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 …
On December 3 1984, more than 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, immediately killing at least 3,800 people and causing significant morbidity and premature death for many thousands more. The company involved in what became the worst industrial accident in history immediately …
The new policy initiatives of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests aim at improving the forest cover in such a way as to benefit all the stakeholders - the forest departments, local communities and investors. The world over sustainable forest management has become a buzz word, thanks to the …
The Union ministry of environment and forests (moef) has decided to ratify the Stockholm convention on persistent organic pollutants (pops) and the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent. The Stockholm convention, which came into force on May 17, 2004, aims to reduce and eliminate 12 hazardous pops. India had signed …
THE draft National Environment Policy (NEP: http://envfor.nic.in/nep/nep.pdf) released by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has attracted much attention. It represents the first-ever attempt to draft a policy for the environment as a whole. At first glance, the document appears to be quite comprehensive and sophisticated. It endorses a …
The draft National Environment Policy marks an advance from the past approaches but has basic flaws that would limit its effectiveness. A BOLD, visionary policy, dealing with India's environmental crisis, is an urgent necessity. Even the most conservative official figures reveal the serious extent of deregulation of forests, pollution of …
the Union ministry of environment and forests (moef) has released a draft environment policy called the National Environment Policy 2004 (nep). Its preamble states that there is a need for a comprehensive policy statement "in order to infuse common approach to the various sectoral, cross-sectoral, including fiscal, approaches to environmental …
A NATIONAL environment policy is on the anvil. The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has drafted a version and placed it in the public domain for all to review in two months. But the draft has made the civil society sulk. Their grouse: MoEF has become insular. It's …
the beginning of the year saw Union minister of state for environment and forests Ramesh Bais announcing that a National Environment Policy (nep) would be framed and presented to the Union cabinet by May. But with its
Greenpeace campaigners on board their ship Rainbow Warrior, on a Corporate Accountability tour, get into a conflict with the Indian authorities. When Rainbow Warrior began its tour of India in November, the international crew on board the ship expected the usual resistance and conflict that Greenpeace campaigners had come to …
function openmap(){ var popurl="image/20040115/15-map.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=550,height=500,scrollbars=yes") } the biggest threat protected areas across the country face right now is from their purported protector
the Union ministry of environment and forests (mo ef) has taken strong exception to Himachal Pradesh's (hp) decision to denotify a part of its forestland. Under a notification issued in 1952, hp declared all wasteland and tracts on which the state government had proprietary rights as protected areas. However, in …
in one fell swoop the Union ministry of environment and forests (moef) is preparing to disband several key committees set up under section 3 (iii) of the Environment (Protection) Act (epa), 1986. The dissolved panels will be replaced with a national environment authority and six regional authorities. The new structure …
april 2003 saw two diverse regions in India take a similar decision. Both partially opened the door to tourism in hitherto protected belts. One is a high altitude state; the other
manufacturers of air-conditioners (acs) and producers of refrigerant gas are at loggerhead. With the Union government denying the former the licence to import refrigerant gas hydro-chlorofluorocarbon (hcfc-22 or r22), they allege that they are being forced to buy it at higher rates from domestic producers. Gas producers, in turn, contend …
In a surprise move, the Union ministry of environment and forests (mef) was subjected to a major reshuffle recently. There was, however, a predictable side to the shake-up: officers without the requisite specialisation were handed over key technical portfolios such as impact assessment. On the one hand, sources in the …
after three years the draft National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (nbsap) is finally up for discussion. But its real worth, feel experts, will only be known when the plan actually becomes a reality. A Union ministry of environment and forests (mef) project, the nbsap began as an ambitious process …
the country's first forestry commission has taken shape. The Union ministry of environment and forests (mef) has announced the agenda and constitution of the panel. The former Chief Justice of India, Justice B N Kirpal, will head the commission that has been set up to review, reform and strengthen the …
Judicial activism in the Supreme Court has created major reforms in the protection of human rights and has put the court in a unique position to intervene when it sees violations of these fundamental rights. In 1998 the Indian Supreme Court, embracing its activist role, made a controversial order mandating …
