Here is proof that it is almost impossible for a project put up for clearance to be really rejected by the environment ministry.

Kerala, Karnataka Want Region Free Of Modified Crops

Thiruvananthapuram: In contrast to the stand of the Kerala and Karnataka governments, the Union agriculture ministry bats for geneticallymodified (GM) crops in the Western Ghats area in its report submitted to the Kasturirangan committee. Both Kerala and Karnataka have already called for a ‘GM-free state’. The department of agriculture & cooperation under the Union agriculture ministry says in its report that there is no reason to enforce a restriction on cultivation of Bt Cotton in the Western Ghats region as there is no perceived threat to any form of biodiversity of tetraploid species present in the region.

PANJIM: At least 99 villages including around 90 in the heart of the State’s mining belts of Sattari and Sanguem have been declared ecologically sensitive areas under the Environment Protection Act, 1976, by the Kasturirangan report, amidst accusations that it had sought to dilute the Gadgil panel report.

The high-powered committee was formed by the Centre to study and recommend ways to implement the Madhav Ghadgil report on UNESCO featured biodiversity hotspot, the Western Ghats.

A team of researchers from the University of Calicut has reported the discovery of a new subspecies of wild banana that could be developed as an ornamental plant for tropical gardens.

The plant Musa velutina subsp. markkuana was discovered from the forests of Arunachal Pradesh and is characterised by smooth skinned fruits, purple pseudostems, erect maroon-coloured inflorescence and pink fruit. It has been named after Markku Hakkinen, an international expert on wild banana, attached to the Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Finland.

MUMBAI: Activists have denounced the Kasturirangan high level working group for the exclusion of Dodamarg from ecologically sensitive areas (ESA) in its recommendations to the Union ministry of environment and forests.

The group was set up to review the report submitted by the Madhav Gadgil led Western Ghats ecology expert panel. "Dodamarg has been excluded and left open for mining. The Sawantwadi-Dodamarg wildlife corridor minus Dodamarg is a non-entity. Dodamarg is more eco-fragile than Sawantwadi.

‘The project will submerge patches of the riparian forests’

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) constituted high-level working group (HLWG) headed by Planning Commission member K. Kasturirangan has said that the government should reassess the impact that the Gundia hydroelectric power project will have on the environment and proceed with it with “extreme caution”. The HLWG submitted its detailed report on the Western Ghats in New Delhi on April 15.

Apreliminary analysis of the Kasturirangan-chaired report of the high level working group (HLWG) shows that the recommendations, if implemented, would release thousands of acres of eco-fragile land

The Supreme Court order is unlikely to bring any big relief to metal and mining companies.

Around 60,000 sq km of Western Ghats, spread across six states, should be turned into a no-go area for commercial activities like mining, thermal power plants, polluting industries and large housing plans, the high-level working group headed by Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan has recommended.

The committee has not recommended an outright rejection of the Athirappilly hydroelectric project in Kerala and Gundya dam in Karnataka. It has warned that the state government must assess if the Athirappilly dam is viable and if the trade off against the loss of irreplaceable biodiversity is beneficial.

Marking a major departure from the report of the committee led by ecologist Madhav Gadgil that had called for declaring the entire Western Ghats as an ecologically sensitive area (ESA), the 10-memb