Clay minerals are natural materials well known for their role in retention and persistence of organic and inorganic compounds in soil. Clay minerals are being modified through different processes to alter their charge and surface properties tailored for specific purposes. Modified clays in general include pillared layered clays, organoclays, nanocomposites, acid and salt-induced and thermally and mechanically induced modified clays. Pillared organoclays and nanocomposites constitute a novel class of materials, mainly one kind of modification of expanding 2 : 1 clay minerals.

PANJIM: The mining companies operating the leases in wildlife sanctuaries in the past will have to pay for restoration of the areas affected with the extraction and dumping of the ore.

Following a high court directive, the state forest department has decided to rigorously follow up the matter with the mining companies asking them to pay the cost of restoration.

It was Mahatma Gandhi's dream to see an India free from hunger. Today, India is going to operate the largest social protection programme against hunger in human history. Right to food through the National Food Security Bill has been recently introduced in Parliament.

The technical committee formed on a directive from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to study the feasibility of coastal roads for Mumbai is now split down the middle over a radical su

This audit report of CAG on the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai tabled in the Parliament blamed the Environment Ministry for allowing the building to come up flouting coastal zone regulations.

In an atmosphere marked by a growing confrontation, the Assam Forest Department and a dominant section of the Assamese nationalists and conservationists argue that the Kaziranga National Park is facing imminent danger from its neighbouring habitats. The poor farmers, fishermen, and petty traders in the neighbourhood refuse to give up their land and be rehabilitated. This article journeys briefly into some of the issues to help understand the complex contest over both conservation practices and ownership of a prized space.

Red sandy dunal soils of Tamil Nadu is called Theri soils. They occupy about 20,000 ha. Tuticorin district has the largest area 11,200 ha. Different interpretative systems have indicated that these are not suitable for agriculture. In this study, tank silt is used to amend the soil and the different physical parameters which make the soil better for cultivation are estimated and their interrelationships are presented.

There is a need to break yield barriers through multidimensional approch to achieve food security on a sustainable basis for the people of this country. Cooperatives can play an important role in this direction due to their proximity to farmers. The Indian Farmers' Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), since over the last four decades, is providing services to farmers and cooperatives through various programmes, besides ensuring fertilizers availability.

BHUBANESWAR: If all the power plants proposed in Orissa materialise, the huge capacity addition in energy generation would have brought about a bigger problem of ash.

With the State leaving no power generation option unexplored, it could well find itself in a tricky situation.

Sate-run Coal India Limited (CIL) is planning to invest around Rs 35,000 crore in the next five years to operationalise 142 new projects.
While, the company did not elaborate on how it would mobilise the fund, a top CIL official told The Indian Express that the money would be generated entirely from internal accruals.

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