-Reuters   The panel says hydro-power plants has led to the build up of huge volumes of sediment in rivers that is not managed properly New Delhi: Badly managed hydro-power projects in northern India were partly to blame for devastating floods last year that killed thousands of people and caused extensive damage, an environment ministry panel said in a report obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.   The panel findings highlight the problem facing India, one...

-The Hindustan Times   The June 2013 disaster in Uttarakhand had taken many - including the state administration - by surprise. But it should not have been so because it was a tragedy waiting to happen. The immediate reason may have been a natural cause - the state was hit by its heaviest rainfall on record that month, causing lakes and rivers to burst their banks, inundating towns and villages downstream -...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Union environment ministry is expected to approve the K Kasturirangan panel report on Western Ghats and declare around 60,000 square kilometers of the southern hills - spanning across six states - as no-go area for mining, thermal power plants and heavily polluting industries. Sources in the ministry said, the process has begun to finalize the decision after receiving comments from public and state governments on...

-The Hindu In an atmosphere of mistrust of the government, only an independent safety regulatory mechanism can counter the scaremongering against civilian nuclear power I work at an institution funded by the Department of Atomic Energy (which, however, does no nuclear research: the DAE funds a wide variety of institutions and areas in science). About a year ago, I had an e-mail from a journalist who wondered why scientists (including colleagues at...

Are environmental clearances delaying industrial development in the country? Some in the government might claim so and argue for further easing of green norms but government data shows otherwise. In the past three years, the rate of rejection of projects for environmental clearance was an insignificant 1.13%. Out of the 1,689 projects that the environment ministry decided upon from 2008 up to August 2011, only 19 were rejected. The ministry...