Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Ramdevbhai Samatbhai Sanjva Vs State of Gujarat & Others dated 09/05/2025. The matter related to remedial actions to be taken for abatement of pollution of river Bhadar near Ahmedabad. Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) has filed the response affidavit, March …
Methan village in Sidhpur tehsil, Patan district of Gujarat saves 500 metric tonnes of fuelwood annually. They've been doing it for the last 15 years. This village is home to India's largest biogas plant, run by Silver Jubilee Biogas Producers and Distributors Cooperative Society Limited. "The biogas plant has been …
two years ago, the earth in Gujarat shook and buildings crumbled. Since then, as many as 1108 tremors of 3 and above on the Richter scale have been recorded in the same region. Humans do not feel a tremor of 3 and below; only seismographs can record them. But the …
Even as citypeople all over India were finalising their Christmas party-hopping plans, a celebration of a very different kind galvanised Junagadh district, Gujarat. From December 23 to 26, 2002, thousands of villagers from villages in Keshod, Maliya, Memdarda and Mangrol talukas went on a padayatra (footmarch). Their mission? Sensitising and …
few people outside of the western coastal regions of southern India would have heard of kokum. Perhaps visitors to the sunny beaches of Goa remember being served a large glass of a refreshing, tangy drink after a heavy meal. Meant to be an aid to the digestive process, this delicious …
healing power: An Indian research team has been granted the rights to develop the curative potential of jamun (black plum fruit). The team has obtained a US patent on a compound extracted from jamun, which reduces blood sugar levels. The compound will be developed to produce a "herbal therapeutic product …
do they train Indian foresters to mess up wildlife situations? It is difficult to ascribe the series of botch-ups involving leopards in the last month or so to misfortune. The most recent one was the highly publicised spectacle of a leopard killed by police and wildlife officials after it entered …
To the Western observer in India, it is clear that the Indian Systems of Medicine (ism) offer great potential for worldwide growth. Currently, Indian exports are a modest us $50 million annually; a mere drop in the us $60 billion global market. The National Health Policy on ism envisages national …
Managing a village commons is difficult. But just imagine managing urban waste as a common property resource. This is exactly what the common effluent treatment plants (cetps) aim to do. Collect the waste of individual units from an industrial estate and treat it in a common location. Members
#1 Who is the polluter? What is their waste-typology? This is the first critical and often make-or-break step. Get the property rights regime wrong and it is clear that nothing will work, is the advice of common property managers in rural areas. It is the same for a cetp. Delhi …
If cetps are the answer, how do we make them work? The choice of technology, however important, is not the only challenge ahead. The key is to build a much stronger framework for common waste governance. In Delhi, for instance, a legal framework exists. But it is so convoluted that …
Pollution from small-scale industries has grown by leaps and bounds. So, building common effluent treatment plants (cetps) has become a fashion. The Union ministry of environment and forests (mef) has instructed state pollution control boards to set up cetps in industrial estates. Central assistance of 25 per cent is given, …
I smelt the air of Ahmedabad city this week. It took me back to the time when Delhi's air was much the same. When breathing was like wheezing, and everyone complained about constantly feeling ill. Delhi is a little better now. The air has less poison. But it was like …
The Government of Gujarat has envisaged specific policy initiatives for industrial minerals occurring in the state to attract investment in the fields mineral exploration, exploitation, and mineral-based industries. It is intended to create competitive environment to speed up industrial development in mineral potential area by enhancement of Human Resource capabilities, …
this was a public hearing with a difference. For, the people succeeded in preventing the establishment of a clinker grinding and cement packing plant in Kerala. The experts panel unanimously recommended at the October 24 meeting that environmental clearance should not be granted for the plant. The unit was to …
electioneering in Gujarat is in full swing. Caretaker chief minister Narendra Modi has run away from his vote bhoomi Rajkot. The mainstream media says it is a calculated move. Of course it is! Rajkot is a water crisis-driven city, and district. Modi had promised water. He was elected. Today, Rajkot …
true, everybody loves a good drought. But the latest mantra is the interlinking of the country's rivers. Everybody loves it too. So much so, that it seems to be a favoured jingle with most political parties. It is an old virus. The first sign of its new mutation showed up …
An evaluation of the Government of India's NPIC (National Programme of Improved Cookstoves) was undertaken in six states to learn lessons and assess impediments to future stoves programmes. The programmes were assessed on the basis of stove design, consumer satisfaction, capacity for quality control, and the role of subsidies in …
