HAZARDS

ENDOSULFAN VICTIMS
A committee to exonerate industry?
The recommendations of the committee constituted to look into the claims of endosulfan victims in Kasargod appear to be largely sympathetic towards the Plantation Corporation and endosulfan manufacturers. P N Venugopal reports.
Justice | Health regulation | Kerala
August 2013

MOBILE TELEPHONY HAZARDS
Mumbai fights the towers that trouble
As studies continue to highlight the potential health hazards posed by cell phones, Mumbai citizens are seen demanding stricter regulation and removal of cell phone towers from sensitive areas, but authorities respond with half-baked measures. Darryl D'Monte reports.
Urban Environment | Maharashtra
August 2013

NUCLEAR POWER
Kudamkulam: Ready to produce?
Will the nuclear power plant finally become operational this month as assured by the PM? Krithika Ramalingam takes an in-depth look at the delays and conflicts that has plagued the project.
Energy | Tamilnadu
April 2013

NUCLEAR POWER
The people's energy
When nuclear companies are unwilling to stake their financial health on the safety of a reactor, how can the Government ask local residents to risk their lives?
Energy | Tamilnadu
November 2011

POWER PLANTS
Radiation looms over power plans
The National Green Tribunal orders a study of the threat of radiation near thermal power plants, potentially putting the brakes on a spate of project approvals.
Energy | Regulation
October 2011

WASTE-TO-ENERGY
A burning issue at Okhla
The Supreme Court has ordered a go-slow on waste-to-incineration technology that may be potential harmful to public health, but the MNRE is guided more by its focus on tackling urban waste.
Waste | Delhi
May 2011

OPINION
The nuclear black swan
A nuclear disaster is such a complex event with wide consequences that it would be better to stop ourselves from going down a path that might lead to a catastrophe, however unlikely it may be.
Rajesh Kasturirangan | Energy
March 2011

NUCLEAR PLANT
'We don't sell our mother'
Substantial resistance has built up against the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Park being set up in Konkan region of Maharashtra. But political consensus for nuclear power has brushed aside local concerns again.
Energy | Maharashtra
December 2010

WASTE MANAGEMENT
Cost-effective technology stalled by Pune govt
Bureaucratic meddling and lack of vision are threatening a simple, cost-effective eco-technology to treat heavily polluted water and turn messed-up water bodies into clean ones.
Cities | Maharashtra
May 2010

RIVER POLLUTION
Blue river blues
The discolouring of the Lukha river has also meant a loss of livelihood to the families who live on its banks. They must now subsist on meagre farming, and wage labour when it is available.
Livelihoods
August 2010

ALL THAT GLITTERS - I
Blinding lure, dirty lucre
Extracting gold needed to forge a wedding band leaves behind at least 20-30 tons of waste and environmental devastation. Mahazareen Dastur writes about the costs of gold mining in the first of a two-part series.
Mining
June 2010

ALL THAT GLITTERS - II
Gold mining: The way forward
Gold mining wreaks havoc on the environment and humans alike, but there are ways to help minimise the damage. Mahazareen Dastur concludes this two-part series.
Mining
June 2010

COKE AND KERALA
End of Plachimada battle. Or is it?
A high-power Kerala government panel has put Coca Cola in the dock and ordered it to cough up damages to victims. However, this may not be the end of the saga.
Government | Kerala
April 2010

HAZARDS COMING UP
UN e-waste report spotlights India
Did you know that Titan Industries, the wristwatch major, does safe disposal of 600,000-700,000 of its old watches each year as part of e-waste management?
Karnataka
March 2010

SPONGE IRON PLANTS
The iron is hot
Loha Garam Hai is a no-nonsense, no-holds-barred comment on lop-sided strategies of development. It is focused more on information and education than on the aesthetics of cinema.
Film Reviews
September 2009

ENVIRONMENT
Panipat power plant pollutes with impunity
It has been happening for several years under the nose of the Haryana adminstration, despite multiple indictments from the nation's top auditor.
Haryana
April 2009

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT
Hot ash burns child to death
Illegal dumping of industrial waste around Raigarh takes the life of 7-year-old Twinkle Thakur, raising familiar troubling questions about the trajectory of 'development' in India.
Hazards | Chhatisgarh
May 2009

