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 technology mission for the leather industry has been set up to stop the West's green consumerists from seeing red. The mission, with an allocation of Rs 20 crores, came into operation from January 12 and will focus on upgrading production processes and promoting environment-friendly technology. This will be jointly …
THE inky blue waves of the Bay of Bengal wash the shores of one of the most beautiful archipelagos anywhere. But the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar (A&N;) Islands is much more than just a tourist destination. Housing the infamous Cellular Jail, Andaman had once symbolised colonial subjugation. But …
Friday namaz congregations in Pakistan may never be the same again. Alarmed by the rising incidence of AIDS, plans are afoot to have religious leaders deliver sermons on the disease. The government is already preparing a text on AIDS for the devotees. Although official sources claim that the programme has …
FOUR related phenomena threaten to increase the water crisis in the 21st century: a natural upper limit to the availability of fresh water; increasing population; pollution; and delay in completing ongoing projects. Water policy planners, therefore, must choose the most efficient method of conservation and use of existing resources. This …
A World Bank environmental strategy plan warns that the Middle East and North Africa are heading for an environmental disaster. The report says that a quarter of the Arab World has no access to safe water supplies, while 1/5th of its population lives in cities with "unacceptable levels" of air …
Coral reefs, one of the world's most biologically diverse ecosystems, are in a steady state of decline around the world. A study by the World Conservation Union and the United Nations Environment Programme in the mid-'80s found that people have damaged or destroyed significant amounts of reefs off the coasts …
Water consumption the world over is growing - it is likely to grow by five times between 1940 and 2000. This, coupled with the pollution of existing water resources is causing water scarcity in more and more parts of the planet. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the …
The growing problems in providing adequate drinking water to urban populations is a consequence of the lack of long-term planning and inefficient management of urban water usage.
ENFORCING water pollution laws depends wholly on strict and difficult congruity between different readings of pollutants in a given water source. To standardise water pollution measurements, scientists at the Delhi-based Centre for Biochemical Technology (CBT), a research laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), have recently developed …
THE RECENT controversy over the national and global role of non-government organisations (NGOs), generated at the preparatory meeting for the United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Environment and Development (ICPD) in New York is seething with portents. It seems to be one more issue over which the North and the South …
IT HAS taken decades of singleminded toil for the world's leading green organisations to move centripetally from what was considered the lunatic fringe to a position of such popular power and eminence today that governments disregard their opinions only at their own risk. This is civil society at its best: …
The state government of Delhi has identified the "real culprit" behind the city's street congestion -- the ubiquitous cycle-rickshaw. Funny, considering that the harmless three-wheeler is the only non-polluting commercial transport vehicle on the streets. A spokesperson for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the licensing authority for rickshaws, said …
CANADA'S Royal Commission on Reproductive Technology has recommended a ban on sex determination tests. It has been stated that Indian Canadians and other South Asians visit ultrasound clinics for prenatal testing to have only male children. According to the Commission's report, sex selection "reinforces the idea of a child's sex …
THE THORP nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria county continues to haunt British environment secretary John Gummer. About a year after the controversial
THE MAHARASHTRA government is planning to take action against Nippon Denro Ispat Limited (NDIL), one of the largest steel manufacturing concerns in the country, for causing water pollution. The Rs 300-crore NDIL plant, located in Kalmeshwar town near Nagpur, was commissioned in 1985 and uses hydrochloric acid in its manufacturing …
THE WORLD Bank will require more environmental protection by Asian loan recipients. The bank might demand the use of unleaded gasoline and better traffic management and might even require recycling of solid waste. The bank paints a particularly dismal picture of Asia and estimates approximately $38 billion a year is …
A sophisticated environmental pollution information and control system (EPICS) is being developed jointly by the Union ministry of environment and forests and the Delhi-based National Institute for Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS). According to A K Mathur of NISTADS, the key feature of EPICS would be the production of …
In a bid to make pollution control more efficient, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has proposed an all-India environment protection service, which will function as an enforcement agency. CPCB chairperson D K Biswas has also recommended recently that the board structure be replaced with an integrated authority possessing a …
LOANS FROM the US have helped Pakistan use other funds to finance its nuclear programme, according to the Central Intelligence Agency of USA, reports indicate. The agency is, however, uncertain about whether China continues to provide Pakistan with nuclear weapon technology.
THE ANTI-GOLF movement is gaining momentum almost in tandem with the game's popularity. Anti-golf activists see the sport as "the most serious environmental problem in the world". Tricia Barnett, a British conservationist and supporter of the Global Anti-Golf Movement (GAGM) (Down To Earth, August 15, 1993), thinks the campaign has …
