Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Residents Welfare Association Savita Vihar Vs Irrigation & Flood Control Department & Others dated 28/05/2025. The applicant raised the grievance against throwing of construction debris and sewage obstruction in the Ghazipur drain. According to the applicant this drain flows behind …
IN A LANDMARK judgement in 1980, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered Madhya Pradesh's Ratlam municipality to clean a locality, holding that budgetary constraints didn't justify a municipality neglecting its statutory obligation to provide sanitation facilities. It also made it mandatory for a magistrate to remove a public nuisance wherever one …
THE LUNAWA lagoon in southwest Sri Lanka is being polluted by various dyes and toxic chemicals being discharged by industries, especially textile plants, writes Tinil Fernando for Biosphere. The livelihood of many people have been affected and 74 per cent of the fisherfolk of the region had to give up …
US jet engine and automobile-part manufacturer, United Technologies Corp, has been fined $5.3 million for its carelessness in handling and discharging hazardous wastes in recent years. The wastes contained solvents, paint thinners and sludge, among other toxic chemicals. Seven plants of the firm's Pratt & Whitney jet engine unit and …
The powers of local government in the UK derive from acts of Parliament -- not from the Constitution -- and can be amended to suit the wishes of the central government. The future of local government at the district (borough) and county levels is currently under review. The ruling Conservatives …
WITH THE collapse of the Soviet Union and the ongoing changes in communist China and Vietnam, the market today rules supreme. Entrepreneurs mobilise resources -- finance, raw materials, knowledge and labour -- to make products that cater to market demand. Whether they are farmers, miners, industrialists or providers of services, …
MORE THAN 36 tonnes of highly toxic chemicals are stored even after their date of expiry in the godowns of the Agriculture Inputs Corp at Amlekhgunj, in central Nepal. The Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists (NEFEJ) says these pesticides were supposed to be burnt in the kiln of the Hetauda …
TWO RUSSIAN scientists propose to get rid of radioactive waste by throwing it out of the solar system. The waste will be blasted out of the earth's atmosphere on conventional rockets and then fired out of the solar system using energy from the waste itself, according to Konversia, a Moscow-based …
EVEN AS the Ganga Project Directorate (GPD) begins work on cleaning up the Yamuna, environmentalists are questioning the decision of the ministry of environment and forests (MEF) to commit as much as Rs 357 crore towards the project. They point out that there has been no proper evaluation yet of …
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 …
Howrah railway station is facing closure because the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) says a huge volume of sewage from the station is discharged untreated into the Hooghly river. WBPCB officials say they will serve notice on Indian Railways asking them to suspend station operations, exercising its power under …
TWO HUNDRED years ago, Thomas Malthus had asked at what point man's population would exceed his means of subsistence. The world's population then had not reached 1 billion. Today, a year before the population conference in Cairo, the total number of people in the world is fast approaching 5.5 billion. …
THE NEW legislation comes into effect too late to save Udhagamangalam's famed Boat Lake, which has become a dead water body because of the sewage and silt accumulated in it. Unaffected by laws and legislation, the town's ancient sewerage system, built over a century ago for 10,000 residents and now …
"WASTE is only a resource unused," believes Satyesh Chakravarty, a former professor of resource studies at the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta. He maintains waste disposal has become a major urban problem simply because urban refuse is treated as waste -- and not as resource. As a result, says …
INDONESIA boasts its coastline is generally clean, but these claims are based on data that is at least eight years old. Experts say the problems resulting from urban waste and oil pollution in the Strait of Malacca may be quite serious now. One reason why marine data is given such …
ECONOMIC reforms launched in India in July 1991 were aimed at bridging fiscal and monetary imbalances and reducing the balance of payments. Associated with these conspicuous disproportions was the environmental imbalance, which economists set aside as externalities. But with increasing global concern about the environment, India, too, has started responding …
GREEN IMPLICATIONS Though a few proposals in the 1991 budget may be termed eco-friendly, the overall trend remains hostile towards the environment Commodity or item Pre-Budget New Budget Remarks Raw material and items for solar energy and wind-operated power generation 40% import duty 15-20% import duty Definitely positive step towards …
WATER is priced far too cheaply in India to prompt industrialists into conserving or recycling it, says a detailed study prepared by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) for the Ganga Project Directorate. But the government has let the NIPFP recommendations lie in its cupboards. The study …
