Arundhati Roy’s hilltop bungalow in a protected forest area will be demolished, a Madhya Pradesh revenue court ruled today upholding a lower court’s judgment that the land was acquired illegally. The bungalow at Bariyam village in Panchmarhi, 250km southeast of Bhopal, stands on a 4,346sqft plot that the author’s husband, filmmaker Pradeep Kishan, had bought in 1994. In an eight-page verdict, Bhopal-Hoshangabad division commissioner Manoj Srivastava rejected the petitioners’ plea of ignorance...

Forest Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues assured the State Legislative assembly that all the proposals to divert the forest land for mining purpose would be put on hold and the officers would be instructed not to process any such proposals Cornered by Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar and Aldona MLA Dayanand Narvekar over diversion of forest land for mining, Rodrigues said that the officers would be strictly told not to send any...

With the United Progressive Alliance government clearly unhappy with the drafts of two laws on food security and communal violence being framed by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, the NAC has referred them to lawyer Indira Jaisingh. “Indira Jaisingh is examining the two drafts from the legal angle, not for content,” an NAC source told TheHindu, adding the expectation was the bills would be ready in a month. If the NAC's...

“Our plants' design, method of storing spent fuel are different” Evolving situation; scientists will come back with more conclusive answers: Shivshankar Menon More safeguards needed as part of environmental clearance at Jaitapur: Jairam Ramesh Top officials of the nuclear establishment on Wednesday assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that a nuclear catastrophe similar to the one that is devastating Japan is most unlikely to happen here. National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said the officials noted...

A growing number of endangered olive ridley sea turtles have been getting killed in Eastern India’s coastal state Orissa by mechanized vessels defying a fishing ban on one of the world’s largest turtle sanctuaries, Gahirmatha. While the government said "no more than 800" were killed since November last year, environmentalists counter that the casualty count of these tiny turtles is actually 5,000. The problem illustrates the situation that confronts Orissa and other...