Gujarat set to develop India’s first tidal energy plant

The Gujarat government is all set to develop India’s first tidal energy plant. The state government has approved Rs 25 crore for setting up the 50 MW plant at the Gulf of Kutch. It will produce energy from the ocean tides.

Documentary films on climate change

Climate Change, an Untold Story Producer British High Commission Duration: 52 minutes Consider this visual: an old woman in a village in coastal Orissa is looking far ahead at a silvery sheet of water -- the Bay of Bengal -- trying to figure out where her home was. This is actually a scene from Climate's First Orphans, one of the four short films on the impact of climate change and global warming in India produced by the British High Commission.

Marine antibiotic

font class='UCASE'>indian researchers have identified a marine microbe that shows antimicrobial activity against bacteria, including several that are multiple-drug resistant (mdr) such as Staphylococcus aureus (which causes skin and blood infections), molds and yeast in lab experiments.

Entangled

It is October, 2004. In the Supreme Court (sc) in Delhi, there continues a 2-year-old case that has become a clash of imperatives: protecting the environment -- a fragile mangrove ecology -- versus people's livelihood: a sustainable style of fishing. But let us turn away from the hectic atmosphere of a court hearing.

Rescue act

There's fresh hope for the Sunderbans region. The West Bengal government has received a grant of us $0.5 million from the United Nations Development Programme (undp) for the conservation of the mangrove forests. The funds will be used primarily for promoting sustainable livelihood practices among villagers who largely depend on the forest for their living.

Sunk for security reasons

Wildlife conservationists realised recently that mapping the movements of dolphins could be a threat to national security!

Our forests are burning

we are angry about the recent skirmish inside Kerala's forests, which has seen two people dead officially (unofficially, five). We are also deeply concerned. This incident is the latest in a purple trail of conflicts dogging the Ministry of Environment and Forest's (moef) drive to evict 'encroachers', begun in May last year.

Of plants and bees

Of late, even the largest honey-producing habitat in the Indian sub-continent -- the Sunderbans region of West Bengal -- hasn't exactly been swarming with honeybees. Apiaries, too, are on the verge of a takeover by an exotic European variety. Clearly, the writing is on the wall for indigenous honeybee species across the country. And the weakening of this link is likely to impact the entire ecological chain.

Biodiversity barrier

Bangladesh's environment minister Shahjahan Siraj feels that the Farakka barrage in India is obstructing the normal flow of sweet water into the Sunderbans, thereby increasing salinity and threatening the biodiversity of the world's largest mangrove forests.

Prepaid cards for unlimited electricity

insert a card and get electricity. This is the new mantra of the West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency (wbreda). Known for its innovative methods of promoting renewable energy, the agency has come up with yet another unique way to provide power to the Maushuni islands in the Sunderbans.