The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Dams have seen the strongest environmental protests in India. But these protests have failed to stop dams where rehabilitation has been the key issue. This shows that the government still believes that someone has to pay the price of development. And electoral democracy does not always favour the displaced. A …
In an environment marked by mass poverty, it is not easy to adopt high-cost technological options that have often been the hallmark of the Western effort to deal with environmental problems. But answers can and will be found. And they will lie, most of all, in: - Good democracy: debate …
What's the difference between the Ganga today and the Ganga 13 years ago. Nothing, except that Rs 462.02 crore from government coffers has been emptied into the river. Or rather the pockets of those entrusted with the task to clean up its dirty waters. The Ganga Action Plan, launched with …
The Centre for Science and Environment conducted a detailed study of a Himalayan village, called Syuta, though this is not its real name, in Chamoli district of Uttar Pradesh. The villagers spend 366,156 human hours on work every year. The data collected from this village confirms the reality that a …
India has witnessed strong anti-dam protests. The chorus of protests have grown: Development at what cost? But the government's response has been mixed. It has itself scrapped numerous dam proposals, and several more after public protests, but mostly where ecological impacts are high. Some of the dam projects which were …
With environmental problems growing by leaps and bounds and environmental governance institutions failing to meet the challenge, India's judiciary has begun to assert itself. The Supreme Court has triggered a wave of environmental consciousness in the country with its landmark judgements. Ordinary citizens now have the right to utilise the …
What does India's environmental future look like at the end of the century? The Citizens' Fifth Report on the State of India's Environment just released by the Centre for Science and Environment is a document on the current state of the environment but it also provides a peep into the …
once again, the Union Budget has failed to break new ground or provide direction as far as environmental policy is concerned. Yet, there was reason to hope that this time, things would be different: for the first time, the pre-Budget Economic Survey of the government included a chapter on sustainable …
They no longer say they are "living in Delhi'. Thousands of Delhi residents who have to breathe its unhealthy air prefer to say that they are "dying in Delhi'. The fear is for real. The capital's tree-lined avenues, grand colonial buildings, historical monuments are all submerged in the smog of …
Cse' s study to estimate industrial pollution is based on a model called the Industrial Pollution Projection System ( ipps ), developed by the World Bank ( wb) . The wb had earlier used the same model to estimate the pollution load in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines …
Whether it is an accidental leak or the emission of a poisonous gas, people are getting increasingly restive. In the face of sheer corporate indifference to environmental and health hazards, they are taking recourse to the judiciary. According to cpcb , the number of court cases filed under the Water …
The automobile bug has bitten Indians. And why not? Hyundai, Daewoo, telco , Honda and Fiat, to name a few, are coming up with the most buyer-friendly (read diesel), not necessarily environment-friendly, cars. Besides the luxury cars being introduced by the world's top car manufacturers, there are of course the …
I have written this before and I want to repeat it again: The Western economic model which we are following with such keenness is a highly toxic model. Toxicity is inherent in it. It is built upon an intensive use of energy and materials. To do this, it mobilises an …
IN HIS very first address to the nation as prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi had said that his government would launch an afforestation drive which would green five million hectares (ha) a year, making it the world's largest afforestation effort. In addition, he said, this entire exercise would be taken up …
• Some 22 per cent of the districts land area was brought under the Rajiv Gandhi Watershed Development Mission (RGWDM) by April 199& 374 villages have got involved In developing 249 micro- watersheds. • The foundation of any watershed programme is water and soil conservation. In JbidAw it means arresting …
This is the visiting card of an Indian tribal who has witnessed the travails of living in an environmentally-ravaged land. His story is by no means isolated. It probably resembles the story of millions of other tribals. Mangilal remembers when there were lots of trees in the forest near his …
THE victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy took out an :nti-election campaign' rally in protest against political parties that have ignored the victims in their manifestos. The rally was organised by the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Uclyog Sangathan. More than 27,000 people died in 1984 due to lack of medical …
THIS is the time when paeans are being sung about the "poverty economist" Amartya Sen because of the Nobel Prize for economics. It is, therefore, probably churlish for an Indian to point out his grave shortcomings. But I have chosen to do so because there could not be a better …
Current economic growth patterns: the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Take a look at the patterns of consumption between 1975 and 1995. The world's richest people - only 20 per cent of the population - accounted for 86 per cent of the total private consumption expenditure. While McDonald's …
