-The Times of India MUMBAI: At a time when many of India's infrastructural projects are caught in the throes of an environment versus development conundrum, a new report released by the World Bank estimates that environmental degradation is costing India around 5.7% of its GDP every year. The report, "Diagnostic Assessment of Select Environmental Challenges in India" is the bank's first national economic assessment of environment-related degradation in India. It analysed the...

-IANS WASHINGTON: Human-caused outdoor air Pollution may be responsible for over two million deaths worldwide - a large number of them in South Asia and East Asia - each year, US researchers have said. A study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, has estimated that around 470,000 people die each year because of human-caused increase in ozone, Xinhua reported. It also estimated that around 2.1 million deaths are caused each year by...

-IANS LUCKNOW: Ghaziabad and Allahabad have emerged as the two most air polluted cities in Uttar Pradesh in a recent survey by a research and advocacy organization. The survey conducted by Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found pollutants of the size of 10 micron in Ghaziabad, Allahabad, Kanpur and Bareilly, which was four times the acceptable size of particulates in urban areas. It also found air Pollution levels three times more...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: It's clear that the devastation caused by the flash floods and landslides in Uttarakhand was at least in part due to environmental degradation of fragile mountain slopes and reckless commercialization. Yet, weeks before the calamity state CM Vijay Bahuguna had railed against "environmentalists" and "Green Statutes" for hampering development work during a May 23 meeting in Delhi with Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Plan deputy chair, to finalize...

-The Hindu There has to be a national mission to ensure that rural homes have access to clean cooking fuel and stoves instead of the killer chulhas that are claiming the lives of large numbers of women A large section of our country's population, nearly 75 per cent of rural and 22 per cent of urban households, still uses biomass for daily cooking. An estimated 80 per cent of the residential energy...