Poor enforcement, weak laws make poaching an easy game

On the night of October 1, 1998, when Salman Khan went hunting blackbucks, he was explicitly warned not to do so in the Bishnoi area because only a few have managed to get away from them. Yet Khan and his co-stars Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Neelam, along with local contacts, went ahead and shot two blackbucks. Poonam Chand, a resident of Kankani village, Jodhpur district, heard

Songe iron unit asked to shut shop in Goa

on november 28, the High Court of Bombay at Goa ordered a sponge iron plant in south Goa to stop operations within a week. This is not the first time the company has been asked to shut shop. The Goa State Pollution Control Board (gspcb) on October 6, 2006, had asked the unit, Jain Udyog Private Ltd, to close operations because of air and water pollution in Sanvordem panchayat--its area of operation.

Saleli quarries ordered to close down

the polluting crushing units in Goa's Saleli village are facing a legal grind. On October 29, 2007, the deputy collector of Bicholim ordered all 13 quarries and crushers in the village to stop operations till they followed environmental regulations. The deputy collector has also directed the units to restore a drain near the village which the units had polluted. They were also directed to remove the dust which reaches nearby fields.

American Electric Power to reduce emissions

One of the largest power utilities in the US, American Electric Power, has agreed to spend US $4.6 billion to reduce harmful emissions from its 16 coal-fired power plants. The settlement, which was reached after eight years of legal battle over alleged violations of the Clean Air Act, is the largest environmental settlement in US history. American Electric Power (AEP) provides electricity to more than five million customers in 11 states. In 1999, the US Environmental Pollution Authority

In court

for sanitation offenders: The state government of Lagos, Nigeria, has set up a sanitation court, which will prosecute offenders arrested for violating the state environmental sanitation exercise. The government has deployed two state counsels and two state prosecutors to prosecute sanitation law offenders. The state is also planning to set up five additional mobile courts in this connection. Offences could be any form of environmental pollution such as those concerning noise, water, air, littering or erecting posters and billboards without necessary approval.

Goa village wins compensation for fields scarred by mining

landmark is a much abused word when it comes to legal copy. But the Bombay High Court's recent order that six mining companies would have to compensate farmers in north Goa for rendering their agricultural fields unfit for cultivation through unchecked mining activities surely deserves this adjective. Mining has long been a problem in the hinterlands of the state, far from the national and international scrutiny that the influx of tourists into the coastal areas might conceivably provoke.

In court

abestos negligence:Two Oklahoma state officials were found guilty of negligence by a federal court jury on August 20, 2007. In 2003, the guilty men, Guy R Hylton, Jr, city manager of the Elk City Community Work Center in Oklahoma, and Chick Arthur Little, a building superintendent, had used inmates of the Elk centre to remove asbestos from an old railroad depot. City officials had also negligently released asbestos into the air. Hylton will have to pay US $100,000 as fine and serve one year in prison while Arthur Little will have to pay US

Court orders miners to compensate Goa farmers

It's not often that villagers done in by powerful mining interests can take them on and win. But that's exactly what's happened in Goa, with the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court directing six mining companies to deposit in excess of Rs 36.5 crore as compensation for villagers whose farms have been destroyed by large-scale mining.

In court

oil shock: Four fuel stations in Massachusetts, USA, have been fined US $600,000 for failure to clean up spills of petrol and other petroleum products. The stations in Medford and Meldon areas of the state got fined by the Suffolk County Courthouse. The ruling requires Tony Eskanian and Ramona Eskanian of Winchester and J & S Petroleum Corporation, respectively, to clean up the contamination at the gas stations as per the schedule prepared by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

Pollution fallout: Japan pays dearly

the Japanese government recently reached an out-of-court settlement with the victims of vehicular emissions in Tokyo. Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe announced to pay 6 billion (around us $49 million) to the victims. The lawsuit was filed in May 1996 by a group of people living near major traffic arteries in Tokyo, who suffered from various respiratory illnesses. In October 2002, a local court confirmed the link between the illnesses and auto emissions, and ordered the municipal and the state governments to