The Planning Commission hailed it as a future fuel and the industry projected it as a viable biofuel crop. But the Union Rural Development Ministry led by Jairam Ramesh feels otherwise. Citing negative reports, the Ministry has put on hold the Jatropha plantation programme for biofuel purpose. It has thus also put a question mark on the future of the proposed National Mission on biofuels.

The oil seed has burnt farmers and investors alike
Money may not grow on trees, but for a time it appeared to grow on bushes – specifically, a tropical shrub called jatropha curcas. Over the past decade, jatropha was planted on millions of acres across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa after research showed that oil from its crushed seeds makes an excellent biofuel.

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The Assam government has drafted an ambitious plan to introduce cultivation of jatropha (Jatropha curcas ) to help farmers boost their income, and also to produce bio-diesel.

The state agriculture department last week organised a day-long training workshop for farmers and NGOs working in rural areas to popularise the crop.

The Western and Central railways have decided to go green in order to reduce its carbon footprint. They have been planting saplings of jatropha, a major source of bio-diesel, on pilot basis.

''Running trains on bio-fuel will help cut down the cost of operations and also cause less pollution. We have sucessfully conducted trial runs using bio-diesel.

Eight children, a teenager and a woman was admitted to the Civil Hospital, Sector 6, here on Tuesday night with symptoms of

The railways are trying out several experiments to be environment friendly.
While Central Railway (CR) has begun the process of installation of solar-powered illumination at level crossings along its sections, Western Railway (WR) is one of the first railways to run a train on bio-diesel.

Both these railways have several lakhs of saplings of jathropa seeds along their rail tracks that yield oi

Praveen Kumar Singh

New Delhi: Indian Railways has planned to set up four bio-diesel plants to reduce its carbon footprint and take forward its experiment with non-conventional form of energy. It is already planting saplings of jatropha, one of the sources of bio-diesel, on pilot basis in partnership with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

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