Ministries of Environment and forests and tribal affairs have jointly set up a 10-member committee to study and assess the impact of Forest Rights Act on sustainable management of forest resources. Given the lead role played by the Environment ministry in this committee, concerns have been flagged off by civil society organisations about the real intent and legality of the committee. The committee headed by former director-general of Forest Survey...

It is a step which is expected to reduce the room for political and technical whims and biases, bring in transparency and satisfy safety concerns about biotech products the country needs but is chary of embracing. The government has fasttracked a long-pending Bill to set up the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority. The Bill, revised and discussed by a committee of secretaries on Thursday, if cleared, would overhaul the current flawed regulatory...

If we can have a nuclear submarine programme, a space missile programme, cricket sponsorship programme by individuals like Sharukh Khan, why can’t we have a programme to save rotting paddy lying across the country,” says Dr MS Swaminathan highlighting the parody that India’s is currently facing. In Ludhiana to address the convocation of Punjab Agriculture University the scientist and Member of Parliament speaks to ET highlighting that the future belongs...

By putting an open-ended moratorium on the commercial cultivation of the gene-altered Bt brinjal, Environment minister Jairam Ramesh has ended the long-pending uncertainty over this issue. If, despite nine years of testing and safety trials to the satisfaction of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), some genuine concerns about the safety aspects of transgenic Bt brinjal have still been left unaddressed, they surely need to be addressed before the country’s...

Saving the world’s myriad diverse species, which are being lost to human activity at an unprecedented rate that some experts put at 1,000 times the natural progression, is vital not just for Environmental reasons but for the economic well-being of humankind, a senior United Nations official said today. “Without preserving biodiversity and preserving our natural habitat, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) just cannot be achieved,” UN Development Programme (UNDP) Environment and...