Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of News Item titled "2 killed in blast at illegal cracker unit in Thanjavur appearing in The Hindu dated 19.05.2025". The application is registered suo-motu on the basis of the news item titled 2 killed in blast at illegal cracker unit …
The sight on television was heartbreaking: children lying in rows in the searing sun to be human shields against the takeover of their land for Korean giant POSCO’s mega bucks project. Facing them were armed police sent by the state government to assist in the operation. The steel plant and …
On the morning of June 13, 2011, Sukhdev Sahoo of Nuagaon in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district woke up in horror. The state administration had demolished his betel farm. The betel vines were in the way of India’s largest foreign direct investment: the US $12 billion POSCO project. Sahoo was threatened: “If …
Kate Forde believes dirt is precious to life. The British art historian has showcased dirt in different contexts in an exhibition at London’s Wellcome Collection. “The variety and scale of the waste produced in our factories is the uncelebrated evidence of industrial and economic progress,” says the curator in her …
A High Powered Committee set up by the Central government has suggested that allocation of natural resources should go to the highest bidder. This 13-member committee, headed by former finance secretary Ashok Chawla, submitted its recommendations in the first week of June. It was set up in January in the …
THE Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) has asked detergent company Nirma to explain why the environmental clearance granted to its cement plant in Gujarat should not be revoked. The ministry issued a show cause notice to the company on May 11 after a report by a group of …
ACTING on complaints of severe water shortage in Gurgaon, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on May 20 asked the Central Ground Water Authority, or CGWA, to provide the details of groundwater levels in the fast-expanding industrial and financial hub. It set August 5 as the deadline. In February, the …
Factories making Apple iPads and iPhones in China are forcing staff to sign pledges not to commit suicide, an investigation by two international NGOs, Centre for Research on Multinational Companies and Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbe-haviour, revealed. At least 14 workers at Foxconn factories in China have killed themselves …
THE Mizoram State Pollution Control Board has asked the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to suspend exploratory drilling for flouting environmental norms. The state-owned oil giant ONGC started drilling operations at a place about two kilometres from Meidum village in Kolasib district in February though it did not have …
THERVOY Kandigai village, 50 km northwest of Chennai in Thiruvallur district, is planning another protest against the Tamil Nadu government’s plan to set up an industrial estate on its 405 hectares (ha) of common forestland. People were encouraged by the recent Supreme Court ruling declaring the transfer of common land …
IN A landmark amendment to the law governing Maharashtra’s water regulatory system, the state has placed agriculture above industry in priority for allocating water from dams. Before the amendment of the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA) Act 2005, Maharashtra was the only state in the country to have given …
A village in Andhra Pradesh has become the epicentre of an eight-month-long fight against a power plant in neighbouring Kakarapalli. Following two deaths in police firing on February 28, people from 29 villages near the plant site thronged Vadditandra village in Srikakulam district to show support and mourn the deaths. …
The Supreme Court has ordered a new environmental study of the site where detergent company Nirma is setting up a cement plant. The site in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, is believed to be on wetlands. The March 18 decision came after Nirma moved an appeal in the Gujarat High Court against a …
JUST before the Kerala Assembly was dissolved for elections, the state’s Left Democratic Front government passed a law to secure compensation for people affected by Coca-Cola’s bottling operations at Plachimada in Palakkad district. The law, passed unopposed on February 24, provides for a three-member tribunal which will adjudicate on claims …
Some hundred people, men and women, were gathered on the hill. Many more, I could see, were trudging up. Their faces were resolute. I asked why they were opposing the cement plant. Their answer was simple: “We cannot eat cement.” “But the plant will bring you employment and prosperity,” I …
About a decade ago, farmers of 15 villages in Mahuva block in coastal Saurashtra could barely grow one crop a year. This was because the groundwater they used for irrigation was saline. Their fortunes changed in 2000 when the Gujarat government created a reservoir—Samadhiyala bandhara— by building a dam at …
MORE than 5,000 people were lathicharged while protesting the construction of an asbestos plant in a village in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. On January 22, residents of Chainpur were staging a sitin outside the site to protest cancercausing asbestos when police tried to disperse them. When the protestors turned violent, …
