Biopiracy in the field of medicine is on the rise with Europe and the US being granted 2,000 patents every year for drugs based on Indian traditional systems of medicine. These patents are being granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTP), the European Patent Office (EPO) and other overseas patent offices. This startling claim was made by forests and environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday. It is to reverse...
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Pain of India's 'tiger widows'
Climate change is forcing humans and tigers in the Sunderbans delta of eastern India into closer contact - and attacks on people are on the rise. The BBC's Chris Morris reports. They are magnificent, but deadly. Rarely seen, hidden in the jungles. But now the Royal Bengal tigers which roam through the vast mangrove forests at the mouth of the river Ganges are coming into closer contact, and conflict, with humans....
More »Jairam seeks review of MP river-linking project by Aarti Dhar
Wants exclusion of tiger reserve area falling within its purview Says construction of dam will disturb the core habitat of wild animals Minister concerned at the ecological implications of project NEW DELHI: Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has asked the Centre to review the Ken-Betwa river-linking project in Madhya Pradesh in view of the ecological implications. In a letter to Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, Mr. Ramesh...
More »Easing change in the climate will be costly by John M Broder
In energy infrastructure alone, the transformational ambitions the Copenhagen meet is expected to set will cost more than $10 trillion in additional investment. If negotiators reach an accord at the climate talks in Copenhagen it will entail profound shifts in energy production, dislocations in how and where people live, sweeping changes in agriculture and forestry and the creation of complex new markets in global warming pollution credits. So what is...
More »Climate threat worse than earlier feared
The latest UN environment report based on about 400 major peer-reviewed scientific studies over three years has warned that the threat of climate change could be much worse than predicted earlier. The UNEP Climate Change Science Compendium 2009 report warns that sea levels could rise by up to two metres by 2100 and five to ten times that over following centuries. (See salient features and links below) It says that the...
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