A rich country hit by the socio-economics of desertification winemakers in Spain could soon find themselves scrambling for juicy red grapes. People may also find olives and cheese missing from their salad plates. The olive and grape farms that thrived in the balmy Mediterranean could become relics of the past with countries like Spain facing the prospect of desertification. Almost

From endangered to vulnerable THE International Union for Conservation of Nature or iucn has lowered the threat level of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros from endangered to vulnerable. This has not gone down well with conservationists in India who contend rhinos are extremely threatened from poaching and epidemics. Seventy per cent of rhino population is concentrated in just one

Paracetamol increases the risk of asthma in children paracetamol, sold under brand names such as Metacin, Crocin and Calpol in India, is considered a safe bet against fever and body ache. But it may pose problems for children, a new study revealed. It found that if a child was given paracetamol within the first year of birth, it increased the risk of asthma by 46 per cent five or six

Uttar Pradesh government

Putting a price tag to forests hasn

It does kill the nasty bollworm. What about friendly microbes? transgenic crops come with a range of biosafety concerns, which are contested because the discussion of such crops is highly polarized. Researchers of the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (iari), in a recent study, said Bt-cotton may affect soil microbes and nutrients available to the plants.

Navy training in protected area THE marine national park and sanctuary in Gujarat may now have the Indian Navy in its territory. The National Board for Wildlife gave the Navy the permission to build a training facility, part of which will be on 0.41 hectare of the sanctuary. The Central Empowered Committee, a Supreme Court-appointed body to monitor forest-related cases, has received the

CEC observes violations in forest laws, orders

the government might find it easier to acquire land after a September 5 ruling of the Supreme Court. The court held that the state as a

Climate change will see a northward movement in Europe so far, potential climate change impacts are studied for broad regions, countries for instance. Researchers of Wageningen University in the Netherlands have presented an alternative approach for predicting climate change impacts in Europe. They studied four environmental zones in the continent. Europe is divided into 84