National Green Tribunal stalls POSCO
POSCO and/or the government can appeal the Green Tribunal’s decision in the Supreme Court, but no work can begin till the review process is completed
The gods must be angry
For seven years, the local inhabitants of Dzongu in Sikkim have been opposing the hydropower project and 24 dams being built on the Teesta, which is destroying the ecology around their sacred mountain, Khangchendzonga. The quake of September 2011 came as no surprise to these indigenous people. A photo-feature by Shailendra Yashwant
Mountains of marble waste
More than 1,500 marble mines are operating in the Aravallis in Rajasthan, destroying the hills and ecology, depleting groundwater and leaving mountains of waste and slurry on pasturelands and riverbanks
Resistance to dam project grows in south Gujarat
People from 16 villages on the Gujarat-Maharashtra border have been demonstrating their resistance to the Par-Tapi-Narmada river interlinking project, another multi-dam project which is slated to submerge 3,572 hectares of forests and displace 25,000 people
Raising the dust on illegal mining in Goa
Only nine of the 90 active mining leases in Goa appear to be valid, preliminary investigations by the Justice MB Shah Commission reveal. The rest have been exploiting a legal loophole to extract upto 54 million metric tonnes of iron ore per year. Joseph Zuzarte reports on the dust that is, finally, being raised in the state about illegal mining
To integrate or not: What do the Jarawa think?
The courts have upheld the isolation of the Jarawa tribals in the Andamans, but the local administration is encouraging their ‘integration’. Has anyone, as the NAC recommends, asked this indigenous group what they want, wonders this reporter as she travels the Andaman Trunk Road
How much is a 50-year-old tree worth?
Will ascribing an economic value to natural capital such as forests help us conserve them? The TEEB study, commissioned by the UNEP, believes it will
Maa Bonbibi in the land of tigers
Maa Bonbibi, the multicultural goddess who is said to protect the woodcutters, honey collectors and fishermen of the Sunderbans from the attacks by tigers, is being invoked by conservation authorities in the Sunderbans over the last 10 years. Not a single tiger has reportedly been killed for straying into villages in a decade
Peddling POSCO
On June 10, a barricade of women and children prevented Orissa state forces from entering Govindpur and Dhinkia to begin land acquisition for the POSCO steel project. Elsewhere, the acquisition is going ahead, and all dissent is being silenced. Javed Iqbal reports from the ground
Do cooperative forests have a future?
Over the last 13 years, 143 primary farm forestry cooperatives have regenerated 27,000 hectares of wasteland in 13 districts of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The MoEF under the Green India Mission intends to increase India’s forest cover by 5 million hectares, but forest cooperatives don’t even get a mention