Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Sonya Ghosh Vs Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Others dated 17/02/2025. The matter related to conservation and protection of Delhi Ridge which is an extension of Aravali Range extending from Tughlakabad and branching out in Wazirabad in the north …
While the anti-tobacco lobby in India is euphoric about the government's proposed ban on tobacco advertisements in the country (Down To Earth, Vol 3 No 3), Members of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh have strongly opposed the move. A delegation of MPs and All India Congress Committee (AICC) members has told …
THE anti-smoking lobby in India country will receive a shot in the arm once tougher regulations currently being drafted by the Union health ministry are implemented. The proposed measures will introduce a complete ban on tobacco advertising in the country. Such advertising is, at present, banned on the electronic media …
WOOD is out, and matt or glossy steel and plastics are in, as far as the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is concerned. In line with the government of India's decision to promote wood substitution, the ministry of urban development has instructed CPWD to ban the use of wood in …
In Nepal, the Environment Conservation Council, headed by prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, has stipulated permissible smoke limits of 65 Hartridge smoke unit (HSU) on diesel vehicles and 3 percent carbon monoxide standards on petrol vehicles. Initially, the new regulation will cover only government and diplomatic vehicles, reports Jan Sharma …
SLOTH bears riding bicycles, leopards jumping through hoops of fire and elephants playing football in the circus ring will soon be a thing of the past. A staggered phase-out of these animals will be done in line with a Supreme Court suggestion in the dispute between the ministry of environment …
A GLOBAL ban on the export of toxic wastes now means that industrialised nations can no longer get ship them off to the Third World and sit pretty. The loopholes that had rendered the Basel Convention on the "control of trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal" a big …
In the March 8 hearing of the Taj pollution case, the Supreme Court agreed to consider a more humane way of tackling the problem instead of relocating the hundreds of polluting industries in Agra and shutting down the Mathura refinery. Although the Court has threatened to close down the refinery …
YEARS of government protection and a ban on imports had so far insulated Japanese rice farmers from foreign competition. Now, however, they face double trouble -- emergency imports of foreign rice by the Japanese government to tide over a shortfall in production. The imports coincide with a decision to allow …
The iron ore industry in Goa may be asked to cough up the costs for cleaning up the environmental mess it has made. The Goan government is considering a proposal to impose an environment tax on the state's iron ore mining and ore export industry. The environment cess of upto …
IN A victory for conservationists, South Korea has decided to ban domestic trade in tiger bones and rhino horns from 1995. Although a ban on their imports have been in force -- Siberian tiger bones since 1993 and rhino horns since 1984 -- the goods continue to be smuggled in. …
GREEN is not a popular colour in Europe at the moment -- at least not with industry. Flattened under the weight of over 200 environment protection rules, many European companies are afraid that they may lose the sharp edge of the market wedge. British prime minister John Major clarified Britain's …
INTELLECTUAL property rights (IPRs) may soon lay claim to and govern the formally codified genetic resources of India. Unfortunately, very few rights and privileges are likely to be created to protect the centuries-deep informal knowledge people have about biological resources. Two proposed legislations -- the Plant Varieties Bill (PVB) of …
THE government's efforts to develop legislation to control access to the country's wild as well as cultivated biodiversity are indeed laudable: the ministry of agriculture has already prepared a bill to control the use of cultivated biodiversity and the ministry of environment and forests is working on a bill that …
NEPALESE environmentalists have taken the Arun-III hydroelectric dam issue to court, even as the World Bank is expected to approve a loan of about $750 million for the project. Negotiations for the loan are in a "difficult stage", admits Nepalese minister of state for water resources Laxman Prasad Ghimire. However, …
The Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) -- a farmer's organisation -- has taken the lead in proposing an alternative to the Union government's draft bill on protection of plant varieties, which is based on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations. In February, representatives of six groups, including …
The Delhi Fire Service wants legislation with "more teeth" to bring to book the owners of more than 100 high-rise buildings in the Capital for not installing basic fire safety measures. Noncompliance of minimum fire safety requirements in government-owned buildings has prevented the penalisation of the owners of private buildings. …
IN NOT too distant a future, much of the pep and zing may disappear from environmental campaigns. Business may well reduce a concern for the environment into advertisement copy to burnish its own image among the public and in stockmarkets. Business today has its own vision of an approach to …
FINLAND'S forestry and paper industries have attracted world attention but for all the wrong reasons. The country is ravaging its ancient forests with mechanical tree harvesters, according to an article in the German news weekly, Der Spiegel. These accusations have been rejected vehemently by Finland's forestry industry as an example …
In a bid to keep Shimla and its surroundings free from ecologically damaging activities, the Shimla High Court has come down heavily on stone quarry owners and stone crushers in and around the town. A court judgement on January 7, 1994 in effect preempts clearance from the Union ministry of …
A Supreme Court ruling in November upheld the rights of "marginalised" traditional fisherfolk in Kerala, but they continued clashing with mechanised vessel operators. A division bench of the Supreme Court ratified the Kerala government's 1984 ban order against purse seine fishing (fishing with large, mechanised nets) upto 22.222 km from …
