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Cse In News

Cse In News

Supreme Court puts price tag on tree after PIL challenges West Bengal govt's decision of cutting 356 trees

The committee suggested that instead of cutting down trees for highway projects, the governments should first explore alternative options for these projects. Ever thought we will able to quantify and put a price tag on the oxygen we get from trees? Well, in a first, a Supreme Court panel has managed to put a price tag on a tree. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde had set up a committee in February to evaluate the true value of a tree when a PIL had challenged the West Bengal government's decision to cut 356 trees to construct five railway overbridges costing Rs 500 crore. The committee comprised Soham Pandya, B K Maji, Niranjita Mitra, N K Mukarji and Sunita Narain. The committee, in its report, said that a heritage tree with a lifespan of well over 100 years could be valued at more than Rs 1 crore. It also said that the monetary worth of a project for which hundreds of trees are proposed to cut down is far less than the economic and environmental worth of these trees which are being cut down.

CSE warns against extended deadline for coal-based plants

BATHINDA: Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has cautioned the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (Mo-EF&CC) against extending the deadline of meeting emission norms for coal-based thermal power plants in the country. The Union ministry of power has urged the MoEF&CC to extend the deadline from 2022 to 2024, the environment ministry might be working on a graded plan on it. “Extending the deadline once again will have grave repercussions for the fight against air pollution. It will also mean a complete mockery of the Supreme Court and Indian regulators’ efforts to control pollution from the coal-based thermal power sector over the last five years,” said Sunita Narain, director general, CSE. In January 2021, the power ministry had sent in its request to extend the deadlines allotted to 448 operational power generating units. The proposed extension is up to two years from their existing deadlines. The extension was sought on the account of uncertainties and delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and other issues like import restrictions, lack of local availability of components, liquidity crunch in the power sector, credit refusals due to high stress in the sector and regulatory delays. The power ministry had argued for a dilution of the sulphur dioxide norms, citing an incomplete study by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). “The power ministry’s move seems to have been influenced by the industry’s consistent efforts to dilute and delay the norms. The industry is obviously not bothered about the health risks posed by pollution from these coal-based power plants,” said Narain.

CSE’s warning on emission leeway for thermal plants

New Delhi: Days after Uttarakhand glacier burst, which could be an indicator of climate change, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has written to the Union environment ministry, forest and climate change, cautioning them to not extend the deadline of meeting emission norms for coal-based thermal power plants in the country. While the deadline is 2022, the ministry was apparently mulling over a proposal to extend it to 2024. CSE stated coal-fired power plants were some of the most polluting industries in the country, accounting for over 60% of the total particulate matter emissions from all industries, as well as 45% of the SO2, 30% of oxides of nitrogen and over 80% of the mercury emissions. “Extending the deadline will have grave repercussions for the fight against air pollution. It will also mean a complete mockery of the Supreme Court and Indian regulators’ efforts to control pollution from the coal-based thermal power sector over the last five years,” said Sunita Narain, director general, CSE. In January 2021, the power ministry had sent a request to extend the deadlines allotted to 448 operational power generating units. The proposed extension is up to two years from their existing deadlines. The extension was sought on the account of uncertainties and delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other issues. A week before this, the power ministry had argued for a dilution of the sulphur dioxide norms as well. “The power ministry’s move seems to have been influenced by the industry’s consistent efforts to dilute and delay the norms. The industry is obviously not bothered about the health risks posed by these coal-based power plants,” Narain adds. Nivit Kumar Yadav, programme director, industrial pollution unit, CSE, says the power ministry’s request is in a way rewarding all those plants, which have not yet acted on the 2015 notification of switching to cleaner technology. “We request the ministry to consider our first run policy and incentivise plants that are meeting the norms,” said Yadav.

