Koyna sanctuary plundered

Electricity wires hang dangerously over a bituminous road. Unending rows of gigantic windmills look down from where, perhaps, a tiger should have kept an eye on its territory. Instead of birds, turbines create a humming noise. Trees are hardly in sight and one has to be lucky to spot wildlife. The Vankusawade plateau in the Koyna Wildlife Sanctuary in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra hardly looks like part of a wildlife sanctuary.

PESA reservation

The first civil appeal—Union of India versus Rakesh Kumar and Others—opposing PESA reservation was filed in the Jharkhand High Court in 2005.

Notice to Mundra for flouting laws

The Union environment ministry on December 15 issued a show cause notice to the Adani group promoted Mundra SEZ and Port in Gujarat. The ministry has asked the company to reply within 15 days as to why the clearances given to it for developing the port and a township should not be cancelled for environmental and coastal destruction. The ministry has charged the company with destruction of mangroves, reclamation of land and filling up of creeks without obtaining the mandatory clearance under the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification of 1991.

Relief for IMA chiefs

Delhi High Court has granted an interim stay on the suspension of president and secretary general of the Indian Medical Association (IMA). The ethics committee of Medical Council of India (MCI) on November 9 suspended the license of G Samaram, president, and Dharam Prakash, secretary general, for six months. They were charged with violating medical ethics for authorising endorsement deals with PesiCo and Dabur India in 2007.

Crisis of governance

URBAN local bodies in India’s scheduled areas have been functioning illegally for the past 15 years because of Parliament’s oversight. The Constitution mandates a law separate from the Panchayati Raj Act for rural and urban local bodies in scheduled areas—tribal dominated areas specified in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution. Parliament enacted the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act in 1996 for rural areas, but a similar legislation for urban scheduled areas was never debated.

A pause on hydropower

The decision of the Union environment ministry to allow parts of the Ganga’s tributaries to flow freely in Uttarakhand, indicates there is finally some recognition of the environmental impacts of hydel projects, long hyped as clean energy producers.

Relief for endosulfan victims

CHIEF minister of Kerala V S Achuthanandan on November 23 announced a relief package for the victims of endosulfan in Kasaragod district.

Suzlon, Lavasa raised loans from the company named in bribery scam

Suzlon Energy and Lavasa Corporation are among the companies named in the bribery scam that led to the arrest of eight top officials of public sector banks and financial firms on November 24. The companies were allegedly raising loans from a Mumbai-based private financial firm that bribed the senior officials of the state-run banks for the loans.

Near ready for take-off

The Union environment ministry is all set to approve the Navi Mumbai international airport. The ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) recommended clearance to the airport on November 10 subject to conditions.

Scrap Lavasa township: petition

Social activists have moved court to scrap the Lavasa township project near Pune. The public interest petition filed in the Bombay High Court says the project does not have the mandatory environmental clearance from the Union environment ministry, and hence is liable to be cancelled.