BISHNOI
COMMUNITY
Duration: 02:57 mts.
The Bishnois of Rajasthan are a 500 year
old community living by environment-friendly tenets provided
in their religion. Their practices have helped them sustain
and prosper under harsh desert conditions, in marked contrast
to other communities in the same region. |
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JHARIA
COAL FIELDS
Duration: 2:52 mts.
An underground fire has been raging in the
coal belt of Jharia, in Bihar, for the last 75 years. It has
so far destroyed 40 million tons of coal, and been a constant
threat to life in an area of 450 square kms. As yet, nobody
has been able to find a method of tackling the fire. |
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RIVER
POLLUTION
Duration: 3:01 mts.
Large-scale industrialisation and overpopulation
in cities has choked and polluted the rivers. Water treatment
is becoming an up-hill task for the authorities. There is
greater need of checking the discharge of untreated industrial
and human waste directly into the rivers. |
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URBAN
AIR POLLUTION
Duration: 4:57 mts.
In the rapidly growing metro cities of India,
air pollution has become a serious health hazard. Increasing
cases of lung disease, infections and allergy are reported
in these areas. Controlling pollution through efficient automobile
engines, and development of mass rapid transport systems are
some of the possible solutions. |
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OZONE
DEPLETION
Duration: 4:16 mts.
The phenomenon of ozone depletion and its links
to possible hazard to life forms has captured international
attention. India is a signatory to the Montreal Protocol,
which sets the agenda for controlling ozone depletion by phasing
out production and use of Chlorofluorocarbons. |
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PINJORE
JOINT FOREST MANAGEMENT
Duration: 5:13 mts.
A story on the concept of joint forest management,
by which villagers work in collaboration with the authorities
to protect forest areas. And are benefited by getting fodder,
fuelwood and forest produce of commercial value for themselves.
Sukho Majri, in the Pinjore region of Haryana, is one area
where Joint Forest Management has been a success. |
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GASIFIER
Duration: 04:27 mts.
A wild invasive weed, Lantana Camara, is being
used to generate electricity through gasifier technology in
the Himalayan area of Kotdwar, Uttar Pradesh. An area where
conventional electrification is difficult, Kotdwar has experienced
the benefit of utilising the locally available menace-weed,
to sustain a better standard of life. |
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HIMALAYAN
ECO-SYSTEM
Duration: 04:57 mts.
The rich natural diversity of the Himalaya has sustained life
in the entire Indo-Gangetic region. Due to over- exploitation
of its resources, the Himalayan region is now turning into
a desert, with direct ecological threat to life in the entire
area. |
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BIO-GAS
FROM VEGETABLE WASTE
Duration: 03:24 mts.
At the Gultekadi market complex near Pune, vegetable waste
is being used to generate biogas. Developed by a voluntary
organisation, the pilot plant supplies biogas to 4 restaurants,
and provides a viable solution to the problem of disposing
large quantities of market waste. |
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BIO-GAS
FROM CANTEEN WASTE
Duration: 03:38 mts.
A high-tech space research organisation in Ahmedabad, Gujarat,
uses its canteen waste to generate biogas. Thus taking care
of the institute's waste disposal problem, and also partially
substituting LPG with biogas for cooking in the canteen. |
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ZERO-WASTE
IN DISTILLERY
Duration: 03:06 mts.
Distilleries are one of the worst industrial pollutants, and
face closure all over the country. A large distillery near
Madras had developed a three-stage water treatment process,
which has helped them eliminate pollution and wastage. The
treatment process provides biogas for their furnaces, fish
which is sold at a profit in Madras, and clean water that
is recharged into the distillery's sugarcane fields.
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ENERGY
FROM URBAN WASTE
Duration: 03:26 mts.
Urban waste disposal is a problem for municipal corporations
in Indian cities. In Baroda, Gujarat, a private company has
set up a plant to manufacture fuel pellets from the city's
garbage. The pellets are sold at a profit, to be used in industrial
furnaces as a coal-substitute. And the Baroda Municipal Corporation
saves money previously spent on waste disposal. |
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BRIQUETTING
FROM AGRO-WASTE
Duration: 03:45 mts.
The agricultural sector dominates India's economy. It also
generates large quantities of waste. Most of which is burnt,
and some part used directly in low-efficiency furnaces. In
Tamil Nadu, a company manufactures briquettes from the locally
available agro-waste. Which is sold as a substitute for coal,
lignite and firewood to restaurants, tea gardens and industry.
