Floods are vital to Kaziranga; dams on the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra could disrupt the balance A few weeks ago, much of the grasslands of Kaziranga National Park were under water. The monsoon floods bring with them their own set of problems—some of the animals, for instance, have to be rehabilitated—but they are required for the very existence of the park. The annual floods of the Brahmaputra creates grasslands, floodplains, and...

-PTI   Fresh efforts by officials to persuade villagers to allow resumption of work at the proposed Posco plant site near here failed, paralysing project related activities for the seventh day on Monday. Discussions were held with residents of Nuagaon in a bid to persuade them to give up their protest against tree felling, ground levelling and other works, Additional District Magistrate (Paradip), Surjit Das said. Three officials of Jagatsinghpur district administration, including Das,...

Oppose laying of coastal road Stiff opposition from the locals against acquisition of land for the proposed Posco steel project and the construction of a coastal road from Paradip to the project site has forced the Jagatsinghpur district administration to stop the project work. Residents of Dhinkia and Nuagaon gram panchayats on Saturday held a public meeting to oppose the laying of the road. The road work began near Paradip on Friday. Raising...

Jairam Ramesh's removal as Environment Minister creates uncertainties for domestic environment policy and the deadlocked global climate talks. WHATEVER one may think of its overall impact, the recent Cabinet reshuffle was not exactly a damp squib. Its single most important component was Jairam Ramesh's replacement as the Minister of State with independent charge in the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) by Jayanthi Natarajan, a relative political lightweight with very little...

-PTI   Over six lakh trees and some 1,800 betel vines will have to be sacrificed to set up Posco's Rs 52,000 crore mega steel project in Orissa's coastal Jagatsinghpur district. The trees to make way for the greenfield project include about three lakh casuarina and as many horticultural plants, official sources said. Local people have voiced strong opposition against the move to clear the trees, arguing that they will be exposed to...