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 …
THE ENVIRONMENTAL Foundation Ltd (EFL) of Sri Lanka has threatened the country's Central Environment Authority (CEA) with legal action for becoming an "advocate for industrialists" by granting "illusory legitimacy" to a metal quarry in Nittambuwa. EFL says CEA issued the quarry an environmental protection licence, ignoring the protests of the …
JAPANESE scientists have turned raw sewage into a a protein-rich creation that resembles beef in texture and hope to make it also taste and smell like beef. Mitsuyuki Ikeda, a member of the team, said: "We wanted to show that what comes out of the body can be recycled to …
THE US has let Norway off the hook. US President Bill Clinton informed Congress, in the first week of October, that he does not intend to impose trade sanctions against Norway for violating an international ban on commercial whaling, but would instead persuade it to halt killing of minke whales. …
THE LEGISLATION to prohibit state curbs on abortion -- the Freedom of Choice Act -- that was once the primary legislative goal of abortion rights supporters, has lost momentum. Besides being relentlessly attacked by opponents, the pro-abortion lobby is now divided on how comprehensive a bill is needed. They have …
IN BRAZIL'S worst such incident in nearly a century, gold miners illegally prospecting on the Yanomami reservation are believed to have massacred, with machetes and guns, 73 Indian tribals. Brazilian President Itamar Franco called in the country's military leadership to control the miners and set up a special ministry for …
THE PACIFIC island-state of Nauru, once abundant in phosphates deposited by birds, now lies devastated and desolate. Most of the phosphate was mined by Australia and royalties made the Nauruans one of the richest people in the world. Now, they are left without any natural resources and only an investment …
SCIENTISTS at the Gandhigram Rural Institute (GRI) in Tamil Nadu have found that used tubelights can be recycled into inexpensive laboratory apparatus, which will cost just one-tenth of what such apparatus costs in the market. B V Appa Rao, head of the university's science instrumentation centre and his team have …
WITH THE run-up to the assembly elections under way in Rajasthan, one would expect senior politicians to be busy plotting campaign strategy -- and not be immersed in the problems of mining in the Aravallis. But their concern is not surprising, given the fact that mining has become one of …
• The area being mined has gone up 36.5 times in the past 20 years and as a result, forest cover in the area has declined from 237.8 sq km in 1971 to 127.7 sq km. • In 1971, the entire forest cover of 237.8 sq km was classified as …
IF SHAH Jahan's men were to return today to Makrana, from where the marble for the Taj Mahal was procured, they would have no problem recognising it. Little has changed in the small Aravalli town in Nagore district, which has become synonymous the world over with quality white marble: the …
ON AUGUST 14, 1991, the residents of Mogji Ka Kheda village near Udaipur woke up to a shocking sight: labourers digging up a part of their 17-ha community pasture. When the startled villagers, led by Godaji Gadari, confronted the labourers they learnt the workers had been employed by Udaipur mining …
The proposed revision of the coal ministry's rehabilitation package may have raised the hopes of people displaced by coal mining projects, only to shatter them again. Given the reluctance of the state governments to dole out more money for rehabilitation, there is little hope of the proposal coming through. Details …
A RISE in poaching has threatened one-horned rhinoceroses in the Royal Chitwan National Park and the Royal Bardiya Wildlife Reserve along the Indian border. International groups are increasingly using traps and poisons to gather the rhinoceros horn, which fetches $25,000 per kg, according to a Panos report. Tirtha Man Maskey, …
MALAYSIAN exports of palm oil to the US are on the rebound. They shot up to 200,000 tonnes in 1992 -- double the 1989 level -- in the wake of a counter-offensive against propaganda that saturated fat from palm oil could induce heart failure. In 1987, the American Soyabean Association …
The Meghalaya government is taking no chances even though uranium mining in the state has been given a clean chit by a high-level team led by Atomic Energy Commission chairperson R Chidambaram. Chief minister S C Marak says he will send a multi-party delegation to the uranium mines in Jaduguda, …
BANGLADESH'S massive afforestation programme is fast becoming a people's movement. More than 60 million saplings were planted last year under the programme, partly funded by the UN Development Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. According to official sources, a countrywide radio and television programme has been started to educate …
Unplanned mining for granite and marble in the Aravalli ranges has transformed Badkhal lake in Haryana from a tourists' delight to a dry, rocky terrain. Located a stone's throw away from Delhi, the lake was developed by the Haryana tourism department into a popular tourist resort. The lake was formed …
AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Paul Keating dismissed fears that the concept of giving aborigines title to native land could put the country's agriculture and mining industries at risk. Keating was responding to a leading conservative politician's warning that the high court ruling, which handed ownership of government land to aborigines, would …
THE DUTCH government has reached an agreement with livestock farmers to reduce pollution-causing manure surpluses by 2000 and thereby avert forced cuts in pig, cattle and poultry herds. The amount of harmful phosphorus in manure produced on farms will be reduced by 30 per cent of the 1986 level by …
CARIBBEAN banana producers have challenged the review to be undertaken by a General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) panel to examine European Community restrictions imposed on the fruit's import from Latin America. The review was proposed by Latin American countries, whose bananas are cheaper, and seeks to do away …