KERALA AND PEPSI
Inaction on panel findings against beverage major
A Pepsi bottling plant in Kerala is extracting excess groundwater and may be subjecting it to contamination risks, a state government study had reported several months ago. Despite meeting five times, a state assembly committee has not acted. M Suchitra digs deeper.
Water | Kerala
May 2008

WASTE MANAGEMENT
A hazardous smokescreen of words
Last year, the Ministry of Environment and Forests attempted to dilute the hazardous waste management regulations. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court intervened and the tacky attempt appears to have stalled. Gopal Krishna digs deeper.
Environmental regulation
April 2008

STILL SUFFERING
Insufficient relief for Kerala's endosulfan victims
For seven-year-old Sandhya and her siblings who are totally dependant on their beedi-maker mother, the state government's relief package, announced nearly 18 months ago, is simply not enough. Many more suffer the same fate. P N Venugopal reports.
Relief | Kerala
February 2008

HAZARDOUS AIR
Diesel threat in cities continues to rise
The sulphur content of diesel in India is 350 particles per million, twenty times that of the United States. All told, diesel exhaust is far more hazardous than petrol exhaust. Yet, diesel cars in Indian cities are rising with the association of automobile manufacturers pushing hard for it. Darryl D'Monte has more.
Delhi
January 2008

DDT
Producers sneak into delegation, endorse DDT
How did two major operators in the POPs manufacturing-sector become part of India's official delegation to a conference which aims to eliminate their production and use? P N Venugopal reports on the embarassing, but unabashed capture of officialdom by a manufacturer.
Kerala
August 2007

PVC
Ubiquitous, useful, and dangerous
Polyvinyl chloride or PVC is all around us. It is one of most versatile of plastic materials and its global production is at 40 million tonnes a year. Yet, PVC products are being phased around the world, and India may need to follow. Rasika Dhavse has more.
May 2007

SMOG
Brown cloud, or brown man's cloud?
Extensive air pollution over Asia has drawn considerable attention from the global atmospheric science community. In India, as in other Asian countries, the government as well as scientists are wary of motivated criticism, but still have much to do to put the environment in order, writes Darryl D'Monte.
March 2007

ENERGY
India's black agenda in a climate change era
In January, the Ratan Tata-chaired Investment Commission green-lighted coal-to-liquids technology for India. But beyond the pressing demands for energy security lies a starker reality.
Energy
March 2007

HEALTH
Sorrow and distress, thy home is Jajjal
The elections in Punjab have unseated the Congress and ushered in the Akali-BJP. But will this change the fortunes of hundreds of cancer-impacted families in the Malwa region? Village after village is plagued by pesticide-linked cancer and rising debt. Umendra Dutt writes about Jajjal, one of them.
Health | Punjab
February 2007

SHIPBREAKING
Will the Blue Lady do a Le Clemenceau?
Despite the confirmed presence of toxic waste on-board the Blue Lady, currently beached at the Alang shipbreaking yard, there appears to be a consensus among key officials in Gujarat and New Delhi to allow the ship's dismantling.
Gujarat
February 2007

TRANSPORT POLLUTION
Grey skies looming over colourful roads
Despite the inconsistencies in pollution data as well as measurement approaches in different Asian cities, there is now sufficient knowledge about the health risks of rampant and unchecked levels of motorisation, particularly in India's cities. A workshop for journalists at Indonesia sounded the warning bells again, writes Darryl D'Monte.
Transport
January 2007

NOXIOUS COAL MINING
In the line of fire
The Jharia mines in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district produce the best quality coking coal (used in blast furnaces) in India. However, the area, mostly inhabited by tribals, has been smouldering with underground mine fires for several decades now. Kalpana Pradhan reports on the health impact.
Mining | Jharkhand
November 2006

REGULATING ASBESTOS
India's pro-asbestos position sets back international treaty
Held in Geneva last month, the Rotterdam Convention was attended by 500 participants from 140 governments, UN organisations, and NGOs. India sided with Canada and few other nations to prevent the listing of chrysotile asbestos, a known carcinogen. R Sridhar has more.
Regulation
November 2006

