"The continuing farce called conditional clearances" - Dams, Rivers and People

Volume 9 Issue 1: The SANDRP Newsletter for the month of February 2011

The continuing farce called conditional clearances: Does the MoEF have the capacity, the will or even the intentions of assuring compliance?

• The continuing farce called conditional clearances
  Does the MoEF have the capacity, the will or even the intentions of assuring compliance? The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) gives clearances to hundreds of projects every month. All of these clearances are statutory and are supposed to be legally binding. But the track record shows little will or intention to ensure compliance of these clearance conditions.

• Violation of environment law by Four Himachal HEPs: Will MoEF act?
  Photographic evidence of violation of the environment norms by 4 hydropower projects in Himachal Pradesh.

• River schools can make the future look bright!
  Education Boards have made Environmental Science a compulsory subject for schools and junior colleges. But this cannot to be studied in the classrooms alone. Many are now getting a chance to study the entire river ecosystem, its interconnections, and the after effects of dams and diversions with experts who work on these rivers.

• How debris affect Himalayan Glaciers?
  More than 50% of the glaciers in the Karakoram region of the Himalayas are stable or are advancing. The variations are a result of differences in the debris cover enjoyed by different glaciers – a factor that has so far been neglected while studying the impact of climate change on glaciers.