.jpg)
MOST POPULAR
- Man-made reasons for Uttarakhand disaster
- Pedestrian questions 10
- Rains over past three days extreme weather event: scientists 1
- Transition failure 1
- Monsoon arrives early; kills over 30 people in Uttarakhand
- Dhari Devi idol goes missing
- Gujarat pollution board gets a makeover in efficiency 33
- Where all did extreme events cause disasters last decade
- The unseen invader
- Out of turn
FOLLOW US ON
Debate
Tourism in Ranthambore is inimical to wildlife
Issue Date: Nov 30, 2006
After reading headlines about vanishing tigers in India, I decided to take my family to Ranthambore forest reserve in Rajasthan. I had visited the sanctuary 25 years ago -- then called a romantic jungle -- while doing my doctoral research.
Poor regulation good reason to sideline Bt brinjal
Issue Date: Nov 15, 2006
While passing an interim order staying field trials of genetically modified (gm) crops, the Supreme Court had observed on September 22, that the proceedings of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (geac) -- the regulator for gm crops -- had to be absolutely transparent and vetted by independent experts with the requisite technical qualifications.
Basic science needed for conservation
@ Issue Date: Nov 15, 2006
One of the common engagements that the public has with wildlife is reading about wildlife or ecological research in newspapers and magazines. Exploration of remote areas, the discovery of new species, and testing of new hypotheses help to promote the mindset required for supporting conservation. While a good deal of press is reserved for the travails of wildlife survival and the angst of conservationists, research and discovery remain the positive aspect of this engagement.
Rural credit system is not working
Issue Date: Oct 31, 2006
The recent spate of farmer's suicides in Vidharbha have once again thrown the spotlight on faultlines in Indian agriculture. Farmer's suicides are, of course, not the only indicators of agrarian distress. But they do bring into sharp focus how the rural credit system -- or the absence of it -- works against agriculturists
A concession called SEZ, all for foreign exchange
Issue Date: Oct 31, 2006
Since the 1990s, India has had an economic regime that has placed a premium on privatising enterprise. Liberalisation and globalisation are keywords of this regime. The frenetic rush to globalise is in large measure motivated by the desire to earn foreign exchange at any cost. In recent times, special economic zones (sez) have become a key instrument to actualise this desire.
Urban areas can support biodiversity
Issue Date: Oct 31, 2006
I first met Madhusudan Katti in Mundanthurai, southern Tamil Nadu, more than 10 years ago when he was collecting field data for his PhD on migratory warblers. Madhu, now at the California State University in Fresno, and his collaborators in the Central Arizona Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research Project -- at the University of Arizona, usa -- work on bird diversity in urbanising landscapes.
Collective spirit an Indian myth or policy failure?
Issue Date: Oct 15, 2006
I met an angry farmer recently in the interiors of what a brown paper calls a 'back-of-beyond' state. He was angry because the tube-well from which he used to draw water for his paddy crop has been dysfunctional for the past nine years. Seeing the officials of the irrigation department with whom I was travelling, the old farmer could not control his outburst while saying repeatedly that none of the officials have cared to repair the tube-well all these years.
Cola gets an artist going
Issue Date: Oct 15, 2006
Click here to view the article (.pdf format)
RELATED PRESS RELEASE
Nuclear disarmament a distant goal
Issue Date: Sep 30, 2006
Last month, the world remembered the victims of us savagery in Hiroshima and Nagasaki (atomic bombs were thrown on the two cities in August 1945), yet there was the disturbing absence of the call for global denuclearisation from the international players or from the un.
A demotion for Pluto
Issue Date: Sep 30, 2006
"The match was declared closed at the loss of one planet." This could well have been the closing statement of anyone doing a running commentary on the proceedings of the 26th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (iau). The meeting held at the Czech capital, Prague between August 14 and 25, 2006, saw members voting for a new definition of planets. According to this definition, Pluto will no longer be called a planet: it will be called a dwarf planet instead.
