-The Hindu Sets up a three-member panel to monitor execution of the order Gurgaon: The National Green Tribunal has through a recent order banned construction of roads and cutting of trees in the Aravallis directing the parties concerned to restore the area to its original condition. The Tribunal also set up a three-member committee to monitor the execution of the order. The order came on Badshahpur resident Devendra Kumar’s plea on violation of...

-The Times of India The Chhattisgarh government fudged records, concealed facts, changed policy and altered decisions while the Union environment ministry overlooked all such illegalities to open up 1,899 hectares for mining in Hasdeo Arand, one of the best patches of forests in central India. Initially, the Centre had decided to protect Hasdeo Arand by making it a no-go zone for miners. The Chhattisgarh government too had moved to get the dense...

-The Indian Express Forest clearance has been given to another mining project in Saranda forest, until recently a Naxal stronghold and part of core area of Singhbhum Elephant Reserve in Jharkhand. A month after the Environment Ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee gave the go-ahead for diversion of 500 hectares of forest land to Jindal Steel & Power Ltd for iron ore mining in fresh unbroken forest land, it has given clearance to SAIL...

-The Times of India If you think that journalism is a glamorous profession, here's a reality check. Five journalists were killed and 38 assaulted, harassed or threatened across the country in 2012, says the annual report on free speech violations by Free Speech Hub of the media watch website, Hoot.org. Journalist Chandrika Rai, his wife and their two teenage children were murdered at their residence in Madhya Pradesh's Umaria distict in February....

-Frontline Farmers protest against the Central clearance for coal bed methane exploration in Mannargudi, Tamil Nadu, as they fear it will devastate agriculture in Tiruvarur and Thanjavur districts.  THE woes of the delta farmers of Tamil Nadu are far from over. While the Cauvery tangle continues unresolved, they fear the proposed multi-crore project for commercial exploration and exploitation of coal bed methane (CBM) in the Mannargudi block of Tiruvarur district will prove...