Environment ministry’s desperate attempts to suppress expert panel report on Western Ghats

DTE coverage on Western Ghats

Supreme Court stalls Centre’s plan to reintroduce cheetahs in India

The Supreme Court has stayed the Centre’s ambitious cheetah re-introduction project. The project initiated by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2010 aimed to bring the cheetah, which became extinct from India’s forests in 1952, back to the country.

South Asian nations will now cooperate to save the vulture

The governments of four South Asian countries have decided to work together to save critically endangered species of vultures of the region. Representatives of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal adopted a regional declaration on May 4, under which they pledged to strengthen regional cooperation to promote vulture breeding and reintroduction programmes. Strengthening of monitoring and research in vulture population and stringent measures to remove toxic vulture-killing drugs from the environment are also included in the declaration document.

Kawal sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh declared tiger reserve

Ignoring strong protests from adivasi communities, the Andhra Pradesh government has issued an order declaring the Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary in Adilabad district as a tiger reserve. This is the second tiger reserve in the state after Srisailam and 42nd  in the country for the big cats.   The declaration order dated April 10 says the Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary, spread over an area of  892 sq km, will form the core of the tiger reserve and an area of 1,123 sq km of the surrounding notified forests will form the buffer of the reserve.

BJP's promise of energy from waste heats up Delhi civic polls

Even as candidates contesting municipal seats in the national capital make their rounds of residential colonies to seek votes, citizens and waste-pickers' associations are angered by the election manifesto of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Farmers move court against Gorakhpur nuclear power plant in Haryana

Their sit-in protest in front of the Fatehabad mini-secretariat in Haryana completed 525 days on January 25. It has yielded little result. Yet the farmers from Gorakhpur, Kumaharia and Kajalhedi villages of Fatehabad district who are opposing acquisition of 608 hectare (ha) of their land for a nuclear power plant are determined to fight till the end.

Andhra Pradesh speeds up Kovvada nuclear power project

Even as people’s resistance against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu continues to make news, the government of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has decided to speed up the 9,564 MW Kovvada Nuclear Power Park (KNP) project in Ranasthalam block of the north coastal district of Srikakulam. The state issued an order on 27 December to acquire 1,000 hectares (ha) of land from farmers and fishers of the region, ignoring widespread public protests.

No trial incineration of Bhopal’s toxic waste in Nagpur

In a temporary relief to Nagpur residents, the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has turned down the Centre’s plea for a trial run of burning toxic waste from the defunct Union Carbide factory at the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) incineration facility in the city. The waste has been lying in the plant premises in Bhopal for the past 27 years. Maharashtra has been resisting Madhya Pradesh’s attempt to dispose of the waste in Nagpur.  

Environment ministry, CPCB endorse burning Bhopal's toxic waste at Nagpur

In a surprise move, the Union environment ministry and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) have supported disposing of Bhopal's toxic waste at the Nagpur waste facility maintained by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). In its report submitted to the Jabalpur bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court on November 22, CPCB said the DRDO facility near Borkhedi in Nagpur district is capable of incinerating the waste from the now defunct Union Carbide plant, and asked the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) to cooperate.