-The Hindu Freshwater resources are under stress, the principal driver being human activities in their various forms The Global Water System Project, which was launched in 2003 as a joint initiative of the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) and Global Environmental Change (GEC) programme, epitomises global concern about the human-induced transformation of fresh water and its impact on the earth system and society. The fact is that freshwater resources are under stress,...

-The Telegraph The three population groups number above 450 million, or a population greater than that of the US New Delhi: Adivasis, Dalits and Muslims in India have lower life expectancy than higher caste Hindus, a study has found, underlining how social exclusion and discrimination might be contributing to health disparities. Life expectancy is on an average about four years shorter in Adivasis, three years shorter in Dalits and around a year shorter...

-Newsclick.in Slope destabilisation, soil erosion and sequestered carbon loss have increased, according to Ravi Chopra. Noted Dehradun-based environmentalist Ravi Chopra recently resigned as the chairman of the Supreme Court (SC)-appointed High Powered Committee (HPC) overseeing the Environmental Impact of the Narendra Modi government’s Rs 12,000 crore 889-km Char Dham highway widening project in Uttarakhand.  The Char Dham project, one of the largest road-widening projects in the Himalayan region, intends to connect the four...

-Counterview.net Economic, legal, diplomatic and civil society experts – including Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, and former Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank – have urged the United States Supreme Court to go back to the case Budha Ismail Jam, et al v. IFC , (Tata Mundra case) concerning immunity from the suit for the World Bank Group and foreign nations. They said, the immunity decision in the...

-The Wire Science * Several houses along the eastern Indian coast have been impacted by constant sea erosion, cyclones and other environmental factors. Those living there have abandoned these houses. * Some living in these vulnerable areas, close to the Bay of Bengal, voluntarily moved as the tidal waves hit their homes, while others were resettled by the government. * Inter-state migration from such coastal hotspots has also been reported from Odisha, Andhra...