The Gawda Kunbi Velip and Dhangar Federation of Colomba unit on Friday filed a complaint at the Quepem police against a mine operating at Gulkon Donger for releasing polluted water and mining silt into their agricultural fields.

It is aimed at creating public awareness about the city's ecological units

Even the most ardent proponents of industrialism would acknowledge that we are in the midst of an environment crisis. Rates of species extinction are 1,000 times more than what they were before human beings dominated the earth. The rate of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere today is 30 times more than when the Industrial Revolution started. Urban India is slowly waking up to this inconvenient truth.

* Air pollution in India causes 5,27,700 deaths every year (WHO) * 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to polluted water. In India, diarrhoea alone causes more than 1,600 deaths daily (WHO) * Only 22% of the wastewater generated in urban India is treated, severely polluting rivers. The total wastewater from Delhi and nearby areas flowing into the 19 drains that connect to the Yamuna is around 3,296 million litres a day, of which 630 MLD is untreated.

How green is my country? Indians are asking the question but not doing enough. ... Debarshi Dasgupta

Admitting that garbage was a major issue and was causing immense damage to the environment, Power and Environment Minister, Aleixo Sequeira said the issue could be solved with people's participation. Speaking at a debate titled

As the World Environment Day would be celebrated on Thursday, the Yamuna river would project a grim picture about increasing pollution level and dip in the water quality. "The Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) load, an important indicator of pollution level has increased by 13 per cent over last year," Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has said in its latest 2007 report.

With World Environment Day being celebrated on Thursday, the Yamuna river today projects a grim picture of increasing pollution levels. "The Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) load, an important indicator of pollution levels, has increased by 13 per cent over last year,' Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has said in its latest report. This rise might be because of increase in generation of BOD load in the city or decrease in treatment efficiency of sewage treatment plants (STPs).

Environmentalist and Mhadei Bachao Abhiyan Vice President Nandkumar Kamat is at a loss of words to explain the Government's inefficiency to check whether water supplied in people's homes was actually safe for drinking. Addressing a press conference on the eve of World Environment Day that falls tomorrow (June 5), Kamat lamented, "What we are drinking is actually poison water. There are no quality checks and the Government has not bothered to address the problem in spite of reminders and individual representations.'