A Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) research spanning over 14 years has shown considerable decline in the level of contamination in different food commodities.

Conducted by the university’s Department of Entomology between 1997 and 2010, the researchers, after analysing 3,300 food samples, found that the contamination level had come down to 20 per cent from 62 per cent in 1976.

Over 2800 cases reported till October, officials asked to stay alert

The state’s plans of introducing two varieties of fish, gambusia and guppy, to control the spread of mosquito larvae in ponds has failed to make an impact, at least in Bokaro, with the district administration now gearing up to tackle the spectre of malaria.

The administration, which has taken up spraying of DDT in all earnestness, is handing out medicated mosquito nets, besides launching cleanliness drives, in all malaria-prone zones.

Thousands of baby pelicans grunt and hiss at their parents in tightly packed nests on Gaillard Island, a feathered paradise situated off the coast of Alabama.

The 1,300-acre, man-made island is hosting more than 50,000 birds this summer as nesting pairs gather to raise babies.

Bosco Acope and his family tend their farm in Atek, Uganda, where the government's use of DDT has threatened their livelihood.

Growing up as a child here along the muggy, isolated plains of northern Uganda, life was not easy. His parents were poor. He did not attend secondary school. Many of his friends died from bouts of malaria, a scourge that has plagued this agrarian society.

Mr.

Endosulfan, a powerful 50-year-old insecticide sometimes called DDT