THE government aims at giving faster approval to coal projects that are delayed due to environment and forestry clearances and is planning a new system for allocating coal blocks that would clearly specify `go

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: On the proposed new dam at Mullaperiyar, Premachandran said Geological Survey of India(GSI) officials visited the site on Tuesday.

``Four of the five boreholes have been dug. The alignment for the dam has more or less been fixed,

The Mines Ministry in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has embarked on a project to create a tenement registry of mining leases that would help settle boundary disputes and curb illegal mining.

GANGTOK, Dec 3: The glaciers in Mount Khangchendzonga in Sikkim side have shown an estimated annual retreat of 4.15 m during two decades from 1986 to 2005 which could possibly led to some reduction of water availability in future. This was stated by Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh in his reply to a question raised by Sikkim MP OT Lepcha in the Rajya Sabha recently.

The glacier of the world famous Mount Kanchenzonga in Sikkim has receded 4.5 metres in the last 17 years (1986-2005), Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh confirmed on Monday.

The water turning acidic in the reservoirs of Assam

N. GOPAL RAJ

An official discussion paper on the status of Himalayan glaciers is coming under fire. The paper, issued recently by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, argued that the glaciers, which nourish several great rivers such as the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra, have not retreated abnormally. It also questioned the link between climate change and the glaciers

Rubbishing the claim by a government-backed study that melting of glaciers was not due to climate change, leading environmentalist R.K.
Pachauri on Sunday dubbed it as "totally unsubstantiated scientific opinion" and flayed environment minister Jairam Ramesh for endorsing it.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had been saying it all along. Now he has the findings of a report to back his claims. A study by a former scientist at the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has sought to downplay the scare-mongering over an apparent alarming retreat of the Himalayan glaciers due to global warming.