TOXIC EFFLUENTS
Periyar discolouration: state board slammed
On 6 September, the water of the Periyar, Kerala's largest river, suddenly changed its colour into red. Eloor remains a glaring example of unchecked corporate crimes against neighbourhood communities. It also highlights the apathy of state's apex pollution watchdog, writes M Suchitra.
Kerala
September 2006

COMPENSATION AT LAST
Endosulfan victims: Kerala owns up
The LDF government's recent payment of compensation to the victims is a great climb down, for this is the first time a Kerala government has conceded that endosulfan was the cause of the unusual and lethal health disorders that spread in Kasargode. Does this mean more for the victims to look forward to? P N Venugopal finds out.
Public health | Kerala
September 2006

WASTE INCINERATION TO ENERGY
Burning biomass is not green
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi and the Timarpur Waste Management Company Pvt. Ltd., have proposed a waste incineration plant to treat the city's solid waste and generate 6 MW of electricity. TWMPCL has applied to a United Nations body for tradable carbon credits. Gopal Krishna finds much wrong in the proposal.
Waste management | Delhi
July 2006

SHIP BREAKING
The Blue Lady anchors, quietly
Yet another ship with toxic waste has recently beached at Alang, Gujarat. The Blue Lady's owner admits that the ship contains asbestos. But the ship carries neither documents required as per international law, nor a complete inventory of its hazardous wastes, says Gopal Krishna.
Environment regulation
June 2006

OPERATING BEYOND PERMITTED LEVELS
Illegal mining near Rajaji National Park
A group of farmers based near the Rajaji National Park in Uttaranchal have reported illegal stone and sand mining activities in the eco fragile zone to local and national authorities. They are farming in Banjarowala Grant village, Haridwar district near the border of Uttaranchal and U.P.
Mining | Uttaranchal
April 2006

THERMAL PLANT DISCHARGE
Reliance power plant under scrutiny
On 4 April 2006 the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board conducted tests in the presence of local groups and community representatives to assess the temperature of the water discharged from Reliance's 500 MW thermal plant in Dahanu. Dahanu is a notified ecologically fragile area, 120 kms north of Mumbai.
Energy | Maharashtra
April 2006

ASBESTOS MINING BAN
White asbestos, a health time bomb
The Ministry of Mines and Minerals says it may lift the ban on asbestos mining. It is ignoring the views of exposure victims, informed recommendations of public sector medical experts, and mounting evidence of an asbestos disease epidemic emerging in developed countries, writes Gopal Krishna.
Health hazards | Mining
April 2006

"SHIPPING" HAZARDS
The scrapping of Riky
First, a ship with dubious credentials leaves the shores of Denmark. Then a month later, India allows it to beach at Alang, Gujarat's massive shipbreaking yard, for scrapping. In between, it gets a new name and rules are flouted to let it in. Gopal Krishna chronicles how in 2005, Riky, unlike Clemenceau, sailed through the law.
Environmental hazards | Environmental regulation | Waste
March 2006

EARLIER ARTICLES
in this section ...
- Beyond the Clemenceau's recall
- First fiddling, and now inaction
- Court rules, Clemenceau recalled
- Residents stop toxic landfill work
- Junkyard justice at Alang
- Punjab officials fiddling over cancer
- Meet on Punjab health crisis
- Poison in their veins
- Cleaning up Bhopal cost-effectively
- Tomorrow's citizens imperiled today
- Back: the long arm of the law
- Neutralising waste with worms
- Putting away the toxic spray
- Gujarat's Nandesari industrial area
- Pyrolysis : dangerous but favoured
- Unchecked pollution on the Periyar
- Organic, to combat pesticides
- Succumbing to stone-cutting
- Endosulfan: The living dead
- POPs - the dirty dozen
- Killing them slowly
- Kali polluter held accountable
- Putting the bottle first
- A juicy opportunity
- Mercury levels rising dangerously
- Rs.180 crores to bury a river
- E-waste crisis : Around the corner
- Importing of Hazardous Waste
- Asbestos: fibres of misinformation
- Detergents under scrutiny
- Asbestos : fibres of subterfuge
- Sustaining sustainability
- Opposition to PVC plant in Cuddalore
- A factfile on waste in India
- Quarrying under scrutiny
- Relief from deadly pesticide
- Festival of noise and pollution?
- NoPE, thank you
- Unilever's Mercury Fever
- Investigating the Golden Corridor
- Detoxify the corridor