Environmental Issues

On January 18, the Steering Committee of the Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) held its third meeting in New Delhi. It was chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Water Resources, in the Ministry of Jal Shakti, who reiterated that the KBLP was a “flagship” project of the national government …

Hundreds of dead Olive Ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) have washed ashore along the coastline between Kakinada and Antarvedi in the Godavari region of Andhra Pradesh during the ongoing annual breeding season on the east coast. The breeding grounds — Sakhinetipalli, Malikipuram, Mamidikuduru and Allavaram — have been witnessing the mass …

The current practice of translocating leopards from conflict area, in vogue since many years, will be disbanded in due course as Karnataka is set to establish multiple rehabilitation centres to house leopards and tigers captured from the conflict zones. Senior officials of the Karnataka Forest Department are already studying similar …

India’s financial sector is highly exposed to the risks of the economy transitioning from being largely dependent on fossil fuel to clean energy, says a study in the Global Environmental Change journal, published last week. An analysis of individual loans and bonds found that 60% of the lending to the mining sector …

Ecologically sensitive zones (ESZ) are intended to safeguard ‘protected areas’ — national parks and wildlife sanctuaries — by transitioning from an area of lower protection to an area of higher protection. However, the creation of these zones has provoked protests in Kerala and some other regions, in a precursor to …

The National Aquifer Mapping and Management programme, which is aimed at delineating aquifer and water availability, is set to be completed in a year, G. Asok Kumar, Director-General, National Mission for Clean Ganga, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, said in Chennai on Monday. Kumar inaugurated a three-day conference on ‘Water …

The recent attempt to unsuccessfully translocate and rehabilitate a “problem elephant”, as described by the State Forest Department, has highlighted the need for better cooperation among Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka while releasing elephants in the tri-junction area of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR). The elephant in question, Pandalur Makhna-2 …

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) has listed Neelakurinji (Strobilantheskunthiana) under Schedule III of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 including it on the list of protected plants. Those who uproot or destroy the plant will invite a fine of ₹25,000 and three years imprisonment. The cultivation of …

A new study conducted by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has shed light on how blackbuck in India have fared in the face of natural and human-induced challenges to their survival. The blackbuck is found only on the Indian subcontinent. While males have corkscrew-shaped horns and black-to-dark brown coats, …

The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that it had constituted two expert committees to come up with a consolidated list of elephant corridors, comprising those that had already been identified as well as potential elephant corridors, in the State. A Division Bench of Justices N. …

In the latest in a series of wild elephant attacks in Kerala, SubairKutty, a daily worker, was attacked by a rouge elephant at SulthanBathery town adjacent to the Wayanad wildlife Sanctuary in the early hours of January 6. Subair, who was taken to a hospital with injuries, had a miraculous …

Many raised a red flag against a massive infrastructural project called the Char Dham road project that is being implemented in the Uttarakhand Himalaya. It is indeed turning out to be an unscientific road-construction project with catastrophic consequences for the mountain ecology. The Armed Forces and the authorities, in their …

The Tamil Nadu government has asked banks to offer tree loans to farmers as a part of its Green Mission aimed at increasing the State’s green cover (areas including forest and the tree cover around it) to 33% from 23.71%. Under the mission, the State plans to encourage farmers to …

Residents of Joshimath, the Himalayan pilgrim town that appears to be sinking, are blaming major power and road infrastructure projects for their plight and are demanding that the government resettle and give new homes for all those who have lost their properties in the town. Members of the National Disaster …

Elephants winding their way up the rocky green hills in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) make for pretty photographs. But a recent article says the endangered Asian Elephant has lost most of its “optimal” habitat: flat terrain that is easily negotiable. A paper, ‘Fencing Can Alter Gene Flow of Asian …

The Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT) is set to take a giant leap in water treatment by putting in place what is claimed to be the country’s largest liquid waste treatment plant to use phytorid technology. The plant coming up next to Vinayaka Sagar will treat 5 MLD (million litres …

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) predicted that Chennai would emit around 232 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2040. Construction activities and operations of the buildings in the city could lead to as much as 231.9 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. The buildings consume around 75% …

A bird survey conducted at the Silent Valley National Park in Kerala in the last week of December identified 141 species, of which 17 were new. So far, 175 species of birds have been spotted in Silent Valley. The survey held on December 27, 28 and 29 marked the 30th …

Soon, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India will deliver its verdict on the validity of Tamil Nadu’s law permitting the practice of jallikattu in the State. Usually held during the Pongal season, jallikattu is a sport where men compete against each other to hold on to the …

An invertebrate survey undertaken in the Thiruvananthapuram Wildlife Division has reaffirmed the relevance of the region as a biodiversity hotspot. The four-day exercise to survey the invertebrates of Neyyar and Peppara wildlife sanctuaries and the Agasthyavanam Biological Park with emphasis on arachnids was jointly conducted by the Forest Department and …