The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has decided not to grant environmental clearance to any proposals coming under the Ecologically Sensitive Zone-1 of the Western Ghats.

The decision comes in the wake of a direction issued by the National Green Tribunal that the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) report should be considered while granting environmental clearance to projects in the ESZ-1 in the Western Ghats. ESZ-I areas are those which fall outside the boundaries of wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests but have been given the status of a protected area in the WGEEP report.

The High Court yesterday directed the authorities to immediately stop the operations of 22 brickfields and 20 sawmills in the reserved forest area of Lohagara upazila in Chittagong in order to save

New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) on Wednesday cleared six coal mining projects of the 40 that were on the table for discussion. Projects that were not cleared have been slotted for urgent review and the CCI will consider them once the process is complete.

The key issue before the CCI was pending environment and forest clearances for the coal projects mainly in Jharkhand, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh, with proposals stacked in three categories relating to the clearances needed.

Faced with acute shortage of power and fuel and various issues impeding development of the power sector, the government on Tuesday hinted that it would soon come out with new bidding norms for new power projects after holding talks with the stakeholders.

Addressing a press conference here, Minister of State for Power Jyotirditya Scinda said he would hold talks with stakeholders during the next two weeks and finalise the Standard Bidding Documents (SBDs) that had been in the works for a long time now. He also indicated that a plan was underway to strengthen the electricity grid system and move was afoot to grant the status of regulator to Power Operations Systems Company (Posoco), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL).

It will be sent to the Union Cabinet for approval soon

Property developers will no longer be able to lure buyers with advertisements making tall claims and with blown-up pictures of fancy living spaces. In fact they will no longer be able to publicise their projects unless they have all the requisite permissions for construction, the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Bill-2011 has proposed. The Bill, which will be sent to the Union Cabinet for approval soon by the Union Ministry of Housing & Poverty Alleviation, has spelt out the specifics that will have to be followed by the construction industry.

Global miner Xstrata Plc's $5.9 billion Tampakan mine in the Philippines has been granted an environmental compliance certificate by the government, the company said on Tuesday, removing one of the

In the wake of the CBI raid implicating an officer of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in arranging green clearances for certain mining projects in Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, the ministry has for now put on hold all projects associated with the implicated consultant.

Sources said a limestone mining project of Chariot Steel & Power located at village Raiboga in Sundergarh district has already been put on hold. The CBI had on January 16 recovered Rs 1.04 crore from a MoEF deputy director. He was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 7 lakh to arrange environmental clearance for an Orissa-based power and steel company.

Construction work has come to a standstill in the Greater Noida region after a court order made it mandatory to get environmental clearance (EC) even on plots that are less than 20,000 square metre

Stringent environmental clearance rules for mining of minor minerals are set to be relaxed for mining projects involving 'brick earth' and 'ordinary earth'.

With brick kilns sprawling all over the places in Chittagong, sometimes in utter disregard to the law, there is a growing concern over its negative impact not only on the environment but also on th