests

Water crisis in Tripura town

FOR the past two years 1,500-odd families in a small town of Tripura have not received a modest drinking water supply. Reason: a dispute over water withdrawal from the Feni river, the international border between India and Bangladesh.

Teesta deal likely

A protracted negotiation between Dhaka and Delhi on sharing the Teesta river is likely to end soon. The governments are set to sign an interim treaty on sharing the trans-boundary river water for 15 years, until they can strike a long-term agreement.

Displaced by fencing

THE Mizoram and Tripura administrations have served notices to families occupying land along the India-Bangladesh border. The land has to be vacated for fencing the border. Nearly 3,900 families along nine border sub-divisions in Tripura have been left homeless as state government failed to rehabilitate and compensate them. The remaining 500 families of Tripura and 700 families of Mizoram have refused to move out. They are demanding they first be paid compensation.

ONGC asked to stop drilling

THE Tripura State Pollution Control Board has ordered public sector company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), to suspend exploratory drilling at Aralia village near Agartala in mid- September. The move follows site inspection by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) that found ONGC flouting environmental norms.

Unmanaged waste in Tripura

Poor policy management and mushrooming of pathology labs is hindering safe disposal of biomedical waste in Tripura. Despite being the first Indian state to set up biomedical waste management system from collection to final disposal, even at the Primary Health Centre level, Tripura has failed to regulate the same.

ONGCignores green rules

The  public sector petroleum company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), is giving environmental norms the short shrift while exploring oil and gas reserves in Tripura. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) found this during inspection of abandoned well sites in West Tripura and South Tripura districts in the first week of January.

Court reads clean air act to Tripura

Over 100,000 commercial and private vehicles will be off Tripura’s roads soon.