West Bengal

Order of the National Green Tribunal regarding restoration of the Salboni Jheel, Kolkata, West Bengal, 15/05/2025

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 …

Green gag

the West Bengal Pollution Control Board ( wbpcb ) has banned the setting up of new businesses, including hospitals and nursing homes in Calcutta and Howrah. The wbpcb has come out with three lists totalling 218 industry categories and asked the Calcutta and Howrah Municipal Corporations not to grant licences …

Island of hope

west bengal's largest cluster of islands, the Sagar island, is soon going to be powered by solar energy. The island, where it is not possible to provide grid electricity, is run by diesel generators sets whose pollution is affecting the region's fragile ecosystem. The first step towards electrification through solar …

New aquaculture project

an ambitious aquaculture project is on the anvil at Nayachar in Haldia, West Bengal. The state government hopes that the project will generate employment opportunities for the locals and give a fillip to the tourist inflow. The state government has embarked on this project because industries coming up in this …

Save Sunderbans drive

the West Bengal government will initiate a plan to save the Sunderbans, the world's largest delta. Plans are afoot to set up Sunderban Protection Committees in every block of the region. Thereafter, representatives from each block would coordinate the plan at the central level. The problems that afflict the area …

Arsenic cleanup

india's first mass arsenic removal community-based programme to provide safe drinking water to more than 400 affected villages of West Bengal will begin in October. The Rs 9-crore project will be executed by the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health ( aiih&ph;). A large chunk of aid will …

Reverse gear

The West Bengal government has revoked its order banning private non-commercial vehicles which do not conform to Euro I norms by July 1, 1999, and Euro II by April 2000, from plying within the Calcutta Metropolitan Area (cma). The state government had earlier passed the order without directions from the …

Dirty states

the top five states in India that have major discharges of untreated domestic wastewater are Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. According to a recent survey by the Union ministry of environment and forests, these five states generated more than 63 per cent of the total wastewater and …

ORDERED TO BE CHALANGED

The West Bengal government has decided to challenge a high court order doing away with transit permits for inter-state rice export, said Kalimuddin Shams, state food and civil supply minister. He said rice mill owners were taking advantage of the high court order to export rice to other states and …

and the sun shines on

the World Bank ( wb ) has cleared the second instalment of its assistance to a solar power project in West Bengal. For the first time in the world, a 26-kilowatt (kw) solar power plant with photo-voltaic cells is being set up and one or two villages are being covered …

Fish exhibition

THE West Bengal government is planning to build a multi-layered underground aquarium and an exhibition centre at Victoria square. The project has already been cleared by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation and is awaiting final sanction.The construction will to start in December and is expected to be completed in two years. …

To save a forest

THE ecosystem of the world's largest mangrove, the Sundarbans in West Bengal, was falling apart until local forest authorities took up conservation projects to educate the locals and wean them away from environment-damaging activities. As the residents of the 1,000-odd villages in the Sajnekhali area, some 120 km from the …

Fights for space

Harvest of terror Come harvest time and tense villagers begin preparing for the next elephant raid Like the other farmers, Durlabh Rajbhansu is afraid. As harvesting season approaches, the people of Nopam, a tiny village near Tezpur in northern Assam, steel themselves for the worst. For the last 10 years, …

BENGAL "AZAAN" ISSUE

Twenty-eight imams of Calcutta recently refused to appear before the high court for the third consecutive time in the case against use of microphones during the call for prayers. The issue is already snowballing into a big controversy. Justice B P Banerjee of the Calcutta high court, said, "Some political …

Earnest endeavours

the women members of gram panchayats ( gps) (village councils) in West Bengal ( wb ) have been involved in a determined and successful campaign to improve the economic, ecological and social conditions of their villages - a development that has taken place after the Constitution's 73rd Amendment Act, 1992, …

Groundwater arsenic calamity in Bangladesh

The arsenic affected areas of West Bengal are lying on a sediment of Younger Deltaic Deposition (YDD). The same sediment extends eastwards towards Bangladesh, covering the approximate area of 34 districts out of a total of 64 districts in Bangladesh. We suspect that the groundwater of these 34 districts of …

Environment is a people s programme

On his experience in dealing with polluting industries in West Bengal: It is easy for us to instruct the public sector units ( psu s). But it is not always so easy with the private sector. Their only concern is profit. But if they are convinced that pollution control activities …

Arsenic in groundwater in seven districts of West Bengal, India

Arsenic has been found in groundwater in seven districts of West Bengal covering an area 37,493 km having about 34 million population. Our survey indicates that 560 villages are arsenic-affected and more than a million people are drinking arsenic contaminated water and more than 200,000 people are suffering from arsenic-related …

TANNERY TALES AGAIN

In the continuing saga of the closure of Calcutta tanneries, the Supreme Court has now issued notices to over 500 tanneries to show cause as to why they should not be closed down. "Non-cooperation" of the tanneries with the West Bengal government for shifting to another area has triggered the …

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