-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...

-Hindustan Times With nearly 200 Durga Puja pandals immersing idols in the River in Delhi-NCR, Yamuna was choked with debris. The River water was clogged with plastic bags, flower petals and pooja material, besides metal structures Delhi: The Yamuna choked on debris and waste materials on Sunday, a day after idols from nearly 200 Durga Pujas pandals in Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and surrounding areas made way to the designated ghats...

-The Hindu Over the years we have lost over a lakh varieties of native rice. One district in Odisha is rediscovering some of them It is a balmy winter morning when I meet Kamli Bataraa, an ebullient Adivasi farmer, at her home in Belugan, in southern Odisha’s Koraput district. There is a hum across the village from the threshing of just-harvested paddy. When I ask Kamli about the rice varieties she grows,...

-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...

-Livemint.com For the people of India and their “faith” in the Sardar Sarovar dam, it’s really a matter of public finance Optics is as air for politicians. It is no different for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and what is commonly known as the Narmada Dam. But even air can sometimes get dense with rhetoric. On 17 September, Modi inaugurated the Sardar Sarovar Dam, the largest project of the Narmada, or Sardar Sarovar Project,...