The wood femine

Decline in supplies has badly affected many traditional crafts. Woodcarving in Saharanpur is one of them. Despite a revitalised export market, …

Science of the Common people

A recent congress highlighted the relevance of people-oriented science and technology such as the management of water, forests and agriculture.

The other course

Traditional curative systems like ayurveda, homoeopathy, acupuncture... are being revived as alternative medicine. But in India and the Orient, …

In crisis

The desert city of Jodhpur in Rajasthan is an excellent example of how Thoughtless processes of modernisation and urbanisation have destroyed an …

Knowledge seeks power

The rights of indigenous communities, which have nurtured traditional systems of knowledge through the ages, will be discussed at length at …

"Natural resources need to be protected"

For centuries the people in Bhinyad, a village in Barmer district, Rajasthan, been planning their agricultural activities while preserving the …

Power to the people

The Biodiversity Bill to empower local communities under scrutiny of parliamentary standing committee

Deserted Delicacies

Abundant, nutritious and tasty. Yet, traditional desert food is gradually losing out to commercially grown crops

The spirit of the sanctuary

Sacred groves - tracts of virgin forests - are vestiges of an ancient practice in which people protected a forest to avoid the wrath of its …

Archaeology helps to unlearn too

Archaeology is the science that studies the remains of past cultures by investigating and analysing the objects people leave behind. It is a …

River Parliament

A touch of powder

Maharashtrians spice up their simple meals with dry oilseed chutney

Beris to the rescue

Revival of rainwater harvesting structures quenches the thirst of a Thar village

Indians knew it

Ancient civilisations were aware of prebiotics

Seeds of purity

Local plant seeds provide a clue to treating impure water

SOUTH AFRICA

Cry neem

There is more to neem than fighting a patent

Breed apart

Animal conservation practices should be rethought

Cooking with kokum

Spice, fruit juice and now weight watchers' manna

The kuhls of Kangra by J Mark Baker

Book>> the kuhls of kangra by J Mark Baker Permanent Black New Delhi, 2005

Savour the lingra

Natural dye can be used in applications such as DNA fingerprinting

Builder of bridges across troubled waters

Home truhs, colonial lies

A noted Gandhian historian, DHARAMPAL has enquired into variousfacets of M-British Indian society. He has authored several books, including …

Indigenous knowledge: Australian Aboriginal fire practices can help protect koalas from bushfires, study finds

‘Cultural burns’ encouraged regeneration of native plants, did not cause any stress in koalas and were cooler and slower than ‘…