Where gold rush hurts

Mining in India has been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. Our environmental track record in mining has not exactly been stellar. More bad news is likely. India is looking to open investment in gold mining in the country—and in a big way.

News 360 ° - Briefs

US $1 TRILLION WORTH OF MINERALS

Letters

Desert cash crops will make India poor The western part of India, specifically the dry region, will play an important role in determining the Indian monsoon and even global climate patterns. Our team at the Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI) recently completed an analysis on groundwater depletion in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan and found an overall decline of 20 cm per year; there was no significant recharge through monsoon rainfall.

Letters

Relocated and damned It is disheartening to learn the plight of residents of Bikhnathori village in Bihar who don’t have basic facilities like water and electricity (‘Corridor of uncertainty’, March 1-15, 2010).

Call to Cameron

Visual sophistry of James Cameron’s Avatar may have got it Oscars in technical categories, but many say the film’s plot was all too familiar.

Bauxite bully

INTERNET>> MINING • Vietnam Google says it has identified cyber-attacks aimed at silencing critics of a controversial Chinese-backed bauxite mining project in Vietnam.

Bihar introduces green tax

Bihar  government’s budget has introduced measures to protect the environment. The budget passed for 2010-2011 includes sales tax and value added tax on old vehicles and halves the tax on battery-run vehicles. The state’s finance minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, also announced a blanket ban on mining hills for quarrying stones. He said leases of existing quarries will not be renewed.

Farmers demand concrete action

In Court

ARAVALI MINING BANNED: The Supreme Court on February 19 ordered closure of 157 of the 261 mines in the Aravalli hills in Rajasthan. The court has asked for satellite images of the mining-ravaged hills spread across Haryana and Rajasthan. The ruling came after the states asked for renewal of mining leases for stones used for construction. Green groups allege illegal mining is rampant in the Aravallis.  

Mining giant offers peanuts

South korean steel major posco has announced a rehabilitation package for people using the forestland diverted for its proposed steel plant in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa through Oriya newspapers. Activists led by the posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (ppss) made a bonfire of the printed copies of the rehabilitation package on February 14 and demanded shifting of the project site.