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 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 …
SILENCE OF THE SCAMS Corruption is increasingly tightening its grip over the daily lives of Indian citizens. Experts describe it as a form of 'tidal corruption'. It has, therefore, become vital to shift attention from the corrupt to the system which breeds corruption The silence is deafening. The corrupt observe …
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 …
The solutions to corruption lie in a complex and comprehensive set of responses. • There is a need to study and spread greater public awareness about how corruption is gnawing away the vitals of society and affecting its governance system. This is particularly important in a situation when corruption is …
The corrupt normally observe a law of silence. The public , too, suffers in silence. Once in a while someone comes across to rock the boat and spill the beans. Anna Hazare of Ralegan Siddhi is one such person. His name is synonymous with ecological regeneration. But he has also …
Corruption can affect the environment in four different ways: • Corruption will encourage the loot of the natural estate. And what is worse is that when the people begin to see corruption around them and begin to realise that state regulations are meaningless, they too will join in the plunder …
DO NOT go by their looks. They may look tattered and torn, but forests that have been plundered by loggers can still retain most of their tree species diversity. Ecologists studying Southeast Asian forests that have been stripped of their most valuable timber say that the regenerating forest canopy will …
ECOLOGICAL and environmental changes are a common cause of migration. These changes can be sudden and unpredictable like earthquakes, or gradual like desertification or land degradation. Environment degradation due to deforestation, soil erosion and land scarcity is often the root of refugee-producing conflicts. The Zapatista rebellion in Mexico and the …
A TENTH of the world's known tree species face extinction, according to a recently published global survey called the "World List of Threatened Trees". The three-year survey found that more than 8,750 of the 80,000-100,000 identified tree species are on the brink of extinction. This is mainly due to the …
Nearly all the states in peninsular Malaysia logged below their annual quota in 1997, primary industries minister Lim Keng Yaik said. "In the last three to four years, the states have kept to their annual coupe (quota). "Some have even logged below their annual coupe," he said. "States are also …
