-NDTV.com On Sunday, a few hours after the news about the flash floods in Chamoli District hit our screens, I phoned a man who should be a household name but sadly is not. A leader of the Chipko movement, a thinker of originality and insight, a social reformer of courage and vision, he may be both our country's greatest Environmentalist as well as the greatest living resident of Uttarakhand. Back in...

-TheWire.in There should be no doubt that the Chamoli disaster is a sign of our misguided developmental priorities and proves our inability to sustainably develop ecologically sensitive zones. In 2019, a petitioner from a village named Reni, in Chamoli, Uttarakhand, had filed a public interest petition at the Uttarakhand high court. Kundan Singh’s charge was that the Rishi Ganga Power Project, set up near the village in 2005, was resorting to Environmentally...

-Down to Earth The cumulative effect of hydropower projects projects has turned out to be more Environmentally damaging than sustainable, given the current policy of the Uttarakhand govt Human activities profoundly affect the earth’s climate and mountains are a sensitive indicator of that effect. The mountain ecosystem is easily disrupted by variations in climate owing to their altitude, slope and orientation to the sun. Several scientists believe that the change occurring in the...

-MongabayIndia.com * The main focus of the Union Budget for 2021-22 is on infrastructure development-led growth. * This is expected to create a demand in the economy and thereby help it recover after the pandemic crisis. * This commentary explores whether the thrust on infrastructure development will lead to adverse Environmental consequences. * The views expressed in this commentary are that of the author. Investment in infrastructure is the most important focus area in the...

Large dams that cause Environmental degradation and large-scale displacement, among other things, have been opposed in India by civil society organisations (CSOs), such as Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM) and People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). A recently published study by the United Nations University's Canada-based Institute for Water, Environment and Health along with other partner organisations reveals that tens of thousands of existing large...