-Hindustan Times The ecologist said extensive stone quarrying and mushrooming of high-rises as part of tourism, and illegal forest land acquisition by private parties are the major reasons for the recent floods in the state. Pune: Ecologist Madhav Gadgil, founder of the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, has described the floods in Kerala as a man-made disaster; a reaction to the illegal excavations, stone quarrying done...

-India Today Kottayam/ Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala has been facing unusually high rainfall since early August, which has led to statewide floods killing hundreds and causing severe damage. At least 167 people have lost their lives and over two lakh people are in relief camps. Most of the regions impacted by this monsoon were once classified as ecologically-sensitive zones (ESZs) by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), also known as the Gadgil Committee. The report...

-CitizenMatters.in Built in the 13th century, Delhi’s Qutb Minar, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of the tallest minarets in the country, is facing stiff competition − from the height of a garbage dump in the national capital. In a recent report, a panel of India’s Parliament noted their observations on landfill sites in Delhi, writing that the “laissez-faire of the civic bodies of Delhi also gets reflected in the fact...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to explain what action it had taken against government-funded shelters as a social audit showed that 1,575 cases of sexual harassment of children had been reported from across the country. The social audit was conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). The 1,575 cases were reported during the five years till 2016. A three-judge bench of Justices Madan B....

-The Hindu The 100-page report, which The Hindu is in possession of, gives explicit details of how girls, boys and adults have been subjected to “dreadful details of physical violence, sexual abuse and mental harassment.” Patna: The seven-member team of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), which had exposed sexual and physical exploitation of minor girls at Muzaffarpur shelter home in its social audit report submitted to the State Social Welfare Department...