Order of the National Green Tribunal (Central Zone Bench, Bhopal) in the matter of Kamal Tiwari Vs Union of India & Others dated 27/05/2025. The Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden, Rajasthan stated that a high level meeting to review the progress on the demarcation of Nahargarh …
FOR THE first time in India's environmental history, a person was imprisoned for contempt of court in relation to the Sariska mining case. The Supreme Court-appointed committee had invited petitioner Rajinder Singh, head of the Tarun Bharat Sangh, to accompany them on a tour of the mining areas. The mine-owners …
A PROTECTED forest with unclear boundaries, a tiger reserve chalked out in a limestone-rich area, mining leases whose legality is questionable -- all these have created a mess in the Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) in Rajasthan, resulting in the Supreme Court having to intervene once again. On April 8, the …
ON OCTOBER 11, 1991, the Supreme Court appointed a five-member committee, headed by retired Rajasthan high court judge M L Jain, to determine the boundaries of the areas in Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) notified under various acts as protected forests and Tiger Project Reserve. The committee also was required to …
AT 3JAMAKUthe daughter of Laxman Meena of Khodi Mahogodi village in Udaipur districtwas the youngest dracontiasis -- a disease caused by guinea worms (Dracunculus medinensis) -- patient in Rajasthan. She was cured last year by a surgical technique developed by an ayurvedic team led by Bhanwar Lal Sharma and sponsored …
TRIBALS from 23 villages in Udaipur district, citing the potential displacement of 12,000 people, are gearing up for protracted battle with the government to scrap the proposed Manasi Wakal dam, intended to supply drinking water to Udaipur. The villagers allege the project, in fact, was conceived to meet the massive …
A dry winter followed by the highest temperatures recorded in February in the north Indian plains in the past six decades led to fears in state agricultural departments that rabi crop yields would be cut drastically. Wheat, gram, pea, barley and mustard - the traditional winter crops grown in Punjab, …
THE PESTICIDES India Limited (PIL) factory in the Khempura area of Udaipur is the focus of a pollution controversy that some believe is now assuming political overtones. After local residents complained of the factory's indiscriminate disposal of toxic wastes and discharge of malodorous pollutants, the district collector asked the Rajasthan …
"WE ARE happy without government help for our agriculture. Our lands now yield thrice what they used to four years ago," says 36-year-old Jagdish Gujjar of Guwara Dewari, a village of 60 households in the green belt of the Sariska reserved forest in Rajasthan's semi-arid Alwar district. Agriculture in the …
WITH THE dye industry being phased out in industrialised countries because of increasingly stringent effluent treatment and environment laws, the Indian dyes and dye intermediates sector expects to treble its exports in the next seven years to Rs 25 billion. A paper prepared by the Punjab, Haryana and Delhi Chamber …
TWICE-DISPOSSESSED Pong dam oustees have urged the Centre to sponsor tripartite talks between their representatives and the BJP governments of Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan to settle rehabilitation issues. At a Congress-organised rally recently, Union minister of state for planning Sukh Ram condemned the Rajasthan government's high-handed and unilateral amendment of …
THE HIGH incidence of bone cancer and leukaemia in western Rajasthan has led doctors to advocate studies be carried out to ascertain whether the 1974 Pokharan nuclear test is responsible in any way. A retrospective study of malignancy frequency in the region, conducted by R G Sharma and his associates …
The Union ministry of environment and forests has once again extended for 30 days the deadline for enforcing the controversial draft notification under the Environment Protection Act (EPA), 1986. The amendment faces stiff opposition from the governments of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana and also industry associations such …
IN HIS Independence Day address this year, prime minister P V Narasimha Rao vowed to eliminate scavenging from the country within a year. But mere administrative fiats will not make life easier for people like Rameshwari, who estimates she is 35 and has been a scavenger for 15 years in …
"ONE BY one each of the girls answered my questions. What was their name and age? What do they do during the day? What do their parents do? Had they ever been to school and for how long? The children were remarkably articulate. Half of the children had been to …
WHEN ARMIES march, they usually leave a trail of barren, brown desolation in their wake. But in parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, former Indian army personnel are embarked on greening projects involving the most degraded tracts. Operating as units of the so-called Eco Task Force (ETF), …
RANTHAMBHOR National Park in Rajasthan is in the news, thanks to rampant poaching in the tiger reserve. This year's tiger census in the park shows their number has fallen from 46 to 18 in just one year. But even this is a rough estimate as only 13 tigers were physically …
HELPED along with generous grants from the World Bank and Japan to green the Aravallis, plus its own sizeable forestry budget, the Rajasthan government has embarked on an ambitious compensatory reafforestation plan. District collectors have been asked to identify areas which can be set aside to form part of a …
WHEN WITH 'big brother' presumption, the Centre decided to 'help' the states of Haryana and Rajasthan regulate their industrial development, and arrest the adverse effect of this development on the Aravallis, it stirred up a hornet's nest, with development and the states on one side and environment and the Centre …
BUILDERS in Delhi are in a bind. The Supreme Court order to close down stone-crushing units around the Capital has hiked structural costs by 10-15 per cent. The Aravalli notification has drastically cut down prime land they have been opening up in Gurgaon, where land prices are less than a …
WHAT IS common between Rajasthan's deserts and quality paper? The National Chemical Laboratory has isolated an enzyme from a micro-organism found in the Haldighat region of the state. This chemical breaks down a component of paper pulp, hemicullulose, which lowers the quality of paper. But the enzyme leaves the cellulose, …
