-Newsclick.in The NBWL has recently granted clearance to North Eastern Coalfields, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, for open cast mining over an area of 98.59 hectares in the Saleki area of the rainforests. New Delhi: The chorus for banning all mining activities within the rainforests of Assam has been rising after the National Board of Wild Life (NBWL) recently granted clearance to coal mining in the region, allegedly overlooking ecological concerns. Several...

-Scroll.in What would it take to end the trail of death and destruction the Brahmaputra and its tributaries leave behind each year? As the monsoon sweeps through North East India, much of Assam is under water yet again. As of July 17, nearly 4 million people are affected by the floods, according to Government data. More than 70 people have already perished while 40,000 people across 19 districts are currently in Government-designated...

-Newslaundry.com The draft EIA Notification 2020, activists say, is a major setback for environmental justice as it weakens public consultation and dilutes compliance norms for corporates. The Indian Government is censoring three environmental advocacy groups that are raising concerns about the draft Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2020. Fridays For Future India, Let India Breathe and There Is No Earth B have had their websites blocked. In a statement on July 13, Let India...

-Down to Earth Their ancestors were brought in as workers nearly a century ago by the former princely state Descendants of Munda and Santhal tribals, brought to Dhenkanal district in Odisha from Jharkhand nearly a century ago by the then princely state to work in its forests, have finally been given land rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006. The Odisha Government issued a notification on July 10, 2020, for the conversion of...

-Outlook India Eminent epidemiologist and health economist Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan tells Outlook in an exclusive interview why rapid Covid antigen tests are problematic and should not, in any case, replace the existing RT-PCR tests. While the Delhi Government's data on Coronavirus cases shows a decline in the number of positive cases, experts believe that the real picture might not be what it looks like. Eminent epidemiologist Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, who is also...