Untreated toxic waste released from dying and printing units of a textile mill and a yarn dying mill in Tangail Sadar upazila is polluting Louhajang River. The pollution that goes on unabated for several years, now threatens fish, crops and greenery in the area, locals said. The local administration cannot take action against the authorities of the mills for pollution as the mills managed permission from the Directorate of Environment (DoE).

The companies involved in executing hydel projects in the state in general and Palampur in particular are flouting the agreement on the proper disposal of debris, clay and stones. This became evident as residents of HIMUDA colony, Holta, and adjoining localities were being compelled to consume muddy and contaminated water for the last three days.

A teenage girl and a woman died on Sunday due to a disease caused by contaminated water of Manchhar Lake. Also, about 1500 fishermen of four villages in the surrounding area of the lake have been infected with different water-borne diseases. At least eight people have died during the last three months in four villages adjacent to Manchhar Lake due to water-borne ailments.

The Brahmani is the second largest river in Orissa. It begins as two rivers - the Shankha and the Koel - from the Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand and joins the Saraswati at Vedvyas to from the Brahmani. Vedvyas is a sacred place, 9 km from Rourkela, which is a major urban centre - the 2001 census estimated its population at 484,292.

Residents of Bantlapalli in Atmakur mandal of Nellore district have been facing severe drinking water problem for the last few years. The village has 500 people and residents suffer from kidney and skin diseases, many becoming disabled as the water available in the village has high quantity of fluoride content. People who are in their 40s have aged and doctors have been advising them to leave the village instead of going for treatment. People have to walk nearly 1.5 kms to the adjacent Khansahebpet village of Marripadu mandal to fetch drinking water.

The problem of air and water pollution in the vicinity of Kharikat canal is so complex that even the committee formed by AUDA and AMC to resolve the issue in 2002 expressed helplessness before the Gujarat High Court then. A division bench headed by Justice BC Patel was surprised to know that the committee made a grievance before the court, as authorities rendered no assistance to it for carrying out court's directions. However, the issue continued to be debated in the High Court and directions were issued time and again.

BERHAMPORE : One look at their diseased hands and feet and the fact that the country has been Independent for the last 60 years seems doubtful. Women in some villages of Murshidabad are doomed to a life without a family of their own, as no one will marry them. Even gram panchayat candidates here have sores on their hands and feet. They go about campaigning while trying in vain to ignore painful sores in their hands and feet, a continuous burning sensation, nausea and fever that refuses to go away. The drinking water they draw from their tube wells is laced with a silent killer ~ arsenic.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today constituted a task force consisting of officers from Punjab State Pollution Control Board, Punjab State Council for Science and Technology and Water Supply and Sewerage Board to prepare a blue print for making Sirhind canal free from pollution to achieve the objective of "safe drinking water for all'.

What Erin Brockovich, a twice-divorced mother of two and a legal clerk, did to the small South Californian town Hinkley by taking on a corporation as huge as PG&E is part of American activism history Sukinda, in Orissa, has . not been as lucky despite scores of citizens' reports, environment assessment studies and a green brigade's non-relenting crusade.