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 construction of a fishing jetty at Talchua near the Bhittar Kanika Sanctuary in Orissa has been stopped short by a Central directive. The decision was based on a report by a team appointed by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF), which recommended that the construction of the …
FLOODS have ravaged India from times immemorial and people have controlled and turned them into beneficial processes. But today they are seen as catastrophic events that are to be forcefully contained by dams and embankments. This perception has its roots in India's colonial past, according to recent evidence from Orissa. …
The much-touted Puri-Konark Beach Resort Project proposed by the Orissa state government has received a setback with the rejection of the project by the Union environment ministry. The Rs 900-crore project, which is being pushed by the Union tourism ministry, envisages the construction of a multiple hotel complex on 890 …
The Orissa government and the house of Tatas, who jointly own the Rs 20-crore Chilika Aquatic Farms Ltd (CAFL), have agreed to move their operations away from the lake. The decision was reached at a meeting of top officials from both sides in December in Bhubaneshwar. The officials decided to …
THE ANUGUL-Talcher industrial belt in Orissa's Dhenkanal district -- one of the few water-rich areas in the state -- is facing an acute crisis: People in more than 400 villages in the region, which is served by the Brahmani river and its tributary Nandira, have been bearing the brunt of …
A unique database on mangroves -- the Mangrove Ecosystem Information Service (MEIS) -- developed by the Centre for Research in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (CRSARD) in Madras, will be operational by December. Work on MEIS is being headed by eminent scientist M S Swaminathan. CRSARD will also set up …
IN THEIR quest for cultivable land, tribals have cleared more than 2,025 ha of virgin forest in the Hadgarh sanctuary in Orissa's Keonjhar district in less than two years. According to the Antyodaya Chetana Kendra (ACK), a voluntary organisation that has been working in the area for nearly a decade, …
Three years ago, an Orissa engineer's claims to have solved Fermat's Last Theorem was ignored by the state government. However, news that Andrew Wiles of the US has solved the long-standing puzzle has now prompted the state government to sponsor the engineer's trip to England to present his finding to …
ALLEGATIONS of illegal practices in the prawn trade in Chilika -- Asia's largest brackish water lake -- have been confirmed by a five-member 'fact-finding' committee set up by the Bhubaneswar High Court. The committee was set up in response to writ petitions filed by three primary fisherfolk cooperative societies challenging …
THE ORISSA government's ambitious plan to develop a beach resort complex over more than 900 ha between Puri and Konark has raised a storm of controversy in the state. While environmental activists allege that the project will cause irreversible damage to the ecologically fragile coastal stretch, officials of the state …
HISTORIANS, archaeologists and art-lovers all over the country are eagerly awaiting the day when the Archaeological Survey Of India (ASI) and the Orissa state works department take up renovation of the inside of the Sun Temple at Konark. It will be a historic moment as the renovation will mean reopening …
PEOPLE in Orissa's famine-hit regions are desperately selling their children -- not for the money but to ensure two square meals a day for them. So far, 16 cases of children being sold have been exposed in the local media, but the state government is yet to admit even one. …
BESET by famine and drought, large sections of Orissa and Bihar are beginning to mirror the stark images of hunger in Somalia and Sudan. In Orissa, more than 10 million people -- the majority of whom are tribals -- are reeling under a famine. In tribal-dominated south Bihar, too, more …
A DEBATE on how best to count the tiger population sparked talk of hidden cameras and 3-D photographs at a symposium earlier this year. But most delegates agreed in the end that none of the methods suggested is any more reliable and economical than the pugmark census. The delegates were …
Chief minister Biju Patnaik's attempt to wriggle off the Chilika prawn project hook has left him impaled even more firmly. The onus of proving the Chilika Aquatic Farm Ltd (CAFL) project is environmentally safe has fallen on his government following a state high court order that Orissa officials must conduct …
WHEN ALL the good-sized trees had vanished from the forest around Khudamunda hamlet in Sambalpur district, Orissa, a villager went into a reserve forest nearby in search of poles for his hut. He was caught and beaten by a forest guard, who then took a hefty sum and a goat …
VILLAGERS in Lapanga, Sambalpur district, assert they initiated forest protection as long ago as 1936, making Lapanga one of the first villages to do so. The villagers protect about 250 ha of forest, of which 75 ha. are ryoti (private) land, donated for use as a community-run forest. The protection …
The end of 1992 saw advocates of development-at-any-cost increasingly impatient with the Union ministry for environment and forests (MEF), whom they accused of blocking development projects worth several thousand crores of rupees. The major pending projects include the open-cast mining schemes in Bihar, KRIBHCO's fertiliser plant at Hazira in Gujarat, …
SO FAR it was the Orissa government, or rather its ebullient chief minister, Biju Patnaik, who has been fighting all the verbal battles in defence of the controversial Chilika Aquatic Farms Ltd (CAFL). Tata Steel, one of the two major owners of CAFL, chose to remain silent, even though the …
GUJJARS are up in arms because they resent being thrown out of their homes by the proposed Rajaji National Park in Uttar Pradesh. In coastal Orissa, Chilika fisherfolk are protesting the allocation by the government of a slice of their environment to the House of Tata. What binds these disparate …
