A death blow?

Will the death of Gujarat chief minister Chimanbhai Patel affect the controversial Sardar Sarovar Project?

Irangate replay across the Atlantic

A MAJOR, Irangate-style controversy is building up over a L1 billion framework accord on military sales that is ostensibly linked to British aid in 1988 for the Pergau dam project in Malaysia. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has taken a dim view of Britain's aid policy and is expected to criticise it in an upcoming report.

Inundated by colonial misconceptions

FLOODS have ravaged India from times immemorial and people have controlled and turned them into beneficial processes. But today they are seen as catastrophic events that are to be forcefully contained by dams and embankments.

Doomed dam

THE ENVIRONMENTALIST group Loire Vivante is creating waves in France. Following its five-year-long protest movement, the French government has decided to shelve a controversial dam project on the Loire, the country's longest river.

Rajasthan gets a "Narmada"

Villagers of Jhadol district in Rajasthan are up in arms against the proposed construction of two dams under the Mansi-Wakal project, which will inundate their villages. In what is already being dubbed the "Narmada of Rajasthan", the Bhil tribals of the area, led by the Chandreshwar Kishan Sangharsh Samiti (CKSS), have pitted themselves against the state government on the issue.

Credibility declines

THE CREDIBILITY of China's controversial Three Gorges project to build the world's largest dam across the Yangtze river has received a setback. Two US government agencies -- the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers -- said they will sever their involvement in the project after completing work on a hydrological database.

Solar power is the only viable alternative

I understand you have an alternative to the Sardar Sarovar irrigation project, for using Narmada water. Can you give us an outline? Interviewee:  K R Datye

Political hand behind tribal encroachment

IN THEIR quest for cultivable land, tribals have cleared more than 2,025 ha of virgin forest in the Hadgarh sanctuary in Orissa's Keonjhar district in less than two years.

Treating symptoms will not cure the disease

IN A SITUATION where material on environmental law is by and large scattered, the bringing together of case, statutory and analytical material, through careful selection and critique, is of significance to teachers and students of environmental law. The value of this book is greatly enhanced by the fact that besides case and statutory material, there are several articles that will introduce its readers to other books and articles, which they may not have cared to read for various reasons.

Patkar populism lights sparks on Zee TV

IN THE eight or nine years she has spent building a resistance movement to the Narmada dam project, Medha Patkar has certainly learnt to state her case. And her ability in this direction was evident in Zee TV's Aap ki Adalat, where she fielded with considerable panache, host Rajat Sharma's deliberately provocative questions.