Judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of In Re: Zudpi Jungle Lands. A batch of applications involved a peculiar issue concerning the situation prevailing in the six districts of eastern Vidarbha region namely Nagpur, Wardha, Bhandara, Gondia, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. The issue pertains to the status of the …
For centuries, Delhi has been the seat of various dynasties. The river Yamuna and the natural forest cover, virtually running through three parts of the city, made the perfect setting. Today, it's a different story. The river is dead, the forest cover is fast dwindling and a population of 14 …
The Indian Peoples Tribunal on Environmental and Human Rights, a civil fact-finding body, has said that Madhya Pradesh should halt construction of the Maan dam pending resettlement of the oustees even as Chief Minster Digvijay Singh wrote to its member Arundhati Roy claiming that the rehabilitation process is going on …
Kuttanad, Kerala's granary which lies below sea level and is surrounded by water throughout the year, is facing acute shortage of potable water. Water supply project implemented under Central programmes such as Kuttanad Water Supply Scheme have failed to reach the inhabitants of the area since much of the water …
Conservationists are up in arms at the Urban Development Ministry's recent decision to convert a 22 acre green patch in the heart of Delhi into a concrete jungle. The contentious market as a 'green patch' in the Masterplan. The Ministry has however that it would be altering the Masterplan to …
Threatened by global warming, depleting biodiversity and rising fears of natural disasters, Bangladesh on the Weekend launched a drive to speed up plans to put at least 20 percent of the country under forests. Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia inaugurated the programme, encouraging each of Bangladesh's 130 million people to …
As part of its Green Delhi plan, the state environment department would be planting about seven lakh saplings during the coming monsoon season. The saplings would be planted by various state government departments and agencies.
Even as the Assam Forest Department is busy evicting encroachers from 'reserved forests', timber smugglers appear to be having a field day in the expansive Upper Dehing Reserved Forest, under the Digboi forest division. Dozens of valuable 'hard wood' trees have been felled - illegally of course - in the …
While on the one hand large-scale deforestation along Indo-Bhutan border and on the Asam-Arunachal foothills is going on unabated despite the Supreme Court ban and State government's recently launched 'Green Earth Project', on the other hand the government agencies and a number of non-government nature-based organisation s have begun their …
The encroachers on thousands of acres of reserved forestland in Assam today asserted their "right" to violate the law by imposing a 12-hour bandh against the ongoing eviction drive. The bandh was total.
A comprehensive survey of section 17(janman) forest lands in Gudalur block, Udhagamandalam (Tamil Nadu) will be completed within a year to resolve the encroachment problems once and for all. The collector said that as of now the special survey staff had completed surveying 4,500 acres.
As the current rate of depletion Assam may be left with no forest cover in another 20 years. The forest cover in the state today stands at only 16 per cent of the total land area against the laid down norm of 33 per cent. Forest department officials said the …
The Assam Government will not be able to met the September 30 deadline to clear all reserved forest areas from encroachers as it has decided to review the ongoing eviction drive and slow it down in view of the monsoons. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi will review the ongoing eviction drives …
Assam Forest Minister Pradyupt Bordoloi's proposal to "lease out" denuded forest lands to private parties for their regeneration in lieu of royalty against the sale of timber which the private parties would grow in such forest lands, needs to be taken with a large helping of salt. In the first …
Bangladesh environment and forest minister Shahjahan Siraj called upon all to turn the three month tree plantation drive beginning into a nationwide movement for protecting the ecology.
Opposition members today walked out of the House in protest against Chief Minister A K Antony's statement that eh CMPM had been encroaching on the forest land and smuggling out timber under the cover of the Adivasi struggle in Kerala for the past few months. He appealed to the CPM …
Public prosecutors may question senior lawmaker Muneo Suzuki next week on allegations he received 5 million yen in bribes from a Hokkaido lumber firm when he was deputy chief Cabinet secretary in 1998, and seek his arrest, law enforcement sources said. The Forestry Agency punished an executive of the company …
The beautiful Valley of Flowers, known for its almost miraculous flower diversity and fecundity, is caught in a strange controversy. The point of contention: is the conservation attempt proving to be the problem rather than the solution? In 1982, the valley was notified as a national park, and livestock grazing …
in a district where not toting a double-barrelled gun or revolver is considered a violation of the dress code, the word ‘fraud’ was redefined with astounding audacity. Without firing a single shot (quite uncommon in this trigger-happy territory), three junior officials of Bijnor defrauded the government of Rs 100 crore …
Astronomers have recently discovered 11 small moons encircling Jupiter. The team of astronomers led by Scott Sheppard and David Jewitt from the University of Hawaii had previously found 11 new moons of Jupiter. This brings the total of Jupiter's satellites to 39, more than any other planet's. "We found them …
rainwater harvesting can also cleanse water. Storage of treated wastewater and storm runoff in underground aquifers purges it of disease-causing organisms. This allows the water to be recycled for irrigating parks, gardens, ovals and farms. This was revealed in a study recently conducted by Australia-based Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research …