Akhilesh Gupta
Sagar, MP

Dear Akhileshji,
A recharge pit is a deep pit dug in your grounds to put back rainwater into the groundwater table. For an individual house of 500 sq m, the size of the recharge pits need to be 1m x 1m x 2m in size with a recharge borewell of 15 to 20 m depending on the water level. The recharge pit or well will be filled with layers of pebbles and sand, which act as filtering material. This is taking in consideration a annual rainfall of 600 mm. The bottom of the recharge well should be to 5 m above the ground water level.
Visit our site: www.rainwateharvesing.org for more details

CROSS SECTION VIEW OF RECHARGE WELL

I am a MSc student of environment science and I am currently working on a project titled 'Medicinal plants — its demand and the existing market in India'. Personally, I have not been able to get much information in this regard till now. I shall be very grateful if you could help me by providing some information like website address or postal address from where I could get some statistical data of the kind of medicinal plants that are presently under cultivation, their demand etc. in India.

Prashant Rai
Vis website

Dear Prashantji,
There is very little information available on the market for medicinal plants. But you can get an idea from a cover story "Trading in Contraband" in Down To Earth (Jan 31, 2001). There is also a report by the planning commission on this subject (published 2000) which can be accessed on their website. According to an article by Chandrika Mago in Times of India, exports of herbal materials and medicines can reach Rs 3,000 crore by 2005. Type market+medicinal or plants+India in www.google.com and read articles in leading newspapers and magazines.

To get latest details, you can also contact:
Shri.L.Prasad, Joint Secretary
Department of Indian Systems of Medicine,
Room no. 221
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,
Red Cross Building
New Delhi
Ph: 3327187 (O) e-mail: jsismh@sansad.nic.in Website: http://indianmedicine.nic.in/
You can also take a look at this site: http://www.ayuherbal.com/medplantcatalogue.htm

Can you send me information about secured landfill? I will be very much pleased if you send this information as fast as possible as I need it for my exams.

A.Deepthi
Via website

Dear Deepthiji,
An engineered or secured landfill is singly or doubly lined with some impervious material like cement that does not allow seepage of leachate into the ground. (Leachate is liquid waste percolating through solid waste and dissolving suspended particles and gases from it.) There is a pipe to collect this from the dump and is treated before disposal. With every layer of waste dumped in the landfill, it must be covered with a layer of earth and when finally, it must be covered with multiple layers of earth to facilitate plantation later.

However even the best-engineered landfills leak and is a potential threat to a community’s groundwater, fish and wildlife, and to air quality. India does not have a single engineered landfill. A low-lying area is selected and dumping begins there.

Once a landfill gets over, a new low-lying area is designated. When the landfill is ‘dead’, it is finally covered with a thick layer of soil and left unused for about twenty years, after which housing colonies too can be developed here. There is thus an increasing problem and danger of ground water pollution. Plus there is almost no segregation of waste, and toxic and hospital waste contributes to the leachate.