Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item Titled "Neglected Katora Houz in Hyderabad’s Golconda Fort Cries for attention appearing in ‘The Siasat Daily’ dated 25 May 2025". The application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled “Neglected Katora Houz in Hyderabad’s …
A Texas-based company, Energy Biosystems Corporation, has recently patented a recombinant gene that it "hopes will help eliminate acid rain". By manipulating the DNA of soil bacteria of the genus Rhodococcus, scientists have created an organism that "eats and metabolises" the acid rain-causing sulphur present in fossil fuels. The "newly …
Problems of pollution of the Rs 400-crore Thapar-DuPont project to manufacture nylon in Goa has become a bone of contention between the partners. Evidently, pollution control experts reporting directly to DuPont headquarters in the US have warned that more comprehensive planning has I to be done to control the 4 …
The West Bengal government's department of environment has decided to stop funding the state pollution control board for 3 years, during which the board is expected to set its house in order and exploit its full revenue-generation potential. A recent review by the department has come down heavily on the …
DESPITE the Madras-based Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) coming out with a package of clean technologies for the Tamil Nadu leather industry, in built resistance from small tanners and economic non-viability continue to blunt the impact of such efforts. Pressure from major importers like the us, Germany, France, Italy and …
DEVELOPING countries have reiterated their demand for more support from industrialised nations in their efforts to phase out the production and consumption of ozone depleting substances. At the 6th meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, held in Nairobi from October 3 to 7, developing country representatives said they …
or the campaign child of non-governmental organisations. It has come of age as a respectable middle class concern. Perhaps it is ready to graduate into commodity fetishism? Business establishments are certainly alive to this possibility, recasting themselves in an environmentally friendly image. Educational and research institutions, too, have responded by …
Lead-free petrol, which the ministry of environment :nd forests (MEF) is All: seeking to introduce in W, the 4 major metrop titan cities by April 1, 1995, is hazardous to health, says H B Mathur, professor,of mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. An expert on automobile pollution, …
THERE will be few who will disagree with the Supreme Court judgement that over Rs 420 crore have been washed away in the first phase of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) Without any significant results. This left little optimism about how the Rs 350 crore marked for the second phase …
ANXIOUS to curb air pollution, the US government is tightening the screws on automobile manufacturers. Air quality laws in California and Massachusetts now stipulate that 2 per cent of the total sales in the car market by 1988 should comprise "zero emission" vehicles, a requirement that only electric cars can …
THE government of the state of Hesse in Germany sent shock waves across the nation when it slapped speed limits of 90 kmph on autobahns and 80 kmph on other highways, apparently to lower the emission levels of ozone-depleting gases. The measure seems a bit tough to hang on to: …
WHILE the general populace awaits April 1, All Fools Day, with some trepidation, fearing a deluge of practical jokes, the gas-ridden automobile industry has an additional reason to look forward to the day this year with dread. Legislation being championed by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MEF) may …
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Testing in Maryland, USA, have developed an instrument that can detect gases present in infinitesimal amounts (Environmental Science & Technology, Vol 28, No 6). The instrument uses microwaves similar to those used in microwave cookers to measure as little as 10 parts …
The Union government will supply lead-free petrol to the 4 metropolitan cities from April 1, 1995. At a meeting chaired by environment minister Kamal Nath, to discuss steps to curb automobile pollution in big cities, it was decided to simultaneously ban the sale of 4-wheel vehicles without catalytic converters. Besides, …
THE government of Delhi has decided to promote the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative, less polluting fuel. More CNG outlets are to be opened in the near future in Delhi, as well as the neighbouring states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Besides, Delhi's Lt …
COMPRESSED Natural Gas (CNG)-fuelled 4-wheelers may soon be commercially viable in Delhi following the equipping of a petrol station with facilities to supply the petrol substitute. The station is registering a select number of applicants to convert vehicles to run on petrol and CNG in dual fuel mode. Last year, …
"TAKE the gold, but check the pollution": this is the new refrain, born of desperation, that the Brazilian government is directing at the thousands of gold-diggers who have reduced the Amazon basin to an expanse of infertile muck. The only way that the government can spare the Amazon river the …
THE controversial tilapia, a fast-breeding African fish, has been surreptitiously used by a company near Madras for pollution control experiments, despite a ban. Although the Union department of biotechnology had initially permitted the introduction of tilapia for pollution control and funded experimental projects that used them, it has been subsequently …
TO AID industries in preparing their annual environmental statements, a new concept of waste minimisation circle (WMC), in which member units will share their expertise and experiences in resource conservation, is to be introduced soon by Indian industry associations, institutions and the government. The statements, which are to be submitted …
THERE has been a reduction in the emissions of the oxides of sulphur and nitrogen, but the observed decrease in the acidic content of precipitation is less than expected. According to a recent study, the decrease hasn't come about because of the decline in the atmospheric concentration and deposition of …
GIVEN the state of pollution in Indian cities and rivers, most people would conclude that nothing is being done to control pollution. But figures have an unusual knack of belying common thinking. According to the Central Pollution Control Board, in 1992 no less than 5,535 cases were filed against pollution …
