Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Are missing palm trees causing …
status: Most of the major lakes are dying potential: Just three lakes provide economic sustenance for close to 500 villages strategy: Revive these water bodies to generate livelihood Over a mile above sea level, around the Wular Lake, a few of India’s once richest villages are fighting a losing battle …
status: Almost no tourism; crafts trade only Rs 900 crore potential: Eco- and religious tourism can generate Rs 1,000 crore revenue, while handicrafts can turn in Rs 3,500 crore strategy: Revive confidence by reviving governance Some 1,400 empty, rotting houseboats ringing the Dal Lake provide mute testimony to tourism and …
As an economy, reviving Kashmir is not a difficult proposition. The new government, instead of exploring the more difficult option of sourcing resources from outside, has to look inwards. It has to bring about a basic change in the state's policy: from that of dependence to self-dependence. While the government
status: Five per cent of the state's forests are degrading every year potential: Regeneration of the degraded forests can create 120 million humandays of employment strategy: Open up the forests to people and involve them in regeneration and management with benefits A 150-year-old deodar tree
model town: Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, is likely to be the northeast region's first planned township. The move to prepare the city's master plan was actually triggered by fears about an impending earthquake and a rapidly expanding hill town that is already bursting at its seams. In stark contrast …
South Africa's indigenous forests are severely threatened by gatherers of medicinal plants who pay scant attention to conservation practices. Michael Peter, director of the country's Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), says that commercial harvesters
The National Highway Development Project is the government's pet. One such stretch being developed is National Highway 8 linking Jaipur to Ajmer and on to Mumbai and beyond. The highway was being widened near the town of Bagru. The bulldozers were out. The process was laboured. The trees were massive. …
the ebola virus is threatening lowland gorillas of central Africa, states the World Conservation Union (iucn). The warning is significant as the area has one of the largest concentrations of these gorillas, and they are already endangered by factors such as deforestation and trade in wild animals. Ebola haemorrhagic fever …
Timber smugglers in Orissa are catching them young. They have targeted schoolchildren from economically weaker sections to carry out their dubious activities. The Nayagarh district police recently caught two class viii students felling trees in the Sulia forest. The arrested students, Pandu Nayak and Dilip Nayak, admitted to killing wild …
The Uttarakhand Jan Jagriti Sansthan, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working in Tehri, Uttaranchal, has filed a public interest litigation petition in the Supreme Court to save 90,000 trees. The NGO is seeking to thwart a proposed felling drive that will pave the way for a power transmission line of the …
The Sundarban delta region in the Bay of Bengal, with 10,000 square kilometres of estuarine mangrove forest and 102 islands, is the world's largest delta. The land here is an eerie muddle of landmass and sea, with mudflats and waves engaged in unrelenting battle. Constantly lashed by cyclonic storms and …
The first comprehensive UN survey of Afghanistan's environment brings out the dismal state of affairs in the country. After more than two decades of war and three years of drought, air and water quality in the largest towns is badly degraded. The study also reveals chemical pollution, massive deforestation, declining …
Yet another instance of the timber mafia encroaching upon the rights of tribal people has come to light. Close to 100 trees on private tribal land were cut down in November 2002 in Chhattisgarh's southern district of Dantewada. The landowner, who died about a month after the felling, was paid …
trees are news in Himachal Pradesh (hp). While 200 people hauled the state government to court demanding a fair price for trees grown on their land, hp chief minister (cm) P K Dhumal sought compensation from the Union government for a
Writ Petition number 202 of 1995; Godavarman v the Union of India and others. This is the ‘forest case’ being heard in Supreme Court for the past seven years. With more than 800 interlocutory applications (ias) filed, the case will dictate the fate of India’s forests and an estimated 10 …
In 1957, Sri Lankan naturalist Parakrama Kirtisinghe published a monograph titled The Amphibia of Sri Lanka. In it, he recorded the presence of 35 species on the island nation. Over the next three and a half decades, with new species being discovered on a fairly regular basis, this number had …
In an alarming revelation, Jharkhand forest minister Yamuna Singh confessed that timber worth Rs 200 crore was smuggled in the past 10 years from the forests of Saranda in Singhbhum district. The forests are spread over 820 square kilometres and are extremely rich in flora and fauna. The minister admitted …
I would love to write a handbook on the Indian bureaucracy. But for now let me focus on a favourite, the yes-minister technique. Do nothing, and then when pushed, unleash chaos. Nothing succeeds as much as failure. Every solution has a problem. Take the issue of encroachments in forests. The …
