GoodNewsIndia :: The Sieve
Good news filtered from media streams
Page 25 of 38 pages « FirstP < 23 24 25 26 27 > Last » [Full listing]
Jul 22, 2006 : A rice to grow on beaches
A team lead by Dr Arun Lahiri Majumder at the Bose Institute in Calcutta has developed a strain of rice and mustard that can tolerate high levels of salinity. The discovery can lead to the hundreds of square miles land by India’s coast producing food crops.The team discovered a wild rice -porteresia coarcata- that grows in the mangroves of Sunderbans, Bengal and isolated from it, inositol synthase, an enzyme that enables salt tolerance in mangrove species. Inositols are said to enable all manner of plants to withstand salinity. The Institute is currently raising salt tolerant rice and mustard in its laboratory. Patents are pending.News report Technical abstract
Jul 20, 2006 : Fortune from snake venom
The Irula Snake Catchers Industrial Cooperative Society [ISCICS] in Chennai has shown sustainable livelihood is possible through snakes. Irulas, a snake catching tribe of south India have been weaned away from trading in snake skins to extracting their venom periodically and releasing them again in the wild.The 350 members of the Society, of whom 150 are women, extracted venom of 3,200 venomous snakes -krait, cobra, Russel’s viper and saw-scaled viper- last year, and had a revenue of close to a crore of rupees. A gram of dried krait venom costs Rs 80,000. The New Indian Express has a story today which says the caught snakes are held for a month, their venom extracted weekly and then released in the wild. The whole operation is supervised by forest officers. The venom is processed into a dry powder that is effective for vaccine making for ten years.
Jul 19, 2006 : Cream of camel
Would you have ever guessed that India has a National Research Centre on Camels [NRCC]? Well it’s pretty active too. Now make anoher leap and associate camels with beauty. Believe it or not, there’s connection, say the scientists at the NRCC.They have developed an anti-wrinkle cream from camel’s milk. The cream irons out wrinkles and then makes the skin glow. Wonder what’s making a camel look all wrinkled up and un-glowing.
When it’s not developing beauty products, NRCC researches ways to improve the camel breed stock and mainatain its health. Let’s not forget that camels are draught animals in India. Report
Page 25 of 38 pages « FirstP < 23 24 25 26 27 > Last » [Full listing]