Environment

The last time, they had come in droves. This time, they brought their herds too. Over 1,000 people from 80 villages in Chitradurga district on Thursday flocked to Chitradurga town in protest against the massive diversion of around 10,000 acres of Amrithmahal Kavals land in Challakere taluk of the district for a variety of industrial, defence, institutional and infrastructure projects. The communities, whose livelihood primarily depend on livestock that they graze on these grasslands, herded...

There’s something grossly wrong with the environment of Bangalore. Most people believe things have deteriorated in the last five years. But hold on, the majority believes that it is the government which should work towards improving the state of the environment. According to the Teri Environmental Survey 2013, which looked at the state of environment in six major Indian cities including Bangalore, 55 per cent of the people believe that it should be the government which should be working towards...

There’s a silver lining around that dark cloud called “energy crisis”. Karnataka is performing well on the renewable energy front. In fact, it is outperforming most other states, and exceeding its own targets too in the bargain. Karnataka achieved 122 per cent of its target and was fourth among the seven states that achieved its renewable purchase obligation (RPO, in short) target. In all, 22 out of 29 states failed to meet their RPO targets which lead to loss of more than 25 per cent...

An appraisal panel of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has virtually thrown the Madhav Gadgil Committee report on the Western Ghats out of the window. The Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the ministry has favoured environmental clearance for the contentious 200MW Gundia Hydroelectric Power Project in Hassan and Dakshina Kannada districts. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), which had been asked to specifically look into the Gundia project apart from its widely-known...

The Centre has at last formed a high-level group which is to look into the report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), which had stirred a hornet’s nest with its stringent sets of measures that were to protect the ecologically fragile Western Ghats. The nine-member group, which is to be headed by Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan, is loaded with experts who have had little or nothing to do with the Western Ghats. The group formed by the ministry of environment and forests...

The genial, lanky man who opens the door to greet you hardly looks like one who should be in the thick of a controversy. But the report of a panel chaired by Madhav Gadgil is today at the centre of a heated debate — that originally hinged on the Western Ghats, but has since been enlarged. Gadgil, in a free-wheeling interview with Subir Ghosh, dwells at length on the Ghats and minces no words about the so-called schism between development and environment. DNA: The report of the Western Ghats...

The age of the sublime as far as projects in Karnataka are concerned is long over—it’s the age of the ridiculous now. The contractor for a mini-hydel project in the ecologically-sensitive Western Ghats has already started constructing the dam on one side of the river even though land on the other side has not yet been acquired. The project in question is the 12.5 MW Sahasralingeshwara (Nekkiladi) project on the Kumaradhara river in Dakshin Kannada district. The Nekkiladi minihydel project, on...

The Western Ghats have finally been granted UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) status. The tag came late on Sunday at the 36th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) which is meeting in St Petersburg in Russia. Altogether 39 sites that dot the Western Ghats landscape will be part of the region that has been designated as WHS. The WHC decision reportedly came after intense lobbying by the Indian government. The Western Ghats almost did not make it to the WHS list after the International...

The according of World Heritage Site (WHS) status to the Western Ghats will make the going tougher for the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). On one hand, the Indian government will be under obligation to maintain the ecological diversity and sanctity of the Ghats. And on the other, it will remain under pressure to dilute the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) which has called for drastic measures to maintain the biodiversity of the region. With the last...

These days one scam is weirder than the previous one. But this one will take the cake—here we have a dam that, if implemented, will submerge the tail of another upstream mini-hydel project. The mini-hydel project in question is the 24MW Kukke Stage I project. Once commissioned, it will submerge the tail of an already operational 4.8 MW Hosamatha MHS (mini-hydel scheme) on the Kumaradhara river in Dakshin Kannada district. Authorities of the Hosamatha MHS have also submitted their opposition to...