-Down to Earth The construction of the proposed plant will also violate Coastal Regulation Zone norms Wildlife activists have expressed apprehension over the construction a sewage treatment plant at Palibandh, near the Rushikulya river estuary in Odisha’s Ganjam district, the site of India’s second-largest rookery of Olive Ridley turtles. The plant, if constructed, will spell doom for the turtles, the activists have warned. Every year, millions of Olive Ridleys gather on a five-km-long...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Olive Ridley turtle populations mass nesting on Odisha's coast now appear stable after what seemed like alarming portents a decade ago, but new ports could pose fresh threats, a senior turtle biologist said today. The increasing numbers of turtles inadvertently caught by fishing trawlers and found dead on Odisha's beaches during the 1990s had led some scientists to suggest a sharp decline in the populations of Olive Ridley...

So what if it was the largest-ever FDI in India? The law finally caught up with it on 30 March 2012, when the National Green Tribunal suspended POSCO’s environmental clearance and ordered a fresh review. We can celebrate the outcome in this day and cynical age: It is still possible, though not easy, to get environmental justice in this country. Since June 2005, when the agreement between the Government of Orissa...

Environmentalists may be against the state government’s proposal to set up new ports along the coast, but experts feel that the state needs these facilities badly to make the most of the cargo boom expected in the next 10 years. They have also extended support to chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s campaign against the Centre’s bid to restrict the powers of coastal states and union territories with regard to determining the jurisdiction...

India’s Supreme Court has questioned clearances to industries on the basis of environment impact assessments (EIAs) carried out by private consultants in the pay of project proponents. A special bench of the court led by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, that is hearing a petition challenging approvals granted to the French company Lafarge to mine limestone, likened the practice to "paying the piper to call the tune." Kapadia’s bench noted that every report...