Category Archives: Ecology and Environment
Dependence Of The Poor On Commons
A 1999 NSSO study on the role of land, water and forest commons in the life and economy of rural Indians revealed that CPRs provide as much as 58% of fuelwood requirements and up to 25% of fodder requirements. It also provides evidence of large-scale depletion of CPRs, with CPR lands in rural India declining […]
Cost-Effectiveness Assessment Of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Options:
A Proposed Methodology Low Carbon Growth Strategies for India.
Acute Food Scarcity By 2020 Warn Reports
An international and national report both warn that climate change and current policies could lead to acute food scarcity by 2020Levels of CO2 will reach 410 ppm by 2010 based on the current increase rate of 0.5% per year. This level of greenhouse gas concentration equals a 2.5 degrees Celsius increase in global temperature. The […]
Glaciers Melting 100 Times Faster
A new study has found that the world’s glaciers are melting up to 100 times faster than any time in the past 350 years. The findings, based on the study of Patagonia, South America, have worrying implications for millions of people who rely on the slow moving bodies of ice for fresh water, reports the […]
Time to rethink nuclear energy?
The crisis in four nuclear power plants in Japan following the recent earthquake and tsunami is cause to rethink India’s strategy of boosting nuclear energy capacity and setting up the world’s largest nuclear power plant at Jaitapur.
Children In The Pits
Children as young as 10 are working in mines in Bellary district of Karnataka, recent studies and public hearings report. It is the children of displaced and homeless families who are exploited most by the mining mafia.
India Launches Major New Study For Valuation Of Its Natural Capital And Ecosystem Services
The MoEF has initiated a major new programme to value the immense wealth of natural resources and biodiversity in India. Collaborating with The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study, the Ministry has begun the process of valuating its natural capital and ecosystem services in terms of economic value.
New CRZ Notification: One Step Forward, And Two Back?
Even as the new CRZ notification grants fishing communities the right to redevelop the land on which they live, it lays open coastal lands for other forms of development which will adversely impact their livelihoods.
Rehabilitation Before Displacement
Although the 2007 National Policy for Rehabilitation and Resettlement lays down the principle of ‘minimising displacement’ there have been no visible attempts to implement it. The policy fails to examine the process of displacement, which is taken for granted. The draft makes no attempt to question the need for displacement in the first place, or […]