Science & Technology - Briefs

archaeology Egyptians loved junk food

Indonesia gets angry

The government of Indonesia believes promoting industries at the cost of forests that support the worlds second highest level of biodiversity, is justified. This was why it recently deported two foreign journalists for covering a Greenpeace demonstration against forest destruction on the western island of Sumatra.

In Court

CES Indicts Bellary Barons: The Central Empowered Committee that advises the Supreme Court on forest matters has slammed the company owned by two Karnataka ministers for illegal mining along the Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka border. The committee found that the Obulapuram Mining Company, owned by Karnataka tourism minister G Janardhana Reddy and his brother Karunakara Reddy, was mining in the forests outside the approved lease areas. The apex courts green bench will study the report and fix the mining area boundaries again.

Rs 11,000 crore lost in woods

   The drama over Indian forests from a price fix in 2002 to being shortchanged of Rs 11, 000 crore in 2009 Read more...

644 ha mangrove will be history

THE island of Valanthakad in the suburbs of Ernakulam has one of the largest mangroves in Kerala spread over 644 hectares (ha). If things go according to the state industries departments plans, the mangrove will give way to a hi-tech city. A private developer has acquired 129 ha from farmers on the island to build a knowledge park, commercial complex and star hotels.

News 360

VIEW FINDER NOT A USUAL EXERCISE Soldiers smell the ground to detect bodies of flash flood victims in Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot battered the island's

Dear friends

Please accept my greetings I am a Dongria Kondh and take pride in my identity. I live in the Niyamgiri hills. The hills are also the abode of our gods. It never occurred to us or our ancestors that our home or way of living would one day come under threat. And such a time is upon us. We do not know what will happen to us when Vedanta's machines dig up the hills we live in.

Two tribal villages get 2,349 hectares

Maharashtra is the first to recognize their rights over forests two villages in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra have become the first in the country to win community rights over forests under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. On August 15, Ramesh Bang, the state food and civil supplies minister, said the claims of Mendha Lekha and Marda villages over their village forests were accepted by the state

Touch that heals trees

A village killed its forest then revived it with herbal therapy

Settling forest rights a must now

Vedanta and POSCO may find going tough in Orissa