क्लाइमेट एक्टिविस्ट दिशा रवि की गिरफ्तारी पर उठे बड़े सवाल

बंगलुरु की एक 22 साल की लड़की दिशा ए रवि गिरफ्तार हुई है जिस पर राजद्रोह, दो समुदायों के बीच नफरत और साज़िश करने के आरोप हैं. भारत की छवि ख़राब करने के आरोप हैं. अच्छी बात है कि 98 से 100 रुपये लीटर पेट्रोल बिकने से देश परेशान नहीं है. दिल्ली में एक रात में गैस के सिलेंडर के दाम 50 रुपये बढ़ गए, दिल्ली परेशान नहीं है. जो देश इन बातों से परेशान नहीं है उस देश को इस बात से परेशान किया जा रहा है कि बंगलुरु की एक 22 साल की लड़की दिशा ए रवि गिरफ्तार हुई है जिस पर राजद्रोह, दो समुदायों के बीच नफरत और साज़िश करने के आरोप हैं. भारत की छवि ख़राब करने के आरोप हैं. भारत की छवि ख़राब करना एक नया आरोप है, इसे कानूनी रूप से कहां परिभाषित किया गया है यह बताना मेरे बस की बात नहीं है. लेकिन दिशा ए रवि की गिरफ्तारी के सिलसिले में कुछ शब्द चल पड़े हैं. हैं पुराने लेकिन इस बार पुलिस की निगाह से संदिग्ध हो गए हैं. टूल किट. डिजिटल स्टार्म. यानी ट्वीटर फेसबुक या व्हाट्सएप के ज़रिए किसी चीज़ को वायरल कर देना. आए दिन होता रहता है और आप इसके आदी हो चुके हैं. याद कीजिए पिछले साल 17 सितंबर को सरकारी भर्ती परीक्षाओं के सताए नौजवानों ने ऐसे बहुत सारे पोस्टर बनाए और ट्रेंड कराया जिसे आज आप टूल किट कह रहे हैं. इस अभियान को भी डिजिटल स्टार्म कहा जा सकता है. उस समय ऐसे पोस्टर खूब आते थे कि कितने बजे थाली बजानी है, किस किस मंत्री को टैग करना है और कौन सा हैशटैग ट्रेंड कराना है. इसे आराम से टूल किट कहा जा सकता है. बस तब ये पोस्टर बनाकर इनबाक्स में वायरल हो रहा था और इसे ट्वीटर पर भी शेयर किया जा रहा था. उस दिन प्रधानमंत्री का जन्मदिन था. उस मौके पर विरोध जता कर सरकारी भर्ती परीक्षाओं के सताए नौजवान अपना विरोध जताना चाहते थे और सरकार को झकझोरना चाहते थे. गनीमत है कि तब इस तरह की योजना को साज़िश नहीं माना गया लेकिन कहा नहीं जा सकता कि अब आगे ऐसा नहीं होगा. कोई कह सकता है कि बेरोज़गारों के ऐसे अभियान से लोकप्रिय प्रधानमंत्री और भारत की छवि ख़राब हो रही है. 17 सितंबर 2020 को बेरोज़गारों ने तीस लाख से अधिक ट्वीट किए थे और ट्विटर पर यह नंबर वन ट्रेंड करने लगा था. यही डिजिटल स्टार्म है. यानी डिजिटल दुनिया का तूफान. सरकार के विरोध में भी होता है और सरकार के समर्थन में भी होता है. इस दौरान जो रणनीति बनती है कि किसे टैग करना है किसे क्या लिखना है उसे टूल किट कह सकते हैं. 