Fuel for food
While energy consumption surveys have shown a very high level of firewood consumption, various forest departments have shown very low levels of …
Debate renewed on blame for global warming
THE 1990-91 edition of World Resources, brought out by the Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI), concluded developing countries as a …
PUBLIC OUTCRY
For the past several months, Delhi has been witness to a half-hearted government being prodded by a determined Supreme Court to clean the Yamuna. …
Who's to blame?
Management of protected forests is a hotly debated issue. In the absence of a sound policy based on a scientific approach, there are as many …
Miles to go
Is the government serious about introducing compressed natural gas (CNG) as a standard fuel for Delhi's vehicles? Have adequate steps been taken …
Cries of anguish
Most Indians are defenceless against the fine toxic particles in the air -- largely products of vehicular emissions -- and scientists are finding …
Peta's Pet
UK-based animal welfare group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals has been campaigning against Indian leather, alleging ill-treatment of …
Manipulating Research
Private funding has given a new meaning to scientific research today. With rising corporate research budgets, academic institutions are leaning …
Unfounded fears
Although non-governmental organisations have come of age, apprehensions about their work persist
In short supply
... amongst us, is the common sense to see the effects of continuing eco-degradation and do something about it
Mass destruction knocking at the door
The threat of terrorists using biological weapons has become a reality. How prepared is India to a fight a possible germ war?
Deal or no deal
Experts from around the world assess the worth of the latest agreement to implement Kyoto Protocol, designated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions …
Perils of mutant food
With no risk assessment protocol to precede release of GMOs into the environment, the human race could well be faced with unknown dangers
The high moral ground
The abortion issue was given more importance than it deserved at the recent Cairo conference on population
The numbers game
Can the cold logic of statistics ever breathe life into yardsticks for deciding whether a nation has done good or bad by its people?
A fig for social concerns
The holy cow of structural adjustments holds supreme sway, leaving the people to shift for themselves
Disjointed and confused
Because it means too many things to as many people, joint forest management in India will remain elusive to all
Fall from grace
From archangels to archfiends - the reputation of IAS officers has certainly nosedived. Anil Agarwal, director, Centre for Science and Environment,…
What they say, what they mean
Today's scientist is no longer the absent-minded cosmic thinker, the entity has emerged as a brash species that believes in elbowing its way up
A bright crystal
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, crystallographer and Nobel laureate in chemistry, sparkled in a predominantly male preserve
Where have all the Indians gone?
Until we shed our communal, regional and caste identities, the quintessential Indian will remain a rare species
A demon slumbers
Perhaps the largest potential AIDS factory in the world, India remains blissfully apathetic to a scourge that could rip its social fabric apart
Environmentalist, prove thyself
It is getting imperative for green dreamers to marshal together their facts and place hair-tearing emotion on the backburner
Persistence helps masquerading ant raiders
Similarities between human beings and social insects extend to even stealing. One ant species, probably too lazy to forage, has found that when …
Democracy and approaches towards nature
Local decision-making and an integrated approach towards nature hold the key to planning for a sustainable future