Judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of In Re: T N Godavarman Thirumalpad Vs Union of India & Others. The Supreme Court said that that the allotment of 11.89 hectare of reserve forest land in Survey No.21 Kondhwa Budruk in district Pune for agriculture purposes on August 28, …
the Kandamanur Reserve Forest area, in south Tamil Nadu, earmarked as degraded forest, is fast regenerating. Implementation of joint forest management programme in the region has transformed the forest area as well as the life of residents of nearby villages of Kanavaipatti and Pudu Ramachandrapuram. The two villages have been …
Global warming literally threatens to swallow the small archipelago in the Indian Ocean and the worries are begin to show upon the people. In his recent state visit to India, Maldives president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom expressed deep concern over the threat to Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. India has …
the last 15 years have seen a virtual explosion of intergovernmental negotiations to formulate global environmental treaties. This ecological globalisation is the result of the ongoing process of economic growth and globalisation which has linked the world's economies and now threatens to overuse the world's ecological systems to fulfill national …
even in a scene which was as spectacular, chaotic and confusing as a circus, it was a lone, odd voice. While all the participants were harping on the water scarcity facing the world, a pamphlet doing the rounds at the Second World Water Forum, held at the Hague in the …
India, Pakistan and Nepal have called for regional cooperation to tackle environmental problems in South Asia. The subcontinent in South Asia is bestowed with immense natural resources, vast fertile plain land, thick forests and extended shoreline. Yet, water and air pollution, lack of proper and efficient management of resources, extending …
THE second session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF) was held from March 11-22 in Geneva. Delegates conducted their first substantive discussions of six programme elements: underlying causes of deforestation and forest degradation; fragile ecosystems affected by desertification and the impact of air pollution on forests; needs and requirements …
CIVIL wars and ethnic conflicts spilling across national borders evoke varying responses. At times, even though assistance and funds may be readily available, it does not reach the needy due to lack of coordination and communication among non - governmental organisations (NGOS) working in the field. Jon Bennett, former director …
IT is the era of knowledge revolution. And we are living in a 'knowledge society' ever since we learned how to make a fire and where to find food. The values of competition and materialism mostly dominate the human society today. In my mind, a future cannot be built on …
BANGLADESH'S Grameen Bank -- a cooperative banking system with easy loan repayment conditions -- has inspired US President Bill Clinton. When he was governor of Arkansas, Clinton launched the Goodfaith Fund, modelled after Grameen. Now, he plans to launch a similar scheme on a national level to extend lending to …
AFTER much dithering, Russia has joined Europe, Canada and Japan in the US-led international space station project. Russia will merge its Mir programme with the US Freedom programme for the project, the first of its kind. Orbiting where Russia's Mir 1 is currently deployed, the project will consist of the …
In late April, the Indo-British Environment Initiative (IBEI) was launched simultaneously in London and New Delhi to help unblock follow-up international green negotiations after the Rio summit. The intiative was taken up by British environment secretary Michael Howard, who wrote to his Indian counterpart Kamal Nath, inviting him to set …
A NEPALESE expert committee rules out any adverse effect to Nepal from the Indo-Nepal agreement on the Tanakpur barrage, which concerns the utilisation of natural resources. The 11-member, government-appointed panel's ruling paves the way for parliamentary approval of the 120-MW hydel project. Nearly 3 ha of Nepalese land has been …
BANGALORE is witnessing dramatic protests these days against foreign businesses. Less than a fortnight after agitated farmers raided the offices of Cargill Seeds India Pvt Ltd (Down To Earth, January 31), there were demonstrations in the city against the state government's intention to approve construction of a model township near …
Why are you opposed to the township? The Japanese are coming to make money for themselves. We do not agree this will benefit Karnataka or India. Moreover, the government has been so secretive about the nature and features of the township. The chief minister has given contradictory information. What are …
Why do you want the township? It will bring in an investment of more than Rs 20,000 crore. Nobody in India can match this scale of investment in the present economic situation. What do feel about the fears expressed by environmentalists? The Japanese are extremely quality conscious. They will go …
CARE INTERNATIONAL president Malcolm Fraser, who made a recent fact-finding visit to Somalia, has appealed for the UN peacekeeping force there to be increased to 15,000 and for deployment of about 500 observers in the country. He warned that unless UN aid workers receive adequate protection from marauding, local gunmen, …
For growing economies the stress has to be on patterns of natural resource use and not on the status of natural resources; that is, dealing with the causes rather than the symptoms of the problem of climate change. The time has come for rapidly growing Asia to distinguish between the …
MukulSanwal[1] Global climate policy is being reframed, moving away from an exclusive focus on emissions, the symptoms, to the causes of the problem, use of energy, and new sustainable development architecture. The Co-chair’s Non-Paper, as the draft negotiating text,shows that divergent perspectives on how best to achieve the Objective of …