22 साल की दिशा ए रवि को इसी प्रकार के टूल किट बनाने के मामले में गिरफ्तार किया गया है. पहले मामला समझें. यह ध्यान रखें कि टूल किट शब्द का प्रयोग पहली बार पुलिस ने नहीं, ग्रेटा थनबर्ग ने किया. क्लाइमेट एक्टिविस्ट ग्रेटा थनबर्ग ने 3 फरवरी को अपने ट्विटर हैंडल से ट्वीट किया और एक टूल किट भी जारी किया. इस टूल किट में लिखा है कि कृषि कानूनों को हटाने के लिए सरकार पर दबाव बनाने के लिए देश के भीतर और देश के बाहर से क्या क्या करना है. इसमें कहीं भी हिंसक गतिविधि की बात नहीं है. बेशक लिखा है कि वीडियो बनाना है. अपलोड करना है. किसी खास समय पर हैशटैग Askindiawhy नाम से ट्विटर पर ट्रेंड कराना है. तस्वीरें साझा करनी है. ऐसा करने के लिए 23 जनवरी, 26 जनवरी और 13-14 फरवरी का दिन तय किया गया है. अगर मार्च में हिस्सा नहीं ले सकते तो डिजिटली हिस्सा लें. फोटो वीडियो को किसी खास ईमेल पर भेजने की बात कही गई है. साथ ही वही फोटो वीडियो प्रधानमंत्री के कार्यालय से लेकर अपने राज्य के प्रमुखों को टैग करने की भी बात है. भारतीय दूतावासों, सरकारी दफ्तरों, मीडिया के दफ्तरों और अंबानी अडानी के दफ्तर के बाहर दुनिया भर में प्रदर्शन करना है. तो आपने देखा कि जिस तरह 17 सितंबर 2020 के अभियान के लिए बेरोज़गार नौजवान टूल किट वायरल करा रहे थे कि कब थाली बजानी है और कब तक ट्वीट करना है, वही भाषा और उसी तरह की योजना ग्रेटा थनबर्ग के ट्वीट में बताई गई है जिसे टूल किट कहा जा रहा है. इंटरनेट पर क्रैंबिज डिक्शनरी में टूल किट की एक परिभाषा इस तरह से दी गई है. टूल किट का इस्तमाल सरकार भी अपनी कई योजनाओं के प्रचार प्रसार में करती है. ट्विटर पर जो लोग इस शब्द को आतंकवादी साज़िश का हिस्सा बनाने में लगे हैं उनकी मदद के लिए बता दूं कि 16 फरवरी 2020 को प्रधानमंत्री मोदी का एक बयान बीजेपी ने अपने ट्विटर हैंडल से ट्वीट किया था कि पिछले दो साल में 3500 से अधिक शिल्पकारों, बुनकरों को डिज़ाइन में सहायता दी गई. एक हज़ार कलाकारों को Tool Kit भी दिए गए हैं: पीएम मोदी #PMInKashi. प्रधानमंत्री ने टूल किट देने की बात की थी. केंद्र सरकार की स्मार्ट सिटी की वेबसाइट पर भी टूल किट है. स्मार्ट सिटी का टूल किट. उसमें भी इसी तरह की बातें हैं कि क्या क्या करना है. ऐसे ही आर्थिक मामलों के विभाग ने public private partnerships in india की वेबसाइट पर भी PPP मॉडल के बारे में एक टूल किट डाला है. भाषा में आ रहे बदलाव को समझना चाहिए. अब पहले भाषा में बदलाव किया जाता है फिर उसकी आड़ में सिस्टम काम करने लगता है. समाज में पहले भाषा की स्थापना की जाती है ताकि सिस्टम को कुछ भी करने की मान्यता मिल जाए. जैसे राष्ट्रपति के अभिभाषण पर धन्यवाद भाषण देते हुए प्रधानमंत्री ने अपने ही बजट के चमकदार पन्ने के एक शब्द FDI का मतलब foreign distructive ideology कर दिया. वही हाल टूल किट का है. अगर यह बुरा होता तो फिर सरकार के मंत्री इसका नाम ही नहीं लेते. अब जो आगे आप सुनने जा रहे हैं ज़रा ध्यान से सुनिए. इसी तरह की योजना के बारे में गृह मंत्री अमित शाह अपनी पार्टी के सोशल मीडिया के कार्यकर्ताओं को समझा रहे हैं. गुप्त रूप से नहीं बल्कि सबके सामने. यह भाषण यूटयूब पर भी है और 11 फरवरी का यानी उससे दिल्ली पुलिस टूल किट के मामले में ऐसी योजनाओं को लेकर केस दर्ज कर चुकी थी. गृह मंत्री जिस तरह से बता रहे हैं वह एक तरह का