DNA

The order of the Central Information Commissioner (CIC) asking the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to “disclose” the ecological report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) by May 5 is bound to have far-reaching consequences on “developmental” activity in the area. The ministry, which had been sitting on the document since August 31, 2011 when the panel submitted its two-volume report, will now not be able to dilute the recommendations of the 14-member panel.The...

The Karnataka High Court’s directive to the state government staying two mini-hydel projects in the ecologically-sensitive Western Ghats is bound to have far-reaching consequences. The order is also a scathing indictment of the manner in which the government has been throwing environmental laws to the winds. Wildlife biologist Sanjay Gubbi said, “The order is significant since the court has taken the government to task over the flagrant manner in which the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 was...

Sometime in the early 1990s, a young Ashoka fellow set about shaking off the archetypal lethargy of old Kolkata. This man, Debashsis Nayak, formed an organisation called the Foundation for the Conservation and Research of Urban Traditional Architecture (CRUTA), and went out taking both tourists and residents of old Calcutta on guided tours through an intricate maze of lanes and bylanes of the cold city. The heritage walks soon found takers among oldtimers of the city, and when Kolkata celebrated...

About 3,000 people might descend on the City Civil Court on Saturday in response to the summons for a hearing in a case filed by builders Larsen and Toubro (L&T) against the apartment owners of South City. The builders and the apartment owners of the gated South City mini-township on Bannerghatta Road have been locked in legal wrangles for years now. The case in question is one of the many disputes that have dogged the swanky enclave that include exclusivity of property, deposit monies, delays...

From lodging girls in boys’ homes to inmates of juvenile homes being abused by the very people who are meant to protect them, the situation of juveniles in Karnataka is not only appalling, it is in fact scary. The situation in the juvenile justice homes in the state are so atrocious that many of the children in conflict with the law and those in need of care are either committing suicide or making valiant efforts to do so. The glaring facts have emerged from a hard-hitting report, The State of...

It’s not a problem as yet, but the first signs of trouble have been found by a bunch of schoolchildren. The issue is that of fluoride content in drinking water in the state. The Schools Water Portal, an initiative of Arghyam, has found fluoride content in seven places in the state: Bellary, Kudremukh, Kasargod, Mangalore, Belgaum, Kopal and Bangalore North. According to Priya Desai of Arghyam, the Schools Water Portal is an online platform that shares learning resources on water with parents...

It’s bad news for all – from farmers to policymakers. Yields of tea, coffee and cardamom from high altitude plantations in the Western Ghats are falling because of the changing regional climate. Worse, the region is likely to see a 1.7-1.8 degrees C rise in temperature by 2030. Rainfall may increase in most parts, but the number of rainy days will go down. If that is not all, sediment yield is on the rise with the increasing intensity of rainfall. The warning comes in a hardhitting report ‘Water...

The term “water woes” has today become a cliché. But it’s not water supply issues or the associated woes that are disturbing. What is, is the fact that water has been disappearing right from under our noses. Bulk of the water supplied to Bangalore has to be carried from afar because there’s precious little groundwater left. Najeeb KM, regional director of the south-western zone of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) offers a pointer as an explanation: “One of the prime reasons groundwater...

It’s bad news for Karnataka. Growth is slowing down, and inter-state comparisons of socio-economic development indicate that human development indices are stagnating in Karnataka. The Economic Survey for 2011-12 has revealed that the state fared the worst in terms of growth in 2009-10 with a paltry 3.88%, compared with an all-India average of 7.96%. In contrast, the growth in Uttarakhand was almost three times that of Karnataka — at 11.61%. The slowdown in the state becomes more obvious when one...

Gayatri Kumar is disenchanted and annoyed. This homemaker from Rajajinagar had fallen for ‘extra talk time’ and ‘free roaming incoming’ sops that Tata Docomo had thrown her way last July. The solemn promises that the mobile service provider made went unkept. Her bills kept soaring despite her limited usage; and to make matters worse, whenever she stepped out of town, the network would die on her. Ganesh Shankar is equally upset, only that in his case the service provider is BSNL. When the IT...