-IANS Shimla: The hydropower projects in Himachal Pradesh -- in private and public sectors -- are not only gobbling up forests but also damaging natural resources, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has found. The compensatory afforestation by the state is highly deficient as 58 percent of the test-checked hydropower projects reported no afforestation at all, the CAG said in its recent report. It pointed out that lack of re-greening of...

-The Hindu Identifying 37 per cent - or about 60,000 square km - of the Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive, a high-level panel has recommended that "destructive" activities such as mining, thermal power, major construction, and some hydel power projects should not be allowed there. However, the panel was silent about any restrictions in the remaining 96,000 square km area, thus creating the perception that it had diluted earlier recommendations that the...

-The Hindu   The government does it purely on the strength of a certificate issued by the district administration Even as the recent affidavit submitted by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) before the Supreme Court in the Vedanta case has caused dismay among tribal communities and activists for the dilution of its stand on diverting forest lands of tribal communities, the Ministry has gone a step further and allowed diversion...

-The Hindu Observing that Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation Ltd. (SMHPCL), the private promoters of the Maheshwar dam project, had failed to begin commercial operation and had no funds to complete the project and rehabilitate the displaced, the Madhya Pradesh Government has threatened to terminate the project’s power purchase agreement. A notice of default, a copy of which is with The Hindu , was issued by the MP Power Management Company Ltd...

-Frontline The Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill is an attempt to circumvent the hurdles before acquisition, such as rehabilitation of land losers, without much increasing the cost of land. THE preamble to the draft Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (LARR) Bill is very noble; it talks about a “humane, informed, consultative and transparent process for land acquisition for industrialisation, development of essential infrastructural facilities and urbanisation with the least disturbance...