Why don't officers take the bus?
jaswantmalhotra@gmail.com
sureshnanda@gmail.com
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Family size
The greatest stumbling block to solving problems relating to India's food security, agricultural sustainability and the environment is its population explosion. Every year the country adds population as large as Australia's when several others have achieved zero growth.
China too is rapidly moving towards zero growth of its population by strictly enforcing the one-child-per-family norm. Being a democracy India cannot adopt coercive means to limit family size, but the same results can be achieved through a system of incentives for limiting family size and disincentives for unbridled growth of the family.
India's political leaders do not take the problem seriously. Other than making customary speeches on population day no politician even talks of tackling the problem. Most of them consider the subject taboo.
S VENKATARAMAN
svr@sridhar-v.com
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Stop Tipaimukh dam
The people of Bangladesh are desperate to save the country's environment, agriculture and network of rivers from the Tipaimukh dam being planned by India on the Barak river in Manipur ('Downstream of India', July 1-15, 2009). I would request you to provide more scientific data and information on how the dam will devastate the lives of the people in Bangladesh, Manipur and Mizoram. Only knowledge on the impact of the dam on these areas can deter India from creating a tsunami-like catastrophe.
MUSTOFA MUNIR
mustofamunir@gmail.com
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The Futanes inspire all
Thanks to Aparna Pallavi's article, my fellow farmers and I went to meet Vasant and Karuna Futane at Rawala village; we were amazed to see their work ('Rooted to earth', March 1-15, 2009). Their beautiful mud house, large sheds, the standing crops grown naturally, the gobar gas plant left such a deep impression that we have returned converted to natural farming.
On Vasant Futane's suggestion we got a copy of Masanobu Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution, the Bible of natural farming. We have asked his son Vinayak to mark contour trenches on our land. Karuna Futane too taught us a lot. She has done a great job by organizing village women against bootlegging to stop the illicit manufacture of country liquor.
The Futanes are an amazing family. No wonder students from all over the world come to learn from their way of life.
S SANYAL
Nagpur
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CO2 is not deadly
Carbon dioxide is not a deadly gas as described in the editorial 'Another CO2 alition of the willing?' (June 16-30, 2009). Whatever its long-term effects on global temperatures, humans, animals and plants thrive in far higher concentrations of CO2 than are currently in the atmosphere (0.04 per cent), or are ever likely to be. The idea of CO2 leaking from pipes being dangerous is far-fetched. It would instantly mix with other much more significant gases in the atmosphere.
BOB BRADNOCK
bobbradnock@btinternet.com
Calling CO2 a deadly gas is a sin I constantly instruct my colleagues to avoid and try to avoid myself. Of course CO2 can be deadly. So can oxygen and nitrogen. But try living without them.
ROBERT
allender@ctimail.com
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ERRATUM
The table accompanying the article 'Uranium in food, water in Bathinda' (July 1-15, 2009) compares the tolerable limit of 5 g (microgramme) per kg with the range of uranium found in wheat, pulses, milk and water.
5 g per kg of body weight per day is the tolerable intake of uranium via ingestion for humans as per who norms. This is not comparable to the amount found in wheat, pulses, milk and water. We regret the error.
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