Common concerns

On a cold January night in Hyderabad, a fortnight ago, Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Environment and Forests, was led to an open-air dinner by folk drummers and body-painted tiger dancers as an appreciative audience of international academics and grassroots workers cheered and milled around him. Ramesh had become the toast of the evening after he asked the world’s top scholars working on issues related to the commons to help shape his ministry’s thinking.

News 360° - Briefs

MINING ALARM IGNORED Some of the 33 Chilean miners trapped 700 metres underground for 69 days had informed the management about the risk of a cave-in three hours before it occurred. Their bosses told them not to stop the work.

Misled about water

For years, the Amravati Thermal Power Project in Maharashtra has been facing public opposition. Farmers in the Vidarbha region fear the power plant will suck water from the irrigation project in Upper Wardha. On June 17, an unexpected breakthrough appeared.

Power plant’s clearance challenged

FOUR months after the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) cleared a thermal power project in Vizianagaram district in north coastal Andhra Pradesh, two civil society group moved the National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) challenging the decision.

Electric cattle

Apair of bullocks operating an iron contraption is a big draw at Melkama village in Indore district. The brainchild of Vinod Parashar, a scientist at Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and Science in Indore, the device has an unwieldy name, ‘Linkage-based input-output shaft’. But don’t go by the sound of it.

How the pump works

The pump is based on the simple technology of a tubewell operated by a driver wheel and two levers. The driver wheel is planted in the ground, some 20 feet from the wellhead.

Dudhna dam was built in 31 years

Farmers  of Parbhani district in Maharashtra have been waiting 31 years for irrigation water promised from the dam on the Dudhna. The dam, completed a couple of years ago, has over 2,000 million cubic feet water that is of no use to the farmers.

Dudhna dam was built in 31 years

Biofuel dreams for wastelands

Aiming to reduce India’s dependence on fossil fuels¤ the Centre gave its nod to the national biofuel policy last month that the ministry of new and renewable energy (mnre) has developed. The policy sets a 2017 deadline to achieve blending 20 per cent home grown biofuel with petrol and diesel¤ 70 per cent of which is imported at present.

Lost and found

In Karmadi and surrounding villages the beginning of March is a busy period. This is when ponds and wells in Tumkur district of Karnataka start drying up, midway through the paddy and ragi crops.