Feature Article

A super bureaucracy created to manage forests will only destroy local community initiative

The great smog disasters of the past have made clear that air pollution can kill people in a matter of days: extremely high concentrations of air pollution building up under conditions of low wind speed and stable atmospheric conditions have been associated with excess deaths in the Meuse Valley, Belgium (1930); Donora, PA, United States (1948); and London, United Kingdom (1952).

When the executive fails, people seek redressal from courts. In some cases, the courts have merely put the seal of approval on the actions of citizens' pressure groups. In others, the remedies have only addressed the problems in part. The earth still bl

Involvement of locals in the management of natural resources has earned remarkable dividends for the Doon valley

Bichhri: where the earth bleeds People's protests had forced the closure of Bichhri's polluting industries. The court's intervention, which was late in coming, has not helped much, Bichhri

Alarmed over the negative impact of tourism in Goa, several citizens' groups have called for a cap on visitors arriving in the country's smallest state where the annual tourist arrivals is about to

While the apex court has brought to Patancheru's effluent riddled land some relief in the forms of compensation and drinking water, it has not yet remarked on the government agencies' non functioning complacence

Encroachments by the poor and the rich alike are proving to be the ridge's bane. The malady is monumental, and the court's healing touch has provided incomplete relief at best

Was the motel owned by a former environment minister's relatives really responsible for destroying the pristine banks of the Beas? The apex court thinks so, but question marks persist

What the judiciary needs to do is to put the heat on the regulatory and executive agencies of the country and improve the country's environmental governance systems