The all-powerful iron ore mining mafia of Karnataka has hurled red dust into the eyes of democratic India with impunity, and for long. Convinced of their invincibility, the Reddy brothers, along with their mentors and cohorts, have ravaged the state’s rich mines. Between April 2006 and July 2010 the state …
Environment comes first, profits later, noted Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia while ordering suspension of all mining operations in Bellary on August 5. Of the 148 mines in Bellary, only one company can mine iron ore, that too in limited quantity. The state-owned National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) …
Raping the forest for ephemeral fashions The alleged rape in Brazil of an 18-year-old teacher by Paulinho Paiakan, chief of the Kayapo tribe, may be seen as symbolic of the rape of the Amazon rainforests using as a lure the theory that marketing forest produce is more economically beneficial and …
For green cause: Bangalore, Brikesh Singh knows all about scaling great heights to protect environment. Be it the UK Parliament or trees on the sides of Sankey Tank Bund Road – thankfully spared by the axes of the city corporation – he had used his skill to climb buildings and …
RESEARCH suggests that habitat loss, thought to be a major threat to amphibians across the world, might in some cases be protecting them from a deadly fungus. Amphibian species, which include frogs, toads and salamanders, have dwindled at an alarming rate since 1980s; a third of the world’s amphibian species …
If you happen to see a swarm of butterflies flying above the terrace of your office in the crowded Bengaluru city, count yourself lucky. You are witness to the largest annual butterfly migration in southern India. Every year between October and December, swarms of Dark Blue Tiger and Double Branded …
Just a few days before Swami Nigamanand died while on a fast to protest state-sponsored sand mining and stone crushing along the Ganga near Haridwar, the Uttarakhand government ordered a ban on mining activities in the region considered sacred. Millions of pilgrims visit the place to take a dip in …
Loss of forests leads to droughts. Research has shown that destruction of rain forests in Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire may have caused two decades of droughts in Africa. Rain forests are being destroyed at an annual rate of 31 million hectares, an area larger than Poland. Deforestation also contributes …
My position on the need to re-position forests in development (see ‘Rethink growth with forest capital’, Down To Earth, May 16-31) has brought me a huge response. On the one hand are those who argue that functions of forests already include conservation vital to life; they need to be valued …
INDIA’S first pilot project to be recognised under the UN’s mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) could be in the East Khasi Hills in Meghalaya. A watershed project, started jointly by a California-based non-profit and a tribal community in 2005 in the northeastern state aims at checking …
Can you love tigers but hate forests? This is the question that troubled me as I visited the middle of India last fortnight. I was in Nagpur, where local politicians, conservationists and officials were discussing what needed to be done in this chronically poor and backward region endowed with forests …
Interest in “nested” approaches to REDD+ has grown steadily as policy makers, practitioners and investors seek to reconcile approaches to reducing, and rewarding, emissions reductions at different scales – national, subnational and project. The 16 th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Cancun marked the …
INDIA’S tiger habitats may be shrinking but its tiger population has increased, claims the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). On March 28, the ministry announced 295 tigers have been added to the previous estimate—the 2006 count had estimated 1,411 tigers in the wild, spurring corporate-sponsored save-the-tiger campaigns revolving …
Many factors such as poverty, ineffective institutions and environmental regulations may prevent developing countries from managing how natural resources are extracted to meet a strong market demand. Extraction for some resources has reached such proportions that evidence is measurable from space. We present recent evidence of the global demand for …
In 1990, McDonald’s threatened activists of a London-based ethical food group with libel suits. A pamphlet, What’s wrong with McDonald’s, had earned them the ire of the fast food biggie. Three of the activists from London Greenpeace—not to be confused with Greenpeace International, which distanced itself from the matter— apologised …
A WIND farm project under way in Khed and Mawal talukas of Pune has partially destroyed protected forests and threatens farmland in the area. On December 16, 2010, the Bombay High Court, responding to a public interest petition by a people’s forum, ordered a halt on tree felling. But blasting …
Electricity wires hang dangerously over a bituminous road. Unending rows of gigantic windmills look down from where, perhaps, a tiger should have kept an eye on its territory. Instead of birds, turbines create a humming noise. Trees are hardly in sight and one has to be lucky to spot wildlife. …
From the moment we drove into Intanki National Park, tucked in the southwestern edge of Nagaland, I kept gaping at the canopy overhead to catch a glimpse of the circus artist of the wild—hoolock gibbons. Unique to Northeast India, the mighty little ape can swing at a speed of 55 …
When patdehri (chief priest) Halu Thanapati, 68, gets possessed, he hastily dives into the badan khaal—the yoni of Goddess Duarseni, the supreme deity of his tribe—as though to suck the rare wisdom that ensures ‘existence’ on earth. The yoni is actually the mouth of a natural tunnel, which is independent …
Giyasilal Saini is a marginal farmer who has market savvy. It comes from experience. Living in a semi-arid area like Alwar in Rajasthan, he always knew he could not depend on farming alone. So he would keep some goats, like others in village Jaitpura. Then three years ago the pond …
