Size does matter

Children's toilets are a breed apart from the everyday adult toilet

4 flu mutants

Seven eminent virologists discuss the implications with Down To Earth

Double whammy

Increasing pollution, depleting water table make groundwater in Kathmandu unfit for drinking

Famines in India are a nightmare of the past

A WHO study notes that While India has achieved impressive levels in food production, equitable distribution is still a distant dream. Chronic …

Rat chronicles

The tiny rodents that most people link only to pestilence and crop destruction have fascinated Ishwar Prakash -- one of that rare breed: a rat …

Will milk fortification benefit the poor?

Lean pastures

Drought and a viral disease strike Jaisalmer’s livestock. Kurush Canteenwala finds out how the herders are coping

How pure are their claims?

Market for water purifiers booms, but consumers cannot be sure of quality in absence of regulations

Fever still a mystery

Authorities yet to identify cause of deadly disease prevalent in Muzaffarpur for a decade

Gasping millions

Asthma, the bane of modern life, stalks the young ones and the affluent. It will strike 32 million people in India by 2010. The silent strangler …

Hidden industry hand

Attempts are on to derail UN initiative to declare noncommunicable diseases a global priority

Frogs are falling silent

The decline of the frog population is an early warning that something is seriously wrong with living conditions on Earth

Great depression of lac

Biggest producer Jharkhand worst hit—and clueless

The link between blood pressure and suicides

Fowl play

January 3, and all is not well in Hong Kong. With four people dead, and 11 confirmed and six suspected cases of A (H5N1) infection, the new …

Monkey business

Coping with the nuisanceof urban monkeys may be beyond human patience. But shooting or declaring them pests will not serve the problem. Only a …

Knowledge of medicines by indigenous communities receding

A dogged problem

Steeled up

Unable to bear pollution any longer, people in Kotdwar force Uttarakhand to commission an independent assessment of steel factories in the region

Clear as air

The grim picture of a lung scarred by pollution is of no shock value today. An ailing populace continues to throw up a phlegm of protests. To …

No Escape

A recent US study has conclusive evidence on the deadly nature of fine particulate matter in the air. These unseen particles, mostly emitted by …

WHO should take a holistic view

Though the global health organisation talks about chemical residues in food, it has not put special emphasis on pesticides. It is also silent on …

Food processing industry takes a toll on country's health

Eating at home isn’t the in thing anymore. Hanging out is hip, especially in the mushrooming fast food joints that blister the skylines of …

Cockpit

In early December 2007, the country prided itself on providing the world with a road map to check the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5NI.…

More arsenic

Exactly how widespread is the presence of poisonous arsenic in the groundwater that Indians drink? In Delhi, a doctor's phone call propels Down …