Cry of a river

Indra Pal Singh fondly recalls drinking sweet water of the river Ami as a child. Elders of the village where Pal Singh grew up say the river gets it name from aam (mango) or amrit (nectar). Today, Pal Singh, pradhan of Adilapar village in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district, says the 136 km river has become a nuisance. A drain that carries untreated industrial effluent from the Gorakhpur Industrial Development Area (GIDA) has reduced it to a filthy water body. Residents of more than 100 habitations downstream of the drain often complain of colds, mystery fevers, nausea and high blood pressure. They find it hard to breathe at night as the stench from the drain rises with the increase in the volume of the wastewater. The residents say the effluent level rises by half a metre at sunset.

Waste manager dumps it in river

AFTER years of dilly-dallying, the pollution control board finally issued closure notice to Gujarat Enviro Protection Infrastructure Limited (GEPIL) on November 30. The Surat-based waste management company was caught disposing of hazardous waste into the Mindhola River flowing by the city.

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.

Stinking for two decades

Residents of a small village in Gujarat once banked on a lake for irrigation. Today, the revered Wrun Mukteshwar Mahadev Temple lake has turned violet. People of Nodhana in Bharuch district say seepage of industrial waste from a nearby effluent channel has contaminated the lake and fields over the past two decades.

Liability sans facility

TO TACKLE the waste generated by the booming health industry, the Union environment ministry plans to amend the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules of 1998. The ministry had posted the draft rules on its website in August for public comment and is evaluating the recommendations.

Granite greed

Eighty-year-old Budda Muthyalu, a Lambada tribeswoman, does not know how much a cubic metre is or how much Tan Brown granite fetches in the market. All she knows is that quarrying for the stone near her hamlet in Hosnabad block of Karimnagar district spells disaster for her people.

Faulty data, poor monitoring

A recent paper of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Towards an Emission Trading Scheme for Air Pollutants in India, explores the possibility of introducing a permit and trading system for air pollutants from industrial sources. The scheme operates along the lines of the cap-and-trade mechanism for greenhouse gas emissions. Units that keep pollutants well below stipulated levels can trade their credits with those that pollute in excess of standards.

Governance failure

Mining in India is regulated by multiple institutions functioning at multiple levels to provide checks and balances. In Bellary, however, every department and agency supposed to regulate and control mining simply collapsed under the weight of the “loot”. Bellary, therefore, represents a colossal failure of governance.

Power plant in the dock, third time

HOLDING a thermal power station in Chandrapur city in Maharashtra responsible for polluting a river, the state pollution control board has ordered forfeiture of its bank guarantee of Rs 5 lakh. Toxins released by the station killed thousands of fish in the Irai river, on whose bank it is located.

Cuddalore flouts rules