Letters

Renovating power plants

The Union government has provided a liberal administrative and legal environment and offered a package of financial incentives to attract private investments in power generation, supply and distribution.

Renovation and modernisation of several old plants lying idle for want of funds with state electricity boards and departments offer a vast potential of power development in less time than required in putting up new plants and at substantially lower cost of generation and supply.

Attention to this vital aspect of inviting private sector participation has been drawn by Om Power Corp, which has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Himachal Pradesh government for Neogal hydroelectric plant (12 MW). The company has also submitted a proposal for Khauli hydroelectric plant (10.5 MW), in Kangra district. ...

Controlled hunting

This is in reference to your article Caught between boars and bureaucracy (January 15, 1994).

As a former game license holder, I have some experience about the situation in Maharashtra, where hunting wild boar and small game was allowed till recently. Controlled hunting, especially for species such as wild boar and rabbits is necessary to keep their growth in check and also prevent it from reaching proportions beyond the nuisance stage.

If this does not happen and these species are allowed to proliferate, then it would trigger off retaliation from those affected, especially the farmers, as is already evident in western Maharashtra. I had talked to several tribals from Bhimashankar two years ago, and they also felt that regular hunting had kept the wild boar population dispersed and in check.

The Wildlife Protection Act, which puts a ban on hunting in almost the entire country, needs to be modified, allowing controlled hunting where justified.
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An irony

India has a rich heritage of juxtaposition of science and philosophy for harmonious human growth. But it is ironical that the cardinal values emerging from this science-philosophy intercommunication have come to be accepted by us as Western discoveries.

For instance, take the case of sleeping with the feet facing the south. Our elders have been advising this since time immemorial, but the scientific explanation seems to have got lost, until some long and costly western research pointed out that the human body is similar to the earth in almost all respects, and that the feet being the south of the body coming in contact with the north of the earth (which is the magnetic south) would create a magnetic repulsion harmful to the nervous system.

Let's then, look within our treasury of wisdom and bring out the science content from all our social customs and cultural traditions, rather than continuing to look without. Let the people begin to use their wisdom to evaluate modern knowledge in their own perspective.

I wonder if any write-up on Science -- Ancient and Modern, is being put across through your esteemed columns as a poser for the social scientists to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
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