-The Times of India The Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the omnibus ban on iron ore mines in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts of Karnataka and permitted 81 lease owners, who had committed minor violations, to resume mining after compliance of stringent conditions laid down by the courts. Moving forward from its reference to illegal mining activity for decades under active political patronage as "a shocking state of depredation of nature's bounty...

-The Economic Times Vedanta's alumina project in Odisha's Lanjigarh will be stuck for at least five more months, with the Supreme Court today referring the controversial issue of mining the nearby Niyamgiri hills back to the gram sabhas. A bench, comprising justices Aftab Alam, K.S. Radhakrishnan and Ranjan Gogoi, said that the issue of tribal rights, especially their religious rights, had not been determined before grant of permission to mine the hills...

-The Hindu Identifying 37 per cent - or about 60,000 square km - of the Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive, a high-level panel has recommended that "destructive" activities such as mining, thermal power, major construction, and some hydel power projects should not be allowed there. However, the panel was silent about any restrictions in the remaining 96,000 square km area, thus creating the perception that it had diluted earlier recommendations that the...

-Outlook Development activities including thermal power projects, mining and other polluting industries should not be allowed in a 60,000 sq km ecologically sensitive "natural landscape" of Western Ghats, a mountainous range that passes through six states, a Government panel said today. In its report, the 10-member high-level working group, headed by eminent scientist K Kasturirangan, has not recommended any regulatory mechanism for the remaining 96,000 sq km area of the Western...

-Outlook Bhubaneswar: Odisha government has acquired 2,100 acres of land for the proposed mega steel project by Posco-India in Jagatsinghpur district. "State-owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) has acquired 2,100 acres of land of which 546 acre had been handed over to Posco. Rest 1,554 acres is ready to be handed over to Posco," the status paper prepared by the state government said. Another 600 acres of land for the purpose was expected...