Gobar Times Magazine (Environment for Kids Monthly) - Centre for Science and Environment

EDITORIAL

Hey folks,

If there was a contest for guessing the most popular activity among Indians this summer, you know what I would vote for? Making laws. Or debating on how they should be made. If you don’t believe me, just pause for a moment and look around you. Every ‘public leader’ worth his or her salt is either busy drafting a Bill or jostling for space around the table where it is being drafted...

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COVER STORY

japan disaster BANNED, but USED

I despise gutka. At the cost of sounding utterly politically incorrect, even those who chew it incessantly. So I was mighty delighted when the Supreme Court, in December last year, ordered a ban on the sale of tobacco, gutka and pan masala in plastic pouches from March 2011. Expectedly, the manufacturers cried foul and claimed that the entire industry would come to a standstill after the ban. “Let it come,” the bench said. After all, if gutka is not sold in plastic pouches, what could it possibly be sold in? The bench asked gutka manufacturers to shift to non-plastic packaging. “Let it become costlier. The public would benefit,” Justice A. K. Ganguly observed.

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POSTER

Between devil and the deep green cover

This World Environment Day (June 5), the Delhi Government and the Union Ministry of the Environment and Forests took a step ahead of the rest. To mark the International Year of Forest, hosted by India, they jointly gifted a new 'forest' to the nation. Nestling in the foothills of Aravalli, this 84-acre Jaunapur forest is the government's first effort towards reversing the environmental degradation that the 1,500-year-old hills have seen in the recent past. Intrigued, the GT ....

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Slim Chance

So you can’t stop eating chocolates and exercise is not really your thing. But you still want to look like Kareena Kapoor? You are not alone. Frustrated, people are lining up at Bariatric surgeons’ clinics for quick but drastic measures which involve, among other things, cutting up your stomach and removing large chunks of it...

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RIVER TRIALS

GANGA Chronicles

The Government of India and the World Bank have recently signed an agreement for cleaning the Ganga (Yes, yet another grand plan and announcement). The eight-year project has an estimated cost of Rs 7,000 crore. Ironically, Swami...

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RING A BELL

Mixed signals

Some claims are often cited but seldom proved. Cell phones cause health hazards is one such claim we’ve all been hearing for as many years as we’ve been using the hand held device. Here’s the latest: The World Health Organisation and the International Agency for Research on Cancer have...

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FUNDUNG

by Rustam vania

GREEEN SCHOOLS

Biodiversity: Of Birds and Bees

Biodiversity includes everything on this planet — from micro organisms to human beings. It also refers to the interrelatedness of genes species and vast ecosystems and their interactions with the environment...

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