The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has signed an agreement with the Dolphin Institute of Biomedical and Natural Sciences, Dehradun, Uttarakhand on 3.1.2008 for transfer of biological resources to a foreign entity Mascoma Corporation in Lebanon, USA.The Institute has been allowed to transfer anaerobic fungi isolated from rumen liquor/fasces/saliva from a number of domestic or wild ruminants (cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat, deer, camel etc) and no-ruminant herbivores (Horse, Elephant, Zebra, Rabbit etc), for the period of one year.

The Baluchistan Operation basically started with the announcement of the Gwadar Project and the setting up of barracks in Baluchistan because the Baluch nationalists have serious apprehensions over the Gwader project and the apprehensions have been documented in the Bugti dossier.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), held in Johannesburg, South Africa, had sustainable energy high on its agenda while global warming was missing in action. The most important decisions were made elsewhere, when China and Russia, the world’s second and third largest polluters, respectively, announced that they will ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement on climate change designed in 1997 to reduce the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The regulation of activities which may contribute to climate change are a subset of a wider jurisprudence of environmental law. It was realized that pollution is fundamentally a trans-boundary activity and thus all countries have an interest in controlling it. The broader international environmental law was incorporated in Principles 21 of the Stockholm Declaration, way back in 1972. The principle of good neighborliness or ‘sic utere’ is the bedrock of the growing international customary law and a reference point for us when we deal with regulation of global warming. Today, when we are trying our best to consolidate the global warming jurisprudence, the lack of conventional jurisprudence must then be supplemented by the jurisprudence of the Trail Smelter case, the International Court of Justice’s opinion in the Nuclear Weapon’s case as well as other environmental law cases.

The Indian markets seem to be flooded with organic food items. And the credit of this quick spread of organic farming goes to the Morarka foundation run by industrialist Kamal Morarka. Morarka foundation’s managing director Mukesh Gupta says that this farming is helpful for the farmers in terms of production, savings and health. This increases both the quality and quantity of the product. As a result, the farmers are adopting this mode of farming. Farmers even can sell the organic products on a higher rate. At present, Morarka foundation is running organic farming in 15 states. Mukesh Gupta is even the president of ICCOA( international competence centre for organic agriculture).

2010 has been announced as the year of tigers. But still the life of national animal tiger’s is in danger. Death of four tigers in the beginning of the year itself has revealed the cold attitude of the state government towards the tigers. This has proved that the wild animals and forests are not safe in Uttarkhand anymore. These incidences have happened in the Corbett national park situated in Ramnagar in Nainital.

2009 was quite a tumultous year for India’s forests, coastal stretches and agricultural lands. With an average of 100 industrial and infrastructure projects granted clearance every month of the year, the contest for habitat, livelihoods and claiming rights over them, was visible. Aiding all this was an efficient regulatory regime “meant” to protect the biodiverse and fragile environment of the country.

Every anniversary of a trauma, whether Bhopal, Bhagalpur, Bluestar, Ahmedabad or the anti-Sikh riots on Delhi’s streets, turns into a struggle between anger and amnesia. It is a no-contest. Amnesia wins every time. Eyeless in Bhopal. Heartless in communal riots. Clueless in Ayodhya. Mindless in government. And, maybe, pointless in rage. Perhaps the determining fact [...]

Welcome to the website of Chauthi Duniya’s English Edition.