-MoneyLife.in The flood havoc in Kolhapur and Sangli districts has killed 54 people and thousands of cattle, besides causing colossal loss of property, farmlands and crops.  Was it the ferocity of nature that caused such a great calamity or did human interference aggravate the situation? RTI documents reveal that tampering of the red and blue line demarcation of the Panchganga River in the Kolhapur Development Plan, due to the pressure of the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to shut down polluting industries in “critically polluted” and “severely polluted” areas across the country within three months, saying that economic development cannot take place at the cost of public health. The directions, put up on the NGT website on Tuesday, were issued on July 10 on the basis of a study carried...

-Hindustan Times The CPCB itself has been given a month’s time to publish the guidelines for restoration water bodies, not presently protected by any national legislation which protects water bodies more than 2.5 acres in size. Gurugram: The National Green Tribunal (NGT), last week, instructed all states and Union territories to follow Haryana’s example and create detailed inventories of water bodies not already protected by any law, review their existing framework...

-Mongabay.com * The Marathwada region in Maharashtra is in the midst of another drought. While most of the area is dry, some villages practising watershed development are surprisingly green. * In the absence of political interventions some villages are going into self-help mode. Villagers allege vested interests in ‘man-made’ drought. * Lack of policy changes and political will have also been blamed for current situation. * Meena Menon travelled extensively through the drought-hit districts...

-Newsclick.in In an interview, the ‘father’ of India’s Green Revolution, says while technology is necessary, policies on procurement and public distribution are far more important in making agriculture economically viable and sustainable in the country. No one has played a more instrumental role in India’s self-sufficiency in food production than Dr MS Swaminathan — world-renowned agricultural scientist, known as the ‘Father of Green Revolution in India’. After getting a PhD from Cambridge...