Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of News Item titled "Containers from sunken ship likely to drift towards Alappuzha, Kollam Coasts in 48 hours: INCOIS" appearing in The Hindu dated 25.05.2025 dated 27/05/2025. The original application was registered suo-motu on the basis of the news item titled …
An ambitious programme of mapping the land resources of every village panchayat in Kerala has run into trouble. The project was conceived in 1988 by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad and the Centre for Earth Sciences (ces), but lack of proper funding has since tied in up in knots. While …
The Kerala coast, famed for its beaches, is home to a rare form of heart disease called endo-myocardial fibrosis (EMF). And scientists who conducted a 10-year-long study on EMF now blame the disease on a mineral called monazite in the fine, white sands of Kerala. EMF belongs to a group …
This indicative plan has based on the work of field/park directors and their colleagues in the eight protected areas, and of various non-governmental organisations involved in carrying out PRA in the proposed project area. The final output has benefit greatly from the inputs of the various national consultants and consulting …
HEDGEROWS, once an essential feature of the Kerala landscape, are fast giving away to the march of barbed wire and concrete fence. After centuries of service, hedgerows have suddenly become unwanted vegetation. Owners nowadays prefer to enclose their properties with a wall or with barbed wire. The green verges disappear, …
In a complete reversal of its stand, the union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has cleared the 73.5 mw Pooyamkutty hydroelectric project in Idukki district in Kerala, endangering about 2,870 ha of state forest and the traditional way of life of thousands of mat and basket weavers. Although, the …
ABOUT 25,000 people formed a 10 km hand-linked human chain in the Jeerakappara forest in Kerala recently and vowed to save trees. The human barricade, called the Manushya Prathirodha Nira, was a part of an ongoing struggle to protect resources that are integral to their lives. It was organised by …
How many people can nature sustain? A proposed capacity study of the Kochi region of Kerala intends to find this out. The study of natural resources in the region to sustain a given population will be conducted by the Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI). The 2-year multi-disciplinary study, …
THE LAST patches of virgin rainforest in Kerala are up for grabs for anyone with an axe who can cut around bureaucracy. Although the state government maintains that the state's forest cover is 27.83 per cent, independent observers stress that it is actually less than 10 per cent. And they …
Pathanamthitta district in Kerala may soon have the unique distinction of achieving zero population growth. A recent UNICEF-sponsored survey revealed the district has a birth rate of 5.3 per thousand and a death rate of 4.1, compared to the state average death rate of 5.6 per thousand and birth rate …
In a typical case of technology coming to the aid of small paddy cultivators, the Kerala Agro Industries Corp (KAIC) has developed a paddy thresher that comes in handy for farmers who face problems in getting labour to harvest and thresh their crop. The mini-thresher is a simple mechanism, does …
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 …
A BARREN hillock in Agali village in Kerala's Palakkad district is now verdant with forests worth lakhs of rupees, as a result of natural farming -- farming without any external inputs -- by two school-teachers, Vijayalakshmi and Balakrishnan. They have made 8 ha of degraded land cultivable through mulching, water …
WEST ASIAN countries have ample funds at their disposal thanks to their oil reserves, but they suffer a lack of adequate manpower. Men from Kerala are among those who have gone to these countries to work on construction sites, in factories and various other labour-intensive activities. While the phenomenon of …
The VERY Special Arts (VSA) programme uses art to help children with various disabilities, especially those who are mentally handicapped. Art is used for education, emotional, social and economic rehabilitation and as a vocation. Says VSA's Moyna Singh, "The idea is to use art as a tool of rehabilitation." Hypersensitive …
The Union agriculture ministry's plan to draw up a national fisheries policy for the integrated development of fishing in India has drawn flak from organisations representing coastal fisherfolk in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat. The fisherfolk have objected strongly to the Union government's policy of supporting …
"IF TISSUE culture companies can make profits, why can't villagers?" asks C R Raju, who has developed a tissue culture technique that he claims is cheap and easily transferable to the people -- a feat research laboratories are still to achieve. Raju developed the low-cost technique as part of voluntary …
The Kerala High Court has blocked the state government's highly-publicised distribution of 28,588 ha of forest land to migrant farmers who occupied the land prior to 1977. On September 15, the court stayed the distribution of title deeds for land either occupied originally by tribals or included in the Idukki …
SOME AYURVEDIC hospitals in Kerala report their research into a novel method of tackling AIDS is showing promising early results, but they caution against raising hopes because their studies are far from conclusion. Unlike the generously funded research being undertaken at some of the world's most prestigious labs on eliminating …
Municipal authorities in Thrissur, Kerala, have been accused of dilly-dallying though a deadly chemical has reportedly flowed into the town's drinking water reservoir, resulting in at least 30 persons being hospitalised for dizziness, headache and stomach disorders. The reservoir became contaminated when a tanker carrying 12,000 litres of concentrated phenyl …
Ranging behaviour of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) was studied using radio telemetry in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve had home ranges of over 500 sq km. These sizes are much larger than those defined by earlier studies. The study ranged across the three southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and …