मौखिक टूल किट है. बता रहे हैं कि कैसे हंसाने वाली और डराने वाली चीज़ें वायरल करानी है. उन्हीं के शब्द हैं हंसाने वाली और डराने वाली. अब यह अलग सवाल है कि गृह मंत्री को अपने कार्यकर्ताओं को हंसाने वाली और डराने वाली चीज़ों की ट्रेनिंग देनी चाहिए या नहीं. यह इस पर निर्भर करेगा कि इस प्रश्न का सामना करने वालों की सोचने समझने की ट्रेनिग किस तरह से व्हाट्सएप यूनिवर्सिटी ने की है. टूल किट का इस्तमाल इस तरह से किया जा रहा है जैसे किसी ने सीट के नीचे लावारिस वस्तु रख दी हो. मगर यहां तो ग्रेटा के ट्विटर अकाउंट में यह टूल किट अभी तक रखी हुई है. ज़ाहिर है यह कोई लावारिस वस्तु नहीं है. फिलहाल ग्रेटा इसकी वारिस हैं और 49 लाख फॉलोअर इसे देख सकते हैं. आप भी देख सकते हैं. पढ़ सकते हैं. 3 फरवरी ने जो ट्वीट किया था उसे डिलिट कर दिया और यह भी लिखा कि उसे इसलिए डिलिट किया क्योंकि वह पुराना हो चुका था. यानी ग्रेटा ने छिपा कर डिलिट नहीं किया. कारण बता कर डिलिट किया. नए टूल किट में 13-14 फरवरी की योजना शामिल थी. पुलिस के अनुसार दिशा ने ग्रेटा को व्हाट्सएप चैट में लिखा है कि इसके ट्वीट करने से हमारे खिलाफ UAPA लग सकता है. यह भी एक सवाल है कि क्या सरकार ने ट्विटर से ग्रेटा थनबर्ग के खाते पर मौजूद इस टूल किट को हटाने का कोई आग्रह किया है और ट्विटर का क्या जवाब है. क्या पुलिस ग्रेटा से पूछने स्वीडन जाएगी? अगर जाए तो कम से कम पता कर ले कि ग्रेटा कहीं अटलांटिक की यात्रा पर तो नहीं निकल गई है. क्या पुलिस जानबूझ कर इस वक्त ग्रेटा से दूरी बना रही है या जांच के बाद तय करेगी कि ग्रेटा का पीछा किया जाएगा या नहीं. दिल्ली पुलिस का कहना है कि इस टूल किट को बनाने वाले एक व्हाट्सएप गुप से जुड़े थे और दिशा ने टूल किट ग्रेटा को टेलीग्राम से भेजा था. तो क्या पुलिस ग्रेटा को इस साज़िश का हिस्सा मानती है? इसका ठोस उत्तर नहीं मिला. दिशा ए रवि की गिरफ्तारी के मामले में दिल्ली पुलिस के साइबर सेल के ज्वाइंट कमिश्नर प्रेमनाथ ने प्रेस कांफ्रेंस की. बताया कि 4 फरवरी को जिस टूलकिट की जानकारी मिली उसे खालिस्तानी संगठन की मदद से बनाया गया था. 11 फरवरी को निकिता के यहां सर्च हुआ जिसमें काफी सारे संवेदनशील सबूत मिले हैं. ट्विटर पर हैशटैग अभियान का हिंसा से क्या संबंध है इस बारे में पुलिस को कुछ चीज़ें और साफ़ करना बाक़ी है. इसी संदर्भ में मेरे कुछ सवाल हैं. पहला ये कि जिस टूल किट की बात की जा रही है उसके लिखित स्वरूप में कहीं भी हिंसा फैलाने की बात नहीं है. जैसा कि हमने आपको अभी बताया. दूसरा ये कि क्या किसान आंदोलन में हिंसा की योजना बाहर के लोग कर रहे थे जिसकी जानकारी किसानों को नहीं थी? हिंसा होने से अगर किसी का नुक़सान होता तो वो किसान आंदोलन ही था इसीलिए किसान संगठन शुरू से शांतिपूर्ण आंदोलन की बात कर रहे थे. तो क्या दिल्ली पुलिस ये बात मानती है किसान संगठनों का दिल्ली की हिंसा में कोई हाथ नहीं था. और