Thailand's sorrow

Swamped by a surge in tourist population, Thailand has but to turn towards alternative tourism

Mean model

The modalities of the model much-acclaimed Kerala Model cannot survive long on self-denial

Touch

France's forests have historically remained alienated from its commoners

Empathy first

Life ad death for the ordiary Indian citizen have become mere statistics

Eternal quest

Fascination and challenges of the search for extra-terrestrial life

Warped science

Aping Western trends in science has given Indian research priorities a skewed perspective

Exit, green fences

Hedgerows, reservoirs of biodiversity, quietly fade into extinction in Kerala

Looking forward to the past

Portrait of a village indifferent to the urge to move with the times

Surviving on wood

Collecting fuelwood provides a basis for survival for the poor around Dharwar

Thais dig deep into wallets for songbirds

Doves can cost a fortune in Thailand, where the people pay heavily to domesticate the bird.

The invisible mountain

Hanuman: man, monkey or langur?

The Hindu monkey god Hanuman comes across as a mosaic of different beings

A tryst winth death

The land of the Brahmaputra recurrently reels under terrible onslaughts of a scourge

Limp target

Polio eradication targets strike a wrong note, while the WHO waxes eloquent

Inviting the plague

With all its wealth and affluence, Surat remains the least concerned about health and hygiene

'Development' vultures

"Spring's fragrant gardens wither away where the mediocre rules" -- Rabindranath Tagore

Kerosene slips through greasy palms

Authorities tread on slippery ground trying to resolve the fuel crisis in Mysore

Piloting disaster

Grass is greener

Growing grass in the desert of Rajasthan would improve the economy

Shaken, but not stirred

Despite several high intensity earthquakes, India is yet to chalk out a seismic policy

The lot of a woman

The fairer sex has not benefitted as much as men from socio-economic progress

Small change

The Union budget 1999-2000 does not give enough impetus to the environment sector

Humans may follow

A brave GNU world

The free software movement needs both bark and byte

The end of art

...as 'they' know it. Documenta 11 diffuses the boundary between politics and aesthetics