MONTHS before its expected date of becoming operational, the Koodankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district has earned the ire of people living nearby. On August 15, three gram sabhas passed resolutions asking for its closure. About 60,000 people live within 10 km of the 2,000 MW plant, …
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) …
Mining in India is regulated by multiple institutions functioning at multiple levels to provide checks and balances. In Bellary, however, every department and agency supposed to regulate and control mining simply collapsed under the weight of the “loot”. Bellary, therefore, represents a colossal failure of governance. There are seven ministries …
IN A setback to Vedanta Alumina Ltd, the Orissa High Court on July 19 upheld the Centre’s decision to stall expansion of the company’s refinery in Lanjigarh. The court, however, said the company can apply for the environmental clearance for its expansion afresh. The Union environment ministry in October last …
CALL it a pressing need to meet the growing thirst of the Mumbai metropolitan area or plain negligence, but the Maharashtra government is building a dam in a quake-prone zone. Worse, work is going on without environmental clearance or the consent of people who stand to lose their homesteads, livelihoods …
400,000 MAY BE DISPLACED The environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the project says 276 villages will be affected; an estimated 177,275 people live in these villages. The Polavaram Project Environmental Impact Appraisal Report of 1985 expected 150,697 people to be displaced in 226 villages. But the population of these villages …
A group of over 25 scientists, bureaucrats and activists released a statement on April 19, demanding transparency in India’s nuclear power programme. The statement was released a day after a clash between policemen and those protesting the proposed nuclear power plant at Jaitapur in Maharashtra. One person was killed and …
This is a critique by Environment Support Group of the weak review of the environmental and social impacts of the POSCO project in Orissa, and how this has resulted in making project affected communities into a 'rightless people'. This study is an effort to deeply enquire into the circumstances and …
A village in Andhra Pradesh has become the epicentre of an eight-month-long fight against a power plant in neighbouring Kakarapalli. Following two deaths in police firing on February 28, people from 29 villages near the plant site thronged Vadditandra village in Srikakulam district to show support and mourn the deaths. …
Lavasa is a destination for the well-heeled, upwardly mobile, aspiring for quality life. The streets bear names like Thicket and Celosia (an ornamental plant); the village that the town replaces—Dasve—has become the Dasve boulevard. The town centre boasts a town hall that does not resemble any municipal office but a …
The Supreme Court has ordered a new environmental study of the site where detergent company Nirma is setting up a cement plant. The site in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, is believed to be on wetlands. The March 18 decision came after Nirma moved an appeal in the Gujarat High Court against a …
India’s maiden planned hill city that made news for bending rules and undertaking unauthorised construction may get the Centre’s nod, after all. The buzz is the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) may give conditional clearance to Lavasa, which is being developed in the Western Ghats, 65 km from …
About a decade ago, farmers of 15 villages in Mahuva block in coastal Saurashtra could barely grow one crop a year. This was because the groundwater they used for irrigation was saline. Their fortunes changed in 2000 when the Gujarat government created a reservoir—Samadhiyala bandhara— by building a dam at …
IN DHINKIA village in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district, residents gathered around fragile bamboo gates, armed with sticks, brooms and lathis. The gates and improvised weapons were meant to keep government officials out. The residents expected a visit from them any day after the Union environment ministry gave environmental clearance to South …
The Bombay High Court has given Lavasa Corporation Ltd six weeks' time to submit documents demanded by the Union ministry of environment and forests. Lavasa has time till March 10 to pacify the ministry, which had ordered the corporation to stop work on November 25 last year saying the township …
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 …
Some hundred people, men and women, were gathered on the hill. Many more, I could see, were trudging up. Their faces were resolute. I asked why they were opposing the cement plant. Their answer was simple: “We cannot eat cement.” “But the plant will bring you employment and prosperity,” I …
This is an environmental assessment study for the proposed National Rural Livelihood Project (NRLP) to be implemented in 100 districts and 400 blocks of 12 Indian states with an aim to increase and sustain income of the poor, especially women.
2010 was a loud year for the environment. High profile projects—from Vedanta to Posco and Navi Mumbai airport to Lavasa—hit the headlines for non-compliance with environmental regulations. While 2009 was the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, it was only last year that we were all outraged by the …
The POSCO steel plant and port planned in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district have run into fresh trouble. An expert appraisal committee (EAC) of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests deferred its decision on clearing the port project, saying the South Korean steel giant did not furnish sufficient details. The company …
