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 …
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 …
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: …
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 …
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 …
Pulmonary responses of children chronically exposed to ambient air pollution in Calcutta have been investigated. A total number of 153 children from Calcutta and 116 from rural West Bengal in the age group of 6-17 yr were included in this study. Respiratory symptom complex, sputum cytology and micronucleus (MN) count …
travelling in the comfort of an air-conditioned ( ac ) car has far worse implications on health than cycling or even walking. According to a recent study conducted by the West Bengal Pollution Control Board, people cosseted in their ac four-wheelers are exposed to as much as five times the …
Nine districts in West Bengal, India, and 42 districts in Bangladesh have arsenic levels in groundwater above the World Health Organization maximum permissible limit of 50
In some areas of Bangladesh and West Bengal, concentrations of As in groundwater exceed guide concentrations, set internationally and nationally at 10 to 50 ?g l?1 and may reach levels in the mg l?1 range. The As derives from reductive dissolution of Fe oxyhydroxide and release of its sorbed As. …
the marine life in the Sunderban region of West Bengal faces increasing threat owing to indiscriminate exploitation of bio-organisms and intense commercial activities in the neighbouring areas. This was brought to the notice of the state government by marine scientist Amalesh Chowdhury. He said that a recent survey of the …
