'With the water level of several rivers rising in Uttar Pradesh due to continuous rainfall last week, state water resources minister Mahendra Singh has instructed the irrigation department to hold regular pujas (prayers) by those rivers in order to “control” possible flooding in the areas around them. The minister gave these instructions on July 12, while addressing field staff of the department through a video conference, organised to review the precautionary measures taken to check flooding. The press note issued after the meeting mentioned the minister’s specific order...'
'The chemical factory that leaked gas into a coastal Indian city on Thursday morning, killing at least 12 people and putting hundreds in hospital, was operating illegally until at least the middle of 2019, documents show. In an affidavit [pdf] filed by LG Polymers in May 2019, as part of its application to expand the plastic plant’s operations, the South Korean multinational admitted it was operating its polystyrene plant without the mandatory environmental clearance from the Indian government...'
'It is time to retire the trite stories about clear skies and clean rivers because of the economic lockdown triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. As environment ministers and state governments make it easier for businesses to restart, the toxic gas leak at LG Polymers’ polystyrene plant in Vizag — killing 11 people and exposing 1,100 to the styrene gas — has reminded the world of the folly of viewing environmental due diligence as an impediment to economic activity.
'Government of India’s environment ministry has proposed a new set of rules to govern the country’s environment clearance regime for industrial projects like dams, mines, airports, highways etc. The draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020, which was unveiled last week, proposes to ease processes for business, does away with the public hearings for many projects, ease rules for expansion of projects among other things.
'There are 128 sites in India contaminated by toxic and hazardous substances, according to a March update by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). West Bengal led the list with 27 sites followed by Odisha at 23. Including those, there are 324 sites that may be contaminated, with 196 still awaiting an investigation and confirmation...'
'Fourteen months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Varanasi multimodal terminal located on the Ganga, the terminal has handled only 282 metric tonnes of cargo, as per the government’s response to an RTI query filed by a Pune-based NGO. Government estimates had pegged the volume of traffic at the Varanasi terminal at 3.55 million metric tonnes by 2020...
'Areas which should have been wildlife sanctuaries, teeming with animals and birds, now lie hollowed out and turned into opencast iron ore mines in Jharkhand. This has happened at the hands of the state government. In an elaborate plan it has clandestinely wiped three wildlife sanctuaries off its records in iron ore-rich West Singbhum district. These are Sasangda- buru in Saranda forest division, Bamiaburu in Kolhan forest division and Songra or Tebo in Porahat division. The plan has been so meticulously executed that one has to sift through records of the past 55 years to unmask it...'
'As the increasing air pollution in Bengaluru threatens to disrupt the usual way of life, even foetuses are affected by air pollution. There is a rise in the number of cases where the cognitive development of the infants is impacted owing to rising air pollution, highlight experts. Dr H Paramesh, a paediatric pulmonologist and a professor with the Divecha Center for Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science, stated that automobile exhaust emissions increase the levels of atmospheric lead by around 86%, and that causes lead poisoning.
'Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s decision to appoint Anand Singh as the Forest minister on Tuesday has raised “conflict of interest” questions, especially since he has over a dozen cases pending against him, including serious offenses under the Karnataka Forest Act. According to his election affidavit that he filed for his December 2019 byelection, the Vijayanagar MLA has shown 15 cases pending against him. These are offences under the Indian Penal Code and the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act to be read with violations of the Karnataka Forest Act...'
'Caught up in the maelstrom of divisive politics, India is silently but surely sliding into an environmental abyss under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's watch. The latest EPI ( Environmental Performance Index) report released on the sidelines of the WEF conclave at Davos puts us at third from the bottom- at 177 out of 180 countries, a decline of 36 places since 2016 ( when we were at 141). We do even worse in the index of air quality, at 178 out of 180.
