Archive for January, 2008

Beej Bachao Andolan, Vividhara and many other groups from Uttarakhand  Invite you to  An Exhibition and Sale of Diverse, Healthful Organic Foods and Natural Products (amongst others, there's a wide range of rajmas to choose from, breakfast cereals, spices, pickles, tea, natural cosmetics, flours, red rice, herbs, jams, nutritious millets, snacks, drinks, handicrafts, woollens...)      at reasonable prices, ... Full story

Opportunity for learning and carrying out research for dissertation and detailed project work at grassroots level under guidance from project implementing organisations under Network of Environment NGOs. (Supported by Delhi Greens) 1. The Vigyan Vijay Foundation (Er. Ajit Seshadri) 2. Parkash Environmental Group (Mr. O.P. Singh) 3. Indian Pollution Control Association (Mr. Ashish Jain) Projects covered come under different environmental categories with ... Full story

Govind Singh govind@delhigreens.org  After years of conservation activity and having been literally brought back from the brink of extinction, the Indian Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is in serious trouble yet again. The Indian Gharial (which derives its name from ghara, an earthen pot that resembles the bulbous nasal appendage present on mature males) with its characteristic elongate, narrow snout; is one of the two surviving members of the living fossil family Gavialidae. The species has a riverine habitat and is better adapted to an aquatic lifestyle in the calmer areas of deep, fast-moving rivers. It does not prefer land since it is poorly equipped for movement outside the water and leaves the water only to bask and to lay eggs. Consequently, it does not go further away and prefers to both bask and nest closer to the river on the sandbanks. Adults are exclusively fish eaters while the juveniles feed on smaller invertebrate and vertebrate prey such as insects and frogs, respectively. After evading extinction in the early 1970s, conservation programs brought them back from the brink. It was a great relief to everyone as the efforts seemed to be working and the gharial number went up. However, by 2005 it became clear that something had again gone wrong and in 2006 it was estimated that the wild gharial adult population had come down to less than 150. In 2007, the Indian Gharial became the only crocodile to be re-classified “Critically Endangered” (CR) by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). The IUCN Red List put the number of breeding adult gharials in Nepal and India at 182. This was a clear decline of 58 % as the same figure a decade ago was 436. At the same time, the Chambal River seemed to be the gharial’s last stronghold. Clearly, the Indian Gharial did not seem to be having a good time. As if all of this wasn’t enough, the December of 2007 came as a shock to wildlife biologists, conservationists and to the Gharial Multi Task Force (GMTF) that was Full story

Year 2007 is the centennial of Gandhi's Satyagraha (Civil Disobedience) in South Africa. It is also the 150th Anniversary of India's first Independence Movement of 1857 and the Year 2008 will mark 100 years of Hind Swaraj as well as Gandhi's 60th death anniversary. It is hence an appropriate time to revisit the models of democracy and economy especially in the context of the new challenges ... Full story

Full story

Indra Sinha, the dynamic former Editor of Bhopal.net, the force behind the Bhopal Medical Appeal, which funds the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, a critical source of free medical treatment for tens of thousands of poisoned Bhopal residents and the author of Animal's People, a 2007 novel written from the perspective of one of the survivors of the Bhopal Gas disaster (set ... Full story

Tata Nano Homour: How good (or bad) the situation may really get!  Full story

The Nehru Memorial Museum & Library is organizing a seminar on Mahatma Gandhi and the Quest for a Just Society under the able Directorship of Professor Mridula Mukherjee, in its ongoing effort to bring scholars, intellectuals and those leading popular struggles to come together and discuss issues that face the society in these critical times. Seminar Dates: 31st January and 1st February 2008... Full story

Govind Singh govind@delhigreens.org It is said about cities that if we listen carefully, a city speaks and narrates its story to all those who consider it their own. Delhi is no different and a rendezvous with the city reveals its glorious past and a heritage of green spaces, some of which were preserved even before the Mughals ruled the city. Delhi is also ... Full story

Image theme: Rainbow from the Tricolour, at Teen Murti Bhawan, New Delhi Full story