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BUILDING
MATERIALS FROM WASTE
Duration: 03:23 mts.
With a requirement of 160 million dwelling units, the demand
for building materials is forever increasing. Conventional
materials are beset with problems of escalating costs and
high energy inputs. To find sustainable alternatives, an industrial
waste - flyash from thermal power plants - is being used to
manufacture bricks. Which cost less and match conventional
bricks in strength. |
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COMMUNITY
BIOGAS PLANT
Duration: 03:37 mts.
In rural areas, women have to spend substantial part of their
life hunting for domestic fuels. In this context, biogas from
animal dung is a viable alternative. And community projects,
like in the village of Varsila near Ahmedabad, supply biogas
to members, some having no resources of their own. Despite
their operational problems, such community projects could
be a viable alternative-energy source. |
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COMPACT
FLUORESCENT LAMPS
Duration: 03:12 mts.
The need for electricity in a growing economy like India is
vast. Though generating capacity has doubled in the past decade,
demand shortages amount to about 15%. In the area of lighting,
Compact Fluorescent Lamps are an energy-saving alternative.
They consume one-fourth the energy of traditional lamps, and
last 8 times longer. Thus providing a means to conserving
electricity. |
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BUILDING
CENTRES
Duration: 03:26 mts.
With growing housing needs, the pressure on sources of building
materials is getting acute. In the area of Jaipur, the most
commonly used building material is stone - which comes from
the degraded Aravalli ranges. Building centres have been set
up in every district to develop sustainable, alternative building
materials, which can substitute traditional ones. |
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WASTE TREATMENT IN PAPER INDUSTRY
Duration: 03:27 mts.
The paper industry is one of the most polluting industries
in the world. In Pune, a paper mill has set up a waste treatment
plant which also generates biogas that substitutes 15% of
the plant's fuel requirements. And the waste sludge after
treatment is made into boards for packing boxes. After treatment
the water is used to irrigate nearby agricultural fields.
Thus making it a zero-waste industry. |
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GASIFIER
TECHNOLOGY
Duration: 03:59 mts.
The technology of gasifiers is still new and largely at pilot
stages in India. However, it is successfully proven for improving
combustibility of conventional fuelwood, and partially substituting
diesel in generators. With more research on adaptability to
other fuels like agro-waste briquettes, the applications of
gasifier will be widespread. |
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POLLUTION
FROM TANNERIES
Duration: 03:57 mts.
The leather processing industry is a major pollutant due to
use of toxic chemicals like sulphides and chromium salts.
At Kanpur, one of the major leather tanning centres of India,
the effluents were flowing into and polluting the Ganga. Now,
a combined effluent treatment plant diverts the waste water
from the tanneries, and treats it alongwith domestic sewage
water. But efforts are still required to motivate individual
tannery owners to set up chrome recovery plants for the treatment
process to be truly effective. |
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DEGRADED
ARAVALLI MOUNTAINS
Duration: 03:41 mts.
The Aravallis are the oldest mountain system in India, traversing
the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. However,
the burden of overgrazing and need for building materials
has left it total devastated. Due to large scale quarrying,
entire hills disappear in a matter of months. Though some
efforts are being made by the forest departments, it may be
too late to save this mountain system. |
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VERMI-COMPOSTING
Duration: 03:30 mts.
Garbage disposal is a major problem in urban areas, specially
in hotels and restaurants which generate a large quantity
of food waste. A fast-food centre in Delhi tackled this problem
by adopting vermi-composting to treat their waste. By this
process, a culture of earthworms feeds on the waste and breaks
it down to produce nutrient-rich manure. Which is then sold
to farmers. |
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IMPROVED
CHULHAS
Duration: 03:35 mts.
On an average rural women in India have to travel upto 10
kilometres in search of firewood, and carry bundles weighing
upto 35 kilos. In addition, the exposure to smoke from the
firewood causes serious health hazards to women. The need
to find fuel efficient and clean cooking devices resulted
in the development of the Improved Chulha. The Improved
Chulhas programme has now installed nearly 16 million improved
stoves all over India. |
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COMPRESSED
NATURAL GAS
Duration: 03:29 mts.
Increasing levels of pollution due to vehicular emissions,
and the cost of petrol has led to research into alternative
fuels. Compressed Natural Gas is one such alternative, which
is now being tested out in some cities of India. Though the
project is still at a nascent stage, and there are problems
of proper infrastructure and efficiency, CNG could well be
a cleaner substitute for the future. |
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