It appears that no lessons have been learnt from the Uttarakhand tragedy as the Uttarakhand government has been pushing full steam ahead with the Lakhwar dam project on the Yamuna river.
Despite a crackdown on their jal satyagraha, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activists are undeterred by the arrests of villagers in the Narmada ghatti.
India’s top agricultural scientists blasted the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) report which had asked for an indefinite moratorium on field trials of Bt Transgenics.
These scientists claimed that 17.3 million farmers in 29 countries are growing biotech crops on over 170 million hectares of land while another 31 countries are presently importing biotech crops for food and food use.
There is an alarming increase of cases of lead poisoning across the country. Across our major cities, doctors are expressing concern at this “silent epidemic”.
Officials from SRL Diagnostics claimed that they receive 600 samples every month for Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy which detects metal content in human body fluids. From these, 350 samples were found to contain lead followed by Copper (125), Zinc (50) and other metals such as Arsenic, Mercury and Chromium.
Several women’s NGOs, including Women for Diversity, Guild of Services, Diverse Women for Diversity and Gene Ethics Australia, have launched a combined campaign against genetically-engineered (GMO) bananas.
Dr Vandana Shiva has questioned why India should finance the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia to develop GMO bananas when research in this area has already been done by the a team from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (Barc).
Australians have achieved a major breakthrough in controlling dengue and hope to transfer this not-for-profit technology to India, which is recording some of the highest number of dengue cases in the world.
The Eliminate Dengue Research Programme (EDRP) has found that by transferring the Wolbachia bacteria, found in the common fruit fly, into the dengue mosquito called the aedes aegypti, the latter’s ability to transmit the dengue virus gets substantially reduced.
The Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) has asked the ministry of environment to investigate into the Jindal Steel and Power (JSP) plant illegally drawing groundwater for its upcoming power plant in Angul district.
JSP is building a 12-million tonne steel plant with a captive power plant of 135 MW.
Khirod Singh, a lawyer and farmer in Angul district, pointed out that, “Our tube wells and ponds have all begun to go dry and by mid-March we will not even have drinking water. Last year also we suffered the same fate.”
