Counter affidavit on behalf of Chief Municipal Engineer, Patna Nagar Nigam in the matter of Saurav Narayan Vs Bihar Pollution Control Board & Others dated May 20, 2025. The report said that the corporation has been diligently performing its statutory duties within the limitations of the available resources and infrastructure. …
in october 2006, 150 farmers of Yellur village in Udupi district of Karnataka lost 195 hectares (ha) of land. According to Janajagrithi Samiti, a local ngo, the Udupi tehsildar K Muralidhar mutated the certificate of rights in the village title register on verbal instructions from the district collector. "The collector …
Mass-flowering of neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) is at its climax in the vast tracts of the southern Western Ghats. The little flower with no fragrance blooms once every 12 years. The endangered shrub is found in the shola grasslands, at an altitude of over 1,500 metres. The Nilgiris, the Palani hills …
hazardous wastes from sponge iron plants in Goa, dumped in wildlife reserves of the Western Ghats, have put national parks in Goa and the reserve forests of Karnataka along the national highway 4, at risk. The matter came to light, after Paryavarni, a Belgaum-based ngo in Karnataka, spotted over 700 …
A "CLOUD goat" looks as if lost in a daydream with her cuddly kid, an epitome of innocence, lying beside. The mother goat fondles and shields her, though no alarm is raised when a stranger intrudes and whoops. If the nanny could speak, she would ask anyone standing nearby, "Could …
a tree found in India is the world's richest source of camptothecin (cpt), a drug used to treat cancers of the ovaries and the colon. In an effort to ensure sustainable availability of cpt, researchers from Bangalore have carried out a survey of Nothapodytes nimmoniana trees in the Western Ghats. …
populations of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) across India do not belong to one family, according to T N C Vidya and R Sukumar of the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (iisc), Bangalore. The pachyderm population has undergone considerable genetic separation in two particular pockets, due to …
This report describes the current and recent past geographical range of the tiger. It provides spatial data on tiger distribution at the tehsil level and its associated landscape characterization; a precursor for land use planning incorporating conservation concerns and priorities.
Nestled among the mountains of the Western Ghats is Wayanad district, Kerala. Well known for cash crops such as coffee, tea, pepper and cardamom, this district is also redolent with a variety of flora. In fact, its rich plant wealth has given Wayanad the sobriquet,
function graph() { var popurl="files/images/20050731/26-graph.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=400,height=300,scrollbars=yes") } Here is a piquant contradiction: forest-rich states in India are beginning to grumble about the natural wealth they possess, and are protecting. In his speech to the 12 th Finance Commission (fc), Virbhadra Singh, chief minister of Himachal Pradesh
wildlife ecology debates always wildly swing from doomsday oracles of decimation of species to the exotica of the never-before-found species. The discovery of yet another frog in the Western Ghats has again brought to the fore the controversy about the constant pressure on ecologists to find new species. The new …
conservationists working in the Kudremukh region of the Western Ghats have received a shot in the arm in their tussle with the Karnataka forest department. On January 6, 2005, the Karnataka High Court (hc) stayed proceedings in five cases filed by the forest department against non-governmental organisations (ngo s ) …
payback time: A West Virginia state judge approved on November 23, 2004, a US$70 million medical study to be conducted by chemical giant DuPont Company among nearly 80,000 people of two states who drank water contaminated with C8, a chemical used by DuPont to produce Teflon at its West Virginia …
Western Ghats form the catchment of all the 44 rivers that sustain the agroeconomy of Kerala. A study was conducted to assess the effect of land use on runoff from small watersheds of Western Ghats. Three small mono-culture watersheds, planted with cashew, coffee, tea and one small watershed with dense …
function graph() { var popurl="image/20040930/26-graphs.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=300,height=475,scrollbars=yes") } High altitude sickness The Brits made India's hill-stations. Invariably, a responsible officer of the colonial government chanced upon a scene of delirious beauty that completely seduced his senses. Ootacamund or Udagamandalam (Ooty) in the Western Ghats was
function illustration() { var popurl="image/20040930/30-illus.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=500,height=450,scrollbars=yes") } Scarcity amidst plenty summarises the water problem ailing hill-stations today. They receive good rainfall but there is no mechanism to collect runoff for later use. Result: water shortage every year. How did the Brits manage it? They cashed on the terrain, and gravity, …
The stinky spectacle of hill-stations getting buried under their own garbage is turning more real. Look down the slopes and you will see mounds of coloured plastic bags, and tourist staples such as empty packets of potato chips and plastic water bottles. All of which is mixed with vegetable waste …
Evam Piljain, an 80-year-old Toda who's spent all her life in Ooty, feels distraught at the sight of her hometown. "I cannot sit in the verandah anymore,' she says. She moves to her drawing room and gazes wistfully at a photograph of Ooty taken in the early part of the …
Planning is non-existent for India's hill-stations, admit hill municipalities. In the absence of a master plan, a free-for-all situation prevails where one constructs wherever one finds free space; if there is lack of space, one can simply add another storey to one's house. There is no tourist plan, which becomes …
Incredible India. The land of mystic splendour. The hidden paradise. These are just three slogans to convince people to turn themselves into tourists and land up, every summer, in droves in hill-stations. Ooty's annual flower show attracts 0.2 million tourists over two days. In addition, it receives over 0.3 million …
