In order to give “inviolate space” to tigers for their undisturbed breeding, the Supreme Court on Tuesday banned all forms of tourism in national tiger reserves with immediate effect, warning states it would take strict action, including imposing fines, if this order was not implemented in letter and spirit.

A bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla passed an interim ban order on a note placed on record by amicus curiae Raj Panjwani highlighting how the “inviolate space” of 800-1,200 sq km recommended by the Wildlife Institute of India and National Board of Wildlife for peaceful breeding by a group of 20 tigress and survival of young cubs was disturbed due to tourism in tiger reserves.

On the contentious land acquisition issue turning into a major controversy in almost all the states, the Supreme Court in an important judgment has ruled the final award fixed by it could not be “r

The farmers, whose huge chunk of land was acquired to build Navi Mumbai, got a marginal relief from the Supreme Court after a 42 year-long legal battle as it enhanced the compensation for them to `25 per square metre.

The Maharashtra government had fixed the award for their land at `1.75 and 2.50 per square metre in 1972 after the notification for acquiring 3,86,790 square metres of land from Roadpali village was issued in February 1970.

German company GIZ, which has offered to airlift the highly-dangerous toxic waste from Union Carbide’s Bhopal plant for disposal in Germany, has raised “doubts” about the logistic support facilities at Bhopal airport for handling of such sophisticated cargo to avoid any environment problem.

The Centre, which though had decided to engage GIZ for disposing the 350 tonnes of highly-dangerous toxic waste of methyl isocyanate left in the UCIL plant after the 1984 gas leak disaster, has left it to the company to make independent assessment of the airport facilities.

In the absence of any viable regulatory mechanism for gene technology, the Supr-eme Court has set up a six-member expert committee to monitor field trials on certain crops using genetically-modifie

Concerned about the serious threat posed by huge toxic material left in Union Carbide’s Bhopal plant after the 1984 gas tragedy, the Supreme Court on Thursday summoned top officials of the Union and MP government to suggest measures for its early disposal.

A bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhyaya sought the presence of Union environment and chemical secretaries and Madhya Pradesh’s secretary for “Bhopal gas tragedy rehabilitation department” on Friday to give “assistance” to the court as how 350 tones of toxic waste deposited in Carbide plant should be disposed off as early as possible.

Expressing grave concern over the reports about manufacturing of “synthetic” milk emanating from various parts of the states close to the national capital, where supply of such milk could not be ruled out, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Centre and six states seeking reports on the issue.

A bench of Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapaidia and Justices A.K. Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar issued the notices to the Centre and states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand asking them to file affidavits specifying action taken by them to check the supply of spurious milk and milk products within four weeks.

There seems to be no meeting point between the governments of two BJP stalwarts Narendra Modi and Shivraj Singh Chouhan on shifting of the Asiatic lions from Gir forests in Gujarat to Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.

While the Chouhan government on Monday furnished details about the preparatory steps taken with “active support” of the Centre for comfortable living of five to eight Asiatic lions in Kuno but the Modi administration was not ready to part with even a single big cat out of the improved population of 300 in Gir till the Centre’s proposal for reintroduction of “Cheetaha” is successfully implemented in Kuno.

While closing its 10-year-long monitoring of the ambitious `5 lakh crore river interlinking project conceived by Atal Behari Vajpayee’s NDA government and deemed his dream project, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered the setting up of a multi-member committee to oversee its execution, particularly for river links mentioned in several feasibility reports of the task force.

The committee will be headed by the water resources minister and comprise the ministry secretary, the secretary, environment and forest ministry, the Central Water Commission chief, the water development authority secretary,

The Supreme Court has come down heavily on the Central and state governments for the misuse of the archaic Land Acquisition Act in the past two decades of the opening of economy to acquire farmers’