Jaduguda: affected by Uranium mining! Ranchi: a three-day festival, which kicked off at Central University, Brambe, on Tuesday, travelled to the RIMS campus on Wednesday. Students and teachers of the premier medical college, film lovers and social activists watched six documentaries and short films that highlight the ill effects of uranium mining. The films screened were Michael Madsen’s Into Eternity, Ranchi-based film-maker Sriprakash’s Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda and Jadugoda: The Black Magic, Galina Laskova Sanderson’s (Belarus) To Whom It May Concern, When the Dust Settles by Australian... 

  Catching the sun power! Schanti Partners, New York Patna: A US-based agency, Schanti Partners, New York, has expressed its keen interest in investing Rs 580 crore for a solar energy project in Kaimur district of Bihar. Initially, a 10MW unit would be set up. The agency has already submitted its proposal to the Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) and received approval from the Bihar State Investment Promotion Board as also no-objection letter from Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency (BREDA). The agency intends to enter into a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with BSEB. The proposed... 

Eklavya Prasad By Eklavya Prasad   Viengphila (La) Vaiyakone is the manager for Namngum Ecovillage and Agriculture Research Community and a trainer for Abundant Water.  She manages the operation in Pakanyung (Name of the province) to support the efforts of AW in filter production. She has been experimenting with various methods and materials to make the burn out material used in the clay/charcoal water filters. La added the updraft tube and the fresh air inlet at the bottom to create the more intense heat allowing the husk to char faster without burning out to ash. Previously, the fire... 

Undergrad Yale researchers find plastic-eating fungus in the Amazon   New Haven, USA: There’s a course at Yale University in which undergraduates travel to the Amazon rain forest to collect fungi. One of them, however, which will be featured in a paper accepted by a scientific journal, might solve the problem of polyurethane building up in our landfills. The fungus basically eats the plastic and breaks it down into carbon. That’s just one discovery being studied in the Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory course taught by Professor Scott A. Strobel. “We take 15 undergraduates into... 

Farewell Dear Prof. Wangari Muta Maathai! By Dr. Shobha Raghuram   Farewell Dear Prof. Wangari Muta Maathai—Yesterday in India I heard the news from mutual friends that you have left all of us around the world, your family, your country women and men, thousands of development workers around the world and the women of this earth for whom you worked tirelessly. I can never forget what it was like meeting you…the strength, the dignity and the love you brought to your work, casting hope and clarity of purpose everywhere you went. In a world increasingly careless about the environment,... 

Eco-Scope Bihar When Nature strikes…human beings have no answer… By Prof. Ashok Kumar Ghosh I was working in my home (Third Floor) on my computer in the evening on 18th September, 2011 when suddenly the computer screen started shaking. My home has many rodents, and first I thought that it is mischief by some of them. I knocked the screen a few times and kept working. But the screen of computer continued its trembling, and then it came to my mind that it is not a mischief by rodents, but it is earthquake. I ran for my life downstairs shouting that it is earthquake. By the time... 

JD[U]’s Green Bihar campaign: Bihar takes the path of Dharhara village   Patna: The Green Bihar campaign is an initiative of Nitish Kumar, who was impressed by Dharhara, a small village 230 km from here in Bhagalpur district. The village hit the headlines two years ago, when the villagers resolved to plant fruit trees, including mango and litchi, to celebrate the birth of every girl child there. Following the example of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his cabinet colleagues and legislators have come forward to donate a month’s salary for a green Bihar campaign.  Bihar Water Resources... 

Prof. Ashok Kumar Ghosh Eco-Scope Bihar Spices for Healthy Life: a ‘Masala’ for good health!   By Prof Ashok Kumar Ghosh Spices and aromatics constitute integral part of Indian cooking process. They have been used since ancient times. They were mentioned in the ancient Hindu scriptures called the Vedas, ancient Egyptian Papyruses and the Old Testament. Cinnamon, listed biblically as cinnamon, was part of Moses’ sacred anointing oil for the Tent of Meeting, the Ark of the Testimony, the holy objects, and the high priests.The history of the spice trade dates back many centuries.... 

Ratnakar Tripathy Batras [बतरस] Do we have the ability to imagine a world after us? By Ratnakar Tripathy In one of its latest announcements when the Bihar government declared it would organize a state-level programme for tying rakhis around trees on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, I felt a strange sense of elation. On the same day, when the TV channels were full of mara mari over corruption in the parliament the whole day through, it is good to see a government worry about trees, water and greenery. I also feel happy Bihar is still finding it difficult to get over the loss of the Jharkhand... 

IKEA, world’s largest furniture retailer aims at 100% dependence on renewable energy London: IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer from Sweden has a story to tell the world! The story relates to its goal to derive all of its energy needs from renewable sources. The latest is it is now installing 39,000 solar panels on the rooftops of its stores in the United Kingdom to help achieve that goal. Reports in the European press mention that Ikea earlier purchased a 12.3-MW wind farm in Huntly in northeast Scotland from Good Energies Capital Inc. According to the chief sustainability...