Better living conditions must be an integral part of all political campaigns. But this will only happen if the public pressures the political class to understand the irreversibility of climate change and make the environment a crucial part of their manifestos.
The Sterlite Copper Smelter unit in Tuticorin, which was shut down over two months ago, has resumed operations after the National Green Tribunal's expert panel gave a green signal.
The Tribunal sought response from the Maharashtra government and the state pollution control board asking whether any standards have been laid down regarding noise pollution and what steps are taken against use of sirens in "silence zones".
A PIL was filed stating the extensive wedding preparations of Suryakant -- son of Ajay Gupta -- and that of Atul Gupta's son Shashank was damaging the environment.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated the 'country's first smog tower' at Connaught Place in New Delhi on Monday and said it will prove to be a milestone and many such structures can be installed in the city if the pilot project yields results.
Move comes close on the heels of MoEF's decision to grant conditional clearance to the Lavasa hill city project.
The top court said a balanced approach of sustainable development ensuring environmental safeguards needs to be resorted to while dealing with the issue of sand mining.
MPCB said Indiabulls had started the construction work at the IT Park project in violation of consent to establish and without complying with its directions issued on January 27.
The green panel said that innocent people drank and bathed in the river with reverence, without knowing that it may adversely affect their health.
The city also recorded a maximum temperature of 23.8 degrees Celsius, 16 notches below normal and the lowest in the month of May since 1951, the IMD said.
Authorities alerted people to avoid staying outdoors and L-G ordered to halt all civil construction activities across the city till Sunday.
The government order said it endorsed the recent closure direction of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, and also asked the TNPCB to "seal the unit and close the plant permanently".
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice S K Kaul said the case will be heard on January 8.
Billions of rupees spent on river cleaning programmes have gone down the drain. This situation cannot be allowed to continue, says Business Standard.
The incident triggered panic among motorists on the busy Sarjapur main road. The flames raged for a while, and the area was enveloped in smoke.
The Environment and Forest Ministry has decided to seek bank guarantee for revocation of its orders for closure of industrial units and projects on ground of causing environment pollution.
The Centre on Monday earmarked a separate Rs 2,217 crore for 42 urban centres to tackle air pollution and announced the much-awaited voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old and polluting vehicles, even as it shrunk the budgetary allocation for the environment ministry from the last fiscal by nearly eight percent. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget speech for 2021-22, announced a total of Rs 2869.93 crore for the ministry, Rs 230 crore less than the last fiscal. Officials said the outlay has been lesser this time as the economy is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experts said while meteorological conditions were "moderately" favourable for dispersion of pollutants, a "very high" number of farm fires in Punjab was the primary reason for "severe" air quality.
The Central Pollution Control Board has declared Gujarat as the most polluted state in India.
Air pollution may lead to a faster spread of Covid-19 infection as it causes coughing and sneezing, government officials told a parliamentary panel on Friday, according to sources.
Skies over Delhi hung heavy with smoke and its air quality inched towards "severe" category on Diwali night as people burst firecrackers in a blatant disregard to the government's ban against it, imposed amid an increase in the contribution from farm fires.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the 24-hour average concentration of lung-damaging fine particles known as PM2.5 in Delhi-NCR shot up from 243 micrograms per cubic metre at 6 pm on Thursday (Diwali day) to 410 micrograms per cubic metre at 9 am on Friday, around seven times the safe limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metre.
A central team on Monday began a probe into allegations that a radioactive contaminated United States ship has been anchored at the Alang coast in Gujarat, even as non-governmental organisations demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the matter.The three-member team comprising an official each from the Central Pollution Control Board, the Steel Ministry and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board will submit its report by the end of the week.
A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the carmaker to deposit the amount within two months.
New Delhi has sent a firm message to first world countries that India can't be used as a dumping yard for their wastes.
The step follows huge outcry over the pollution caused by these off-shore casinos. The state government body -- Goa State Pollution Control Board -- on Tuesday directed all the six casino operators to suspend their operations on the grounds of pollution.
The 300 mw Group Captive Power Project (GCPP) being set up by Vidarbha Industries Power (VIPL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed by Reliance Power, at Butibori near Nagpur in Maharashtra, will soon enter the construction phase. Sources said the required land has been acquired and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has given the green signal for setting up the project. Reliance Power will soon award the EPC contract for the Rs 1500 crore project.
The Kerala government has initiated the process of filing criminal charges against Coca-Cola for water pollution.
A farmers' association of Tirunelveli district had filed the petition claiming that EIA was mandatory for the project to be implemented in 16,000 acres of land, of which around 3,000 acres would be on the sea shore.
Pune villagers are protesting against Maharashtra govt's move to give about 40 hectare of grazing land to Dow Chemicals for a R&D facility in Shendi village. The area's dairy business has suffered due to this and the villagers were also not informed. Activists say there is no environmental impact assessment report for the project. Over 10 villages in the Pune district have launched protests to save their grazing land, by not allowing construction material into their villages.
A smoke-free zone would be demarcated around the Golden Temple at Amritsar to shield the historic shrine from the increasing pollution in its vicinity.
The court also wanted to know about the nodal agency that would be entrusted the job of overseeing the dismantling of the Blue Lady, which has already been breached.
A team of the Central Pollution Control Board, which visited the fabled Silk Route in 2007, a year after it was reopened for cross border trade between China and India, found that expansion of the trade route was disturbing the ecosystem of the area. "Reopened with an aim to boost trade between China and India, ongoing expansion of one of the world's highest navigable roads is in progress without any precaution of the possible environmental impact," the Board said.
The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea by Skoda Auto Volkswagen India challenging an FIR registered in Uttar Pradesh by a customer over the alleged use of 'cheat device' in its diesel car by the company to manipulate emission norms.
The Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board on Tuesday held a public hearing on uranium mining despite opposition and a bandh call guven by Khasi Students Union and its allies.
According to a survey carried out by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the accepted set value for crackers is 124 decibels at a distance of four m from the point of detonation, but 95 per cent of crackers breach this noise and pollution standard.
The Supreme Court on Monday asked all the states to explain within six weeks as to why they should not be made liable to pay compensation to persons affected by bad air quality saying it is their bounden duty to provide basic civic amenities, clean air and drinking water to citizens.
Sunil Bharala, the chairman of the state Labour Welfare Council, said stubble burning is an 'age-old practice'.
Violation of the provisions entails a punishment of a jail term up to five years or with fine up to Rs 1 crore or with both, the ordinance released by the Ministry of Law and Justice on Thursday said.
