-The Economic Times When asked where the coal blocks will come up, the forest officer draws a clover-shaped map. Take the right at the traffic intersection, he says, and you will enter Pathriya Dand coal block. Keep going for 11 km and the road turns to the left, which is where Gidhmudi coal block is. Come back to the main road, cross over to the other side, and you will enter...

-The Hindu Tamil Nadu’s Solar Energy Policy can go a long way in addressing the supply-demand mismatch The State’s solar initiative can draw on the strengths of its robust wind power programme Is the sun the answer to Tamil Nadu’s power crisis? With the unveiling of the Solar Energy Policy last week, Tamil Nadu joins the long list of States trying to find a way of harnessing this source of renewable energy...

-Reuters   The world's urban areas will more than double in size by 2030, presenting an opportunity to build greener and healthier cities, a UN study showed on Monday.   Simple planning measures such as more parks, trees or roof gardens could make cities less polluted and help protect plants and animals, especially in emerging nations led by China and India where city growth will be fastest, it said. "Rich biodiversity can exist in cities...

-Outlook Hyderabad: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today unveiled a robust environmental strategy to address unprecedented levels of global biodiversity loss. The new strategy - entitled 'The Future We Want: Biodiversity and Ecosystems -- Driving Sustainable Development' -- was released during the ongoing 11th Conference of Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity here. It calls for a significant scaling up of investments in 100 countries by 2020, UNDP said in...

-The United Nations Despite the growing number of nature reserves, National Parks and other protected areas around the world, half of the globe’s richest biodiversity zones remain entirely unprotected, according to a United Nations report presented today. Amongst the report’s other main findings are that protected areas are being managed in a more equitable way, with a greater role for indigenous communities – but current investment in protected areas is only around...