Latest News
Most Popular on DTE Site
- Poison in disguise 1
- It’s a demographic disaster
- Chaos in the iron age 2
- Tulsi Fights Fluorosis 2
- Activist lands in jail for protesting lack of health facilities in tribal district five years ago
- Mirage of a river 1
- Gujarat pollution board gets a makeover in efficiency 33
- MPS, a rare disease with costly cure
- 'Will fight POSCO till last breath'
- 18 tribal villages in Maharashtra get tendu rights, finally
- Environment ministry wants to restore night traffic through Bandipur tiger reserve 52
- A green facade 44
- Diesel: when bad policy makes for toxic hell 38
- Gujarat pollution board gets a makeover in efficiency 33
- What’s good insulation? 30
- How vulnerable are India's nuclear power plants to disaster 28
- Grand distraction called river interlinking 28
- Eat at your own risk 27
- Green energy takes toll on green cover 26
- Temporary solution, permanent jam 25
On Facebook
Anumita Roychowdhury
Anumita Roychowdhury
Executive Director - Research and Advocacy and head of the air pollution and clean transportation programme, campaigns for clean air and public health.
Articles by the Author
2012-12-14
Killer outdoor air contributes to 1.2 million deaths in East Asia which is in throes of high level of economic growth and motorization and 712,000 deaths in South Asia which is at the take-off stage
2012-11-15
Delhi High Court dismisses plea to scrap bus rapid transit corridors; state plans 14 more
2012-10-18
Says a developed country is not one where the poor own cars. It is one where the rich use public transport
2012-9-30
Frenzied growth in real estate and changing lifestyle in Indian cities are inciting resource guzzling. Architects have innovative ideas to build green homes
2012-9-11
Segregated traffic movement to be in place till court pronounces final verdict on whether BRT corridor should be retained
2012-6-13
WHO agency says there is compelling evidence to classify diesel fumes as deadly carcinogen along with tobacco, asbestos
2012-5-15
The teeming millions on foot and pedal are powering mobility in Indian cities. Their numbers exceed those who use cars. Yet they are victims of policy neglect. The result is high number of road accidents. Improving public transport systems and road design will encourage more people to walk and cycle. But are cities prepared to make this transition?
There is a change of trend in certain pockets of India where communities are organising themselves to assert their right to walk and cycle. These zero carbon emitters have checked the country’s pollution from soaring. They also point to the route India needs to take to make cities clean. Anumita Roychowdhury charts this route along with Ruchita Bansal, Aniruddha Bhattacharjee and Shashank Gandhi
2012-3-16
Fails to restrain use of subsidised diesel in private diesel cars
2012-3-15
Petrol pumps and heavy traffic locations worst affected
2012-3-14
Proposed fuel economy standards for cars are so lax that some carmakers can get away by not doing anything for the first few years. This can jeopardise energy security and climate mitigation plans
2012-3-6
Proliferating diesel cars are a public health risk and drain the exchequer
2007-2-15
Energy insecurity is India's latest tryst with her post-liberalised destiny. It began in July 2006. Crude oil prices rose to all time peak, at US $79 a barrel. In India, retail prices of petrol and diesel rose, respectively, 59.6 per cent and 78.8 per cent from 2002 levels. A compelled government, and the public oil sector companies, absorbed a staggering 87.5 per cent of the costs of the hike in oil prices.
1995-1-31
The conservation of forests and Natural Ecosystems Bill, sponsored by the ministry of environment and forests, seeks to weed out an obsolete colonial act. But people's rights will still take a beating if the Bill goes through
1994-12-31
THE world's biggest industrial disaster has been rendered today its most trivial. Criminal corporate culpability and governmental concern for its poorest of the poor are the 2 elements missing in Bhopal a full decade aft methyl isocyanate leaked from a U Carbide plant and littered the city's streets with the dead, the dying am those destined to ebb in slow agony.
Death can be bribed into postponing its grim reaping, but it requires money. The government has made sure that the disaster's victims don't have enough of it. If there is aspect of the disaster that is not co with a miasma thick as that stink smog 10 years ago, it is that the living today are worse off than the dead.
Union Only a 6th of Bhopal's 600,00 registered victims have received the begging bowl amount called, with irony whatsoever, "compensation doesn't even begin to compensate. hospitalisation charges, soaring like pack of vultures. There are some lawyers who have grown fat and sleek in the labyrinths oflegality where Bhopal's victims are routinely led astray, but that is all.
Meanwhile, the world's stockpile chemicals that have not been tested toxicity or contraindications increase by 3,000 every year. All of us are seething with chemicals of dubious it safety, chemicals that come from ostensibly benign things like lipsticks and preservatives. There is a Bhopal ticking away in each one of us.
1993-11-30
Sandalwood smuggling, epitomised by Veerappan, has become a collective phenomenon involving entire villages, which even the ban on sandalwood exports has been unable to curb. Deregulation of the sandal-tree, currently under state control, is now being debated as a measure to end the clandestine destruction.
