Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Futala Lake’s charm fades amid neglect and poor maintenance appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 25.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Futala Lake’s charm fades amid neglect …
EIGHTY-year-old Ganapathyrao Mhetre has a fondness for grapes. He is an avid collector of books and journals on grape cultivation. And since 1991, he has experimented with cultivating them organically. The idea of going organic occurred to Mhetre because the land around Tasgaon in Maharashtra's Sangli district, where he owns …
The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has been charged with disturbing the flora and fauna in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Goregaon near the Film City for a proposed conservation education project conceived by the late ornithologist Salim Ali. Park officials refused to grant a no-objection certificate for the …
The multinational Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) is facing the music from its employees for allegedly, issuing boots containing carcinogenic materials. In a legal notice served in January this year, employees of the Bombay unit of HLL demanded Rs 9 lakh as compensation to all workers who developed serious skin problems …
Citizens of Ratnagiri in Maharashtra have decided to revive their agitation against the Rs 700-crore copper smelting factory of Sterlite Industries India Ltd in the district. Last August, local environmentalists had formed the Ratnagiri Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, which campaigned against the unit located at Zadgaon, protesting that its operations would …
THE VILLAGERS of Gawandwadi in Maharashtra's Raigad district no longer fight over fish and water. Instead, they meet regularly to discuss strategies to share them. And, Dharmi Marohar Gavanda of the village, which is in Karjat tribal block, does not have to walk 3 km in the hot summer to …
WITH THE Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) becoming increasingly incapable of dealing with the metropolis' mounting garbage, three agencies are working to make its disposal a paying proposition. The department of science and technology has set up a plant to convert organic waste into fuel pellets for industries; BMC has teamed …
An agreement between the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) and Enron Corp, a US-based multinational power company, to set up a 2,015 megawatt power plant in Dabhol in Ratnagiri district has come in for criticism. The plant is to be set up by General Electric and Bechtel Corp of the …
Union environment minister Kamal Nath will release 1,500 ha of forest land in Maharashtra's Dhule district for oustees of the Saradar Sarovar Project. This follows a directive issued by Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao after a meeting in January with the chief ministers of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya pradesh, …
How did you switch from mathematics to agriculture research? Since childhood, I was fond of growing crops and the yields were impressive. Kitchen garden and wasteland research gave me enough confidence to start experimenting with other crops. On the terrace of my house, I successfully raised sandal, which needs special …
THE MAHARASHTRA government is planning to take action against Nippon Denro Ispat Limited (NDIL), one of the largest steel manufacturing concerns in the country, for causing water pollution. The Rs 300-crore NDIL plant, located in Kalmeshwar town near Nagpur, was commissioned in 1985 and uses hydrochloric acid in its manufacturing …
Vilasrao B Salunke, father of the pani panchayat concept in the drought-prone Marathwada region in Maharashtra, has evolved quake-resistant houses in areas affected by the September 30 earthquake. Salunke, convenor of the Pune-based Earthquake Disaster Management Group, advocates ferrocement technology to build new houses on existing foundations of the recently …
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 …
The Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) in Bombay is to undertake a pilot study to evolve an environmentally sound strategy for the development of Maharashtra's energy sector. The study will be carried out in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme Collaborating Centre on Energy and Environment (UNEP-CCEE) in …
AT MIDNIGHT on September 29-30, Gulab Jawalge and his family went to bed, exhausted by the prolonged Ganesh Puja celebrations in their village, Mangrool, in Maharashtra. Less than four hours later, Jawalge found himself trapped in a pile of rubble that his house had become. When he extricated himself half-an-hour …
JUST BEFORE 4 am on September 30, the stylus tracing out the narrow, wavy line on the seismographs at the Indian Meteorological Department's (IMD) seismological observatory in Delhi began to oscillate violently. As the graphs rolling out of the machine's printer began to indicate an earthquake 1,400 km away, the …
IS THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), proponent of saffron Hindutva, turning green? In Maharashtra, the party recently led two anti-pollution agitations that have impressed even the BJP's opponents, save the ruling Congress, which dismissed the protests as an "unnecessary politicisation" of environmental issues. Both campaigns targeted new industrial projects -- …
SEVERAL foods people all over the country consume daily -- milk, butter and cereals, for example -- have been found to contain substances hazardous to health by a nationwide survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The ICMR surveyors found that as much as 87 per cent …
Did you do anything to stop your hut from being demolished? What could I have done against the state's strong-arm tactics? There was a 1,000-strong police force in Manibeli at that time, more than 100 of whom came with labourers to raze my hut. I was not there when they …
Though a deadly gas leak two months ago caused nine deaths, Century Rayon is back in full production despite orders from the Maharashtra environment ministry and the state pollution control board (MPCB) to keep the mill closed until all MPCB directives had been implemented. Factory authorities had pleaded then that …
A RURAL health programme operating arolmd Sevagram in Maharashtra has given new expression to Mahatma Gandhi's dream of rural development. The scheme, based on self-help and risk-sharing through insurance, is proof that quality health care can be provided in rural areas at an affordable cost. The moving force behind the …
