Common toxins found indoors Tricholoroethylene or TCE is a chemical product with industrial uses, most commonly found in metal degreasing and dry cleaning. It is also used in painting inks, paints, lacquers, varnishes and adhesives. TCE is a liver carcinogen. Benzene is a commonly used solvent found in items such as diesel/petrol/kerosene, inks, oils, paints, […]
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Water quality in India has been under the scanner for considerable time now. Chemical testing falling within the scientific purview, uses instrumentation to publish results at periodic intervals, identifying pathogens and other inorganic toxic substances in the water. But then, say one was to identify by mere observation how clean a water body is— would […]
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After deforestation, forest fires are the most important cause of habitat destruction. Forest fires are worldwide seasonal occurrences, and can be prevented by adequate measures; they usually occur in the dry months from March to May in India when there is no rain and dry leaves and twigs litter the forest floor. Alerts are provided […]
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Chennappa Channabasappa Gudli, 57, a farmer cultivating cotton crop for the past 12 years in Shiggaon Taluk of Haveri district in North Karnataka, predominantly a rainfed region, suffered a huge set back with his cotton crop yield reducing to less than one third during Kharif 2013. Buoyed by the higher returns during the previous years, […]
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The Uttarakhand disaster exposed the gap that exists between science and disaster decision making. Scientific alerts had little impact on the governmental mechanisms. On the other hand that very divide, once bridged, led to a successful evacuation operation in the case of cyclone Phailin. It is thus important to study the linkages between science and […]
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For this septuagenarian farmer, practicing organic farming is a way of life. At 76, Maniklal Mantri, starts work at 8 in the morning traveling around 12 km on his gearless-two-wheeler to reach his farm, a borrowed tract of land near his village in Utkhed located at Morshi Taluka of Amravati District in Maharashtra. Although farmer […]
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The remnants of Dhanushkodi, located at the southern tip of the island of Rameswaram on the eastern coast of India in Tamil Nadu, are about 29 km (18 miles) west of Talaimannar in Sri Lanka. The Dhanushkodi railway line, running from Pamban Station, and much of the small town were destroyed in the 1964 cyclone. […]
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India’s hazard profile is dependent on the geo-climatic conditions and topographic features, and the underlying vulnerabilities cause annual disasters of varying degrees like floods, droughts, cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides, avalanches and forest fire in the country. It is estimated that about 59 per cent of India’s land area is prone to earthquakes and the Himalayas […]
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A decade ago, Kuntanahalli, a village in Doddabalapur taluk, located 55 kms to the North West of Bangalore, was laden with bountiful produce throughout the year. As the Doddabalur town changed into a small industrial hub, the villagers started selling agricultural land while many quit farming. This in turn severely affected the apiary activity in […]
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India is one of the most vulnerable countries that are recurrently prone to natural disasters, cyclone being one of the most prominent. Perhaps more stark than the calamities is the marginalisation of women during and post disasters; being increasingly exposed to crime, unsafe delivery and poor nutrition. Moreover, breakage of community linkages and the matrix […]
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