The Environment Ministry on Wednesday finally made public the controversial report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel prepared by ecologist Madhav Gadgil and submitted almost a year ago. The publishing of the report also came with a disclaimer saying that the ministry has not yet accepted the recommendations of the report.

NEW DELHI: Goa’s Congress MP Shantaram Naik recently expressed concern over the mining activities in Sindhudurg district of the neighbouring Maharashtra polluting rivers in his state, particularly Tiracol and Colvale that originate in Maharashtra.

Raising the issue through a special mention in the Rajya Sabha, he wanted the Centre to alert the appropriate authorities in Maharashtra to curb this menace by taking action under the Environment Protection Act, Water Pollution Act and the laws dealing with mining.

Even as the rest of the state celebrates Maharashtra Day, about 500 kilometres from Mumbai, villagers in Konkan's mining hotbed Sindhudurg district will mark the historic occasion with a day-long collective fast in protest against a controversial Rs1000 crore proposal to mine iron ore from a mountain rich with fresh water springs.

Here, a 150-year-old natural drinking water project satiates the thirst of over 25,000 citizens of Sawantwadi, apart from serving as the habitat of a fragile ecosystem.

Mumbai: Mired in a controversy over the construction of a Shivaji statue in the Arabian Sea, the state government is taking no chances with its other future projects. The government is gearing up to start the land acquisition within the next six months for a dolphin and water theme park along the Arabian Sea coastline in Sindhudurg.

Mumbai: An indefinite moratorium on new environmental clearances for mining in the ecologically sensitive zone (ESZ) in Goa and Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts in Maharashtra has been recommended by the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel . It has also recommended a ban on new licences for quarrying and sand mining.

The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) has designated the entire hill range as an Ecologically Sensitive Area.

The panel, in its report, has classified the 142 taluks in the Western Ghats boundary into Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZ) 1, 2 and 3. It recommended that “no new dams based on large-scale storage be permitted in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1. Since both the Athirappilly of Kerala and Gundia of Karnataka hydel project sites fall in Ecologically Sensitive Zone 1, these projects should not be accorded environmental clearance,” it said.

Mumbai: Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has decided to approach the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) for lifting the moratorium imposed on clearances to projects in Sindhudurg in the case of port-related activities. The MoEF imposed the moratorium in August 2010 after locals expressed concern over the rapid degradation of the eco-sensitive region due to increase in mining and port-related activities. An expert panel was appointed to look into the complaints. The panel has submitted its report on the roadmap for eco-sensitive development in the region.

The Democratic Front government is not happy with the Centre’s decision to extend the moratorium on important projects in coastal Konkan, arguing that it would stall the pace of development in the region.
The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has informed the state government about its decision to extend the freeze on 50 projects in Ratnagiri and Sindhurdurg districts until December 31 this year.

The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has extended the moratorium imposed on projects in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts of Maharashtra till December.

In a notification issued last week, MoEF advisor Nalini Bhat said the moratorium had been extended because the ministry had received the report of the Western Ghat Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) and it was now under consideration.

Maharashtra has gone the Goa, Bellary way in illegal mining.
And Sindhudurg, probably, tops the chart. The district at the southern-most corner of the state got the eco-tourism district tag way back in 1997. True, it has the largest green cover, but a deeper look brings out grim truths: human rights violation and false Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) reports to hide illegal mining.