Thursday, July 9, 1998
Air pollution may lead to infertility
Less than 30 per cent of Indian men have semen with normal characteristics; the average sperm count, too, had dipped by 43 per cent between 1986 and 1995, and the decline appears to be relentless. It means more and more Indian men, like their peers in the West, are likely to become infertile, and the overload of chemicals in the air may have something to do with it.
Kalahandi, a virtual "riches to rags" district today
In 1942, when Bengal was reeling under acute food shortages, Kalahandi, then a rich paddy-growing area, sent two lakh tonne of rice to feed the victims of the country's worst famine. Less than six decades later, the name Kalahandi has become synonymous with abyssmal poverty and chronic famine-like conditions.
Struggle in exile
Plastic stickers saying `Free Tibet' are pasted all over the mud walls of Tresing Somo's dhaba on the Leh-Khardungla road. Somo cooks chapatis for her school-going children on one kerosene stove and prepares tea for customers on the other. She can't leave the stoves, so the customers are allowed to pick up yogurt cups from the makeshift showcases.
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