-The Telegraph Paris: An international forestry research agency has accused the world's biggest users of coal, including India, of continuing their emphasis on coal-fired energy and thus threatening global efforts to curb Earth-warming greenhouse emissions. The Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) has bracketed India with Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Colombia and America as countries whose continued focus on coal is putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It has said these countries' pursuit...

-IANS NEW DELHI: Pollution levels have reached "alarming" levels in Delhi even before Diwali and could touch "scary" heights after the festival on Wednesday, an environment watchdog said on Tuesday. Diwali, the festival of lights, has been increasingly adding tonnes of toxic smoke to the city's air in recent years because of the extensive use of firecrackers, leading to major health issues. This year the pollution levels could cross previous levels, experts warned. One...

-Hindustan Times Bettiah/Bagaha: Bihar’s Mandate 2015 has been billed as a choice between good governance and a return to ‘jungle raj’ (rule of the wild). But what matters most for the marginalised tribes in the state is going back to the days when they enjoyed their jungle rights. The 899 sq km Valmiki National Park along the Nepal border in West Champaran district is Bihar’s only tiger reserve. The fringes of this...

-The Hindu Business Line Nine years after a landmark law empowering local communities, thousands of forest villages across India struggle to regain their traditional rights over resources and livelihoods Sundar Singh Rabha always carries a certain file folder. He holds it against himself in a hot tin car as it jangles along forest roads towards village Shalkumar, in a northern corner of West Bengal. His phone rings without respite. Every few minutes,...

-The Hindu On Thursday midnight, the Union Environment Ministry submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), committing to cut the emissions intensity of GDP by 33-35 per cent by 2030 from 2005 levels. The INDCs, which lay out the blueprint for tackling climate change, emphasised eight key goals — sustainable lifestyles, cleaner economic development, reducing emission intensity of GDP, increasing the share of...