It asks company to carry out a fresh cumulative assessment study

The National Green Tribunal (NGT), New Delhi, has suspended the environment clearance (EC) granted by Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for the proposed coal-based thermal power plant of IL& FS Tamil Nadu Power Company Ltd in Cuddalore district. The tribunal directed the company to carry out a cumulative assessment study afresh within a radius of 25 km from the project site and submit it to the MoEF for stipulating any additional conditions and safeguards required for the protection and preservation of the Pichavaram mangroves and marine environment.

Green and rights organisations on Wednesday demanded adequate allocation in the upcoming national budget keeping climate change adaptation activities in consideration.
The organisations working on climate change made the demand at a press conference at the National Press Club to press home their 11-point charter of demands.

Maharatna major NTPC’s maiden overseas venture at Khulna in Bangladesh has now run into an environment hurdle due to its proximity to the world’s largest mangrove forest Sunderbans.

Environmentalists in Bangladesh have already moved court asking the project to be scrapped as it comes within 14 kilometres of Sunderbans. The 1320MW (2X660MW) project is a 50/50 joint venture between NTPC and Bangladesh Power Development Board and both the parties have signed a memorandum of understanding recently.

In a landmark judgement, the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday stayed all activities in the Adani Group’s Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone (MPSEZ) till they get the environment clearance from the Centre. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J.B.Pardiwala upheld a petition by people of the villages affected by the 18,000-acre Mundra Port and SEZ in Kutch district and ruled that the all construction and other activities should stop until the clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to conduct a site inspection of mangroves in the protected Sewri Bay area. A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Nitin Jamdar was suo motu hearing a PIL, taking cognizance of a complaint on destruction of mangroves due to the storage of coking coal used in furnaces by the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT). The Sewri Bay area consists of mudflats, wetlands and mangroves.

Kerala will soon revamp its environment policy, three years after formulating it, to include climate change aspects in the document.

The Department of Environment has initiated a consultation process with various stakeholder agencies in this regard. The views of around 20 departments and research organisations have been sought to enrich the policy document that was published in 2009. The policy of the State was framed before the formation of the Department of Environment and Climate Change. The document had not covered climate change aspects.

On Monday, at 8pm, Bandra resident Benedict Suarez noticed a blood-stained carcass of a dolphin at the Bandstand promenade. Suarez, who is a member of the citizen’s group Eagle Brigade, informed local corporator Asif Zakaria who, in turn, alerted the civic officials about the dead dolphin.

A group of agriculturists from Raigad and Thane districts has written to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan that the expansion of Mumbai city has adversely affected the quality of agricultural land in these areas.

The farmers demand that the state government should direct the collectors of both the districts to examine the issue and submit a report to the state government.

KOZHIKODE: Showing signs of improvement in the mangrove cover across the state, the Annual Report of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) 2011-12, which was released recently, notes that the mangrove cover in Kerala has increased for the first time since 2005.

According to the report, the total mangrove cover in the state is now spread across a total area of 6 km2. Though the mangrove was spread across an area of 8 km2 in the year 2003, it had declined to 5 km2 during the last survey conducted in 2009.