Citing extensive damage to infrastructure from the floods in June this year, Uttarakhand has urged the Central government to further relax green norms to allow it to divert, without prior clearance

Blamed frequently for delaying green clearances to key infrastructure projects, the MoEF has come up with new and more “realistic” timelines that can be met, giving more time to both states and the

The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) has recommended ban on use of all kinds of animals in circuses.

The statutory advisory body recommended the ban to the Environment Ministry at a meeting last week following an investigation authorised by it on living conditions of elephants and other animals in circuses. The investigation was conducted by a team from PETA India and Animal Rahat across 16 major circuses between November 2012 and July 2013.

Jolted by mismanagement at the Chhapra school where 23 children died after eating midday meal, the Union HRD Ministry has asked all schools to switch to new design and hygienic kitchen-cum-stores a

The environment and forests ministry has asked Uttarakhand for a report on the damage caused to forests and wildlife by the floods.

“We have asked both the Uttarakhand government and Forest Survey of India to assess damage that may have been caused to forests due to massive flooding.

Relaxing the two-year freeze, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has decided to resume considering mining proposals from Bellary, Tumkur and Chitradurga districts of Karnataka.

In a move that is expected to help ease the supply of brick earth and ordinary earth, the environment ministry (MoEF) has relaxed its stringent 2012 norms on mining of minor minerals by exempting t

In a bid to increase field trials of genetically-modified (GM) plants and address the related bio-safety concerns, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has decided to rope in experts who

Marking a major departure from the report of the committee led by ecologist Madhav Gadgil that had called for declaring the entire Western Ghats as an ecologically sensitive area (ESA), the 10-memb

A tiger that has strayed into human habitation must be guided back to forest, chemically immobilised, trapped but, unless it is established as a man-eater, not killed, states a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) framed by the National Tiger Conservation Authority to deal with man-tiger conflict.

The SOP, circulated among chief wildlife wardens last month, states that "under no circumstances must a tiger be eliminated by invoking the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, if it is not habituated for causing human death". And declaring it a man-eater must also be a well-deliberated exercise that differentiates a chance man-killer from a habituated human stalker that feeds on the body and avoids its natural prey, says the SOP.