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 …
The ghost of the 1999 super cyclone still haunts the people of Orissa. On October 18, 1999, a cyclone with a wind velocity of 200 km/hr hit the coastal district of Ganjam. It ripped through the district killing 300 people and destroying all standing crops. And while the state government …
• West Orissa: Drought has become an annual affair and is spreading. Massive deforestation. Soil erosion silting up major rivers thus rising riverbeds and causing more floods downstream. Tempereature rising. Balangir district has reported an average rise of 8 degree celcius in the last 30 years • North Orissa: Cyclone …
Haldhar Nag, a popular nature poet, is a worried man today. He has written extensively on the six seasons of Oriss and has profiled nature in its myriad forms. But when he reads his old compo-sitions now, he feels nostalgic and at the same time pain. "The seasons have changed …
THE debate on whether climate change causes calamities in Orissa rages on. But nobody denies that environmental degradation in the state has let loose a chain of problems. Massive deforestation in west Orissa is not only destroying the livelihood of local people but also silting up riverbeds causing floods in …
Chitta Majhi, a history student of Balugaon College, on the banks of Chilka, has grown up with the lake. During winter, Chitta used to play with migratory birds right in front of his house. "Sometimes I could find the migratory birds right inside my bedroom', he remem-bers. For his father, …
BHAGWAN SAHOO looks pensive and despon-dent. This 60-year-old farmer is trying hard to redefine his life. A farmer by heart, Bhagwan has decided to quit farming. His two sons have already aban-doned the village and him, in search of an alternate livelihood. The 1999 killer cyclone left Bhagwan with nothing. …
In Kashipur, starvation continues to stalk its residents. Nearly 50 people died after consum-ing ungus-ridden mango kernel till August. But the state government defended this say-ing that mango kernel is nutritious and the deaths are due to food poisoning. Kashipur epitomises the plight of Orissa perfectly. It shows how environmental …
Hope was the most precious commodity for drought-rava-ged Orissa a few months ago. So when the monsoon of 2001 reached the state on time, there was jubilation. But incessant rains for 40 days starting from the first week of July ebbed this jubila-tion. In its worst ever flood recorded in …
For more than a decade now, Orissa has been reeling under contrasting extreme weather conditions: from heat waves to cyclones; from droughts to floods. Calamities have been visiting the state with alarming regularity. Out of the last 100 years, the state has been dis-aster- affected for 90 years: floods have …
the Olive Ridley satellite telemetry experiment of the Wildlife Institute of India (wii) has failed, with signals not being received from any of the four turtles involved. The experiment was launched in the last week of August 2001, to unravel the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of Olive Ridleys that come …
the devotion of millions of people to lord Jagannath may have cleansed their souls, but it has left the Puri city dirty and filthy. Despite the city being the most revenue-fetching tourist centre, the state government has shown little interest in its management. Acknowledging the severe pollution menace, the Supreme …
STOMPING ON A DREAMThe incomplete check dam at Goudpali village in Naktideul Block of Sambalpur, Orissa, stands testimony to the insensitivity of the laws and the government to the needs of the people. The government has forced work to stop on the check dam being built by people. Goudpali houses …
the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (cag) has condemned the Orissa government and the state pollution control board (pcb) for their failure on various fronts, including lapses in checking deterioration of water quality in major rivers of the state. In its latest report, cag has said that due to …
• Punishers the community for 'crimes' like for fuelwood. • Doubles penalty for forest 'crimes' - in reserve forests imprisonment can be till sven years. • No accountability for forest officials. Protected from judicial proceedings while executing the act in 'good faith'. • Empowers the forest department to evict and …
Why was this resolution introduced? As the state assembly has to still discuss the resolution, it would be unconstitutional for me to reveal the reason. We only want to know how much money, from which all sources and for what purpose the NGOs are getting. We want to make them …
"NGOs would be accountable to the state government for their performance' A ploy to kill the independence of NGOs "Ethical standards for the NGOs will be promoted by the government' Government wants to impose its agenda on the NGOs "Legal and administrative action for misappropriation of funds by the NGOs …
The year 2001 may have been declared as the year of volunteers, but the Orissa government has other ideas. Recently, the state finance minister Ram Krushna Patnaik introduced a resolution in the state assembly to curb the powers of some 2,000-odd non-governmental organisations (ngos) operating in the state. "We want …
The Employment Guarantee Scheme ( egs ) of Maharash tra is said to be the only one in the world that guaran tees employment on demand. This was for the first time an employment generation programme was conceived to create productive works at the village level. The absence of social …
