-Scroll.in Notified in September, the rules will facilitate the development of wetlands as real estate, industrial sites and garbage dump After ignoring repeated directions from the Supreme Court to notify stricter rules to protect the country’s wetlands, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has gone and done just the opposite. On September 26, it published the wetlands (Conservation & Management) Rules, 2017 – replacing the older rules dating back to...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Seeking to protect over 2 lakh wetlands across the country, the Centre has come out with rules to identify and manage these ecologically fragile areas which play an important role in flood control, groundwater recharge, preserving plant varieties, supporting migratory birds and protecting coastlines. The new rules, notified by the environment ministry on Tuesday, decentralise wetlands management by giving states powers to not only identify and...

-Livemint.com The river interlinking project will adversely affect land, forests, biodiversity, rivers and the livelihood of millions of people Interlinking of rivers is a very expensive proposal. It has huge adverse environmental impacts on land, forests, biodiversity, rivers and the livelihood of millions of people. It is a socially disruptive proposition. It will not only add to climate change impact (destruction of forests means destruction of carbon sinks, and reservoirs in tropical...

-The Indian Express Art of Living argument in NGT is hinged on a catch: wetlands get their identity only through notification by govt under Rules. The Rules have been around since 2010, but not one wetland has been notified yet. Last week, during the hearing of the case against Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living (AoL) Foundation at the National Green Tribunal (NGT), counsel for AoL brought up the concept of...

-TheWire.in The government knows what it wants to achieve where the environment is concerned, even if it is at the cost of the protection of ecosystems, and people’s livelihood and well being. The last three years under the Modi government have seen the transformation of the environment from being a field of relative stability and inactivity, to functioning as an active instrument of capital accumulation. The sharp polarisation between extremely positive initiatives...