-Down to Earth An ecologist has been guarding seeds of more than 750 rare rice varieties for over a decade Lit by a kerosene lamp, the two-room hut just outside a sleepy hamlet in Odisha’s Rayagada district can easily pass off as any other farmer’s house in this tribal region. Step inside it, and one is taken aback by the hundreds of earthen pots labelled with coded stickers stacked in a corner...

-The Hindu Violations of Coastal Regulation Zone and Environmental Impact Assessment notifications make official claims questionable The debate over nuclear energy will go on, but the issue with the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) is one of the several illegalities on which it is founded. In 1988, India inked the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant deal with the former Soviet Union. Two key elements in it were: the highly dangerous and toxic “Spent Nuclear...

-The Times of India Rs 4,439 crore has literally gone down the drain called the Yamuna. Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have told the Supreme Court that they have spent Rs 4,124 crore on making the river's water potable, but the Central Pollution Control Board's latest report shows that Yamuna's water still resembles that of a drain.  The New Delhi Municipal Committee and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi have spent an additional Rs...

-Al Jazeera Treaty to ban chemicals that harmed the ozone layer came about when there was consensus between science and politics. In 1974, chemists Mario Molina and Frank Sherwood Rowland published a landmark article that demonstrated the ability of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to break down the ozone layer, the atmospheric region that plays a vital role in shielding humans and other life from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. It marked the opening salvo of...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: How can a Union minister go around issuing statements on the commissioning of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant when a court is still seized of the matter, the Madras high court asked on Thursday.  "He says the plant is going to be opened shortly. If that is so, why do you come to court?" asked a bench of Justices P Jyothimani and P Devadoss. Though the bench...