A team of experts from the Indian government has released a damning report on the activities of FTSE 100 company Vedanta Resources, and its plans to mine for bauxite on tribal land in Orissa, India. The report says Vedanta has broken the law and appears to have violated a Supreme Court order. It concludes that the company’s proposed bauxite mine ‘may lead to the destruction of the Dongria Kondh as a...
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Indian farmers battle against nuclear plant by Zubair Ahmed
Some 350km (220 miles) from India's commercial capital, Mumbai, lies the village of Madban overlooking the vast expanse of the Arabian Sea. It is in this village that a 10,000 megawatt nuclear power plant is proposed - and farmers and fishermen, backed by campaigners, are hardening their stance against it. People from Madban believe the project will cause havoc to the environment and to their livelihoods. Stunning beauty Pravin Gavhankar, a...
More »Need to study pest resistance to Bt cotton: Jairam
For nuclear plant at Jaitapur, only site clearance is granted Environment and development have to be balanced Reacting to reports on Monsanto's admission of pest resistance to its transgenic cotton, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said the issue needed to be properly examined. The Minister said he had also seen an earlier report from the Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur, which pointed out insect resistance...
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It is not just the irony. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had recently over-ruled the clearance by his ministry’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee for the cultivation of Bt brinjal, thereby placing an indefinite moratorium on this genetically modified vegetable. But the Philippines, considered a pioneer in food research, have chosen to rely on that very report of the GEAC. That country’s science and technology minister has written a letter praising the...
More »A Law Unto Itself by Lola Nayar, Chandrani Banerjee
* Main aim is to create asingle-window clearing-house for GM foods/crops * Planned regulatory authority to have overarching powers over state governments, existing laws * No room for farmers or civil society in approval process * Penal action for raising objection without scientific evidence * No independent risk assessment of data submitted to the authority * No provision for revoking approvals, inadequate liability clause * No informed choice for consumers...
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