The Madhya Pradesh forest department has refused to provide information under the Right to Information Act on management of cheetahs brought from Africa and their cubs born in India.
Nitin Gadkari and Prakash Javdekar lobbied Jual Oram to change process, that may now open a Pandora's box.
Growing and harvesting trees for productive and economic uses are once again dead in the water, says Sunita Narain.
'You have to separate the concept of India as a nation State which is very young and the Upanishadic wisdom which is timeless.'
Meanwhile, the administration claimed it was fully prepared to deal with fresh fires in case they break out anywhere in the state due to a change in the weather.
In its reply to the MoEF dated August 13, the department of forest and environment has categorically stated that there are no traditional forest dwellers at the Posco site. It has also clarified that there are no claimants under the Forest Rights Act and certain land records pertaining to the erstwhile Bardhaman estate are not authentic.
Sixteen people in five Jharkhand districts have been killed by a tusker in the past 12 days, with four in a single block of Ranchi district on Tuesday, forest officials said.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posed questions for the prime minister ahead of his rallies in Karnataka.
'Since there is no photo-op, or quick fix solutions, politicians do not want to address climate change. It is very unfashionable.'
"This year the Ministry has received 579 proposals from all the State Governments under the National Afforestation Programme out of which 270 have been accorded sanction," Jairam said.
The proposed changes, as per the draft, could continue some of the existing conflict between wildlife protection regulations with the implementation of Forest Rights Act, 2006, which gives rights to tribals in all kinds of traditional forest lands -- including the wildlife zones, such as national parks. The new proposed law, just as the original one from 1972, does not explicitly recognise these rights in all wildlife areas.
The apex court directed the CBI, which is already probing the case, to file its status report in the matter within three months.
Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan on Monday expressed concern over the law and order situation in the state and said if he was the state home minister, 'things would be different', remarks seen as direct criticism of Vangalapudi Anitha, who is holding the department currently.
The monthly Rs 2500 payment for poor women is expected to cost Rs 11,000 crore while the pension scheme of Rs 2000 for every senior citizen will cost around Rs 4100 crore. The Yamuna clean up will cost over Rs 10,000 crore while a similar amount is required to upgrade Delhi's hospitals. Ultimately, the new BJP government will have no choice but to ask the centre for financial support, notes Rashme Sehgal.
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has protested, on behalf of the corporate sector, against the Union environment and forests ministry's 'unreasonable environment regulations' being clamped on the industrial projects.
'Look at the post mortem reports. Every body (of the 10 Kuki-Zo youth who were killed) has almost 12 bullet marks on it.' 'Why do they have to fire so much even if they wanted to kill them?' 'One or two shots would be enough to kill them. Why then they had to fire so many bullets on them?'
Hercules Singh Munda's father used to open the gates to a forest. Today, Hercules leaves for London to open the gates of his many dreams.
This is the highest number of tiger deaths in three years.
'It is a clear dent on a lady's dignity and right of privacy guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.'
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Vikram Nath asked the Centre to furnish details of the experts in the task force who specialise in cheetah management, their experience and qualification within two weeks.
At the review meeting, chaired by cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba in New Delhi, the IMD said above normal maximum temperatures are likely over most parts of northeast, east and central India and some parts of northwest India.
The move comes after it noticed instances of certain all India service officers not conducting themselves fully in consonance with the spirit of the AIS (Conduct) Rules, 1968 while on study leave.
Local officials said no casualties have been reported due to Wednesday's quake that hit the Madoi County in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province of northwest China at 3:44 pm (Beijing time), tremors for which were also felt in north-eastern Nepal.
Some more files pertaining to the controversial Mumbai's Adarsh Housing Society have gone missing, this time from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in New Delhi, a senior Central Bureau of Investigation official said on Saturday.
The government may claim planted trees compensate for forests lost, but that does not mean complex flora and fauna destroyed have been restored, points out Himadri Ghosh.
Stating that Adarsh Housing Society had brazenly violated the law, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on Monday ruled out the possibility of regularizing the 31-storey building, at a hearing before the Bombay High Court.
The Orissa government on Wednesday assured the Centre that there was no tribal inhabitant or any other traditional forest dwellers (OTFDs) living at the proposed plant site villages near Paradip.
Among major economies, India in FY23 recorded the steepest increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, climbing 6.1 per cent, with China trailing close behind at 5.2 per cent, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report 2024. In contrast, GHG emission decreased in both the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) by 7.5 per cent and 1.4 per cent, respectively. Despite India's rise, its 2023 GHG emission remains relatively low at 4,140 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCOe) against China's 16,000 and the US's 5,970.
'It was specifically mentioned in the Gadgil Committee report that this particular area where the colossal landside happened now should be in the Environmentally Sensitive Area under Zone 1.' 'Zone 1 is the most important and ecologically sensitive area, and that it has to be protected entirely.' 'At least 90% of the Wayanad disaster is man-made.'
CAF Bill's fate to be decided on Monday
To ensure sharper focus on wildlife-related issues and the Forest Conservation Act, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved the setting up of a separate department for wildlife and forests.
Currently, major port projects have to get clearances under the Coastal Regulation Zone notification of 1991 and an environmental clearance from the central government.
'With technology advancing, we should go all out and put up solar, wind, pumped storage, and battery, and make India go green.'
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar asked the ministry of environment and forests as to what they have done in the matter to control the situation.
Fires are blazing across Jammu and Kashmir, the state of Uttarakhand and have reached the doorstep of Himachal Pradesh's capital city Shimla.
These human interventions in nature, along with climate change, are responsible for the disaster faced by the pilgrim town of Joshimath in Uttarakhand, which is sinking, he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the target date for achieving 20 per cent ethanol-blending with petrol has been advanced by five years to 2025 to cut pollution and reduce import dependence.
Earlier, a government panel had said no to the controversial project in Orissa citing violation of a series of laws by it in active collusion with state government officials.
The Centre will release Rs 95,082 crore as tax devolution to the states this month after including one advance instalment to help them push their capital expenditure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday. After a meeting with all chief ministers and state finance ministers, Sitharaman said states had said that it would be helpful for them if the tax devolution is front loaded.
An Indian Air Force chopper flew several sorties in Nainital district sprinkling water lifted from a lake to douse the raging forest fires across Uttarakhand.
