Allows Mining In Country’s Best Sal Forest, Elephant Reserve In Jharkhand

New Delhi: The environment ministry’s statutory expert panel, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), has bypassed its rules and earlier orders to clear iron mining projects by three private firms in the country’s best sal forest and the core zone of the elephant reserve in the Saranda forest division of Jharkhand.

The villages of the Dongriya Kondh tribals around Odisha’s Niyamgiri hills are likely to simmer again as the Centre and the state government along with civil society groups are planning to converge on the site for the proposed Vedanta bauxite mine.

The Supreme Court order has left it to the villagers to decide the fate of the Vedanta project, and the call revolves on whether the venture would affect their religious and other rights.

Days After Govt’s Nod To Project, National Tribunal Quashes Clearance, Calls It Illegal

New Delhi: Within five days of imposing a moratorium on new industries in Chhattisgarh’s Korba district for being the fifth polluted industrial zone in the country, the environment ministry did a U-turn, having cleared a private 3x350 MW thermal power plant. The move overlooks not only the freeze the ministry had imposed, but also the venture is in violation of green norms.

Within five days of imposing a moratorium on new industries in Chhattisgarh's Korba district for being the fifth polluted industrial zone in the country, the environment ministry did a U-turn, havi

New Delhi: Rejection of big-ticket mining proposals such as Vedanta has been a rare exception in the UPA’s nine-year reign. The UPA has given clearance to cut a whopping six lakh hectares of forests — of these more than 2.5 lakh hectares were for mining — since it came to power in mid-2004.

The data, accessed by TOI from the environment ministry, shows that the inprinciple and final clearances add up to the combined area of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore, or roughly the equivalent of three large tiger reserves.

New Delhi: The government’s plan to detach tribal rights from clearances to projects requiring forestlands partially boomeranged after the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that the gram sabha shou

New Delhi: The government is set to revise the levy charged from project developers for using forestland.

New Delhi: More than 190 countries decided it would build up to a $100 billion kitty by 2020 to fight climate change globally but the Green Climate Fund looks set to remain an empty pot as the US and other developed countries have refused to commit the needed money or even set timelines for contributions.

In a meeting of the UN fund held in Berlin, the US and other developed countries refused to discuss a burden-sharing formula for contributions or set any calendar to schedule the initial funding. By December 2012, only $5.7 million was committed by the rich world to the fund. India was represented at the meeting by Dipak Dasgupta, principle economic advisor to the finance ministry.

New Delhi: The government doesn’t want to be legally obliged to provide subsidized rations to the poor — under the National Food Security Bill — when they need them most such as during droughts, floods, fire, cyclones, earthquakes and other natural calamities.

In the proposed bill, the government has inserted a special provision to suspend its legal commitment to provide subsidized grains to the
poor whenever it — along with the Planning Commission — decides that such calamities have occurred.

New Delhi: The government has provided a back-door entry for contractors and the food industry to corner the lucrative ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) food supply budget through the Na