क्या इस हिंसा का मक़सद किसान आंदोलन को बदनाम करना था? जैसा प्लान था वैसा किया गया. प्लान exactly क्या था ये अभी साफ़ होना बाक़ी है. दिल्ली पुलिस ने दिशा और शांतनु पर भी बयान दिया है. अभी तक पुलिस इनकी बैठक में मो धालीवाल के होने का हवाला दे रही है जो पोएटिक जस्टिस नाम की संस्था से जुड़ा है. धालीवाल को खालिस्तान से जोड़ रही है. इस नौजवान ने 26 जनवरी की हिंसा के बाद एक बयान जारी किया है. कनाडा में भी अन्याय होता है तो हम बोलते हैं. दुनिया में कहीं अन्याय होता है तो बोलेंगे. इसमें तो यही लिखा है कि नफरत के खिलाफ है. हम प्यार के लिए काम करते हैं. हम किसानं के साथ हैं. हम लोकतंत्र में नियमों में यकीन करते हैं. क्यों भारत में किसानों की हत्या हो रही है, क्या भारत अल्पसंख्यकों की हत्या कर रहा है, क्यों भारत अपने लोकतंत्र की हत्या कर रहा है. इसमें यह भी लिखा है कि पोएटिक जस्टिस फाउंडेशन ने रिहाना, ग्रेटा थनबर्ग या किसी सेलिब्रेटी के साथ तालमेल नहीं किया है. किसी को टवीट करने के लिए पैसे नहीं दिए हैं. हमने जरूर ये अपील की है कि दुनिया इसे साझा करे. इंडियन एक्सप्रेस ने पोएटिक जस्टिस फाउंडेशन के बारे में लिखा है कि यह संस्था मार्च 2020 में बनी थी. मकसद दक्षिण एशियाई समुदाय के बीच मानवाधिकार और सामाजिक न्याय को लेकर जागरुकता लाना है. इंडियन एक्सप्रेस से धालीवाल ने कहा है कि हमारा कोई खालिस्तान समर्थक एजेंडा नहीं है. हम असली लोकतंत्र में संविधान द्वारा दिए गए संवाद और मुक्त अभिव्यक्ति को बढ़ावा देते हैं. 26 जनवरी की घटना के जवाब में इस संस्था ने एक बयान में यह भी कहा है कि हम किसानों के आंदोलन में सक्रिय रूप से शामिल हैं. भारत में प्रेस की आज़ादी नहीं है क्योंकि प्रेस की स्वतंत्रता के मामले में भारत का स्थान 142वां हैं. इंडियन एक्सप्रेस की अंजु अग्निहोत्री चाबा ने धालीवाल से बात की है. अंजू की रिपोर्ट में लिखा है कि पुलिस के पास 17 सितंबर 2019 का धालीवाल का एक मैसेज है जो सोशल मीडिया पर है जिसमें धालीवाल कहता है कि मैं खालीस्तानी हूं. आप मेरे बारे में नहीं जानते होंगे. क्यों? क्योंकि खालिस्तान एक विचार है. खालिस्तान का आंदोलन ज़िंदा है, सांसे ले रहा है. इस पर अंजु ने सवाल किया तो धालीवाल का जवाब है कि सिखों के प्रति हमदर्दी जताने के लिए कहा था क्योंकि समय समय पर कनाडा में सिखों को आतंकवादी कह कर किनारे किया जाता है. उसका कहना है कि फेसबुक पर उसके पूरे पोस्ट को पढ़ा जाए. अगर कनाडा में किसी को आतंकवादी कहे और कोई उसके साथ में खड़ा हो जाए तो क्या वह खालिस्तानी कहा जाएगा. ये आपको समझना है. ट्विटर पर अगर ग्लोबल ट्रेंड कराना छवि खराब करना और साज़िश का हिस्सा है तब तो फिर पूरा ट्विटर ही किसी साज़िश का हिस्सा है. बात यह है कि जहां आप पहले दबदबा बनाते हैं और वहां पोल खुल जाती है तब फिर वह माध्यम दुश्मन लगने लगता है. फिर आप नए माध्यम की तलाश करने लगते हैं. खैर ये अलग विषय