Letters

Innovative effort Hearty congratulations to you and your editorial team for the wonderful job you are doing. Recently, I read the February 15, 1993, issue of the magazine and could not put it down. The article, Paying nature's bills, and the report on the round-table was gripping. The idea of paying heavily for water, which is becoming increasingly scarce, is attractive in the Indian context. This could make people aware of the need to conserve our natural resources.

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Lessons from history Rimjhim Jain's article on the mysterious decline and disappearance of the Indus Valley civilisation (August 15, 1993) made fascinating reading.

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Right to clean water The article on the Damodar's industrial burden (January 31, 1993) by Uday Shankar has dealt extremely well with the subject. It points out that industrial establishments along the river are mainly responsible for pollution of the Damodar waters because they have failed to set up plants to treat their effluents before discharging them into the river. The industrial establishments have also failed to make alternate arrangements for domestic water consumption for the people living near the Damodar river basin.

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Protecting tribals For the first time in two centuries, the administration of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands has taken a step that will go a long way to protect tribals, especially the Jarowas, one of the last hunter-gatherers in the world.

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Easy target Your report on the BELLE project was excellent (Down To Earth, May 31, 1993), even capturing the flavour of the complicated and intense behind-the-scene struggles that went on before our project finally bit the dust.

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Biased opinion Referring to the editorial "Pampered paper industry cries wolf" (Down To Earth, April 30, 1993), we were distressed to see the biased manner in which the problems faced by the paper industry were projected.

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Degrading ideology Arif Hasan's article on the Thar desert in Pakistan (Down To Earth, December 31, 1992) is an excellent exposition of how an ideology that overstresses development can degrade and debase a traditional society and disturb an area's ecology to a point of no recovery. Please permit us to translate the article into Bengali so that we can circulate it among our colleagues in various non-governmental organisations.... Welcome changes

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Amateur mathematics

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Unfair assessment Apropos the review of Nalini Singh's film on the Narmada Project (April 30, 1993) produced by Doordarshan (DD), it was quite evident to us that Ms Singh had come with a set agenda and a framework that would satisfy DD's needs. It was also clear that DD had not cared to inform its assignee that attempts have been made since 1990 to persuade DD authorities in Bombay, Indore and Delhi to telecast films made on the Narmada controversy by less known but gifted film-makers.

Letters

Just right for kids I would like to inform you that it gave us much pleasure to read the article referring to the FAO Earthbird magazine (Down To Earth, November 22, 1992). As you know, these magazines are easy reading material for children and they focus on important environmental issues. M W HOSKINS, Senior Forestry Officer, Food and Agriculture Organisation, Rome ... Focus on socio-economics