-The Hindu The devastating landslips were caused by the undercutting of fragile hillsides for highways rather than by dams, which actually helped mitigate the floods The natural calamity of June 16 through 19 that devastated the whole of Uttarakhand and large areas of Himachal Pradesh and western Uttar Pradesh - an area of almost 20,000 sq.km. - was one of extremely rare severity among all the hydro-meteorological disasters to have struck India. Intense...

-The Hindustan Times Chandigarh: Ecological issues have delayed the start of river-bed mining, an idea propagated by Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal with the aim of extracting enough sand not only to meet the growing demand but also to control its skyrocketing rates in the market. The plan may not be implemented immediately as the proposed quarries would require clearance from the state environment impact assessment authority. Also, Environmentalists fear...

-The Telegraph Imphal: Environmentalists and NGOs in Manipur have urged the Union ministry of environment and forests not to give clearance to the Tipaimukh dam project, saying it would destroy the environment and impact lives of the people in and around the dam. The opposition to the project has been renewed following reports that the Centre would take a decision on giving clearance to the project in the next few days. Sources said...

-The Business Standard Dehradun: The immediate aftermath of a disaster almost always brings out angry responses. The tragic incident in Uttarakhand is no exception. Many experts, who belong to the "I told you so" camp, have come out with their own causal analysis of the tragedy. While town planners are blaming the rapid expansion of construction activities, naturalists are of the view that the disaster is nature's way of restoring balance...

-PTI   Chennai: With Environmentalists citing ecological degradation as the reason for the natural disaster in Uttarakhand, the Centre on Sunday said it would take stock of the situation and study such concerns once rescue operations were completed. "We have to wait till the rescue operations are over and then we have to take stock of the situation before we decide on anything," the Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters in Chennai. She...