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 …
the Australian government has denied that it was selling timber from Victoria's native forests at a very low price. According to them, the royalties for the "debris', that would otherwise be left to burn or rot, are as low as nine cents a tonne. The government came under attack over …
Environmental issues never really mattered in Indian realpolitik. Pollution, deforestation and land degradation have always been fringe issues - either by choice, neglect or perhaps, by ignorance of those who mattered. Neither the ruling parties nor the opposition ever put in any effort to make an issue out of the …
SCIENTISTS of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) inIspra, Italy, recently came up with a rather depressing forecast. After mapping the tropical deforestation 'hot spots' for the first time, They announced that attempts to save most of the world's remaining tropical rainforests are doomed to failure and should probably …
Conservationists, forestry academicians and government officials are engaged in a heated debate over the contents of a draft community forest bill. The debate revolves around contentious article which allows people to reside in protected forests. Forestry officials and academicians are opposing the article, saying that it would open the way …
The arrival of the 21st century is clouded by unprecedented threats to the stability of the natural world. This was stated in the special millennial edition of the State of the World report, released by the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute. "In a globally interconnected economy, rapid deforestation, falling water tables, and …
THREE members of the Tamil Nadu forest department were suspended for mass felling of trees, including teak, in the Vallam forest belt of the Courtallam range, Tamil Nadu. According to Manoj Kumar Sarcar, district forest officer, Tirunelveli division, he was informed about illegal felling of teak tress. Following this, he …
ONE-third of the natural resources of the world has been destroyed in the last 25 years, a recent report of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says. The findings, based on the Living Planet Index, reports a frightening 32 per cent drop in flora and fauna species in forests, …
THE cutting of about five lakh trees by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the Tilpat forest range of Haryana last year is still shrouded in controversy. V K Bahuguna, deputy-director general, forest protection division (FPD), says that the Forest Protection Acts in most states prohibit anyone from eliminating forests …
A division bench of the Kerala high court has directed the state government to issue guidelines on felling of trees from the forests. The bench noted that loss of trees in the forests would permanently damage the eco-system and, hence, could not be compensated in terms of money. The court …
A lot of trees are planted on paper and forests are created on government files. Between 1980-81 and 1988-89, the government claimed that some 24 billion trees had been planted under afforestation programmes on private and public lands at an expense of over Rs 3,000 crore. In other words, taking …
The sandalwood policy of the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments have created just the right environment for corruption to thrive. It involves major kickbacks for all those involved, it leads to scarcity of the raw material and promotes black market trade. The powerful and the corrupt corner the bulk of …
State regulations are extremely important to protect various elements of the ecosphere like air and water against pollution, and from over exploitation. But corruption, lack of public awareness of the importance of natural resources for daily survival, and policies that exclude the participation of the people can render the laws …
Why did the chicken cross the road? Simple. It wanted to bypass the forest official. Otherwise charcoal would never reach the town and poor would starve for the lack of a livelihood. In the early 1980s, St Xavier's Behavioural Science Centre, an Ahmedabad-based NGO, encouraged poor farmers living in the …
Corruption can steer even Supreme Court orders astray. In an effort to curb pollution in Delhi, the Supreme Court ordered all government vehicles to start using compressed natural gas (CNG) on an experimental basis. But the order was met with strong resistance, not from powerful bureaucrats but from the drivers …
Small may be beautiful, but not in terms of the bounty. The larger the project, the bigger the "10 per cent" cut allegedly paid as a bribe to politicians and bureaucrats by the contractors. To secure a deal, a contractor pays the signing authority a certain cut from the money …
A group of Bhil villagers, living in the dry and parched Aravalli hilts near Udaipur, told the authors, "We have been strictly warned by our local leader never to ask for a pucca (metalled) road to our village, because what will we then make year after year as part of …
India is rich in biodiversity which, if used properly, could fill the country's coffers with pounds and dollars. It could also alleviate the poverty and suffering of the local people who have the knowledge and access to these resources. Sadly, the laws governing biodiversity exclude their participation. In the process, …
A subsidy is levied on a product to reduce its price. This means the state (read taxpayer) is paying for part of the product. This is done to meet a national objective. Diesel was highly subsidised in India to help the poor farmer run his pumpset for the purpose of …
In the early 1980s, Indians were shocked to read media reports that the police of Bhagalpur was deliberately "blinding" criminals. What the media failed to expose was the link between corruption in the management of a unique ecology and a consequent rise in crime. All this resulted in a typical …