है. पंजाब में यह एक सच्चाई है कि कुछ लोग खालिस्तान की बात करते हैं लेकिन उसका विरोध भी पंजाब के लोग दिन रात करते हैं. खालिस्तान को किसानों से जोड़ने की जल्दी में इस बात का ध्यान ज़रूर रखिए कि यह हाशिये की सच्चाई है. पंजाब के ही कई किसान संगठन इस धारा के खिलाफ हैं और लड़ते हैं. हमने आपको बताया था कि किसान आंदोलन में हरिंदर बिन्दु आई हैं. वे भारतीय किसान यूनियन उग्राहां की सदस्य हैं. हरिंदर बिन्दु के पिता को खालिस्तानी आतंकवादी ने हत्या कर दी थी. इस किसान मोर्चे में ऐसे कई लोग आए हैं जिनके किसी प्रिय को खालिस्तानियों ने हत्या कर दी थी. वे आतंकवाद का विरोध करते हैं. विरोध करने वाले किसान हैं और इस तरह के पोस्टर किसान मोर्चे में दिखे थे कि हम आतंकवादी नहीं हैं. लेकिन जो ट्विटर पर हैशटैग चलाने, फोटो वीडियो अपलोड करने की योजना है उसमें कहीं से भी ऐसा कुछ नहीं है जो लगे कि आतंकवादी योजना है. पुलिस इस हिस्से को कैसे साबित करेगी देखना होगा. लेकिन ग्रेटा ने जो ट्वीट किया है उसमें वही सारी बातें हैं जो आए दिन ट्विटर पर हैशटैग चलाने वाले करते रहते हैं. पुलिस की दलील है कि 26 जनवरी के बाद अंतर्राष्ट्रीय सेलिब्रिटी और एक्टिविस्ट से संपर्क किया गया. क्या पुलिस का मतलब अमरीकी पॉप स्टार रिहाना के ट्वीट से है, दो फरवरी को रिहाना ने सीएनन की खबर ट्वीट की थी, क्या सीएनन ने खबर साज़िश के तहत छापी? कमाल है न. क्या उस सैलिब्रेटी में अमरीका की उप राष्ट्रपति कमला हैरिस की भांजी मीना हैरिस का ट्वीट भी शामिल होगा? अगर आप घटनाओं को देखें तो अमरीका कनाडा और ब्रिटेन की संसद में किसान आंदोलन की कब से चर्चा हो रही है. हाल ही में ब्रिटेन की संसद में ये मुद्दा उठा था. क्या ब्रिटेन के सांसद किसी साज़िश का हिस्सा हैं? किसान आंदोलन को लेकर कई देश से बयान आए हैं. हम क्या कर रहे हैं? हैशटैग चलाने की योजना को आतंकी साज़िश और भारत के खिलाफ साज़िश से जोड़ रहे हैं. पुलिस की धाराओं में जितनी बातें हैं उससे अधिक और आगे जाकर बातें सोशल मीडिया में कही जा रही हैं. क्या इसलिए कि लड़कियों को डराया जा सके? 22 साल की एक लड़की आज सबके सामने साज़िश रचने वाली गिरोह के मुखिया के तौर पर पेश कर दी गई है. फ्राइडे फॉर फ्यूचर. FFF से जुड़ी है. यह वो प्रयास है जिसे ग्रेटा थनबर्ग ने शुरू किया था. स्कूलों में पढ़ने वाले बच्चे हर शुक्रवार जलवायु प्रदर्शन को लेकर प्रदर्शन करते हैं. दिशा ए रवि भारत में इस प्रयास की संस्थापकों में से एक है. 2019 में जब वे माउंट कार्मेल कालेज बंगलुरु में पढ़ती थी तब फ्राइडे फॉर फ्यूचर की स्थापनी की थी. कृषि परिवार से आने वाली दिशा का जलवायु और पर्यावरण के सवालों को लेकर चिन्तित होना स्वाभाविक था. जब केंद्र सरकार ने पर्यावरण के असर के मूल्याकंन के लिए नया कानून बनाने का मसौदा तैयार किया तब इसे लेकर दिशा जागरुकता फैलाने में व्यस्त हो गई. हिन्दू अखबार में लिखा है कि इस कैंपेन को लेकर भी दिल्ली