Nandan Biomatrix, a Hyderabad-based agri-biotechnology and medicinal plantation company, is planning to set up bioinvestment eco-industrial zones (BIEZs) across the country. The project aims to bring fallow land under jatropha cultivation, which will be used to make biofuel.

Within a couple of years of the global rush to promote biofuels new questions are being asked about the claimed benefits of these fuels and serious negative impacts are coming to light. It is in this regard that the focus of the biofuel policy in India has been towards utilising an "oil bearing' plant, jatropha carcus, for oil extraction, processing and eventual blending with diesel. The advantage of this plant lies in the fact that it can be grown on cultivable wasteland and requires very little fertiliser and other inputs as normally required in agriculture. (Editorial) May 3-9, 2008

The government of Zimbabwe plans to construct biofuel plants in all its 10 provinces by 2010. Under the plan, massive jatropha plantations will be initiated after January 2008. "The plant grows well

Tribals in Orissa's Balangir district say they have been deceived. They allege an Agra-based company has duped them and taken away 200 acres (around 80 hectares) of their fertile land to plant

the Udaipur administration recently announced its plans to go ahead with allotment of land for jatropha plantation. The move, made under the recently notified Rajasthan Land Revenue (Allotment of

Investigation into jatropha germplasm nears completion

The railways are trying out several experiments to be environment friendly.
While Central Railway (CR) has begun the process of installation of solar-powered illumination at level crossings along its sections, Western Railway (WR) is one of the first railways to run a train on bio-diesel.

Both these railways have several lakhs of saplings of jathropa seeds along their rail tracks that yield oi

Praveen Kumar Singh

New Delhi: Indian Railways has planned to set up four bio-diesel plants to reduce its carbon footprint and take forward its experiment with non-conventional form of energy. It is already planting saplings of jatropha, one of the sources of bio-diesel, on pilot basis in partnership with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

Cautions Developing Nations Against Hype Around

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