Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item Titled "Neglected Katora Houz in Hyderabad’s Golconda Fort Cries for attention appearing in ‘The Siasat Daily’ dated 25 May 2025". The application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled “Neglected Katora Houz in Hyderabad’s …
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has admitted a Spanish mother's complaint that the environmental nuisance caused by an unlicensed waste treatment plant adjoining her house is a violation of her human rights. Gregoria Lopez Ostra contendss the smell and pollution from the plant treating tannery waste causes …
THE VILLAGERS of Pali, 30 km from Delhi in Faridabad, are up ip arms over a move to set up 300 stone- crushing units on panchayat land that was once theirs and have gone to court to get a stay. The Faridabad Complex Administration (FCA), acting on a Supreme Court …
INDIAN scientists find lichens can be used to monitor urban pollution levels. Lichens are disappearing within the core zone of the highly industrialised Haldia township in West Bengal, due to increasing air pollution. (Pollution Research, Vol 11, No 1). Sensitivity of lichens - essentially symbiotic associations of fungi and algae, …
Lichens as pollution monitors Pollution Zone I Pollution Zone II Pollution Zone II Pollution Zone II Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Beacidia convexula Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Pyrenula nitida Graphis scripta Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Pyrenula nitida Graphis scripta Lecanactis premnea Arthania antillarum Catilaria indica Lecidea granifera Parmelia Caperata Pyrenula nitida …
THE ELEVEN countries in southern Africa, with a population of over 120 million, are in the midst of a drought of unprecedented severity in the region, mainly due to the failure of last year's rains. The UN World Food Programme has estimated that about 18 million people in the region …
THAILAND'S war against communist insurgency ended early in the 1980s. But now, villagers in Buriram province are battling to save the area's last rain forest - ravaged during operations to flush out rebels - from government agencies and private businesses looking for profit. The efforts of the villagers of Pakham …
UKRAINE will stage an international competition for engineers to ensure the lasting safety of the Chernobyl nuclear plant. It is hoping to lure aid from the Group of Seven (G-7) industrialised countries to safeguard the Chernobyl reactor. Ukraine has three Chernobyl-type plants in its territory. An existing "sarcophagus", containing a …
INDUSTRIAL towns with a high growth and, therefore, high pollution potential will come in for special attention from the Punjab Pollution Control Board, under a new initiative to deal with pollution in the state. Amritsar, Batala, Gobindgarh Mandi, Jalandhar, Khanna, Ludhiana, Nangla and Phagwara have already been earmarked by the …
The Union ministry of forests and environment will soon set up a Central authority to monitor and regulate zoos in the country. This body will also be responsible for financial assistance to the zoos. To be constituted under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1991, the authority will become operational by …
WHATEVER their area of work, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have made the most headway in involving people in managing their natural resources. Says one NGO activist, "Local people are very smart. They know that if an NGO is merely doing something for them, it will leave them in the lurch after …
IT WAS no mean task to iron out differences to get an agreement on the atmosphere chapter in Agenda 21, the whole of which was bracketed at the last prepcom by Yemen on behalf of the Arab group. As the use of oil was singled out as one of the …
During the protracted negotiations on the Agenda 21 chapter dealing with changing consumption patterns, a strong bid was made by certain northern delegations to underscore the significance of the link between unsustainable consumption and environment. In the last prepcom in New York, the US had even wanted to delete the …
THE RECENTLY-concluded Rio conference commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment held at Stockholm. The Stockholm Conference was a watershed in the international environmenial movement - it put environmental issues on the international agenda for the first time. It was Sweden which had first …
ON MAY 15 this year, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgement in response to a public interest suit demanding the closure of the 300-odd stone-crushing units in and around New Delhi. Unlicensed units were immediately closed and the rest are to be shut down by August 15. All units …
TAKE CARE of your economics, your lifestyle and your environment, and your health will also take care of itself. The report of the WHO Commission on Health and Environment, Our Planet, Our Health, prepared for the forthcoming Earth Summit, inextricably links environment and health. Yet, the report argues, health rarely …
ALMOST half of India's urban population is in favour of protecting the environment "even at the risk of slowing down economic growth" as against one-fourth who feel that economic growth should be the topmost priority. This is the major finding of an all-India survey conducted recently by the Indian Institute …
EUROPE is getting increasingly worried about nuclear fallout from the erstwhile communist republics. The G-7 leaders are expected to endorse a multibillion-dollar plan to improve the safety of nuclear reactors at their economic summit meeting in early July. The plan, which aims to prevent another Chernobyl, could cost anything between …
IT'S a well-known fact that if people could be encouraged to get on their bikes, air pollution would decrease. Now a study published by the Cyclists Touring Club of Britain shows how the share of cycle use could be increased from the current four per cent to over 40 per …
THIS was one storm that the meteorologists couldn't predict. When Vasant Gowariker, scientific adviser to the Prime Minister, and a team of meteorologists from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), announced in early April that the coming monsoon will be on the lower side of normal, the prediction drew a great …
Hot aluminium THE aluminium industry is responsible for spewing out two potent greenhouse gases - CFC-14 (tetrafluoromethane) and CFC-116 (hexafluoroethane). In terms of their global warming potential, they are over 8,000 times more effective than carbon dioxide, their atmospheric lifetime being over 10,000 years, according to Dean Abrahamson of the …
