Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of Salboni Apartment Owner’s Association Vs State of West Bengal & Others dated 15/05/2025. The matter related to restoration of the Salboni Jheel, Kolkata, West Bengal. The NGT directed the West Bengal Pollution Control Board to place …
government hospitals and primary healthcare centres in West Bengal are not up to the mark with regards to the availability of medicines and the quality of treatment. This was revealed during a survey of people treated at 50 hospitals and health centres across the state. The Consumer Coordination Council, an …
He loves to dabble with pumps. Fourteen-year-old Sukumal Dutta along with the other members of the community has undergone training as a mechanic for diesel pumpsets. With help from the NBTDP, the conventional diesel pump which used to lift water was modified to increase the overall efficiency, reduce cost and …
Our stock brokers can learn a few things about rising and falling prices from the Rabha tribe. Sheetin Rabha is a dynamic and wise women. Her group of 24 members decided to invest and took Rs 600 from their deposits and purchased 480 kg of rice. The price of paddy …
Devastating floods ruined Bhavesh Mandal's crops in the late 1960s. The hapless farmer had no option but to migrate to Mumbai and work as a masonry worker with no roof over his head. However, thanks to the North Bengal Terai Development Project ( nbtdp ), today Bhavesh is back in …
At least 63 ponds and wetlands in the Howrah town of West Bengal have been destroyed, according to a report placed before the Calcutta high court by municipal authorities. The green bench of the court had asked the Howrah Municipal Corporation for the report regarding the condition of wetlands and …
groundwater contaminated by arsenic has been found in Rajarhat area of West Bengal during testing done by the School of Environment Studies ( ses ) of Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Out of 2,775 samples tested by ses , more than half had high levels of arsenic. Dipankar Chakroborty, director of ses …
About 80 tropical cyclones (with wind speeds equal to or greater than 35 knots) form in the world’s waters every year. Of these about 6.5% develop in the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. Since the frequency of cyclones in the Bay of Bengal is about 5 to 6 times …
a mystery disease afflicted Siliguri in West Bengal in February, 2001 and claimed 39 lives. The disease, with symptoms such as high fever, respiratory problems and paralysis, caught the city's medical and civic system unaware. As the panic spread, shops and schools were closed. "The situation got worse when doctors …
In all 35 people have died and now the authorities in Siliguri say it is due to a mutated form of measles. When 10 staffers died in a local hospital it was supposed to be encephalitis or a new form of malaria. In short the authorities have sent samples for …
While tiger parts, ivory and sandalwood smuggling continue to attract all the public attention, what India is losing is its medicinal wealth to well-organised smuggling networks run by thousands of Veerappans all across the country. Mum's the word on the trade practices, while forests, whether in the north, south, east …
It is a common sight near every forest area to see loaded trucks making their way through the dark cover of the night. The first thought that crosses one’s mind is that they are weighed down with timber. Wrong. Many times, what is being carried out is the herbal treasure …
In April 1999, a director of a reputed environmental organisation in Dehradun was tipped off about 12 trucks waiting at the check-post in Dehradun. They were carrying in various quantities medicinal plants that did not feature in the list of ntfp allowed to be collected in the region comprising Uttaranchal, …
The Indian herbal industry is estimated to have a turnover of Rs 2,300 crore annually. It is also involved in the export of finished products, intermediaries and bulk raw materials. More than 90 per cent of the plant species used by the industry are, however, collected from the wild of …
Considering the shortage of medicinal plants and the need to sustain ism, cultivation and sustainable harvesting of plants from the wild has become absolutely necessary. One way of solving the problem would be to encourage cultivation by small farmers and tribal people and make big manufacturers of herbal products source …
Realising the importance of medicinal plants in the health care system available to the poor people, the department of family welfare of the mohfw started the vanaspati van yojna as part of the reproductive and child health programme in October 1997. In other words, it means converting large areas of …
Three hours from Madurai is Shenbaha Thopu. Rich in forest wealth, the peripheries of the forests are inhabited by 24 families of the Pallyan community who have traditionally been involved in the collection of non-timber forest produce (ntfp). Now something else has become a part and parcel of their lives: …
a carcinogenic gas called cokeoven leaked from the gas supply lines of the Durgapur Steel Plant (dsp), West Bengal, in the last week of December, 2000. The leak took place when a fire gutted the benzol scrubber unit of the plant. The Steel Authority of India Limited (sail) owns the …
Sundarbans in the Indian state of West Bengal is the estuarine phase of the Ganga as well as of the Brahmaputra river systems. This littoral forest is the only ecological habitat of the tiger of its kind not only in India but also in the world, except in Bangladesh.
at least 893 people have died and 18 million rendered homeless in flood-ravaged West Bengal. Official reports indicated that the death toll might reach 1000. The state chief minister has described the situation as a
The environment bench of the chief justice has directed the West Bengal Pollution Control Board to serve notice on well-known environmentalist, M C Mehta. The notice would include information that his application relating to the Ganga Action Plan would be taken up on 8 September, 2000. The Pollution Control Board …
