Reports

A resource-hungry industry has reasons to be perturbed about the possibility of the government accepting the recommendations of an expert panel which was constituted to look at the ecological status of the Western Ghats. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), which has also called for a blanket ban in mining in most parts of the ecologically fragile region, has recommended that power plants being set up in the Western Ghats should be subject to strict environmental regulations and...

State governments across the country have been both callous and tardy in implementing the Forest Rights Act. Claims are being rejected on flimsy grounds, with the rejection rate in as many as 11 states being over 50%. Karnataka stands fourth in the rejection rate with 95.66%, according to a compilation released on Monday by the Delhi-based Asian Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Network (AITPN). As of January 31 this year, 31,68,478 claims have been received and 27,24,162 (85.98%) disposed of. In...

Conservation, till very recently, was so top-down and condescending in its approach that conservationists and social activists would forever be at each others’ throats. There was no clear winner and it was evident that it were both people local communities on one hand and wildlife and forests on the other that were losing out in this internecine battle. That top-down approach is being, to quite an extent, turned on its head by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) which submitted to the...

A major social media campaign is building up seeking justice for a Manipuri student who died under suspicious circumstances last week. While the police have described the death as the fall-out of a two-wheeler accident he had met with two days earlier, friends of the victim insist that the 19-year-old Manipuri succumbed to injuries he suffered on being severely assaulted by seniors at college the previous night. Richard Loitam, a second semester student of the Acharya NRV School of Architecture...

Those clamouring for Special Economic Zones to be established in the Western Ghats are not going to like this. An expert panel which recently studied the ecological imbalance in the region has recommended that no SEZs should be set up in the region. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), which submitted a two-volume report on August 31, 2011, has listed out sectoral guidelines for conservation of the Western Ghats, reckoned to be a biodiversity hotspot. The Ministry of Environment and...

Unbridled tourism in the Western Ghats will be a thing of the past if the Union government accepts the recommendations of an expert panel that was formed to look into the environmental aspects of the ecologically-fragile region. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), which submitted a comprehensive report to the government in August 2011, has noted that some of the environmental footprints relate to the uncontrolled growth of tourist establishments in the Western Ghats leading to...

There is something sinister about the proverbial tip of an iceberg. For one, its deceptive appearance makes you ignore the obvious. And then, you obviously miss the peril that lurks underneath. So when the Delhi High Court in early-January imposed a cost of Rs 2 lakh on realty major DLF Limited while dismissing its plea against an order by market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to probe an allegation, it was seen as only an instance of a Delhi-based businessman being...

From the moment the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) submitted its ecological report on the Western Ghats to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) , the government was in a position it wanted desperately to wriggle out from. The 14-member panel headed by Prof Madhav Gadgil had presented its report on August 31, 2011, during the peak of the furore over the Bellary illegal mining case. With the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court also looking at the issue of...

For the mining lobby, it gets only worse. But that’s good news for conservation. If the report on illegal mining by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court was not bad enough, the one by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) seeks to bring mining to a grinding halt in most parts of the fragile hotspot. The panel, which submitted its report to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) on August 31, 2011, has called for a blanket ban on mining in the most...

The order of the Central Information Commissioner (CIC) asking the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to “disclose” the ecological report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) by May 5 is bound to have far-reaching consequences on “developmental” activity in the area. The ministry, which had been sitting on the document since August 31, 2011 when the panel submitted its two-volume report, will now not be able to dilute the recommendations of the 14-member panel.The...