-Newsclick.in The NBWL has recently granted clearance to North Eastern Coalfields, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, for open cast mining over an area of 98.59 hectares in the Saleki area of the rainforests. New Delhi: The chorus for banning all mining activities within the rainforests of Assam has been rising after the National Board of Wild Life (NBWL) recently granted clearance to coal mining in the region, allegedly overlooking ecological concerns. Several...

-Livemint.com The line, connecting Hubballi and Ankola, poses a risk to 2,500 endemic species. On March 20, the controversial Hubballi-Ankola railway line project was cleared at the Karnataka State Wildlife Board meeting in Bengaluru amid protests from members. The proposed 164.44-km line will pass through the Western Ghats, a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation World Heritage Site, and see felling of 2.2 lakh trees, a move that has been opposed...

-The Hindu Business Line India’s Protection of Plant Varieties Act spells out rights of farmers vis-a-vis breeders, which resulted in a pushback for PepsiCo The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act (PPVFRA), which introduced intellectual property protection in Indian agriculture, faced its biggest test in its implementation phase of nearly a decade and a half, when PepsiCo India initiated legal proceedings against four farmers in Gujarat for “illegally” growing...

-The Telegraph He said the report based on which the decision was taken to give clearance to Demwe Lower project was “faulty” New Delhi: A wildlife expert has appealed to the Union forest and environment ministry to roll back the clearance given to the Demwe Lower project, saying the report based on which the decision was taken, was “faulty”. A wildlife conservationist from Assam, Bimal Gogoi, who was an appellant in the National...

-The Financial Express How about planting bamboo extensively along the banks of the Yamuna to sequester the carbon from Delhi’s vehicle emissions? According to the World Bank, India’s per person emission of carbon dioxide was 1,730 kg a year in 2014. Another website says this has risen to 1,900 kg in 2016. Bharathi Namby, a scientist, says it will take just five bamboo plants a year to make an Indian carbon-neutral,...