Ten days ago a well-informed reader in Kochi e-mailed a convincing case for banning endosulfan, an off-patent pesticide widely used by farmers round the country, on the reasoning that it played havoc with the lives and livelihoods of poor farm workers. But the reader did not stop with this; he said The Hindu had not given the issue the attention it warranted. This led me to a qualitative study of...

Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has launched a “bioremediation technology” project to curb pollution caused by sewerage and industrial effluents in the Buddah Nallah of Ludhiana in Punjab. The project is estimated to cost Rs. 16 crore in the initial phase and it will be borne by The National River Conservation Directorate of the Union government. It is expected to take one year for completion. The project will provide...

According to a communication from Papia Samajdar of CSE, the deadline for applying for CSE's Twelfth Media Fellowships - Water Bodies in India: Public Space, Private Designs, has been extended to May 31, 2011. For any clarifications, please contact:Ph: 011-29955124, 29955125, Fax: 011-29955879, 9811906977 Email: papia@cseindia.org or see the Website: www.cseindia.org Water Bodies in India : Public Space, Private Design June 1, 2011 – August 1, 2011 After land, our water bodies...

Duo told to ensure untreated effluents are not released into river Delhi and Haryana on Sunday agreed to keep their end of the bargain by deciding to take remedial measures for curtailing pollution in the Yamuna. At a meeting presided over by Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh, Chief Ministers of Delhi and Haryana were handed over the to-do list for ensuring that untreated effluents are not released into the...

Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan wants it to be the new Singapore. State officials call it Urjanchal, land of energy. For sociologist Sakarama Somayaji, the enduring image from India’s emerging energy wonderland in Singrauli is the women who sell baskets of stones on the roadside. Individually or in groups, the women break stones, and sell them to passing trucks for R80-R90 a basket, a day’s labour. The women are...