Order of the National Green Tribunal the matter of Krishna Das KV Vs State of Kerala dated 07/01/2025. The matter is related to pollution in in Ashtamudi lake, Kollam district, Kerala. The NGT received a report from Justice A V Ramakrishna Pillai, Chairman, State Level Monitoring Committee, Kerala reporting massive …
It is a fight that promises to get bitter. But the Indonesian government has launched a determined battle to weed out illegal foreign fishing vessels that authorities claim are stealing heavily from the Indonesian waters and thereby cutting into the livelihood of the local fisherfolk. "I know the illegal foreign …
the end of the millennium meeting of turtle biologists in South Padre Island, Texas, usa , took stock of the status of sea turtles and found that all seven species are still surviving. However, what did dampen the spirits was the news that the mass nesting of Kemp's Ridley turtles …
Four freighters, one already loaded with 107 containers of cargo for Singapore, have been bottled up in Thailand since small-scale fisherfolk blockaded Songkhla Bay. The fisherfolk are demanding an end to nocturnal anchovy fishing by boats equipped with powerful lights to attract the fish. Port director Wattanachai Ruanglertpanyakul, of Chao …
the Southern Ocean, comprising the southern-most parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans that surround Antarctica, is facing its greatest environmental threat ever. Illegal fishing boats are pushing marine life and seabirds to the brink of extinction. Particularly affected by this
The nesting season of the Olive Ridley turtles at the Gahirmatha beach in Orissa begins in January and lasts till March. However, this year they have still not yet begun nesting. The beach is the largest nesting ground in the world ( Down To Earth , Vol 7, No 2). …
WE HAVE met the enemy, and he is us." This line, from the well-known 1960s US comic strip Pogo by Walt Kelly, still retains its topicality today as a comment on our contribution to environmental degradation. Our insatiable appetite for 'progress' has ensured the extinction of countless life forms, and …
The world's largest rookery in Gahirmatha, Orissa, has not witnessed mass nesting of Olive Ridley Turtles for the last two years. The coast once again wafts for the turtle boards with the nesting season in December. This year, between January and May, over 15,000 turtles were killed by fishing trawlers. …
Various , United Nation (UN) agencies - United Nations' Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nation's Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nation's Industrial Development Programme (UNIDP) - will be releasing funds to the tune of US $69 millions, to phase-out ozone-depleting substances. The programme will be approved at the meeting of …
Thousands of Olive Ridleys, an endangered species of sea turtles, are being swept up dead on the Gahirmatha coast since the beginning of the year. This has set alarm bells ringing in the environment community and experts the world over have voiced concern over the issue. Gahirmatha has emerged in …
Orissa chief minister J B Patnaik announced on May 22 that the Gahirmatha beach stretching up to Hukitola in Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary will soon be declared the "core area' where poaching and entry of mechanised trawlers will be strictly prohibited. Expressing concern over the large-scale death of sea turtles, he …
Of all things, sea turtles have become the substance of trade news these days. In March 1998, the US slapped a ban on the import of shrimp from India on the plea that trawlers which fish for shrimp in Indian waters do not use the turtle excluder device. India challenged …
IN 1975, when she was prime minister, Indira Gandhi had suggested deploying Coast Guards to check illegal trawling with a view to leave the Olive Ridleys unmolested in the Orissa area. Gahirmatha had just been brought to the attention of the world by Bustard. Over the years, however, there was …
• The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has constituted a committee to montor the implementation of the rules of hazardous waste management. M G K Menon, former minister for science and technology will head the panel. • The Central government has infor-med the Supreme Court that Agra does not …
the presence of an unusually high number of bluefin tuna off the western coast of Ireland has invited a large fleet of Japanese tuna boats and a lot of trouble. Ireland's tiny maritime patrol fleet had to employ everything in its means to keep the Japanese tuna boats off its …
THE depleting fish stock of the world may yet not take a headlong plunge with the first international treaty to curtail overfishing in the open seas being approved by governments of more than 100 countries last month, at the UN headquarters in New York. The protocol marks the end of …
SEDUCED by Western biases, archaeologists and historians have neglected the rich seafaring tradition of maritime communities in the Indian Ocean area. The sciences of boat-making and navigation were acquired and painstakingly refined over generations as a logical corollary of association with the sea. And they are still in use. Traditional …
A Supreme Court ruling in November upheld the rights of "marginalised" traditional fisherfolk in Kerala, but they continued clashing with mechanised vessel operators. A division bench of the Supreme Court ratified the Kerala government's 1984 ban order against purse seine fishing (fishing with large, mechanised nets) upto 22.222 km from …
IF ONE were to visit the beach along Inchampakkam, a fishing village off the Madras-Mahabalipuram highway, one would see, amongst the wooden catamarans, a few black plastic ones. Catamarans made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) are becoming popular in Inchampakkam and its nearby villages, despite their high price -- between Rs …