Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Jagan Prasad Tehriya Vs State of Uttar Pradesh dated 23/05/2025. The applicant has alleged large-scale illegal felling of green trees within the Agra district, Uttar Pradesh. The application revealed instances of illegal tree felling at Fatehabad, Sadar, Kiraoli and Agra …
Thailand is one of the world's leading rainwater harvesting nations. The National Jar Programme was launched to supply clean drinking water to rural areas under the United Nations Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-1990). It was aimed at catching rainwater in jars. Since the programme was started, there has been …
Captured rainwater has regenerated degraded lands in Kenya. Eroded grazing areas have been rejuvenated by building mini-catchments using a 'pitting and ridging technique' known as katumani. This is accompanied by re-seeding of native grasses and legumes. Pits are dug at the top of an eroded slope below a cut-off drain, …
Builder R Jeyakumar's technique is simple and cost-effective. The areas surrounding building complexes in Chennai are cemented. The rain water is allowed to flow on to the road. The first step, says Jeyakumar, is to prevent this run-off by two to three-inch-high kerbs near the gates. To collect the run-off, …
At Besant Nagar, Chennai, each Sunday morning sees a middle-aged man on a door-to-door campaign distributing pamphlets and talking spiritedly. Meet Sekhar Raghavan, a lone warrior fighting for a cause. Even at 50 and a PhD in physics, he painstakingly explains the merits of rainwater harvesting (RWH) to anyone witling …
Exnora international, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), is involved mainly in solid-waste management and sorting out rural problems. Recently, however, they have entered the field of rainwater harvesting (RWH), propagating water harvesting methods and offering technical support. The NGO has atso succeeded in motivating the villagers of Kovalam, near Chennai, to …
The summer of 1998 was a wet one. Danes fled to the warmer latitudes to get some sun in their holidays. While they were away, the rain, though unsuitable for sunbathing, was collected in pots, pans, barrels and large storage tanks. Collected to help conserve dwindling drinking water resources. In …
JAPAN After battling both water scarcity and floods, the Sumida City in Tokyo has become a trailblazer in catching and using rainwater Rain falling in the reservoir area is a must whereas rain falling in the communities is a nuisance, thinks the average person in Tokyo. Makoto Murase, director of …
INDIAN cities are among the most polluted in the world. Delhi has already been slotted among the top-most polluted cities of the world. The main source of the air and noise pollution ailing the metros are petrol-powered two and three wheelers. There are close to 18 million petrol-powered two wheelers …
In the wake of the recent forest fire disasters the world over, Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has said that governments, UN agencies, on-governmental organisations and those directly involved in fire-fighting operations must strengthen their cooperation, in order to be better prepared and jointly …
There has been an alarming rise in noise pollution in most Indian cities. This can be attributed to the increase in number of vehicles, urbanisation and industrialisation. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), New Delhi, has set standards for ambient noise levels in residential, commercial and industrial areas and in …
Nature means life. It also means death. Whether it means life or death depends on the quality of nature. And whereas progress can greatly enhance our ability to fight disease, it also has the extraordinary ability to degrade the quality of nature and increase the load of disease. Soil degradation …
The World Bank's report on the environment in East Asia says that disease and death will increase steeply among China's city dwellers unless the country tackles its growing air pollution. The report claims that if urban air pollution continues to grow at current rates, the number of premature deaths in …
the brightly lit skyscrapers of North American cities attract migrating birds. But these skyscrapers are also the cause of their death, as every year hundreds die after crashing into them. But in Toronto their prospects are being made worse by local seagulls, which have learnt to guide the birds towards …
ONE aluminium can of coca cola, if recycled rather than thrown away, saves enough electricity to run a television set for three hours. Need we calculate the magnitude of energy that is consumed by the unending chain of metal clad, steel reinforced artifacts - our buildings? Architecture as a symbiosis …
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BHANUSINGHA GHOSH out of a world population of 5,384 million in 1991, about 43 per cent lived in urban areas. Current projections based on the data assembled by the United Nations predict that by the year 2005, more than half of the world would be living in urban areas. Most …
Are you happy with your city? The International Finance and Trade Centre, Ahmedabad, tried to find an answer to this question from after surveying 100 upper-income households in 12 Indian cities to determine Ahmedabad's relative position with regard to quality of life and potential to attract business. The cities were …
A problem of mammoth proportions has besotted the Thai capital as well as Phuket, Pattaya and Chiangmai. Nearly 100 elephants from the northeastern part of the country have recently been brought to these areas to enable their mahouts earn a livelihood. While there are dangers posed by a rampaging elephant …
Annual emissions of anthropogenic Hg to the atmosphere in different regions of the world during the last decade show an interesting dichotomy: the emissions in the developed countries increased at the rate of about 4.5–5.5% yr−1 up to 1989 and have since remained nearly constant, while in developing countries the …
