Sand mining in large parts of Maharashtra continues without mandatory environmental clearance, which is against the Supreme Court’s orders, activist Sumaira Abdulali has alleged.

Every time Sampada Desai, deputy sarpanch of southern Maharashtra's Kalne village in Dodamarg taluka sees the solitary hill in her village, her eyes moisten.

A lengthy meeting between Union Minister of Environment and Forests Jayanti Natarajan and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in Mumbai on Thursday resulted in the state government getting

MUMBAI: Activists have denounced the Kasturirangan high level working group for the exclusion of Dodamarg from ecologically sensitive areas (ESA) in its recommendations to the Union ministry of environment and forests.

The group was set up to review the report submitted by the Madhav Gadgil led Western Ghats ecology expert panel. "Dodamarg has been excluded and left open for mining. The Sawantwadi-Dodamarg wildlife corridor minus Dodamarg is a non-entity. Dodamarg is more eco-fragile than Sawantwadi.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has held as “fraudulent” an alleged deal signed by Thane corporator Ravindra Phatak, as “director” of an iron ore mining company in Sindhudurg, to hand over all of its mining rights to a contractor from Sawantwadi.

In a judgment passed on Wednesday by Justice R D Dhanuka, the HC also slammed a lower court for passing what it said was a “perverse” order in favour of the contractor, based on prima facie fraudulent memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by Phatak, who currently is the standing panel chief in the Thane civic body.

50% DROP IN OLIVE RIDLEY NESTS ALONG KONKAN COASTLINE

Pune: Industrial activity around coastal areas has cast its shadow on the nesting season of the endangered Olive Ridley turtle this year. There has been a disturbing 50 % drop in the total number of nests along the coastline in Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts and experts hope the activity would pick up before the nesting season ends in March. Those working in this region and in the field of turtle conservation have counted 36 Olive Ridley nests along the coastline of the three districts. They say that large scale development in the vicinity of ecologically critical coastal areas and sea pollution are largely responsible for the drop in numbers this year.

Coastline Is Most Prone To Pollution In 1st Week Of Jan

An India-UN survey has revealed that solid waste disposed off on the beaches of Sindhudurg is voluminous enough to pose a serious threat to the district’s rich marine biodiversity. What is true there is true in the rest of coastal Maharashtra as well. It is in winter, especially in January, that tourists in large numbers descend on the beaches of Devgad, Malvan and Vengurla—three talukas that are the state’s prime holiday destinations.

Mumbai: As many as 50 major infrastructure projects across the state have taken a hit after a directive of the union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to subject every mining work, irrespe

Maharashtra industries minister Narayan Rane said last night, that the state government would ask the prime minister to disband the Western Ghats Ecology Experts' Panel which monitors the environme