-Newsclick.in The NBWL has recently granted clearance to North Eastern Coalfields, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, for open cast mining over an area of 98.59 hectares in the Saleki area of the rainforests. New Delhi: The chorus for banning all mining activities within the rainforests of Assam has been rising after the National Board of Wild Life (NBWL) recently granted clearance to coal mining in the region, allegedly overlooking ecological concerns. Several...

-The Hindu Projects in critical forest habitats are being considered or have been given clearance by the Environment Ministry Few countries are witnessing such severe direct and indirect devastation on account of the COVID-19 pandemic as India. Yet, there is little attention on the roots of our vulnerability. Our challenge is hardly limited to escaping a virus with lockdowns and masks in the short term, and vaccination in the long term. It would...

-The Telegraph Since 2007, the Bay of Bengal basin has seen at least 15 major cyclones, including Sidr in 2007, Aila in 2009, Phailin in 2013, Hudhud in 2014, Bulbul in 2019 and Amphan this year. Amphan made landfall in the Sunderbans, home to five million people, on May 20. More than 13.2 billion dollars worth of property was destroyed and more than 500,000 people left homeless. An Unesco heritage site,...

-GaonConnection.com Recently the Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the auction of 41 coal mines for commercial mining in the country. Jharkand has already approached the Supreme Court opposing this move. Now, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra governments have written to the Union environment minister opposing the auction to protect its forests, a tiger reserve and a proposed elephant reserve Three days after the Jharkhand government approached the Supreme Court of India challenging the Centre’s...

-Down to Earth Land use degradation creates ground for zoonotic disease like COVID-19 as the interaction and physical distance between animals and humans gets closer Land use change, which prepares the ground for zoonoses like the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), should be reversed urgently, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has said. Over 70 per cent of all natural, ice-free land in the world is affected by human use, according to...