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 …
IS WATER pollution all about throwing rubbish and other unwanted things into the water? No. In fact, a harmless activity like farming could lead to something as insidious as nitrate pollution. In 1989, England's National River Authority shortlisted 10 areas in the country which had high levels of nitrates in …
EVEN as diseases caused by arsenic-tainted water continue to ravage several districts of West Bengal, the state government has initiated a Rs 15-crore action plan to supply safe drinking water to the affected districts. The worst hit areas are Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, the 24 Parganas, Burdwan and Howrah. The state's …
LAST YEAR, the smog-covered industrial township of Panipat in Haryana was accorded the status of an "eco-town". However, a still-to-be-released report by the state department of environment that the Down To Earth team was privy to rudely ridicules a district administration campaign that is flaunting this prestige. The report blandly …
ARSENIC pollution of groundwater in West Bengal is reportedly threatening 13 border districts in Bangladesh as well. Some people are said to have died because of the pollution in West Bengal, says a Panos report. Bangladesh scientists have found arsenic in water samples collected from the bordering districts, adds the …
"JODHPUR has a future only if the Indira Gandhi canal is brought till here," says J Venkateshwarlu, director of the Central Arid Zone Research Institute. Come it certainly will, but no one will vouch for the ability of the Jodhpur branch of the canal to deliver sufficient water to the …
THE PLIGHT of the people of Bichhri, whose groundwater was rendered unfit for consumption by the effluent discharge from Silver Chemicals Ltd, may have been forgotten in Udaipur, with the case moving at snail's pace through the courts. But the industrial threat to the area's groundwater has not receded. Now, …
Before the Green Revolution of the early 1970s, the farmers of Junagadh district on the Saurashtra coast set records in agricultural production. They boast of having done as well as their north Indian counterparts in producing oilseeds, groundnuts, sugarcane, bananas and even wheat. But today, many of them -- particularly …
IN THE wake of a severe drought in Jodhpur in 1970, the public health engineering department (PHED) decided to obtain water from the countryside around the city as an emergency measure. Rampura-Mathania was chosen because of its high water table. The PHED installed 26 tubewells in Rampura-Mathania with a total …
OUT OF sight, out of mind. Perhaps that is why the depletion and degradation of groundwater throughout India has gone virtually unnoticed while much concern has been expressed over the condition of surface water resources. The crisis created by falling groundwater levels has grabbed the attention of only the immediate …
Why is the Central Groundwater Board unable to monitor sub-soil water pollution? The reason is certainly not original: India's groundwater inspection authority, with a 5,300-strong staff, claims it needs about 40 more people before it can undertake a study of the 17 critically polluted industrial estates. The ministry of environment …
