-The Times of India blog (Voices) Riding on the roads of rural Punjab, a grim spectre unfolds. It is early November and there is fire and smoke all around for the endless land that stretches ahead. It is paddy stubble burning time in the state. This phenomenon is not exceptional to the state of Punjab in India but is also prevalent in Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Recently, there has been much...

-ThePrint.in The paddy being grown in Punjab is alien to conditions in Punjab, and the burning of its stubble has had a big impact on the state’s air quality. Punjab is an agrarian state with predominant wheat-paddy cropping cycle. During the kharif season every year, paddy is grown in standing water on about 2.9 million hectares of land. This paddy crop, taken up by Punjab farmers in the early 1980s, is alien to...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A petition seeking a ban on 99 pesticides already outlawed or restricted in advanced nations has prompted the Supreme Court to seek responses within four weeks from the ministries of agriculture and chemical-and-fertilisers besides the Central Insecticides Board. These pesticides are killing hundreds in India and causing serious illness to thousands, the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud heard on Monday. Moved...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: At a time when the government is pushing the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the fire at Delhi's largest landfill site only highlights the magnitude of India's garbage problem. Bhalswa -- the landfill that caught fire -- had crossed the permissible height by at least 30 meters as per the norms laid by environment ministry. In the last two decades, Indian cities have seen a rising tide of...

-Livemint.com The draft guidelines propose to levy a new water conservation fee based on quantum of Groundwater extracted With the aim of completely changing the way Groundwater is managed, the central government has proposed guidelines which stipulate that all industries, mining and infrastructure dewatering projects—whether existing or new—that draw or propose to draw Groundwater will now need to obtain a no-objection certificate (NOC). The draft guidelines, reviewed by Mint, also propose to levy...