Sand slips

Resource war India after 2020

What is the shape our climate-challenged world is in? Rich developed countries have made it clear they are not interested in any talk about their past emissions.

No concrete plans

The cement industry is India's ultimate sunshine industry. Up until the 1980s, it was not growing phenomenally. Now it is. After cement was decontrolled in 1989, the industry took off -- its growth rate far outstripping that of the country's gross domestic product. In terms of production capacity, it has grown almost two-and-a-half times -- from 61 million tonnes in 1989-90 to 157.5 in 2003-2004.

Problems behind the pugmarks

The lion can be heard prowling at night, near the livestock enclosure. In the morning, we are woken up by blasting in the limestone mines surrounding the fields. The lion eats only when it is hungry. But the factory (the Ambuja Cement Factory beyond the mines) never stops eating. --- Residents of Navagam village, Amreli district, Gujarat.

Nirma loses wetland

THE union environment ministry has revoked the clearance it had granted to the detergent giant Nirma to construct a cement plant in Gujarat. The 1.91-million-tonnes-per-annum plant is under construction in Mahuva block of Bhavnagar district.

Blatant lies for laterite

DESPITE stiff opposition from residents and activists, the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB), on November 17, held a public hearing for a proposed laterite mining project at Bhamidika, a notified Scheduled Tribe village in Visakhapatnam district. Protestors say the mining will cost the tribes their livelihood and land, and put the area’s ecology at risk.

Cleared for growth

Are environment and forest clearances a hindrance to development in the country?

Court raps environment ministry

ON SEPTEMBER 9, the Supreme Court ordered detergent company Nirma to file its reply to the show cause notice issued by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) within three months. MoEF had issued the notice in May, asking the company to explain within two weeks why the environmental clearance granted to its cement plant in Gujarat should not be revoked. The site is believed to be on wetlands.

Nirma's cement plant hits hurdle

In a setback to Nirma industries, the Supreme Court has asked the company to prove that the land allocated to it in Gujarat to set up a cement plant is wasteland. Otherwise the project should be scrapped, said a bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia.

Curse of limestone

It’s been more than seven months. Farmer representatives from 12 villages in Nawalgarh are on a sit-in protest outside the sub-divisional magistrate’s office. Their demand: do not give our fertile land to industry.