GLOBAL WARMING is engulfing the biosphere at a rapid pace, setting
in motion strange climatic changes. Humans are paying
the price of
messing with the environment over the centuries, while continuing to do
so.
Pollution levels are at
an all-time high in India’s capital, Delhi, with other metro regions
like Mumbai and Kolkata vying for second place.
The
increasing industrial and residential use of diesel generators is
adding to the global warm up, even at the village level, while the
search for alternative fuels continues unabated.
The
cultivation of the
jatropha plant in the Western states of Goa and
Maharashtra and dhaincha in Bihar is increasingly being promoted as
promising an alternative to diesel fuel in India.
In
Goa, bio-diesel derived from jatropha curcas, locally known as ‘erond’,
is becoming more widespread. Fr Inacio Almeida, of Pilar, Goa, runs the
nature farm of the
society of Pilar (or society of the missionaries of
St Francis Xavier) and is a leading populariser of jatropha as a
feedstock for the production of bio diesel. jatropha until recently was
routinely used as stumps for damming paddy fields and orchards.
“One
litre of fuel can be extracted from three kilograms of jatropha seeds,”
says Fr Almeida. Among the developments he envisions is for “each
village in Goa to have its own jatropha plantation and extraction
machinery.”
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