CSE COMMENTS ON UNION BUDGET
The Centre for Science and Environment strongly condemns the finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, for playing a rude joke on the environment in the Union Budget, 2002 - by increasing the price of CNG and making diesel cheaper. Details at

http://www.cseindia.org/html/cmp/air/press_20020228.htm

ECOLOGICALLY MINDLESS
While attending the Stockholm Water Symposium a few years ago, my colleague, Anil Agarwal, and I were invited to a banquet by the king of  Sweden. But instead of dining in splendour we were checking out toilets in some remote parts of the city. I was not convinced of our mission. We opened the hatch of "alternative" toilets bins, where the faecal matter is stored before composting. We were regaled with information about how urine could be separated in the toilet and used directly for agriculture. Our friend, Uno Winblad, toilet crazy like Anil, then took us to supermarkets in Stockholm city where there were a range of toilets - from water-saving to electric and of course, urine separating toilets. Anil, who hated shops, was delighted. And I began to understand the links. The flush system and the sewage system are part of the environmental problem and not the solution. Consider the huge amount of clean water that is used to carry a small quantity of human excreta....Sunita Narain writes about the political economy of defecation. Manoj Nadkarni analyses the flush and forget mindset, which is increasingly destroying our water systems. More at

http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20020228/dte_analy.htm

RICH RETURNS
Nepal's forestry scheme of leasing out of degraded forestland to the poor has surpassed all other development projects, saving the country's environment and the economy. For details click

http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20020228/dte_srep.htm

WINGS OF CHANGE
Migratory birds stage a comeback after a long hiatus as Kashmir wetlands get a fresh lease of life thanks to the efforts by the state government and wildlife authorities to clean up small patches of wetlands. Details at

http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20020228/dte.htm

PLASTIC PURGE
Chittaranjan township sports a new look as its residents say no to plastic carry bags. Details at

http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20020228/dte_grass.htm

RIVERS(E) EFFECT
The Andhra Pradesh government is all set to purify Musi river, which has been given top priority under the National River Conservation plan, by dumping effluents. Details at

http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20020228/dte_srep1.htm

PLANTING A TIMEBOMB
Asia accounts for 62 per cent of the world's plantations. With 89 per cent of the new plantations coming up in the continent, they are increasingly becoming the source of debate and conflicts. Who owns them and who derives benefits from these?

http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20020228/dte_stati.htm

MIRACLE RIVER
How rainwater harvesting created a river. See and experience this miracle in the video Arvari: A late twentieth century folk tale, produced by the Centre for Science and Environment. Details at

http://www.cseindia.org/html/extra/arvari.htm

WORKSHOP ON THE GREEN RATING OF AUTOMOBILE SECTOR
Centre for Science and Environment is organising a workshop on the Green Rating of Automobile sector, to compile policy related recommendations to the government for promoting environment friendly growth in automobile ind ustry. More at

http://www.cseindia.org/html/eyou/grp/grp_coming_up.htm

SCB DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
Anil Agarwal has been selected posthumously as the recipient of the SCB Distinguished Service Award for his contributions in the field of conservation and development.

http://www.cseindia.org/html/au/anilji/award_scb.htm

 A message from the Editor

BETTER WILD THAN NEVER

Visit our website at www.cseindia.org and check out what's new. Our  website carries our science and environment fortnightly Down To Earth, a daily environment news flash by subject categories, a catalog of books and publications that are available, and all of our recent press releases. We also give regular updates on all of our campaigns on topics like vehicular pollution, climate change, biodiversity, water resources, wildlife, forests etc. Our online library of books, journals, images and videos is searchable through a thesaurus of environmental keywords at

http://data.cseindia.org

 We are also looking for reciprocal linking to other websites in this  area. Let us know your website address and we would be happy to link to you. Please feel free to forward this message to other interested individuals.  Past messages of this bulletin are available at

http://www.cseindia.org/html/au/au6.htm