Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Are missing palm trees causing …
The 'innocent-looking' telephone directory has been the target of the ire of US environmentalists. Recently, they had much to cheer about when the city council of Santa Monica, California, passed a resolution banning the clearcutting of temperate rainforests. The resolution was in response to concerns over the logging of old.growth …
Even as the country is emerging from the ruins of decades of war, it is faced with another kind of threat. Continuing violence and an open market economy have brought the country on the brink of environmental devastation. Unchecked logging could lead to disasters such as soil erosion and flooding. …
THE second session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) was held from March 11-22 in Geneva. Delegates conducted their first substantive discussions of six programme elements: underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation; fragile ecosystems affected by desertification and the impact of air pollution on forests; needs and requirements …
• India was one of the signatories to the draft international convention on liability and compensation for damages in connection with the carriage of hazardous and rundous substances by sea, organised by the International Maritime Organization. The convention was ratified on April 15 in London. • Come June, and the …
THERE seems to be no limit to the harm done on the environment in the name of development., At least one lakh trees - mainly coconut - are proposed to be felled to clear the ground for a proposed airport in Lakshadweep. The local government has planned to construct an …
YET another instance of mindless destruction of forests: a pine forest, specially grown at a cost of Rs 10 lakh a decade ago, will be razed to make way for a VIP, complex close to the Raj Bhawan in Gangtok, Sikkim. More than 1,150 conifers, which formed a botanical garden …
A rare sudden spell of snow - nearly 12 inches - in central Mexico, has driven millions of Monarch butterflies, which have their winter sojourn in Mexico, to a cold death. The distinct orange and black insects fly every year from their summer haunts in Canada across the expanse of …
The Himalayan mountains constitute an ecological system naturally primed for disaster. The deep gorges through which the Himalayan rivers flow convey the impression that the Himalayan valleys would never face floods. Yet these very channels often fail to contain the fury of disastrous floods. Among the most affected valleys are …
ABOUT five krn off the one-time tourist spot, Kangan, on the S'rinagar-Leh highway etched out in one of Kashmir's several semi-denuded hills, there is hectic activity. Downhill, a platoon of the 11 th sector of the Indian Army's Rashtriya Rifles (RR) unit, armed with sub-machine guns and a rocket launcher, …
TWO large-scale forest projects slated to begin this year, aim to focus on Laos' forest resources more extensively. The projects - the World Bank's (WB) Forest Management and Conservation Project (FOMACOP), and the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) industrial tree plantations - are being criticised for posing serious ecological and social …
Kampuchea's logging concession to an Indonesian company - which covers nearly 19 per cent of the country's remaining forest - has raised the spectre of an environmental disaster in southeast Asia. To counter the ill-effects of logging, King Nordorn Sihanouk called on logging companies to plant three trees for each …
Amapa, one of the poorest states of Brazil, has won plaudits for its development model. Spearheading the change is Joao Alberto Capiberibe, a former guerrilla who is now governor of the state. Capiberibe's commitment to sustainable development has been described by the environmental group, Friends of the Earth as "unprecedented …
"LARGE parts of Uttarakhand now lie denuded ... the whole region is turning into a desert. If this trend continues for another 50 years, it will become impossible to save the Himalaya from total collapse," environmental activist Chandi Prasad Batt had said at a public rally in 1980. One could …
BATHED in a halo of neon and sodium lights, Port Blair looks very attractive at night. For a few undiscerning moments, you are impressed by the fruits of development. But it"s not long before the effect wears off, revealing the sordid picture underneath. The entire town draws its electric fuel …
The Central government's recent announcement that an action plan has been formulated to safeguard the pristine forests in the north-east -- in collaboration with the states of the region -- has not made any dent in the ongoing devastation in the picturesque valley of Barak near Silchar in Assam. Deforestation, …
A gigantic "tree-felling" scam has recently been unearthed in Indonesia. The government is furning against some forestry companies which, it claims, have used a e self-assessitrilent system to avoid paying the mandatory fees. This has resulted 3 in largescale fraud in the industry; the companies have used loopholes to cheat …
WE MAY all have telephonic links with each other but surrounding us will be barren land devoid of trees. This futuristic scenario may become a reality as rapid advances in the telecommunication industiy will encourage the publishing of more telephone directories and, consequently, the felling more trees. The introduction of …
Panama is reeling under a water shortage crisis that can attain monumental proportions in future, if the largescale environmental degradation resulting from indiscriminate commercial logging is not controlled. Since 1990, water has been rationed and hydro-power supplies have been reduced. Deforestation has disrupted the water-cycle and rainfall patterns, increased soil …
THE state of Rajasthan evokes images of camels loping over lifeless sand stretching to the horizon, without the welcome punctuation of green cover. So the state government's bid to denotify 3,500 sq km of forest cover for mining purposes sparked off an alarum. Rajasthan has hardly 9 per cent notified …
• The Neyyar, a small river in southern Kerala which originates from the famous Agastya hills, has been almost completely destroyed by merciless sandmining over the past few years. • The Bharathapuzha, Kerala's longest river, has been the font of inspiration to several Malayalam writers. Reams have been written about …
