Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Akhilesh Kumar Vs State of Uttar Pradesh & Others dated 23/05/2025. The matter related to illegal mining activites carried out by Jai Maa Chandrika Enterprises, Rajendra Nagar, village Kabari, district Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh. The applicant also alleged about illegal sale …
PAPUA New Guinea is the most exotic country on earth. A visitor is quite likely to be asked, "What is a nuclear family?" According to the local joke in PNG, it consists of a mum, a dad, two kids and an anthropologist. But given the worldwide interest in environment, it …
• Nicolas Hayek, chairperson of SMH AG, is looking for a partner to introduce the automotive equivalent of the Swatch watch he made famous in the 1980s. Hayek's inexpensive, stylish and "environmentally correct" car is to have low pollution levels, thanks to a hybrid system of battery- and gasoline-powered motors. …
MECHANICAL mining rights are being considered on the flood-prone Kalu Ganga south of Colombo for the South African gem trading company, Colombo Sapphire Ltd. According to Panos Features, this will increase the threat of floods as dredging by CSL might weaken the banks and cause them to collapse. Besides, siltation …
IN JANUARY, Doordarshan aired a documentary called The Green Brigade, which despite a typical Films Division tone, was informative, interesting and even balanced. It was on the Ecological Task Force (ETF) set up by the army to take up reforestation and ecological stabilisation in inhospitable regions. The ETF consists of …
THE GRAIN bank scheme started in Karjat tribal block by the Academy of Development Science has had some positive effects. Besides making villagers self-reliant, the mechanism of such banks has resulted in quarrels being settled and the hold of sahukars (moneylenders) getting weakened. The programme began in 1988 with four …
In a bid to keep Shimla and its surroundings free from ecologically damaging activities, the Shimla High Court has come down heavily on stone quarry owners and stone crushers in and around the town. A court judgement on January 7, 1994 in effect preempts clearance from the Union ministry of …
A REVIEW of previously classified documents has revealed that the US had used babies and unsuspecting patients for experiments on radioactivity for many years. It had also released large amounts of radiation into the environment in the 1940s and early 1950s. At least 19 mentally retarded teenagers were fed radioactive …
THE REBELS who struck in the early hours of 1994 in the Mexican state of Chiapas named themselves after the hero of the Mexican revolution of 1910, Emiliano Zapata. The old guerilla hero is still revered as the spiritual leader of the revolution. A portrait of the revolutionary -- in …
HOW MANY claws does a leopard have? None of the forest officials in Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary (BWS) knew and several villagers nearly paid the price for the officials' ignorance. It all began on September 13, when a leopard entered the house of Dauji Motiram Langhe Ahupe in BWS and hid …
THE SIGNING of the Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has prompted environmentalists to call for follow-up action, fearing inadequacies of the pact's provisions in the environmental field. Executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Elizabeth Dowdeswell has called the Uruguay round an initial …
INDIA has urged the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to forge a common programme on population and development before the forthcoming UN conference in Cairo on the subject. During a SAARC meeting in Kathmandu recently, Indian minister for health and family welfare B Shanakaranand said it was essential …
CHINA, Malaysia and Indonesia are adamantly opposed to the creation of the post of a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, fearing it may be used against them. They point out Western countries opposed a proposal requiring the UN to report annually on human rights in developed as well as …
THE PEOPLE of the Aravalli region are tired of waiting for the authorities to rescue their habitat from destruction caused by unbridled mining and deforestation. In November, about 300 villagers from Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana reached New Delhi after undertaking a padyatra to spread awareness about the issue. Rajendra Singh, …
A ONCE-peaceful herd of about 150 elephants in southern Sri Lanka has turned violent, destroying property and killing humans in a last ditch attempt to save its habitat, writes Mallika Wanigasundara in a Panos report. The pachyderms feel threatened by the Pelwatte Sugar Co -- an ill-conceived project that encroached …
Mining inside and on the boundary of Sariska National Park in Rajasthan's Alwar district has resumed despite a Supreme Court ban. Enquiries with the Zilla Khaniz Udyog Sangh (ZKUS), the local mine owners' representative body, revealed the action followed a recent letter from the Union minster for environment and forests …
IN INDIA, environment is hardly an election topic. No one expects political parties to make environment a plank and neither do most voters base their decisions on ecological promises. However, in the just-concluded assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, the absence of a burning …
FOR THE candidates of Bhopal (North) constituency, the area worst affected by the gas leak in 1984, relief for the victims seems to be a non-issue. Congress candidate Rasool Ahmad Siddique smugly declares voters are "satisfied with the relief they are getting" and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Ramesh Sharma …
GREEN issues came to the fore in several colonies of Delhi. But, for inexplicable reasons, metropolis-wide environmental issues such as the rapidly increasing air pollution, were ignored. Some of the city's otherwise articulate middle-class even accepted the problem of vehicular pollution as fait accompli. Says O P Sharda, president of …
ONE RARE case of an environmental issue spreading out and influencing an election campaign in two constituencies is that of Betwa river pollution in Madhya Pradesh. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for Vidisha and the Congress candidate for nearby Sanchi tried to cash in on the issue, cleverly using …
PARTY manifestoes have repeatedly shown that election promises come cheap. Green ones may come even cheaper. The Congress party's environmental concerns have been stressed in its election manifestoes since the mid-1970s. However, that has not stopped the party from presiding over heavy exploitation of India's forests and groundwater. Now, it …
