Sand mining continues unabated in TN

there are no signs of any let-up in the quarrying of river sand in Tamil Nadu (tn). This despite the Madras High Court (hc) staying the activity on all sites except the 79 owned by the state government.

Clogged up in Delhi

Is it the end?

Untrammeled urbanisation has put paid to many water bodies in Hyderabad. The latest victims are the Osmansagar and Himayatsagar reservoirs. These human-made lakes have supplied the bulk of the city's water needs for nearly eight decades. In 2002, Hyderabad received about 45 million gallons of water each day from Himayatsagar and Osmansagar. But last year, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board could not draw any water from them.

Rights issue resurfaces

One more legal battle has seen local self-governance emerge stronger in Kerala. On December 5, the Kerala High Court (hc) disposed of a drinking water production unit's petition challenging the decision of a panchayat to cancel its licence over the issue of groundwater extraction.

Kerala panchayat wins face-off with Coke

two recent directives of the Kerala High Court (hc) have further vindicated the Perumatty Grama Panchayat's stand in its face-off with the Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited (hcbpl).

Clueless in capital

almost a year after the residents' welfare association (rwa) of a slum cluster filed the capital's first petition against illegal extraction and sale of groundwater, the Delhi High Court (hc) has ordered that a committee be set up to probe the matter. The case has brought to the fore another negative aspect: the inability of the authorities to prevent the city's water table from depleting further.

Documenting the Northeast's tribal laws

Land is central to the tribal identity in the region too easily abbreviated 'northeast'. Jeuti baruah knows this too well. As director of the Law research Centre, Guwahati, she is constantly discovering how friable these identities are in the face of constant change and integration into the 21st century.

Probe completed

The commission inquiring into the death of three tribal protesters in police firing in Orissa's Rayagada district seems to have made light of the local people's concern over bauxite mining. Justice P K Mishra of the Madras High Court, who is the sole member of the panel, observed in his recently submitted report: "Orissa cannot afford to remain backward for the sake of so-called environmental protection."

Fishing feud

The Uttaranchal High Court has declared illegal an Uttar Pradesh (UP) government advertisement proclaiming its right to conduct fishing auctions in six waterbodies in the hill state's Udham Singh Nagar district. The area became a bone of contention between the two states when Uttaranchal was being carved out of UP.

Promptly overturned

In a dramatic development, a division bench of the Madras High Court vacated the stay on the Tamil Nadu government order (go) that terminated licences for sand quarrying. The previous restraining directive was delivered by a single judge only a few hours earlier. The mining operations were meant to be carried out on leased out sites in the state.