-MoneyLife.in The flood havoc in Kolhapur and Sangli districts has killed 54 people and thousands of cattle, besides causing colossal loss of property, farmlands and crops.  Was it the ferocity of nature that caused such a great calamity or did human interference aggravate the situation? RTI documents reveal that tampering of the red and blue line demarcation of the Panchganga River in the Kolhapur Development Plan, due to the pressure of the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee expressed concern over unabated regularisation of unauthorised colonies in Delhi by the authorities in violation of law for political gains and pleaded the court to intervene to stop it to prevent a chaotic situation in the capital. It also accused the Land and Development Office (L&DO) for encouraging encroachment of public land. Referring to media reports, the committee said the Delhi...

-Hindustan Times Since Independence, waves of forest encroachments have been regularised on one pretext or another, and this unfortunate trend seems to be continuing. With a recent United Nations report warning that one million species of plants and animals are poised on the brink of extinction, we need to take all forest destruction very seriously The Forest Rights Act (FRA) was originally meant to redress historical injustice to genuine forest dwellers by...

-The Hindu With growing environmental distress, policymakers cannot shy away from adopting best eco-management practices In a report last year, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) called the Chennai floods of 2015 a “man made disaster”, a pointer to how the encroachment of lakes and river floodplains has driven India’s sixth largest city to this ineluctable situation. The Chennai floods are a symbol of consistent human failings and poor urban...

-IndiaToday.in Nothing short of a complete overhaul or rethinking the approach towards water bodies is needed if India were to fight its water crisis without paying too heavy price. * Water bodies are important to recharge groundwater and absorb excess rain to prevent flooding * Water bodies in India are fast disappearing triggering drought situations and water shortage * The significance of restoring or reviving water bodies cannot be overemphasised For far too long the...