A two-day workshop, titled “Fishery-dependent Livelihoods, Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity: The Case of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas in India”, was held in New Delhi during 1-2 March 2012. The workshop was a follow-up to the one held in Chennai in 2009, which was titled “Social Dimensions of Marine Protected Area (MPA) Implementation in India: Do Fishing Communities Benefit?”.
Noise levels in most Indian cities have crossed safe limits. Lack of awareness has led to ailments ranging from hypertension to heart diseases. But the authorities dont's seem bothered. Read this special report in Down To Earth.
The Supreme Court has temporarily stayed an order of the Madras High Court, asking resort owners near Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu to vacate the land. In April, the high court had given resort owners three months to hand over the land with them to the state to pave the way for an elephant corridor in the Nilgiri mountains. The corridor would connect Mudumalai to the Sathyamangalam forests in the east of the Segur plateau.
Multinational seed companies are luring farmers to grow hybrid maize with promises of high yields and high returns. The cereal is overtaking farms growing millets and other staples. Is it a threat to India’s food security? Read this report in Down To Earth.
After declaring 43 industrial areas in India as critically polluted and imposing a moratorium on their expansion, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests is going easy on them. As many as 23 critically polluted areas have been removed from the moratorium list since last October on the basis of inadequate action plans submitted by the respective states.
Forest people across India are being denied their legitimate right to collect and trade in minor forest produce. Down To Earth correspondents travelled to Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, MP, AP, Maharashtra & Orrisa to unravel the conspiracy.
Sixty-nine vultures and 22 vulture nests are left in Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary in Junagadh district of Gujarat, revealed a state-wide census of vultures in the last week of May.Activists hope the finding will derail building a ropeway through the sanctuary for pilgrims visiting the Jain temples atop Girnar mountains.
Tigers from Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh disappeared because they wandered out of the park and got poached. The forest department could not be held responsible for the loss because its jurisdiction ended within the park, says a state government committee report.
On MAY 25, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) released the draft Green India Mission. It aims to reduce carbon emissions by doubling the area taken up for afforestation in the next one decade as a part of the Centre
