Ecology and Environment

This draft report by the Kerala Paristhithi Aikya Vedi is an outcome of the Kerala State Environmental Convention, a two day convention that was organised in Trivandrum, Kerala by calling upon various environmental and social organisations, concerned citizens, experts,  political leaders in the state to discuss the environmental crisis that the state has been facing in recent years.

The ‘Workshop on Environmental Flows’ was organized by Aaranyak and River Research Center (Kerala) and supported by International Rivers, on 6th of May 2012.

Around 250 delegates from eleven hill states of India along with representatives from Darjeeling hills participated in the two days summit. It was organized by Ecotourism and Conservation Society of Sikkim (ECOSS) jointly with Central Himalayan Environment Association (CHEA).

Contemporary society is in a transition and deep into the making of the first universal society for mankind, creation of a ‘one world’ where human wellbeing can no longer be separated from other human beings or from planetary welfare.

A discussion was organised on a new book by Tom Wooten and Utpal Sandesara - "No one had a tongue to speak" that spectacularly reconstructs the 1979 Machhu dam disaster in Gujarat, one of history’s worst disasters. The meeting was organised by SANDRP at India International Centre, New Delhi on 30^th July, 2012.

Ghazala Shahabuddin’s recent talk on 30^th August, 2012 at IIC, New Delhi focused on the malaise underlying India’s dominant conservation paradigm, which is for the most part one of top-down control and exclusion.

Current evidence has shown that a large population of people in India practice open defecation and do not use toilets even when available.

This report by Central Pollution Control Board sheds light on the guidelines meant for environmental protection for new industrial estates and up gradation of pollution control systems for existing industrial estates.