The National Green Tribunal on Wednesday upheld the National Environment Appellate Authority decision to suspend environmental clearance for the proposed 2640 mw thermal plant of NCC Ltd.

The implementation of the thermal plant at Sompeta in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh has hit the environmental hurdle and faced with resistance from local villagers.

The tribunal has directed fresh hearing on the project. Local organisations have welcomed the order.

The National Green Tribunal, under the aegis of ministry of environment and forests, on Wednesday cancelled the environmental clearances granted to the 2,640MW coal-fired power project of Nagarjuna Construction Company coming up at Sompeta in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh. The . 14,000-crore thermal power project, to come up in two phases of 1,320MW each, has been hanging in fire for nearly two years following violent protests by locals against the project that led to three people getting killed in police firings in July 2010.

Commercial borewells in residential areas are guzzling precious ground water. As a result, the domestic borewells in surrounding houses and apartments are going dry, causing utter inconvenience to citizens. As per the Water Air Land and Trees (WALTA) Act, commercialisation of borewell water is not allowed in residential areas or city limits.

Citizens claim that despite lodging complaints, officials are not taking action against tanker operators who are selling precious groundwater. One such “commercial bore” in the midst of a residential locality near a private dairy farm in Dabeerpura in the old city,

Bauxite-rich East Coast region hasn’t seen a single mine open in 30 years. The East Coast region, home to 74% of the total bauxite reserves, continues to be one of the most-neglected regions in the country, as not a single bauxite mine has been opened in the past three decades.

Industry unhappy over unremunerative tariff in a scenario of rising biomass prices

Amid growing regulatory and administrative uncertainties the biomass-based power producers have sought the intervention of Forum of Regulators (FoR) for early resolution of issues relating to open access, cross subsidy, CDM sharing, penalty clause imposed by certain distribution companies for maintaining plant load factor and the tariff structure.

Simultaneous enumeration in Karnataka, Kerala, T.N., A.P., Maharashtra and Goa

More than 100 volunteers will fan out across the Bandipur and Nagarahole national parks for the synchronised elephant census from Tuesday. The census will take place simultaneously in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa, where the elephant habitat is contiguous. This will help avoid duplication of count.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) expects to expand the Vizag Refinery plant to 15 million tonnes by 2015-16, a top official of the state-run oil firm said. According to HPCL director (refineries) K Murali, Engineers India (EIL) has been appointed as consultants for the project and they are expected to submit a report on that. “They (Engineers India) are expected to complete the feasibility report in few months’ time. Then we will have to take it to the board for approvals.

Biotech industry’s propaganda is false

The only transgenic crop grown in India is Bt cotton developed by injecting a toxin from a soil bacterium called Bacillus Thuringiensis [Bt] into a cotton seed through a highly sophisticated process. When planted the seed produces a highly toxic cotton plant. Its roots, stem, leaves and boll continuously secrete Bt toxin.

Community gains from genetic engineering
Genetic modification / Genetic Engineering (GM/ GE / GMO) is a technology. The entire basis for evolution is constant genetic modification by nature. With conventional breeding techniques, several hundreds of genes move from one plant / animal to another and the beneficial outcomes are selected.

New technology helps insert a single or a set of genes, which is beneficial and can be done in a much shorter time. Drug and crop developers have used this technology to come up with new drugs,