The sight on television was heartbreaking: children lying in rows in the searing sun to be human shields against the takeover of their land for Korean giant POSCO’s mega bucks project. Facing them were armed police sent by the state government to assist in the operation. The steel plant and port project, located in a coastal district of Odisha, has been in a six-year-long eyeball-to-eyeball battle with people whose land will...

-The Times of India   The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has said it alone can take the final call on whether Vedanta can mine bauxite deposits in the Niyamgiri hills, asserting that it has the power to turn down the recommendation of the ministry's statutory Environment Appraisal Committee (EAC). Reacting to the report in TOI on Saturday about the EAC's go-ahead to Vedanta to start mining the bauxite deposit...

  With Adarsh Society's lawyers pleading before the Bombay High Court that the scam-hit society too deserved consideration for post-facto Environmental Clearance similar to that to be granted to the Lavasa hill city in Pune, the warning of activists and environmentalists that regularising Lavasa would set a disastrous precedent seems to be coming true. Advocate Mukul Rohatgi stated on Monday that Adarsh and Lavasa cases should be considered on the same grounds....

-The Hindu   In a significant shot in the arm for the environmentalists, the A.P. High Court on Thursday suspended operation of Government Order 1107 alienating 972 acres of land in favour of Nagarjuna Construction Company for setting up a thermal power plant at Sompeta in Srikakulam district. Sompeta was in national focus last year when police opened fire on agitators, including environmentalists and farmers, opposed to the thermal power station on...

-The Hindu   The e-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011, notified by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, have the potential to turn a growing problem into a development opportunity. With almost a year to go before the rules take effect, there is enough time to create the necessary infrastructure for collection, dismantling, and recycling of electronic waste. The focus must be on sincere and efficient implementation. Only decisive action can...