1993-4-15
The attack on a Bangalore seed company was reported as the start of a farmers' movement against globalisation of agriculture. Now, some farmers find the GATT proposals beneficial.
1992-6-15
Droughts seem to be here to stay. Wrong development policies, governmental indifference and relief schemes which don't work have led to a situation where a large part of the nation faces scarcity despite a year of almost normal rainfall
1992-5-31
About 90 per cent of Arunachal Pradesh's revenue is generated by its forests. Yet these very forests are under heavy pressure, thanks to the lucrative and often illegal timber trade thriving under political patronage
2011-2-28
Budget should make diesel cars pay for subidised fuel, pollution
2005-2-15
As overstaffed transport corporations make losses, the government says privatise
2004-7-15
Analysis of Asian studies highlights universality of air pollution problem
2002-4-30
Released recently, the Bellagio memorandum advocates best practices for policies on vehicular emission reduction worldwide
1997-12-15
Nascent, nasty and lethal, ozone has risen to dangerous levels in Delhi, and is increasing in various cities -- damaging human health and affecting agriculture
1995-4-15
As the global demand for paper rockets, forests in the Asia-Pacific are being targeted for paper plantations
1995-3-31
States view the draft water information bill as an instrument of Central interference
1995-3-31
State governments badger the MEF to implement its own proposal of industrial plantations in degraded forests
1995-2-28
The issue of toilet space for 8.1 million slumdwellers in India's 4 major metros threatens to expand into a matter of social rights
1995-2-28
The environment ministry is belatedly setting priorities right for procuring GEF's green bundles
1995-2-15
The Supreme Court has washed aside an ambiguous Review Committee Report and ordered fresh investigations
1995-1-31
The conservation of forests and Natural Ecosystems Bill, sponsored by the ministry of environment and forests, seeks to weed out an obsolete colonial act. But people's rights will still take a beating if the Bill goes through
1995-1-31
Coastal cyclone-warning radar technology, usually a matter of hit and miss, is to be upgraded with American help
1995-1-15
The internationally-funded programme to promote solar photovoltaic systems remains a nonstarter
1994-12-15
Internal pressures weakened India's stand on funding at the Conference of Parties on Biodiversity Convention held in Nassau in November
1994-12-15
A recent survey conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industries has proposed sweeping policy changes in the smallscale sector to enhance its viability in the export market
1994-10-31
The government's proposed revision of the Indian Forest Act does
little for community participation and only serves to vest more powers with
the Central government
1994-10-15
A clash of opinions has put paid to all hopes of a consensus on the empowerment of people living in and around national parks and sanctuaries
1994-9-30
Japan will import Indian rice only if it is free from harmful chemical residues
1994-8-31
The World Bank and other agencies funding forestry projects in India are insisting on a more effective forest management strategy
1994-8-31
A comprehensive tome on the biodiversity convention is being readied. But will it include all the viewpoints?
1994-8-15
The Orissa high court has put the commissioning of a controversial jetty at the Bhitarkanika sanctuary on hold
1994-7-15
By allowing industrial plantations on forest land, the ministry of environment and forests has become profiteering industry's captive
1994-5-31
A dearth of information brought brickbats to the department of wastelands development, which was entrusted the Herculean task of reducing the pressure on the forests
1994-4-15
Two legislations on plant genetic resources have been proposed. But who benefits?
1994-3-31
The cancellation of a US firm's rights on a method to genetically engineer cotton has brought weaknesses in India's patent system into focus
1994-3-15
The ministry of environment and forests' plan to conserve biodiversity excludes the people.
1994-2-28
A recent disaster that claimed 55 lives revealed the abysmal safety standards of India's mines.
1994-2-15
Sukhomajr, a village in Haryana, has come to symbolise how community efforts at natural regeneration can improve both the forests and the people's standard of living.
1993-12-31
The environment ministry is updating the Indian Forest Act, but getting all the states to agree to it may prove to be tricky.
1993-11-30
Sandalwood smuggling, epitomised by Veerappan, has become a collective phenomenon involving entire villages, which even the ban on sandalwood exports has been unable to curb. Deregulation of the sandal-tree, currently under state control, is now being debated as a measure to end the clandestine destruction.
1993-9-30
By asserting the sovereignty of the right to control their tropical forests, more than 40 developing countries are gearing up to counter the North's attempts to regulate deforestation
1993-8-15
The Singrauli Super Thermal Power Station has managed to secure a World Bank loan of $400 million, but the allegations of environmental degradation levelled against it are mounting
1993-8-15
A proposal to include the Calcutta wetlands in the list of waterbodies of national importance will protect it from real estate developers as well as facilitate funds for its conservation
1993-7-31
Kamal Nath is one of the few Indian ministers to have acquired an international image. He has traversed the globe to attend various environmental conferences and has also played host to several of his foreign counterparts. Nath argues the new-found green internationalism was inevitable. But the implications of this green diplomacy are being watched closely by other government ministers and non-governmental organisations.
