-Economic and Political Weekly Sacred groves have survived very long without human interference, and thus are of anthropological, cultural, economic, and ecological significance. In India, these groves are concentrated in the North-East and along the Western Ghats, both globally recognised hotspots of biodiversity. Unfortunately, their size and number are now shrinking at an alarming rate, and it is high time a workable solution is found to sustain them. Please click here to...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Western Ghats may be in danger again. This time from a "drinking water" supply project. Yettinahole diversion project located in the ecologically sensitive zone as per the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel involves 8 dams inside the forests, 250kms long canals, 80kms and 50kms long raising mains, a reservoir that will submerge 1200 hectares of land and 2 villages according to a recent assessment by...

-The Hindu Some hydel projects that claim exemption from environmental clearance on the basis of size provide a misleading picture of their impact Why would more than four gram panchayats, environmental activists from three States, the presiding swami of the Subramanya Temple, botanists, fisheries scientists, and institutions like the Indian Institute of Science oppose a small hydel project in a remote corner of the Western Ghats in Karnataka? Aren't small hydel projects...

-Outlook Social indices topper Kerala just can't stop the baby deaths in its malnutrition-hit tribal Attapady belt Under the thick canopy of a peepal tree, beside the road that winds to Pallur Ooru in Attapady in the Western Ghats, is a small tribal burial ground. There are no tombstones to mark the graves and on closer look one sees tiny mounds where the mud has been disturbed. In a quiet corner,...

-The Hindu Uttarakhand reiterates that our rulers have contemptuous disregard for the advice of the best scientists and would rather listen to contractors and builders to whom they are beholden for funds In the early 1980s, while doing research on the environmental history of Uttarakhand, I sometimes visited the library of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehradun. Most of the journals in the library dealt with geology and earth sciences,...