-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...

-Newsclick.in Release of the draft during a lockdown, which seeks to fundamentally changes India’s environmental regulations, shows BJP government’s utter disdain for public opinion. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) had released a Draft Notification on Environment Impact Assessment 2020 (EIA Notification 2020) on March 12, 2020, on the eve of the world’s largest nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and had called for responses in the next...

-Hindustan Times Mumbai: Alleging that the Centre was diluting environment protection laws to allow construction in ecologically important areas, citizens and environment groups have filed 3,971 objections against the draft environment impact assessment (EIA) notification, 2020 proposed by the Union environment ministry. On March 12, the Union ministry of environment, Forests and climate change (MoEFCC) presented the new rules that will replace the 2006 EIA notification, which is presently in force, in...

-The Indian Express Kanchi Kohli of the Centre for Policy Research said, "Environmental laws need to be strengthened and not relaxed as is the draft EIA. For instance, the gas leak that in Visakhapatnam today; while this is an accident, there will now have to be an investigation to see whether this was a lapse." After receiving numerous representations for extending the notice period of the draft Environment Impact Assessment notification 2020,...

-Mongabay.com * The nationwide lockdown has affected the economy of India’s tribal population, which depends highly on the sale of minor Forest products. * However, state governments are hoping things will become normal soon as the lockdown norms get relaxed in the coming days. Chhattisgarh’s Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel even praised the tribal population in his state for maintaining social distancing properly. * Experts and organisations working with tribal communities demand removal or...