Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of News Item titled "Telangana: Deepening pollution crisis in Godawari threatens lives livelihoods appearing in the Telangana Today dated 13.05.2025" dated 29/05/2025. The application was registered suo-motu on the basis of the news item titled Telangana: Deepening pollution crisis in Godawari …
"NO WOMAN ever had to hug a tree to protect it," says Chandi Prasad Bhatt, the founder of Chipko. "It was not necessary to do so, for the mere threat was enough." The concept of hugging a tree to defend it was so powerful, it brought in a new consciousness …
WHEN GAURA Devi of Reni village died on July 4, 1991, she must have been disillusioned. Two decades earlier, she inspired a group of women to chase away employees of a forest contractor -- and this act of courage and spontaneous defiance was hailed by the media as the start …
WOMEN were involved in popular agitations in Uttarakhand long before Chipko, but it is Chipko that produced courageous women who even dared to take on the state. In the Vyali forest agitation in Uttarkashi in 1974, women acted as messengers and lookouts because the men were under police surveillance. Some, …
IN JANUARY 1978, about 300 villagers from Almora district got together under the aegis of the Parvatiya Van Bachao Andolan and camped for 39 days in the Chanchridhar forests near Dwarahat. Bipin Tripathi, the block pramukh (chief) of Dwarahat, explained why: "We did not want Kashmiri Lal, the contractor of …
1973 • Chipko is born when villagers of Mandal, near Gopeshwar, led by Chandi Prasad Bhatt and the Dasholi Gram Swarajya Mandal, stop contractors of an Allahabad-based sports goods company, Symonds, from felling 14 ash trees on April 24. • In December, villagers again stop Symonds agents at the Phata-Rampur …
When the turbine generator unit of the Narora atomic power plant caught fire on March 31, the department of atomic energy was quick to boast about the efficient working of the plant's indigenously-developed safety systems. The 220-mw plant in Uttar Pradesh is equipped with two safety systems; one shuts down …
A CONTROVERSY is raging over the chir (Pinus roxburghill trees that are being planted oin Himalayan slopes because it grows quickly in virtually ravaged soils, though local residents complain the chirs absorb groundwater and discourage undergrowth. Chir trees are found in abundance from Pakistan to Arunachal Pradesh and its logs …
Controversy continues to dog the helicopter crash in Corbett National Park last year, with the Indian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) filing a case recently in Delhi High Court, for unauthorised flying in the Project Tiger park. The helicopter's occupants, from the Thapar group of industries, …
A dry winter followed by the highest temperatures recorded in February in the north Indian plains in the past six decades led to fears in state agricultural departments that rabi crop yields would be cut drastically. Wheat, gram, pea, barley and mustard - the traditional winter crops grown in Punjab, …
Laundered money will be used to clean slums in 454 towns. Black money to the tune of Rs 63 crore, which was deposited last year with the National Housing Bank (NHB) for immunity under the Voluntary Deposits Scheme, will be used to establish a revolving corpus to refinance loans given …
SHOULD a weed that provides income to villagers be eradicated? This is the dilemma forest officials in Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh face. The lantana bush spreads like a weed and threatens the growth of trees by competing for soil nutrients. But a poor villager can earn up to Rs …
IN THE flood-prone areas of eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa -- where many believe rice originated -- yields are only about one-fifth that of Punjab and Haryana because the rice spends most of its energy literally trying to keep its head above water and has only a …
WHEN ARMIES march, they usually leave a trail of barren, brown desolation in their wake. But in parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, former Indian army personnel are embarked on greening projects involving the most degraded tracts. Operating as units of the so-called Eco Task Force (ETF), …
