-Business Standard The Supreme Court asked the Union environment ministry to review six specific hydroelectric projects on the upper Ganga basin in Uttarakhand. On Wednesday, the ministry informed the apex court that its expert committee had checked and found the six had almost all the requisite and legitimate clearances. But, the ministry did not tell the court the experts, in the report to the ministry, had also warned these dams could...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Sections of wildlife biologists have questioned the methodology India has adopted for its tiger census, saying it does not yield results to accurately measure changes in numbers either within a particular region or across the country. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), a non-government partner that was involved in the tiger estimation exercise, said the "double-sampling" approach the Union environment and forests ministry adopted was "not the best currently...

-The Hindustan Times Tiger population in India is estimated to be 2,226 in 2014, according to a new report released on Tuesday. The big cat population in 2010 was an estimated 1,706. The number in the central Indian landscape had gone down four years ago. "While the tiger population is falling in the world, it is rising in India. It is a great news," environment minister Prakash Javadekar said. "Never before such an exercise...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The High-Level Committee set up by the Narendra Modi government to review the major laws relating to environment protection has, in its recommendations, worked towards two sets of objectives: one, to separate business from the messiness of governance, and, two, to redraw the line of demarcation between the judiciary and the executive. Manju Menon (manjumenon@namati.org) and Kanchi Kohli (kanchikohli@namati.org) are with the Centre for Policy Research - Namati...

-IANS Bhubaneswar: The status of "National Heritage Animal" to elephants has done little to save them, and at least 427 jumbos have perished in the last seven years in Odisha. Though the state claims it has taken steps to protect the animal, experts say industrialisation and urbanisation are the main reasons for elephant deaths. Elephants are continuously barging into human habitations, triggering a conflict. At least 23 people and 26 elephants have died...