If the environment ministry's draft proposal for 'inviolate forest areas' is accepted, large swathes of healthy forests, including national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, tiger reserves and wildlife corridors, would be out of bounds for all mining activities, and not just coal excavation. The ministry's draft lists criteria for identifying forest patches where mining should be banned following the GoM on coal's decision to junk the no-go policy of the environment ministry. The...

-The Economic Times The government has removed roadblocks to coal mining by leading business houses and taken the first step to relax scrutiny of corporate expenditure on oil and gas fields, in a burst of action that has cheered investors and industrialists in the languishing energy sector. A group of ministers recommended to the cabinet on Wednesday that Reliance Power's Chhatrasal block, which is attached to the 4,000 mw Sasan Ultra Mega...

Dow Chemicals, contesting the Union government's Rs 7,844 crore demand for additional compensation to 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster victims, is set to face additional claims from the Centre for incineration of the toxic waste lying at Union Carbide's plant for the last 28 years. The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it would bear the cost of the pilot project for safe disposal of 346 tonnes of toxic...

The environment ministry is on an industrial overdrive, with rules being changed for faster clearance of projects at the cost of the environment. While the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife will lose its power to examine projects in tiger and elephant corridors, a sectoral forest advisory committee will be allowed to decide on diversion of forest land and projects even in dense forests. These are some of the...

-The Times of India Food Corporation of India (FCI) has warned that unless the government can distribute 750 lakh tonnes of food grain, there will be no storage space for the bumper harvest being currently procured, the food ministry told Rajya Sabha on Monday. The crisis of plenty has been engaging the government for a while as it is under pressure to distribute food grain to the poor or intervene in some...