Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Nayar river is vanishing - a yatra reveals conservation goes beyond science and policy" appearing in ‘The Down To Earth’ dated 03.06.2025. The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Nayar …
THE Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has fumbled in answering a critical question on carbonyl and methane emissions from vehicle exhausts: which pollutes less—petrol, diesel, CNG or LPG? The pollution watchdog’s study on emissions provides a database that could be used to give a policy message. It declared CNG to …
DIGITAL photographs of the retina have revealed that healthy people exposed to high levels of air pollution have narrower retinal blood vessels. While past studies linked an increase in air pollution to a higher risk of death and hospitalisation from heart disease, the study published in the November issue of …
EUROPE has set fuel-efficiency targets for vans to curb greenhouse gases emissions. Environment ministers who met at Brussels in December endorsed a deal to achieve emission of 175 grammes of CO2 per kilometre by 2017 and 147 g/km by 2020 from vans. The 2017 target represents a 14 per cent …
THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) has withdrawn from the Rs 200-crore wasteto- energy project at Okhla in south Delhi. The bank had promised about Rs 10 crore to the plant under the Asia Pacific Carbon Fund. ADB has not specified any reason for withdrawing from the project. Residents of Sukhdev …
If one were to compare steel consumption figures, Indians lag far behind the rest of the world. Against the world average of 215 kg, per person steel consumption in India is just 50 kg a year. This consumption gap is likely to reduce in coming years. With rapid economic growth, …
A blanket of smog envelopes Kuarmunda and Bonai subdivisions of Odisha’s Sundargarh district every morning. Area residents attribute it to emissions from sponge iron factories nearby that switch off their emission control devices—electrostatic precipitators (ESPs)—at night. The reason these factories get away with such offences is weak rules and weaker …
Sometime in June 2009, the West Bengal chief minister’s office forwarded a complaint to the state pollution control board (SPCB) about three sponge iron factories in West Medinipur district. A team was dispatched to Jhargram subdivision. It found a thick layer of grey dust coating trees and pathways, and noted …
What inspired you to monitor air pollution through a cellphone? In Los Angeles, we always worry about air quality. In the past few years, there has been a revolution in the cellphone technology. They are equipped with programmable sensors like cameras, GPS systems and compasses. If each phone can act …
Why a song on mining? I am a trained environmental engineer, so I always wanted to write a song on environmental degradation caused by mining in Australia. I am not sure why I did not write it before, but it is an opportune time as mining is expanding in the …
PLANTS soak more atmospheric pollutants than thought. A study by US scientists shows that apart from carbon dioxide, plants rid the air of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, the most abundant class of carbon-based chemicals in the atmosphere. Automobile exhaust, coal burning and industry are some of the major sources …
CYCLING is a good aerobic fitness exercise. But should one cycle on congested city roads? Yes, suggests a team of Dutch scientists. Even though there are risks of traffic accident and exposure to vehicle exhaust, health benefits of cycling are greater than the hazards associated with it, they say. The …
HOW cloudy is it outside? Will it rain? The answers may depend on the level of atmospheric pollution in one’s region. Cloud-forming microscopic particles, called aerosols, absorb and reflect solar radiation. These particles have the ability to modify cloud formation and encourage or suppress precipitation. They can be released from …
Sevagram ashram in Maharashtra where Mahatma Gandhi spent many years of his life is threatened by pollution. Effluents from a pig iron plant are flowing in the drain passing through the ashram complex in Wardha district and have contaminated the groundwater. Villagers have stopped using the well in the ashram, …
STRESS, frustration, rising blood pressure and breathing problems are common in motorists who spend hours in traffic jams. Now scientists have found another health consequence of traffic snarls— diabetes. Scientists from German Diabetes Centre and the Institute for Environmental Medical Research at Heinrich Heine University, Germany, claim traffic-related air pollution …
The rich green fields of Darramuda village in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh were almost peaceful. A JCB backhoe loader whirred on as it dug in and pulled out lumps of wet brown earth. The crane inched along carving a neat road on the fertile fields. The people of Darramuda, in …
The opening and closing ceremonies for Commonwealth Games at the Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) Stadium will flaunt two things— glitter and smoke. To ensure reliable power for stadiums, the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee has bought diesel-run generators with a combined capacity of about 40 MW—the power consumed by the Delhi airport. …
Chhattisgarh is industrialising fast: within 10 years of its creation, the state has 200 large industrial units and scores of small ones. More than 700 are on their way. A handful of units existed when this largely agricultural state was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000. Known as central …
BLACK carbon, or soot, was known as a threat to only the public health until 2007 when the UN climate agency, IPCC, said it is a major contributor to global warming after CO2. The fine particulate matter, which efficiently absorbs sunlight and causes atmospheric warming, is released in large amounts …
CALL it a conspiracy between cloud and pollution. Stretches of clouds, impregnated with fine pollutants, or aerosols, reflect a large amount of sunlight over India back into space. This could be a major factor in the reduced radiation on the Indian soil, said researchers from Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology …
Sushil Kumar Lodhi, 32, walks about Dashehari village with newspaper clippings, which carried news of his grandfather’s death. His grandfather suffered a heart attack on his way back from Lucknow. He went there to convince officials not to build a solid waste management facility in their village because it would …
