Secret of sensitivity

Bad bug

MOUNTAIN pine beetle is known to eat into the bark of pine and kill them. But the bug causes more harm than is apparent.

Renal emergency

P G Jayasingha sat on his bed with a bloated stomach. Both his kidneys had failed and he was unable to pass urine. He could not drink water despite being thirsty. His arms and legs would constantly ache and his eyesight had failed him. That was in February when Down To Earth visited him.

Keeping cancer alive

Arsenic just got dirtier

IT IS well-known that prolonged exposure to arsenic causes cancer, diabetes and liver damage. Now it has been found that exposure to this colourless, odourless chemical, which is widely present in the environment, may also lead to hypertension.

Concrete invasion

Sri Lanka’s largest city was once dotted with freshwater marshes. The picturesque beauty of the wetland areas, say elders, was breathtaking. Not any more. The marshes have been filled to construct buildings. The remaining ones are highly polluted and taken over with invasive plant species.

Cash clogged

Making India's mining sector socially and environmentally viable

By Chandra Bhushan I learnt an important lesson on my travels in Orissa's Sundergarh and Keonjhar districts. One, the people of one of the most resource-rich areas of the country were also some of its poorest; and, two, this was because their land contained minerals that were important for industrial growth.

Wash out

Detergents, their environment concerns and the regulations to control them have evolved side by side in the developed world. Detergents were developed during the Second World War. They became popular in the late 1950s and the first regulation to control their environmental impact was enacted in 1961 in Germany. So what's there in detergents that harms the environment? Detergents are not easily biodegradable; more so the detergents of the 1950s.

Emergency

A cruel summer has been left behind. Pipes are gurgling to life and the surge of water tankers on Chennai's streets is on the ebb. People and leaders are now free to discuss issues non-aqueous. There are even days when Chennai's papers skip the almost mandatory columns devoted to water. It is beguilingly close to good times.