Geographic Information System (GIS) was utilized to apply a modified DRASTIC method to assess the aquifer vulnerability to pollution of English Bazar Block of Malda District, West Bengal, India. In the western, central and southern parts of the study area the aquifer is prone to contamination. Therefore, in these regions pesticides, which may contain arsenic or arsenic rich groundwater, should not be used in irrigated land or mango orchards. In order to understand the reliability of the aquifer vulnerability, sensitivity analysis was carried out.

A patent on a process for making storage - stable edible food materials from kernels of gorgon nuts or fox nut (Euryale ferox) has tremendous impact on biodiversity resulting in triggered mass culture and commercialization of this aquatic macrophyte. Besides ecological impact, it has social and economic impacts too. This paper studied the impact of the patent on biodiversity at micro level. The study reveals that mass culture of these plants in water bodies instead of fishes has created an interlinked ecological, social and economic imbalance.

With the monsoon yet to run its course, north Bengal, where the rivers are already in spate, lives in fear.

The Gujarat 2001 earthquake drove home the point that cities built on river alluvium and sand are likely to suffer maximum damage from an earthquake due to high water table and the construction of dams in the upper reaches

Arsenic has been found in groundwater in seven districts of West Bengal covering an area 37,493 km having about 34 million population. Our survey indicates that 560 villages are arsenic-affected and more than a million people are drinking arsenic contaminated water and more than 200,000 people are suffering from arsenic-related diseases.

The highly pathogenic avian influenza could reach new areas in the state after the state animal husbandry department officials received reports that poultry owners of the notified areas in Malda have

Sagar Refugee Colony, Ganga Sagar gram panchayat: Ever since her older son went off to work as a daily labourer in Kashmir two years ago, Sahajadi Bibi has to worry a little less about how to feed her family of eight.

radioactive wastes: A Pakistani senator recently accused the country's nuclear authorities of dumping radioactive waste near a village in the Punjab province causing cancer, miscarriages, and

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