The nocturnal scene depicts a witchs coven in barren landscape dominated by the ghastly sight of a decomposing corpse hanging from a blasted tree. Among the naked old ladies at the centre of the scene, one clips a toenail from the corpse, two others hold a mirror up to a wax figure representing the living person on whom they are laying a curse, and a fourth stirs a caldron in which she is concocting a brew that requires toads, snakes and human bones. At the right, a hideous necromancer presents her sisters with a new-born babe for human sacrifice.

"The crisis has not only affected families and businesses in the more economically advanced countries where it originated, creating a situation in which many people, especially the young, have felt disoriented and frustrated in their aspirations for a serene future, but it has also had a profound impact on the life of developing countries," Benedict said.

"Fossils of worms are really rare. We don't know a lot about their fossil record because they're soft animals," he said.

One of the entrants, Mahindra Reva, which is sending a G-Wiz on the epic journey, is not only sourcing its electricity from biomass but has partnered with Grow-Trees, an official partner of the UNEP Billion Tree Campaign, to plant ??one tree for every kilometre?? driven during the expedition.

- operates more than a dozen stations including English-language news and talk station 938Live, music stations and Chinese, Malay and Indian services