The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
The reasons for tiger deaths in the country are beginning to show.Members of the National Board for Wildlife, the apex conservation body chaired by the Prime Minister, wrote to him on Tuesday saying decisions approved by him, including the one on forming a sub-committee for the tiger, are not being …
Since 1980 different pieces of legislations have been enacted for environmental conservation. These include the Forest (Conservation) Act (fca), 1980, the Environmental Protection Act (epa), 1986 and the Biological Diversity Act (bda), 2002. These have the potential to strengthen the conservation agenda. But they are at best being used to
Around the world as countries are struggling to arrive at an effective regulatory regime to control the discharge of industrial effluents into their ecosystems, Indian economy holds a double edged sword of economic growth and ecosystem collapse. This situation if mishandled can cause irreparable ecological harm in the long term …
The forest rights act was delivered a near-death blow in the supreme court on January 8, 2008. The court was hearing the Orissa government's plea for regularization of tribal settlement on forestland. But this petition was based on the 1990 Ministry of Environment and Forests' (MoEF's) notification reviewed and amended …
It could be a bitter end to a sweet, juicy story. Maharashtra is planning mega power plants in Ratnagiri district, a horticulture zone known for its finest Alphonso mangoes, which are exported to Japan and Singapore. This year, farmers in the region exported the famous fruit to Europe for the …
Maharashtra has reasons to push for the power projects. Its electricity demand is estimated to have touched 13,500 mw by October 2007, while the supply is about 10,500 mw. JSW Energy is one of the eight companies that signed agreements with the state government in 2005 to set up power …
The multi-crore Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh is currently embroiled in legal issues. But now, the project is being contested on technical issues as well. A study carried out by the International Water Management Institute (iwmi), an international non-profit research and development organization, has questioned the fundamental basis on which …
Proposes to irrigate around 230,000 hectares in Vijaywada, West & East Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts Around 60,063 ha in Andhra Pradesh to get submerged, 2,398 ha in Chhattisgarh and 1,230 ha in Orissa Dam expected to divert around 5,325 million cubic metres of water (which is already questionable) to the …
There is no stopping the Bt brinjal trials now. The supreme court on December 10 refused to stay Mahyco's (Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company's) ongoing trials in various parts of the country. Social activists Aruna Rodrigues and P V Satheesh had filed a petition against the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee in …
Ana M Soto, professor at the Tufts Medical School at Massachusetts in the us, made an important discovery while working with breast cancer cells in 1989. She found that some of the tissues were proliferating without stimulation when stored in plastic tubes. An investigation indicated that the plastic tubes had …
Much to the Andhra Pradesh government's dismay, the National Environmental Appellate Authority has quashed the environmental clearance for the state's multi-crore Indira Sagar Project, formerly known as the Polavaram Irrigation Project. In a historic ruling on December 19, the authority for the first time took into consideration the fact that …
The document on Project Snow Leopard launched by MoEF recently. It stresses on the landscape approach to wildlife conservation in the Himalayan high altitudes and is based on principles of robust science and community involvement in conservation. On 20 January 2009, the Government of India announced a new and ambitious …
The objective of the recently enacted Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act is to undo the effects of the historical injustice that has been suffered by communities that reside in and depend upon forests for their bona fide livelihood needs. The provisions of the …
The "tigers vs. tribals' debate is getting murkier. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill 2006, passed by Parliament, does not do much to clear the air on whether the bill will aid or undermine conservation. This bill is very belated. Forest-dwelling communities have …
After much active negotiation with countries of the North and South, India signed the Convention for Biological Diversity in 1992. The Convention required every member country to formulate its own National Biodiversity Strategy, and Action Plan. In 1999, the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) nominated Kalpavriksh, an NGO …
Residents of around 25 villages recently stopped the public hearing for a proposed methane extraction project. The 500-odd people from Gharghonda tehsil in Raigarh, armed with the Centre for Science and Environment's report on the project's environment impact assessment (eia), said the eia was weak and proceedings were not transparent. …
a delegation of fisherfolk representatives met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September. Top on their agenda was a demand to lift a ban imposed in 1982 by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on fishing sea cucumbers smaller than 75 mm in length. The delegation also wanted the revocation …
Sea cucumbers are tube-shaped marine animals belonging to the echinoderm group, which includes starfish. They are commonly found moving slowly along the sea floor in shallows like tide pools and coral reefs. They feed on algae and plankton, and are in turn prized in certain east Asian cuisines. Getting on …
