Affidavit by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the matter of Sisir Kumar Panda Vs Union of India & Others dated 20/05/2025. The issue pertained to the removal of illegal construction/obstruction caused by the state authorities as well as the private persons in the ecological sensitive zone …
Kuttimathan's search for sustainable development started way back in 1987, when he started work as a guide for scientists from Kerala's Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (tbgri) in Agasthyar Hills. He informed these scientists about the many secrets of the herb Trichopus zeylanicus, known in local parlance as aarogyapacha. …
BATYA POREY ALORAN (STIRRINGS AFTER THE CYCLONE) . Sumit Chowdhury . Produced by Action Aid . 80 minutes Argues Kolkata-based documentary film maker Sumit Chowdhury, "destruction after any natural calamity records losses as much as it throws up the possibility of building afresh without going back to certain exploitative situations …
bioaccumulation of metals in certain plants has attracted a lot of attention for monitoring of pollution. India too has seen new studies throwing up interesting research in the field. During a recent study, traces of heavy metal have been found in the samples of five mangrove species in the Bhitarkanika …
The discovery of the Sukinda chromite field in Orissa was entirely accidental. "In the early 1950s, a native of Sukinda was working as a labourer in Tata's Jamshedpur steel plant. He picked up a boulder from his backyard, took it to the then superintendent of ores, mines and quarries in …
Ever since 1999, anxiety clouds the faces of coastal Orissa's local inhabitants as October and November draw near. Around this time that year, the region was struck by the super cyclone that claimed nearly 30,000 lives. It is a sad reflection on the state of disaster preparedness that three years …
hunger deaths in the Kashipur district of Orissa last year had captured national and international attention. A recent report of the National Human Rights Commission (nhrc), however, reveals that the real cause of the death was food poisoning resulting from consumption of toxic mango kernels with fungal growth. "A medical …
Ecological impact of joint forest management (JFM) in India was assessed using the studies undertaken at national, state and forest division levels. It was found that there are very few studies that have specifically addressed the ecological aspects under JFM. The study noted that there are significant strides made in …
Part I: Untapped data Four consecutive years of drought have brought home a lesson that the people of Hamirpur district and its neighbouring districts in Himachal Pradesh have learnt well. These areas had started receiving piped water supply from the government and gave up on their traditional water harvesting structures. …
KALAHANDI . Directed by Goutam Ghosh . Produced by Soudamini Mishra . 45 minutes Pangs of persisting poverty and hunger. Agony of drought-stricken people. Silent sobs of women striving hard to dig out drinking water from the parched riverbed. Despondent villagers forced to migrate due to livelihood crisis. This is …
the extensive drive of the Union ministry of environment and forests (mef) to evict encroachers from more than one million hectares of forestland across the country by September 30, 2002, is facing stiff resistance in a number of states. The recent mef notification (see box: Highlights) could affect approximately 350 …
after a series of agitations demanding the protection of rights of the traditional fisherfolk community of India, the National Fishworkers' Forum (nff) has finally been assured by Prime Minister (pm) Atal Bihari Vajpayee that its demands will soon be looked into. Even as the nff delegates were hopeful that their …
For Sumani Sahu, of Orissa's coal town Talcher, the days are becoming longer. Mining has eaten away at her village, leaving but a shell behind. Fetching water and gathering firewood keep her occupied from three in the morning to late in the evening. The remaining hours in the day are …
bamboo has recently started flowering in Orissa. For the people of Orissa, already reeling under famine, this signifies further adversity as bamboo flowering heralds a food crisis. Though bamboo flowering is followed by drying up of the entire plant, the Orissa government has not harvested it for the past two …
the people of Sukruli block in Mayurbhanj district, Orissa, can heave a sigh of relief. A division bench of the Orissa High Court (hc) recently directed Shiv Shakti Sponge Iron Limited (sssil) to install effective pollution preventive mechanism as prescribed by the Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb). This judgement comes …
In a significant decision, the Orissa High Court has banned all construction activity within a one-kilometre radius of Nandankanan, the wildlife sanctuary-turned zoo. The high court gave the judgement while responding to a public interest litigation which alleged that builders were not only offering plots around the park but had …
already the toll in the prolonged heat wave scorching most parts of north and central India has crossed 1100. In Andhra Pradesh alone the figure has touched 1000, with temperatures hovering in the region of an impossible 49
THE good news: the Planning Commission has come out with its first national human development report. The bad news: like any other human development report (HDR) (there is no dearth of them now), this report too has refused to acknowledge the real meaning of development for India. Dwelling extensively on …
This book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the joint forest management (JFM) programme. The beginnings of this initiative can be dated to the early 1970s, when people had just begun to question the 'industrialise at all costs' policy. However, it took another decade and a half …
even as forest officials and environmentalists in Orissa heaved a sigh of relief with the news of the first batch of 3,000 Olive Ridley turtles crawling onto the beach near the Rishikulya river mouth, fishing trawlers are set to turn killer machines again. For though the use of turtle excluder …
