-The Telegraph Experiments by Saurashtra University represent a 'classic example' of a study designed to reach a predetermined conclusion A group of Indian scientists has decried a Union government agency’s invocation of experiments by physicists at Gujarat’s Saurashtra University to claim cow dung can shield people from radiation. The experiments purportedly showed that cow-dung cakes partially blocked radiation from radioactive caesium. The Rashtriya Kamadhenu Aayog, a unit under the Union fisheries, animal husbandry...

-Hindustan Times Among the major concerns of the gram sabhas with the proposed acquisition of the forest land is that it is being done without their consent and even before the land is diverted under the provisions of the forest Conservation act Ten gram sabhas from Chhattisgarh’s Korba district, mainly consisting of people from the Gond tribe, have raised objections to Centre’s intention to acquire 712.072 hectares (ha) of land for mining...

-Newsclick.in The move is aimed at helping corporate biggies that have recently forayed into the commercial coal mining sector. New Delhi: In yet another attempt to help corporate biggies that have recently forayed into commercial coal mining, the Narendra Modi government has tweaked an environmental law to allow extraction of combustible mineral even before obtaining final forest clearance. The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change...

-Press release by Vikalp Sangam (vikalpsangam.org), dated 5th December, 2020 Vikalp Sangam (vikalpsangam.org) -- a conglomeration of 60+ active CSOs and members -- in its press release dated 5th December, 2020 has stated that the newly enacted farm laws of the Centre will lead to further land alienation (landlessness) and destitution of the peasantry because the laws permit, in thinly disguised form, the unsparing loot by the lobby of agri-businesses and...

-Down to Earth The largest losses, mostly in forests, occurred in the Sundaland, Indo-Burma and Mesoamerica hotspots, all in developing countries Top biodiversity hotspots of the world lost 148 million hectares (mha) of land to agriculture and urbanisation between 1992 and 2015, a global analysis released October 30, 2020, by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said. Most of the land lost — nearly 40 per cent, or 54 mha — was...