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 …
Future shock could be near at hand for the inhabitants of the Asia and Pacific region. At a seminar on'Mega-cities management in Asia and the Pacific' held on October 24 at Manila, experts maintained that the lack of basic services for hundreds of millions of Asians in large cities were …
Hemmed in by concrete houses in South Delhi lies a large the ground, once called the Haul Khas tank. it . years ago, this historic tank supplied water throughout In 1398, when Amir Timur had conquered Delhi, his Shalfuddin Yazdl wrote, "it is so wide that an arrow car, shot …
Urban wetlands, the lifeline of Indias cities for centuries, protected by tradition and preserved by people, are being ravaged by sheer greed and neglect WHAT do the Consumer Action Group, Madras, the Citizens Against Pollution, Hyderabad, the Nagarik Marich and Mudiyali Fisherfolks Cooperative Society, Calcutta, and the Citizens Voluntary Initiative …
WHEN the police fired upon and killed 4 of a violent crowd of slumdwellers of Shahid Sukhdev Nagar in North Delhi's Ashok Vihar, it was not only defecation rights that were in question. The January 31 incident was the apogee of decades of discontent among the 8.1 million slumdwellers -- …
Samar Baruskar was arrested on December 14, 1994, by the Sion police in Bombay for trespassing in a private building. He was looking for a toilet. The small plot of land that the residents of nearby Mangla chawl used as a ground-zero lavatory became the site for a multistoreyed apartment …
HALF THE total energy consumed in India is spent on cooking food, nearly twice the energy consumed by agriculture and industry put together. Energy planners, however, inexplicably and routinely overlook this vast consumption category, and planning priorities are invariably skewed against it. The report of a working group on energy …
THE CHINESE government has been forced to take some drastic measures to assuage the country's long-suffering farmers, who are moving to the cities in droves in search of more money. For one, it has forbidden the construction of new golf courses and horse-racing tracks -- symbols of a "decadent" Western …
AN INDIAN scientist from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests ordinary tubelights can be used to cheaply disinfect water, especially in rural areas. "It's not as if I have discovered something new," says Ashok Gadgil. "In fact, breweries, bakeries and pharmaceutical laboratories use mercury vapour lamps (such as tubelights) to …
WHEN WILLIAM Morris began his epic, The Earthly Paradise, with these lines in 1868, he was reacting to the effects of the Industrial Revolution and the unbridled urban growth of 19th century England. A century later, what was confined to the West has spread across the globe. And because we …
URBAN Villages studies reasons for the breakdown of community ties and traces the genesis of social unrest in our cities and towns. It's interesting to observe how this happens in places where new buildings have damaged rather than enhanced local character; where older but potentially useful buildings have become derelict …
Even as the Uttar Pradesh government faces a barrage of criticism for its otherwise lacklustre performance, it has undertaken an impressive afforestation programme that state forest secretary Mohinder Singh says is aimed at reducing environmental pollution in urban settlements. During 1993-94, 400 million saplings will be planted in select towns …
Centre of Concern for Child Labour 247, Akashdarshan Apartments Mayur Vihar-I New Delhi 110 091 Ph: 2252298 Bandhua Mukti Morcha 7, Jantar Mantar Road New Delhi 110 001 Ph: 3329043 Nanban Obula Padithurai Manuchalai Road Madurai 625 009 Institute for Social Education and Development Block No 41/3, 14th Lane, Indira …
CHILDREN comprise six per cent of India's total organised work force; they also contribute an average 23 per cent of a household's domestic savings. Yet, exploitation of children as a social problem has only recently begun to agitate the international conscience. Germany and USA have now refused to import items, …
CONSUMPTION is a constantly evolving process influenced by a multiplicity of factors, of which the major ones are disposable income, level of awareness and standard of living. Different societies go through specific consumption patterns at different points of time. Mahatma Gandhi's statement that "India lives in her villages" was apt …
WHEN THE Swedish municipality of Overtornea declared itself an "eco-municipality" (See box), the eco stood for ecological. Today, it is increasingly identified as also meaning economic -- an indication that environmental concern is becoming an integral part of rising urban living standards, rather than a rural luxury. Orebro, one of …
RESIDENTS swim and even fish for salmon -- which is safe to eat -- in Lake Malaren, between the Parliament building and the prime minister's office in Stockholm, giving Sweden's capital a unique environment, compared with most other large cities. Stockholm has 15 municipal beaches and plans to establish more, …
A project to clean up Gothenburg, 450 km south-west of Stockholm, has had a catalytic effect on the city's environment since it was launched five years ago. Efforts were initiated in cooperation with Volvo, Sweden's largest car manufacturer, and other major companies; consultations were held on the use of a …
THE SMALL northern municipality of Overtornea was the first to adopt the concept of "eco-municipality" in Sweden. The concept focusses on the relatively undisturbed environment, the local structure of trade and industry and the local lifestyle, but with job creation as the driving force. Overtornea's 1986 action plan states: "Economic …
EVERY summer, power cuts torment residents of most Indian cities. However, a report submitted to the Union ministry for power by two non-resident Indian energy economists suggests that while technologies that would put a lesser load on the country's groaning power generation system are already available, animosity among organisations have …
FISHERFOLK and environmental scientists are blaming industries set up along the Sindh coast for causing serious health problems by emitting increasing amounts of carbon monoxide and lead into the environment, says a Panos report by Najma Sadeque. Of late, many people in Karachi, including children, have suffered brain haemorrhage and …
