'Amit Jethava was not a well-known name outside the small circle of people that comprise environmental journalists and conservationists. But on July 20, 2010, when he was shot dead outside the High Court of Gujarat in Ahmedabad, his murder became national news. It was reported as the murder of a man who was a Right to Information (RTI) activist, a lawyer and an environmentalist. The needle of suspicion pointed to a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament named Dinu Bogha Solanki.
'The Uttar Pradesh state government is preparing to fell 63,799 trees in Lucknow along the Gomti river for the Defence Expo, to be held in February next year, according to a report in IANS. In a letter, the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) has asked the Lucknow Nagar Nigam to cut trees from Hanuman Setu to the Nishatganj bridge as several events for the Defence Expo, in which guests from several countries will be invited to witness the country’s defence power, will be held there.
'On November 4, Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi accused Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar of “cancelling” three meetings regarding “prevention, control and mitigation of air pollution” in the National Capital Region with the environment ministers of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The meetings had been scheduled in September and October. Javadekar’s Bharatiya Janata Party denied the claim.
'On Sunday, the intense toxic haze building up in North India over the past week reached apocalyptic levels. Ten monitoring stations in the National Capital Region recorded pollution levels in the “severe plus emergency” category... Despite living in Delhi, however, top ministers in the Prime Minister Narenda Modi government seemed to be on another planet. Environment minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted in the morning to ask Indians to start their day with music...
'The Yeddyurappa government in Karnataka is currently battling a second wave of floods amid political chaos unravelling with reports of his dipping popularity and infighting within the party. The state government is now attempting to consolidate its power through massive developmental projects, which, however, come at a huge environmental cost. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government has given a go ahead to the proposed 2,000 MW Sharavathi Pumped Storage Hydroelectric project that falls in the middle of the Sharavathi river valley.
'The BJP governments in both the states have followed a similar pattern—sideline laws and policy, and to open up buffer zones and allow construction activity... While climate strikes, green parties and green manifestos are gripping the world, environmental concerns are still not an issue in the Indian elections. Two Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states – Haryana and Maharashtra go to polls on October 21. The battle for the 90-member Haryana Assembly and the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly is being fought amid serious environmental degradation in both the states.
'The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has given in-principle approval for relaxing air pollution standards for coal-fired thermal power plants. The decision was taken on May 17, 2019 in a meeting chaired by the ministry’s joint secretary, Ritesh Kumar Singh... It is noteworthy that before the meeting, the CPCB had sent a monitoring report on seven units of four thermal power plants to the Ministry of Environment on May 2, 2019. The pollution body found that emissions at just two units out of the seven exceeded the 300 mg/Nm³ emission limit.
'Despite a walkout by the opposition, protests by residents and multiple campaigns, the BJP government of Haryana has opened up thousands of acres of land for the real estate developers by amending the Punjab Land Preservation (Haryana Amendment) Act [PLPA] on Wednesday. As much as 60,000 acres of forests, which adds up to 50 per cent of the Aravali range in South Haryana in the districts of Gurgaon, Faridabad, Nuh, Mahendragarh and Rewari, is now open to commercial activities.
'According to a Parliamentary committee report, the Green India Mission (GIM), a programme that is aimed at protecting, restoring, and enhancing the country’s diminishing forest cover and at responding to climate change by a combination of adaptation and mitigation measures, is “grossly underfunded.”... The Parliamentary committee has also raised concerns about the targets set by GIM. According to the NDC, India has a target to sequester 2.523 billion tonnes of carbon by 2020-2030.
'The controversial expansion of Vedanta’s 1,200 tonnes per day copper smelter in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu has been stayed by the high court on May 23 after at least 11 people protesting against the plant were shot dead by state police. The court has ordered that the company consult people before building the plant – something the company claimed it was legally not required to do. Vedanta claims it had legally got an environmental clearance from the Union government to expand the smelter to double the capacity without consulting people.
