They are registered as clean development mechanism projects, eligible for carbon credits. On October 15, 2010, the regional officer of Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board (CECB), R K Sharma, visited Tilda industrial area in Raipur unannounced. He noticed thick smoke rising from the premises of a renewable energy project. On paper the 8.5 MW power plant, Agrawal Renewable Energy Project, uses rice husk, a cleaner alternative to coal, to produce electricity. The electrostatic precipitator (ESP), an emission control device, installed in the plant was tripping frequently.

Century-old teak plantation business loses ground in India because of poor management and short-sighted policies.

Wildlife board worried over the impact of public-private project on wildlife habitats. The standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has put the Demwe Lower Hydroelectric Project in Arunachal Pradesh on hold till an expert committee asseses its impact on the flora fauna downstream. The 1,750 MW project is being executed jointly by Athena Demwe Power Ltd, promoted by the India-based Athena Energy Ventures Pvt Ltd, and the Government of Arunachal Pradesh in Lohit district and is sheduled to be commissioned during the 12th Five-Year Plan.

The forest officials of Panna Tiger Reserve worked in close nexus with poachers for over a decade, says an internal report prepared by the Intelligence Cell of the tiger reserve, which had lost all its tigers by 2008.

In partnership with forest departments, communities across India have raised forests worth millions of rupees in the hope of getting shares in timber revenue. Now that forests are ready for harvest, officials make excuses or give pittance. Read this Special report in Down To Earth.

The special report  by Down To Earth on the Lokayukta’s exhaustive report on illegal mining in Bellary says that this is also a governance failure and should be viewed more seriously than all illegalities and environmental degradation.

Taungyas have lived in Uttar Pradesh for decades but law does not recognise them. They have hope from the Forest rights Act 2006 in getting legal identity, as it recognises the traditional rights of scheduled tribes and other forest-dwellers on forest land and resources.

The Union government is reviewing its landmark initiative, the Forest Rights Act, four years after enacting it and two high-level groups submitted their assessment in the first week of January. But the environment ministry is in no mood to accept Forest Rights Act review finds out Down To Earth.

A special report by Down To Earth on Koyna sanctuary situated in Satara district, Maharashtra, where the windmills and resorts replace wildlife with government's help.