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environmental law

Construction on the Yamuna floodplains by Art of Living Foundation

Conserve/Resist

Spotlight: New legislation threatens India’s already endangered wetlands

9th June 2016

This March, the central government set the ball rolling on a new set of rules intended, supposedly, to protect India’s wetlands. In this special feature, we present articles that look at the state of wetlands, and critically examine the new legislation, which many fear is a case of the cure being worse than the disease….

Conserve/Resist

Obituary: TN Godavarman: the man behind India’s biggest environment court case

7th June 2016

Nihar Gokhale writes: In environmental policy, there’s one Supreme Court case that beat all others: TN Godavarman Thirumalpad versus Union of India and others. Writ Petition (Civil) 202 of 1995. On 1 June, days before World Environment Day, the man who lent his name to the most iconic environment case in the country, passed away….

ALTERNATIVES

Will doubling India’s coal tax boost the clean energy sector?

14th May 2016

India in its INDC pledged to achieve 40% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030. The carbon cess will help provide a clear and direct indication to the market of rising regulatory risks that hover over the fossil fuel industry and build business confidence in the non-fossil fuel industry….

Conflict/Dispossession

Modi government has launched a silent war on the environment

12th May 2016

Nayantara Narayanan reports: The UPA government left behind a legacy of weakened safeguards for India’s environment, forests and forest-dwelling people. The Narendra Modi government has lost no time in weakening them further. The process has been so accelerated that journalists have struggled to keep pace with them. Here is a look at seven reported changes….

NEWS ARCHIVE

NEWS UPDATE #91

14th April 2016

Sayantan Bera reports: Data from the ministry of water resources show that in end March, water levels in 91 major reservoirs in the country was at just 25% of capacity—30% lower than last year, and 25% less than the average storage in a decade. The situation is acute in the western parts of the country….

NEWS ARCHIVE

NEWS UPDATE #89

31st March 2016

The Centre has proposed modification of green laws to impose a fine up to Rs 20 crore on major environment violators, who would also have to pay a daily fine of Rs 1 crore if the damage continues. Another green law will prevent violators from taking shelter under a legal cover for non-payment of fines….

The venue of the Art of Living event on the Yamuna floodplains

www.dailymail.co.uk

Culture/Cognition

When communalists turn on environmentalists

28th March 2016

Wildlife conservationist Neha Sinha writes: In the past, environmentalists have often been blamed as obstructionist and anti-development. Legal environmental clearance processes have been described as green terrorism because questions of sustainable development and conservation do not always go hand in hand with polluting industrial expansion. But many environmentalists feel being called anti-cultural and anti-Hindu is something new….

Forests/Wildlife

Crucial Petition on the Compensatory Afforestation Bill

7th August 2015

Urgent! Calling all citizens to endorse this campaign to prevent over 35,000 Crores being wasted on meaningless tree planting projects. Let’s demand a better Compensatory Afforestation Bill! Act Now by signing this petition! Conservation India Dear Friend, For over a decade, user agencies that have been permitted non-forest activities on forestland, including mines, highways, dams,…

CLIMATE CRISIS

News update

19th April 2015

Saudi Arabia’s Plan to Extend the Age of Oil Peter Waldman, Bloomberg.com Last Novemeber, Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s petroleum minister and the world’s de facto energy czar, told his OPEC counterparts they should maintain output to protect market share from rising supplies of U.S. shale oil, which costs more to get out of the ground…

Conflict/Dispossession

Narendra Modi’s war on the environment

15th April 2015

Rohini Mohan reports: In under a year, the Modi government has begun to undo policies of fair land acquisition, undermine environmental protection and reverse the fight for tribal rights. The finance, environment and rural-development ministers, and Modi himself, have called these safeguards to protect people’s property, the environment and tribal rights “roadblocks” to economic growth….

Conflict/Dispossession

Rohini Mohan: The Modi Government’s war on environment

15th October 2014

Basudev Mahapatra writes: Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, has “delinked forest clearance from clearance by the National Wild Life Board and halved NBWL clearance requirements from 10km to 5km around forest reserves, besides emasculating the Board by replacing eminent experts and concerned NGOs with rubber stamps. He has also relaxed procedures of the Forest Conservation Act….

Conflict/Dispossession

Modi and the Environment: The 100 day report

28th September 2014

Basic protections to safeguard the environment, that were not particularly strong to begin with, are being wiped out. While in general, faster moving transparent government processes are required, the Modi government’s predilection for protecting private corporations at the expense of public welfare, does not bode well for the environment nor the well-being of India’s peoples….

CLIMATE CRISIS

Exposing the hypocrisy of Modi government on the environment

12th September 2014

Kabir Arora writes: According to Modi, it is not climate which is changing, it is humans who have changed. And for the same reason, a meagre Rs. 100 Cr. have been set aside for climate change adaptation. Yes Mr. PM, humans have changed a lot, and have made climate far more variable than ever before….

Development/Growth

11 environmental disasters Narendra Modi blessed in his first 100 days

29th August 2014

Jay Mazoomdar writes: Narendra Modi does mean business. So his government has gone about eliminating the policy paralyses that many claimed ailed the previous regime. This meant dismantling roadblocks that hamper economic growth. But here is what also happens to be under fire: laws and rules that safeguard India’s environment, forests, wildlife, and tribal rights….

Conflict/Dispossession

Environment Under Siege in New India

28th June 2014

Papri Sri Raman reports: The new environment minister, Prakash Javadekar, met Defense Minister Jaitley on June 10 and later announced a policy that would enable India’s border states with Pakistan, China and Burma to clear defense projects falling within 100kms of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), without approaching the union government for environment clearances….

Conflict/Dispossession

Mr Modi and the environment – A green vision or a grey area?

Avay Shukla writes: The most disappointing and worrying aspect of the recent elections, for me, has been the almost complete absence of any debate or discussion on the environment. Some political parties, the BJP included, did make weak proforma noises about it in their manifestos but there was no mention of it in their campaigning….

Conflict/Dispossession

Bittu Sahgal: Narendra Modi’s development plan: Will it hang India’s wildlife?

24th June 2014

The lion, tiger, turtle, butterfly, orchid, mudskipper and one-horned rhino will need every helping hand to survive the development ambitions of a nation that believes that economic ambitions can be fulfilled at the cost of its wildernesses. We know that’s not possible and hope that you will move us away from the subcontinent’s biological-climate precipice….