MINING IN SENSITIVE REGIONS
Different reef, same barrier
As the Mundra project of the Adani group moves ahead in Gujarat, a new front opens up in the company's troubles with environmental regulations. Kanchi Kohli reports.
Gujarat
September 2012

IMPACT ASSESSMENT
POSCO ruling sets new terms
The National Green Tribunal's judgement in the POSCO case has implications for many other industrial development projects in the country.
Mining
April 2012

COAL BLOCKS
Mera Bharat aur Mahan
The CAG recently suggested that there may be huge losses to the government from improper allocations of coal bocks to companies. All eyes are now on the next set of allocations to be made.
Madhya Pradesh
March 2012

GREEN TRIBUNAL
Do verdicts matter?
Despite the number of times a court, tribunal or the Ministry has acted to stop construction of OPG's power plant in Bhadreswar, the project goes on uninterrupted.
Gujarat
March 2012

GREEN TRIBUNAL
NGT: The first seven months
The first set of hearings winds its way through the newly established environment tribunal, as the government pushes to speed up industrialisation in forest areas.
February 2012

DUE PROCESS OF LAW
Third time around the law
Construction of a project that requires environmental, coastal zone and forest permissions cannot begin until all of these are secured. Or can it?
Regulation
November 2011

POWER PLANTS
Radiation looms over power plans
The National Green Tribunal orders a study of the threat of radiation near thermal power plants, potentially putting the brakes on a spate of project approvals.
Energy
October 2011

MUNDRA
The cost of the coast
The people of Mundra coast face a constant struggle to protect their commons, rights and the very socio ecological character of the region from the massive land use changes around them.
Gujarat
August 2011

SACRED HILLS
Niyamgiri again
Why comply with regulations if a committee can decide that it didn't matter much that the law was bypassed? MoEF finds itself on the backfoot, after its experts look away from the law.
Orissa
July 2011

RESOURCES / MINING
Anguish in Angul
The proposed natural resource extraction in Angul district and other nearby places in Orissa will devastate the land and its already-suffering people even further.
Orissa
April 2011

REGULATION
Lights, camera, destruction!
A filming crew's damage to the Kambalakonda wildlife sanctuary is brought before the courts. But how did it get this far in the first place?
Wildlife | Andhra Pradesh
April 2011

REGULATION
Bullet holes in the regulations
The government ignored many chances to protect people's lvelihoods in an ecologically sensitive area. But a hail of police firing on protestors forces a rethink.
Andhra Pradesh
March 2011

GUJARAT COAST
At Bhadreshwar, the clock is ticking
The OPG group's plans to build a massive thermal power plant on the ecologically sensitive coast have been dealt a setback.. But a final decision is still to be made.
Gujarat
February 2011

NUCLEAR PLANS
Nuking dissent over Jaitapur
NPCIL and the political establishment are burying their heads in the sand over the controversial nuclear plants on the Konkan coast, which will affect the lives of people in the entire region.
Energy | Maharashtra
January 2011

COASTAL REGULATIONS
Exigent, not principled
The new coastal zone regulation reads as a compendium of the myriad exceptions to the few rules - a move away from managing the coastal natural resources based on principles to one based on discretion.
January 2011

ENVIRONMENT CLEARANCE
Setting the clock back on clearances
What happens if you decide to expand your industrial project without getting fresh environment clearances? In Jindal Steel's case, it appears, you get to go on scot free.
Chhatisgarh
January 2011

IRREGULAR REGULATION
Already destroyed? Ok, then.
The National Environment Appellate Authority finds everything that ECPEL did in the Naupada swamp is ecologically harmful, but the project must go ahead anyway.
Andhra Pradesh
December 2010

JUSTICE DELAYED
A crevasse in the regulatory environment
With the formation of the Green Tribunal, its predecessor, the NEAA has ceased to exist. But the NGT is not fully ready to hear cases, and this has put the regulatory environment off-course.
November 2010

A RIVER'S COURSE
Where does the Yamuna flow?
It is one thing to decide in a court of law that the floodplain of the Yamuna does not extend to the site of the Commonwealth Games village. It is quite another thing to keep the river out.
October 2010

DRAFT MINING REGULATION
Mining vs. Communities
The Sustainable Development Framework has captured the feedback about mining-related damages, but the draft regulations for mining don't reflect this understanding.
Mining
October 2010

RUBBER STAMP?
RTI and EIA collide at NIO
The National Institute of Oceanography has repeatedly attested that the Adani group's projects in Kutch would not negatively impact the region's ecology, but admits this only reluctantly.
RTI | Fisheries | Gujarat
September 2010

MINING IN NIYAMGIRI
Round and round the sacred hills
Despite many violations, protests, and committee recommendations against mining in the Niyamgiri hills, the region's fate lies in the corridors of power.
Mining | Orissa
August 2010

REGULATION
Appointment without perspective
The Chair of the EAC should necessarily have an overarching environmental perspective, as s/he is supposed to ensure the environmental sustainability of projects that come to the committee.
August 2010

STEEL PLANT AND PORT
Holding their ground against POSCO
The steel plant and port proposed by the South Korean mining giant in Orissa has remained on paper, as local opposition has successfully fought off the company's efforts.
Orissa
July 2010

DAMS AND ECOLOGY
Damming and damning the Teesta
In North Sikkim, a familiar tale of subverting environment regulation is playing out, as plans to dam the Teesta river push past local opposition and ecological considerations.
June 2010

OPINION
Green talk alone doesn't suffice
Can Jairam Ramesh suffer a change of heart suddenly and come down heavily on non-compliance by those power projects he once presided over, asks Himanshu Upadhyaya.
Guest column
June 2010

CAG INDICTMENTS
Narmada authorities proceed with impunity
Even as the CAG audit found that SSNNL had diverted the central funds from canal construction to unintended purposes, permission has been granted to raise the Narmada dam height.
Government | Gujarat
May 2010

PUBLIC HEARINGS
Cleared, denied, cleared, ...
The environment clearance process continues to make a mockery of the law. As the Athena case shows, when a project is pulled up, the Ministry simply finds another channel by which to continue it.
Chhatisgarh
May 2010