For the love of butterflies

“One sunny morning, as I was wandering about alone, my heart leapt when an Oakleaf came and settled on the path a few feet away. I dashed back to the house, grabbed the nearest net and ran back.... The net billowed as I swung it, but at the last moment, it struck a stone on the path. There was a flash of orange and blue as the Oakleaf made off, and I was left with the net.

For the love of butterflies

One sunny morning, as I was wandering about alone, my heart leapt when an Oakleaf came and settled on the path a few feet away from me. I dashed back to the house as fast as my legs would carry me, grabbed the nearest net and ran back.......... The net billowed as I swung it, but at the last moment, it struck a stone on the path.

Letters - March 15, 2013

A seductive mirage We at Auroville Consulting have closely followed the “crashing down” of solar prices as mentioned in the editorial, “Clouds over solar” (January 16-31, 2013), and would like to share a few observations.

Letters - February 28, 2013

Hello Lantana

Himalayan destruction

THE Himalayas are virtually under bombardment—of dams. They would have the highest dam density in the world, with over a thousand water reservoirs dotting the mountain range in India, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan, over the next few years. These projects would have serious ecological and social impacts and would spell disaster for the biodiversity of the region. All this for the much-sought-after hydroelectricity, officially dubbed cleaner and cheaper.

Himalaya at risk of major quakes

The Himalayan region of India and Nepal are at a risk of massive earthquakes because of a rupture on the earth surface created by a massive earthquake in 1934. This comes as a surprise because earthquakes in the Himalayan range have not been known to create ruptures on the earth’s surface. But researchers at Nanyang Technical University (NTU) in Singapore, who used radiocarbon dating of riverbed sediments and high-resolution imagery, have found otherwise.

Science and Technology - Briefs

HEALTH Dengue breakthrough Nearly half a million people are affected by dengue every year. But there is currently no vaccine to protect against the dreaded disease. This is because dengue is not caused by a single virus, but rather by four different viruses, known as DENV 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Flash floods are man-made

Flash floods are becoming recurrent in the Himalaya as well as in other parts of India. What are the geological processes that could trigger them? Interviewee:  K S Valdiya

Reservoirs losing capacity

HEAVY rainfall leading to flash floods in Himalayan rivers in July-end devastated three states—Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. It claimed 34 human lives and damaged property extensively. It also brought into focus the precarious condition of more than a dozen dams in the region.

‘Ganga basin temperatures to rise by 1-2°C by 2050’

On the state of Himalayan glaciers Interviewee:  Eddy Moors