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 World Bank's (wb) staff appraisal report (sar) of the Orissa Power Sector Restructuring Project (opsrp) of April 19, 1996, seems to have emerged as a bundle of contradictions as far as the Indravati hydropower project is concerned. Orissa is the first state in India to get a wb aid …
current and future us and World Bank (wb) investments in Orissa are facilitating a battery of environmental, public health-related and social crises, according to a recent report by the Washington d c-based Institute for Policy Studies (ips). The wb loans will help transform the eastern Indian state of Orissa into …
A K NANDA, a young scientist from Berhampur in Orissa, has developed a commercially viable process for production of bio-degradable plastic sheets and films using starch. The polythene films developed from starch undergo complete degradation in two months of soil burial, unlike polymer plastics which take upto 100 years to …
THE NGO sector of Orissa has vehemently opposed the bureaucrats of the health and family welfare department of the state after they returned Rs 33 crore out of the Rs 60 crore grant for the 'blindness control programme' of the World Bank. The department said that it could not use …
The Save Coast Movement (SCM) of Orissa scored a major victory in its campaign to protect the habitat of the olive ridley turtles. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), bowing to pressure from the movement's leaders agreed to adopt measures to protect the endangered turtle. The DRDO is setting …
Resentment simmers in 27 villages near Gopalpur-on-Sea, Orissa, where the Tata Iron and Steel Company proposes to set up a steel plant on 290 ha of fertile land. Villagers clarify that they are opposed to the ousting of people from fertile lands supporting cashew) coconut and other fruit trees, and …
It could be the death knell for 20 hotels and a shrimp processing unit in Orissa if they do not take immediate mea- sures to stop polluting the sea by the end of this year.The Orissa Pollution Control Board decided to close down the hotels following a Supreme Court order. …
Drip irrigation may be centuries old NGr but its revival in a novel form deserves mention. The department of horticulture in Orissa has evolved the 'pitcher-method-drip-irrigation' where earthen pitchers filled with water are placed under plants%? which require a constant flow of water. A hole at the bottom of the …
SHRIMP farmers are up in arms against green activists in Orissa. The Orissa Shrimp Farm ers:ssociation has threatened to move the National Human Rights Commission against the "pseudo-environmentalists and eco-terrorists, jeopardising the livelihood of thousands of prawn farmers and villagers dependant on shrimp farming." Meanwhile, the Orissa Krishak Mahasangha, a …
FOR tribals in Mayurbhanj district of Orissa, mantras of the tantriks and other saffron-clad individuals can still evoke the fear of God in them as members of the District Action Group, MASS realised. A plantation programme in about eight ha of land in the Betnoti area of the district had …
The monsoon session of the Orissa Assembly had witnessed uproarious scenes on the prevailing illegal prawn culture in the state and the consequent damages to the coastline and mangrove forests. The prawn mafia infiltrated Orissa since 1991-92, from West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, along Orissa's 480-km long coastline. Within three …
The slasb-and-burn method of cultivation is ecologically disastrous and economically fruitless for the tribals. To provide a viable alternative to this shifting cultivation, the Social Forestry Project of Orissa in collaboration with the Swedish International Development Agency chose 14 landless tribals in Bhatiguda village of the state as beneficiaries under …
THE oft repeated story of exploitation has raised its ugly head again, this time in Orissa's Kalahandi district. Women of the mainly tribal population in the panchayats of Thuamul Rampur, Kaniguma and Nakrundi, who collect phoo1jitadu (broomsticks) - a minor forest produce - from the jungle, are forced to sell …
The stir against the Orissa government's plans to set up a fishing complex in Bhitarkanika sanctuary has now assumed global dimensions. The Sea Turtle Restoration Project in the US will host educational events and publicise the threats posed to the world's largest sea turtle nesting site by the proposed complex. …
ORISSA'S Chilika lake is known for its natural splendour and beauty and the wealth of bird and marine life which it harbours. Recently, it has acquired additional prominence owing to the controversial prawn culture project initiated by big business houses, which the local marginal fishermen -- supported by the environmentalist …
The hatchery must go. The decision was unanimous and it bound together the 100 odd fisherfolk -- men and women -- with a common purpose. They had gathered under the red tiled roof of the New Baxipalli Mahila Sangho in Gopalpur-On-Sea, about 100 km from Orissa's capital, Bhuvaneshwar. The mid-March …
POACHERs are motivated purely by commercial gain. But the tribals of Simlipal in Orissa are prompted by almost sacrosanct tradition - an annual hunting ceremony known as akhand shikar or .mass hunting excursion", which turns them into ferocious killers of even protected animals. The ritual normally begins in mid-April on …
Will the ministry of environment and forests (MEF) never let Orissa prosper? Biju Patnaik has been claiming so for years now. Adding more grist to his mill, the MEF has recently put the spanner in the latest of Orissa's prestigious steel projects. The Rs 480 crore plant was to be …
TILL the other day, the Rajasthan chief minister, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, seemed to spend much of his time frozen on an anti-environmentalist platform, ranting against the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF). Last fortnight, he seemed to have passed the megaphone to Orissa's Biju Patnaik. That both these stormy …
The forest protection initiatives of villagers in Bihar and Orissa, while arising out of crises, are marked by pragmatism. The people have realised that protection is possible only once their often-conflicting needs have been met first, which is why villagers' committees closely regulate the use of forest resources. Unfortunately, for …
