Environment Ministry has constituted a high-level Working Group headed by eminent space scientist and Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan to examine the Western Ghats ecology expert panel re

Gadgil says it’s premature to evaluate report

A working group headed by Planning Commission member K. Kasturirangan will assess the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) report and submit an action plan for its “effective implementation” to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). The Ministry has asked the group to evaluate the report of the Madhav Gadgil panel in a “holistic and multidisciplinary fashion in the light of the comments” received from various stakeholders, including State governments and Central Ministries.

The second meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority’s inter-Ministerial group in Delhi on Tuesday could not make much headway on the contentious issue of the under-construction hydro-electric project on the Alaknanda at Srinagar in Uttarakhand.

The group, headed by Planning Commission Member B. K. Chaturvedi, heard the builders of the project and the campaigners for the protection of the Dhari Devi temple on the river, but there appeared to be no convergence.

The Environmental Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA) presentation on a new parking policy for Delhi before the Lieutenant-Governor on Thursday argued that the rate of parking for surface parking should be kept higher than multi-level parking facilities.

Other suggestions related to pricing made by Ms. Sunita Narain and Mr. Bhure Lal at the meeting on behalf of EPCA were to keep parking rates variable based on peak and non-peak hours, number of hours parked, and different categories of lands and colonies.

Aims to discourage parking on roads, use of private vehicles

The Capital looks all set to have a new parking policy meant to regulate parking on the roads while placing a restraint on use of public space by private vehicles, thus creating an incentive to use public transport. A series of suggestions made at a meeting called by Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna on Thursday to address the city’s parking woes include revision of parking fees to make parking on roads more expensive than parking at street-level, or in underground and multi-storey parking lots.

Coal mining is one of the biggest threats to habitats of the big cats in the country.

Environmentalists have called for stopping all field trials of genetically (GM) modified crops and a wider public debate on the issue.

Perspectives of industries and non-government bodies often differ on environment protection norms. While NGOs insist on putting in place the most stringent environment safety standards, industries often find it difficult to comply with such norms.

Similarly, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a non-government organisation, and public sector steel maker SAIL are unable to agree on what would be the right green norms for the steel industry.

Kerala govt's ban on endosulfan prevails. State pays monthly pension of Rs 2,000 to those who are bedridden & Rs 1,000 to those with ailments, disability

I want to tell you today a true story of extraordinary courage, not of one, but of many. This past fortnight I was in Kasargod, a district in Kerala, splendid in beauty and natural resources, but destroyed by one toxic chemical: endosulfan. The pesticide was aerially sprayed over cashew plantations for 20 years, in complete disregard for the fact that there is no demarcation between where plantations end and habitation begins.