A native species of Mexico and tropical America, Jatropha curcas L. (Euphorbiaceae) is a perennial, multipurpose and drought resistant species, which is gaining importance commercially as a bio-diesel plant and is being intensively advocated for development of wastelands and dry lands throughout India. Contrary to the popular belief that toxicity of Jatropha curcas is sufficient deterrent for insects, several insect groups have overcome this barrier. Studies undertaken in Jammu revealed that Scutellera nobilis (Fabricius) (Hemiptera: Scutellaridae) causes extensive damage to Jatropha plantations. Various aspects of biology, life cycle and ecology of Scutellera nobilis were studied at Jammu, which revealed that the pest population remains abundant from April till November in the study area and the total life cycle of the pest lasts for about 30-36 days. This data can be used to keep the pest population in check, thereby, preventing the loss to plantation and to the economy on the whole. Being sap suckers, they feed upon all plant parts likely, but growing shoots and developing fruit are preferred resulting in the production of malformed and hollowed seeds. The feeding also leads to necrosis of the leaves and premature leaf fall. The present paper records first ever report on the biology and life cycle of Scutellera nobilis from Jammu region, which is an aim to design preventive measures against this pest to save the Jatropha plantations from being degraded.

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Background: Diseases affecting the cornea are a major cause of blindness all over the world, second only to cataract in overall importance. In India, there are approximately 6.8 million people who have corneal blindness with vision less than 6/60 in at least one eye, and of these, about 1 million have bilateral corneal blindness.Methods: The study was conducted in upgraded department of ophthalmology, L.L.R.M. Medical College, Meerut, India from January 2014 to June 2015. It was prospective interventional study. Included those patients who have Failed corneal graft with poor prognosis for further grafting, multiple corneal graft failure, having nearly total corneal neovascularization, vision less than 6/60 with associated other complications in better eye and no vision in opposite eye and Healed Chemical burn and those patients who has end stage glaucoma or RD (retinal detachment), defective perceptions and projection of light and not willing for the procedure.Results: A total of 20 patients were enrolled for the study which were followed up and assessed over 12 months. It was observed that maximum number of patients were in the age group of 41-60 years (45%) and in the >60 years group are minimum (20%). Among these 14 cases (70%) were male and 6 cases (30%) were female.Conclusions: The Boston type 1 keratoprosthesis provides visual recovery for eyes with multiple PK failures or with poor prognosis for primary PK, showing excellent retention rates. Most of the cases had a significant improvement in vision after Boston type I KPro implantation.