1993-7-31
Municipal authorities in Delhi deny they were responsible for the deaths of eight people caused by contaminated water
1993-7-15
Under pressure from importers and voluntary groups, traders are acknowledging the need to regulate the employment of children.
1993-7-15
The Narmada Bachao Andolan has forced a reconsideration of the Sardar Sarovar Project. But with Gujarat opposed to any review and support for NBA eroding, the talks may turn out to be the calm between storms
1993-6-30
The Planning Commission is embarking on a new approach to agriculture planning. But state governments and the finance ministry are reluctant to invest in "untried" concepts.
1993-6-30
A rural development ministry plan, which will allow industries to take over non-forest wastelands, will further deprive the rural poor of fodder and fuelwood.
1993-6-15
After supporting India's forestry programmes for almost two decades, the World Bank now is moving toward arrogating to itself governance of the country's forests.
1993-5-31
The killing of tigers and of forest guards in Ranthambore is the result of a conservation strategy that took away the rights of the local people and made them willing allies of poachers.
1993-5-15
Controversy over Himachal limestone mining
The subject of limestone mining in ecologically fragile Himachal Pradesh has become a political football, with plans changing as governments change. Villagers are divided on the issue -- some want to protect the environment, others want the income from mining.
1993-4-30
Various reasons are being put forward to explain why India refused further World Bank assistance for the controversial Sardar Sarovar project.
1993-4-30
Wood-based firms want to convert forest areas to their own use for raw material. In doing so, they ignore the fate of millions of rural poor, who are dependent on forest lands.
1993-4-15
The attack on a Bangalore seed company was reported as the start of a
farmers' movement
against globalisation of agriculture. Now, some farmers find the GATT
proposals beneficial.
1993-3-31
KRISHNA B Ghimire, who is a project coordinator with the UN Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva, has done extensive research on environment and sustainable development. Currently involved with intensive case studies in Brazil, central America, Nepal and Tanzania concerning the social dynamics of deforestation in developing countries, Ghimire took time off to talk to Down To Earth on the socio-economic impact of national parks in developing countries.
1993-3-31
The total preservation policy has alienated people living in and around national parks and caused much harm to the forests. Experts say effective conservation will not be possible unless this policy is reversed.
1993-3-15
A scheme under which 75,000 families were to each get and maintain two ha of forest land has been put on hold following fears that it would privatise common land that provides firewood and fodder.
1993-2-28
The pressing need for foreign exchange is being cited as the reason for the government giving in to demands from timber traders to be allowed to export.
1993-2-15
Foreign buyers of Indian carpets insist that if child weavers are employed, they will not accept the product. The Indian government and manufacturers must now find a way out to protect a multi-crore industry.
1993-1-31
The environment ministry is in trouble in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, where it has violated timber extraction limits.
1993-1-15
Apples are at the care of Himachal politics and withdrawal of subsidies can be politically disastrous
1992-12-15
A dispute over a plot demarcation has highlighted the problem of protecting privately owned forests in Himachal.
1992-10-31
The fragile ecology of the Garhwal Himalaya witnessed another season of cloudbursts, landslides and flash floods -- made worse by the 1991 earthquake in the Bhagirathi valley. Down To Earth compiled a firsthand report of life in the unstable Himalayan ranges.
1992-9-30
States are complaining that project clearance delays are turning out to be the worst fallout of the Forest Conservation Act, which has otherwise successfully stemmed the erosion of forest cover in the country
1992-8-31
The political debate on the Panchayati Raj and Nagarpalika bills does not address the issue of giving power to the people so they can take control of their environment.
1992-7-31
The Rajasthan and Haryana governments feel threatened by the Centre's move to stop industrial, mining and quarrying activity in the Aravalli region. Environmentalists, on the other hand, applaud the move
1992-7-31
Studying the history of human interaction with nature can be very useful in formulating resource management policies. It can also provide a clearer insight into the causes of poverty
1992-6-30
A high court order in favour of the Konkan railway corporation has provoked much anger and resentment among those who oppose the controversial project
1992-6-15
Last October's earthquake destroyed 20 per cent of Uttarkashi's houses. When the rubble had settled, it was found that the older, traditional structures had taken the least battering. What went wrong?
1992-6-15
Tribals have been fighting the Koel Karo dams for the last 20 years - the longest struggle against a project. Now, a fresh budget fuels the controversy further
1992-5-31
About 90 per cent of Arunachal Pradesh's revenue is generated by
its forests. Yet these very forests are under heavy pressure,
thanks to the lucrative and often illegal timber trade thriving
under political patronage
Good job bringing this to light. People won't realise how huge the problem is and municipalities are woefully ill equipped to...
Agreed; mining can never be sustainable, but then how do you get the metals to make all the things you need in the course of...
Very good piece.