Are environment and forest clearances a hindrance to development in the country? No, says a study by Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment. The study analyses the environment and forest clearances granted during the 11th Five Year Plan, from April 2007 till August 2011. The pace of such clearances …
Eight months ago the Centre constituted a group of ministers (GoM) to look into the increasing perception that delay in acquiring forest clearance was hurting the country’s coal and power production. The GoM’s terms of reference comprised suggesting measures on “efficacy and legality of forest clearance norms” and for ensuring …
ON A pleasant morning when fifty-four-year-old Australian marine diver David Hannan was gearing to plunge into the deep sea, a bunch of American scientists were ready to set sail for the Arctic Ocean. In another corner of the world at Dona Paula in Goa oceanographers were contemplating plans to measure …
Environment comes first, profits later, noted Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia while ordering suspension of all mining operations in Bellary on August 5. Of the 148 mines in Bellary, only one company can mine iron ore, that too in limited quantity. The state-owned National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) …
Mining in India is regulated by multiple institutions functioning at multiple levels to provide checks and balances. In Bellary, however, every department and agency supposed to regulate and control mining simply collapsed under the weight of the “loot”. Bellary, therefore, represents a colossal failure of governance. There are seven ministries …
A recent paper of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Towards an Emission Trading Scheme for Air Pollutants in India, explores the possibility of introducing a permit and trading system for air pollutants from industrial sources. The scheme operates along the lines of the cap-and-trade mechanism for greenhouse …
HOLDING a thermal power station in Chandrapur city in Maharashtra responsible for polluting a river, the state pollution control board has ordered forfeiture of its bank guarantee of Rs 5 lakh. Toxins released by the station killed thousands of fish in the Irai river, on whose bank it is located. …
AFTER two years, voices of more than a thousand fisher families along the Mundra coast in Gujarat have been heard. A grievance mechanism of the World Bank has accepted their complaint that a soon-to-be commissioned coal power plant funded by the bank will affect the environment and their livelihood. The …
Over a year ago, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) undertook an exercise to assess pollution levels in some of the highly polluted industrial areas of India. It then released a list of 43 most polluted areas, terming them critically polluted, and imposed a moratorium on their expansion. …
On the night of March 7, a thick pall of smoke enveloped Kudikadu village near Cuddalore. It made people ill; over 120 persons had to be hospitalised after they complained of nausea, giddiness and eye irritation. The white smoke was bromine gas and its source: pharma company Shasun Pharmaceuticals, which …
People in the villages around Ratlam are paying a heavy price for living near the industrial town in Madhya Pradesh. Their groundwater has been polluted by over 23,500 tonnes of hazardous waste dumped at two factory premises and other sites in Ratlam. The quantity of toxic waste lying at the …
There was a time when people living along the Noyyal river in Tamil Nadu would freshen up by swimming in the river. Now goatherds chase their flock away if they go near the river. The reason is the river water has turned toxic. The dyes and salts from the industrial …
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 …
THE Madras High Court has ordered closure of more than 700 bleaching and dyeing units, and effluent treatment plants in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. On January 28, the court also asked the state government to disconnect electricity supply to the units in the hosiery town that failed to comply with …
KORBA (CHHATTISGARH): An immense expanse of fine grey fly-ash stretches out to meet the distant horizon, its flat surface rippled by slow-spinning whirlwinds. Seen from the road, the National Thermal Power Corporation's (NTPC) ash pond rises up like an enormous ziggurat of expired embers, with a base nearly 1,120 acres …
Sometime in June 2009, the West Bengal chief minister’s office forwarded a complaint to the state pollution control board (SPCB) about three sponge iron factories in West Medinipur district. A team was dispatched to Jhargram subdivision. It found a thick layer of grey dust coating trees and pathways, and noted …
A blanket of smog envelopes Kuarmunda and Bonai subdivisions of Odisha’s Sundargarh district every morning. Area residents attribute it to emissions from sponge iron factories nearby that switch off their emission control devices—electrostatic precipitators (ESPs)—at night. The reason these factories get away with such offences is weak rules and weaker …
If one were to compare steel consumption figures, Indians lag far behind the rest of the world. Against the world average of 215 kg, per person steel consumption in India is just 50 kg a year. This consumption gap is likely to reduce in coming years. With rapid economic growth, …
Lenin and Marx helped Hungary raise money for victims of a toxic waste spill. On December 6, an auction of Communist-era relics raised about 12 million forints (US $58,000) for people affected by spilling of industrial effluents in western Hungarian city of Akja. The auction included over hundred Lenin and …
DESPITE closure notices several industrial units are operating in Mahad tehsil of Raigad district, polluting a river and wells. As a result fishing and farming in the region have been badly affected. On November 30, Mahad subregional office of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) issued notices to six industrial …
