The Ministry of Environment and Forest hinted that water flow in the Indian rivers especially Brahmaputra and Ganga rivers were at risk because of shrinkage of glaciers in Tibet.

A total of 83 tigers May 2: A total of 83 tigers were poached during 19992004 as forest guards in various reserves were illequipped and untrained to fight wildlife smugglers, a parliamentary panel has said.

Nearly half of the total of 173 tigers, which died between 1999 and 2004, had fallen victim to poachers. And this, since forest guards in various reserves were ill-equipped and untrained to fight wildlife smugglers. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), headed by BJP MP Gopinath Munde, has come up with the alarming facts in its report tabled in Parliament recently.

New Delhi: The long-pending National Green Tribunal (NGT) Bill was passed in Lok Sabha after environment minister Jairam Ramesh accepted some key amendments to the proposed legislation that parliamentarians cutting across party lines had suggested.

J. Balaji

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Friday adopted the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Bill, 2009. It envisages the setting up of a national tribunal, a judicial body exclusively to deal with environmental laws and to provide citizens a right to environment.

Miss Agenda For Next Week

IN A significant development on the Sino-India water front, India and China have agreed to share hydrological data for the river Brahmaputra starting this monsoon season. The implementation plan was signed after the fourth meeting of the India-China expert mechanism on trans-border rivers, which took place from April 26 to 29 here.

THE National Green Tribunal Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Friday. The Bill allows for the setting up of specialised environment laws. There are at present 5,600 environment related cases pending in the courts.

April.30 : There is a draft Seeds Bill in Parliament which could be enacted any day now. The new Seeds Bill, drafted originally in 2004, will replace the old Seed Act of 1966 which was meant to set standards for trading in seed. The conditions of seed production have undergone a sea change in the last 25 years, with a growing presence of the seed industry.

New Delhi: Environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday admitted that Indian ports were not equipped to check and handle hazardous waste. Expressing concern over the lack of proper enforcement that could have precipitated the radiation exposure in Mayapuri recently, Ramesh said he had written to the finance and commerce ministries on the issue.