The carrying capacity of Indian agriculture to support oilseeds production to meet the vegetable oil needs of the Indian population has been considered in the context of available sources of oil from oilseed and nonoilseed origins. India needs to produce 17.84 Mt of vegetable oils to meet the nutritional fat needs of projected population of 1685 million by 2050. This can be easily achieved from various sources like annual oilseeds and also from supplementary sources of oil like rice bran, cottonseed, coconut, oil palm, corn, etc.
Conservation and wise use of wetlands has been given priority world over. India harbours diverse types of wetlands. This study highlights the findings of the national-level inventory and assessment of wetlands carried out using RESOURCESAT-1 LISS-III data of 2006–07 at 1 : 50,000 scale. A hierarchical system comprising 19 classes based on Ramsar definition has been used to classify the wetlands of India. The extent of wetlands has been estimated to be 15.26 m ha. Inland wetlands account for 69.22% (10.564 m ha), whereas the coastal wetlands account for 27.13% (4.14 m ha).
Cinnamon bug or seed bug, Ochrophora (= Udonga) montana (Distant) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is a serious pest of bamboo, feeds on developing seeds and is able to destroy all available seeds during massive outbreaks. Nevertheless, its outbreaks are occasional and were recently (2011) witnessed in Karanataka. Interestingly, periodic outbreaks of O. montana are known from the northeastern region (NER) of India, and largely corresponded with mass flowering of bamboos in Mizoram.
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A megawatt scale grid-connected photovoltaic power plant was commissioned on 27 December 2009 in Yalesandra in Kolar district in Karnataka. The Yalesandra plant is one among more than 20 such Megawatt size solar power plants in India during the past few years. The performance of this plant during its first year of operation has been discussed. The total electrical energy generated by the Yelasandra plant during 2010 was 3.34 million kWh. Although the performance of photovoltaic modules was good, there were problems associated with the inverters which led to reduction in energy generation.
Use of threatened species in research – be it for taxonomy, biology or population studies, has always invoked much debate. As a result, the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) developed a set of guidelines entitled ‘IUCN Policy Statement on Research Involving Species at Risk of Extinction’ with special reference to scientific collecting of threatened species.
The Nilgiri North Forest Division is located at the centre of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, with Mudumalai Tiger Reserve on the western side and Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary on the eastern side. The Segur plateau and adjoining Moyar valley, which extend over an area of 500 sq. km with open scrub forest, provide an ideal breeding ground for four species of vultures, viz. Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus), Redheaded Vulture (Sarcogyps calvus), White-rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis) and Long-billed Vulture (Gyps indicus). (Correspondence)
Sacred groves are traditionally managed forest patches of palaeo-endemics, which are conserved due to religious beliefs and represent climax vegetation. Sometimes these groves have higher richness and regeneration of medicinal and other economic plants than other reserve forests. (Correspondence)
Cyclical rise and fall of monthly mean CO2 concentration occurred rather regularly at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, USA, during 1958–2008, with peaks occurring in April or May followed by troughs in September or October. However, the frequency of troughs in September increased from 32% in 1958–1974 to 82% in 1992–2008 and the depletion season correspondingly decreased from 4.8 months on average to 4.2 months. Does this seemingly small change in the seasonal rhythm point to changes on an inter-decadal scale in the CO2 accumulation rates?
Drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum parasite poses a great problem for the malaria control programme of any country. The most commonly used antimalarial drugs, viz. chloroquine (CQ) and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) have been rendered ineffective and
are replaced by the artesunate-based combination therapy (ACT).
In India, for food security, the future agriculture faces the challenge of enhancing crop production under uncertain climatic extremes, in a limited (or degraded at many places) land area, with more and more requirement of water (in many places, poor quality water), complexities and rapid erosion of natural biodiversity and agricultural systems, and the socio-economic systems governing
