Reply affidavit on behalf of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the matter of Gavhan Koliwada Matsyavyavsayik Sahakari Sanstha Maryadit Vs City & Industrial Development Corporation & Others dated 28/01/2025. City & Industrial Development Corporation submitted a proposal for CRZ clearance for the construction of coastal road from …
"Was ecology non-existent 25 years ago?" Kalam Singh Rawat's anguished question still rings in my ears, though it is 7 years since the man from Bhatta Village, near Mussoorie, had asked it. Rawat had articulated the feelings of the downtrodden of the area: development means distress for the poor. He …
ENVIRONMENTAL protection has become the conscience-digging concern of mankind. It is uppermost in the minds of the planners, policy makers and legislators. It has also been the all-important preoccupation of several conferences convened at the global and regional levels. "Precautionary principle" (pp) has been recognised as a valuable catalytic agent …
Peace and economic fortune in West Asia has arrived at a cost too dear to measure in purely financial terms: the environment is drowning under the sheer weight of tourism. The coral reefs of the Red Sea are disintegrating as tourists snorkel dive to watch sea life in these clear …
Pakistan's Kalabagh dam project has stirred up a hornet's nest. To counter hostile critics in the North West Frontier Province and Sindh, a new strategy, chalked out on the World Bank's guidelines, has been adopted. The gameplan is to use the success of the Ghazi Barotha dam as a springboard …
ANJU Sharma's reply to my letter (Down To Earth, November 15, 1994) is replete with misinterpretations, incomplete understanding and, in at least one instance, a downright falsehood. Nowhere do I state that all elephants in a population would regularly raid crops. I have recognised that only some among the males …
THE muckiest city in India suddenly stepped into glass slippers and pert ecofriendliness last fortnight. Local NGOs, environmentalists, craftspersons and sundry others with a green bent hung together and tried to inject adrenalin into languid Delhites to turn them into environment buffs. High on the list of programmes was Dilli …
Once again, Edward O Wilson's book has been nominated for the National Book Critic's Award in the US. Naturalist, his autobiography, is his 3rd nomination for the award. Wilson's youthful obsession of collecting ants turned into his sole ambition. And not only did he become an expert on ants, he …
The Italian ministry of foreign affairs recently organised some culture and art events. Of the exhibitions put up in Delhi, the 2 most interesting were the wooden models by Leonardo da Vinci and Nobel laureate Gugliemo Marconi, inventor of the radio. Da Vinci's wooden model depicted his vision of innovative …
LADAKHI tribals have started dreaming of going blonde, having blue eyes, owning 2 shiny cars and wearing skin-hugging jeans! There is a worrisome increase in the incidence of violence between Buddhists and Muslims, as well as within the communities themselves. The sole culprit, according to "Deep ecologist" Helena Norberg-Hodge, is …
French prime minister Edouard Balladur has stirred up a hornet's nest by reviving the Rhine-Rhone Canal project first proposed and also rejected in 1961. The environmentalists, including France's Green Party are opposing this decision tooth and nail. The canal will have 23 locks and will cost around us $32,645,161. Dominique …
FOR both the poor and the rich, life is full of choices; but whereas for the rich, choosing is mostly synonymous with freedom and happy expectancy, the poor must always choose between one kind of pain and another. Shall I feed my son and starve the daughter, because the food …
A US ecologist has warned that certain species that seem to be faring well may already be doomed to extinction in the next 100 years or so, even if their remaining habitat is preserved. "Given the habitat destruction already done, we've already incurred a massive 'extinction debt'," says David Tilman …
This project would conserve biodiversity by implementing the ecodevelopment stratey in and around eight protected areas (PAs) and would also include support for preparing future biodiversity projects.
A NATION'S track record in its race for development leans heavily on its natural resources. Ferreting out and exploiting these resources cause severe environmental wrenching. Invariably, mineral wealth, particularly in India, is found in and around forest areas harbouring tribal populations, flora and fauna and microhabitat diversity. The "environment vs …
The Konkan Railway Corp (KRC) was caught off guard when the Karnataka agriculture minister, H M Revanna, chose to let loose a tirade against the project. The state government has always come out in the support of the project, dismissing the apprehensions raised by environmentalists about problematic ecological consequences. Speaking …
The world's highest garbage dump -- and a pretty impressive one at that -- grows at the base of Mount Everest. It is a symbol of the Himalayan ecosystem, snowed under human junk, sundry garbage and an ecology faltering under raucous and rowdy "developmental" assault, which is beginning sorely to …
THE expansion plans of Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Paper Ltd (TNPL), funded by the World Bank (WB) to the tune of $75 million, has rung alarm bells in environmental quarters. J Paul Bhaskar, chairperson of the Dindigul-based Bhagwati Environment Development Institute (BEDI), has appealed to WB to consider the ecological …
A NEW batch of occupants has moved into Biosphere 2 -- the glass and steel structure enclosing 3 ha in Oracle, Arizona, where scientists are trying to create a miniature earth complete with rain forests, savannahs, a marsh and an "ocean" (Nature, Vol 368, No 6467). Unlike the earlier occupants, …
WHILE the international media remain preoccupied with the run-up to South Africa's multiracial elections in April this year, a fledgling and insufficiently reported movement is being egged on by several ecological groups. The tasks ahead for this movement are extremely difficult, and it all stems from the legacy of apartheid. …
