-The Hindu Slowdown in consumer durables hits August manufacturing ; retail inflation rises to 3.77% in Sept. New Delhi: Industrial production slowed to a 10-month low of 4.3% in August, due in large part to a drastic deceleration in the manufacturing, Mining, and consumer durables sectors, according to official data released on Friday. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) slowed in August from its growth rate of 6.61% in July. Within the index,...

-TheWire.in Sukinda, the world’s largest open-cast Mining area, is also the world’s fourth-most polluted place – and the cost is carried by its original inhabitants. Sukinda (Jajpur district, Odisha): Outside her mud-walled house, Pitayi Mankidia, 30, is holding her two-year-old daughter Huli, who is crying. Huli’s face is smeared with neem leaves to soothe the pain and itching that is aggravated by the dust in the area. Both mother and daughter have...

-Livemint.com Ecologist Madhav Gadgil, whose report on Western Ghats was rejected by the Kerala government, on what caused the Kerala floods and how the rebuilding process should be carried out Ernakulam (Kerala): Submitted seven years ago on 31 August 2011, ecologist Madhav Gadgil’s report on the biodiverse Western Ghats—a portion of which falls in Kerala—had warned that the combination of massive ecological destruction and extreme weather events trigger disaster. His words proved...

-The Hindu Business Line The rejection of the the Gadgil panel report, by all the six States along the Western Ghats, has proved to be a costly error The floods of catastrophic dimensions that ravaged Kerala recently have brought into sharp focus the all-round ecological destruction caused by human interference in the State’s hilly terrains. The fact that there were 12 major landslides and hundreds of minor ones within a fortnight in the...

-Mongabay.com * India’s environment ministry has notified the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Rules 2018 to ensure proper utilisation of Rs 660 billion for plantation of trees across India. * Environmentalists and civil society groups are against the rules as they point out that the rules ignore the rights of forest dwellers and tribals. They also said that the new CAF rules are against existing laws ensuring forest rights and self governance for...