पुलिस को दिक्कत हो गई. इन्होंने पर्यावरण क़ानूनों में संशोधन को लेकर इन्होंने प्रदर्शन किया था जिसके बाद UAPA और इंफोर्मेशन टेक्नालजी एक्ट के तहत नोटिस जारी कर दिया. बाद में वापस ले लिया गया. इस संस्था के लिए काम करते हुए दिशा की अंतर्राष्ट्रीय पहचान बन गई. ब्रिटेन के मशहूर अखबार द गार्डियन में उसके बारे में लेख छपा. दिशा ए रवि मांसाहारी से शाकाहारी हो गई क्योंकि उसे लगा कि जानवरों के प्रति क्रूरता नहीं होनी चाहिए. इसके बाद शहर में एक स्टार्ट अप के साथ काम करने लगी जो शाकाहारी दुग्ध उत्पादन के क्षेत्र में काम करता है. बंगलुरु में जहां भी पेड़ कटते हैं उसे रोकने में दिशा ए रवि की सक्रिय भूमिका रहती है. शाकाहारी होने के बाद भी आज की राजनीति में दिशा को शत्रु की तरह देखा जा रहा है. do you get my point. 22 साल की दिशा रवि के किसी ख़्याल से या गतिविधि से देश इतना डर गया है कि हरियाणा के गृहमंत्री अनिल विज को ट्वीट करना पड़ा कि देश विरोध का बीज जिसके भी दिमाग़ में हो, उसका समूल नाश कर देना चाहिए फिर चाहे वह दिशा रवि हो या कोई और. हरियाणा के गृहमंत्री का यह बयान काफी सीरीयस हैं. वे समूल नाश का इस्तमाल करते हैं. संविधान में किसी भी गंभीर अपराध की सज़ा के तौर पर समूल नाश का प्रावधान नहीं है और न ही इस तरह के शब्द इस्तमाल होते हैं. अनिल विज को कम से कम से भारत के गृह मंत्री से सीखना चाहिए. वे कितने प्यार से और चटखारे लेते हैं हंसाने वाली और डराने वाली ट्रेनिंग दे रहे हैं. लेकिन समूल नाश के लिए नहीं. सिर्फ एकाध चुनाव जीतने के लिए. आप फिर से सुनें कि किस अंदाज़ में 11 फरवरी को गृह मंत्री अपने कार्यकर्ताओं को बता रहे हैं कि चुनाव के समय सोशल मीडिया का इस्तमाल कैसे होता है. दिल्ली पुलिस कम से कम इस बयान को सीरीयसली न ले. दोबारा इसलिए सुनाया क्योंकि ये वाकई सीरीयस है. हंसाने की बात तो ठीक है लेकिन डराने वाली चीज़ों से किसी की प्रतिष्ठा मिट्टी में मिल जाती है. ऐसे अभियानों के बाद केस मुकदमे भी हो जाते हैं. AIPWA की सदस्य कविता कृष्णन का कहना है कि FIR भी वापस ली जाए. 78 पर्यावरणविदों ने बयान जारी किया है कि 22 साल की दिशा रवि को तुरंत रिहा किया जाए. दिशा रवि कोई टेररिस्ट नहीं है, वह एक पढ़ी-लिखी Environmentalist है. अगर किसी नागरिक ने गलत किया है तो उसके खिलाफ कानूनी कार्रवाई हो लेकिन गैर कानूनी तरीके से एक युवा लड़की को जेल भेजना गलत है. सरकार डराने की कोशिश कर रही है युवाओं को. इसके जरिए यूनिवर्सिटीज को यह मैसेज दिया जा रहा है स्टूडेंट सरकार के खिलाफ कुछ नहीं बोल सकते.. यह गलत तरीका है. गिरफ्तार दिशा रवि को कोर्ट में अपने आप को डिफेंड करने के लिए कानूनन वकील रखने का अधिकार मिलना चाहिए. कानून के विशेषज्ञों और वकीलों की मदद से सुप्रीम कोर्ट जाना हमारे सामने एक विकल्प है. इस गिरफ्तारी ने फिर से किसानों के आंदोलन का अंतर्राष्ट्रीयकरण कर दिया है. जब किसान अपने स्तर पर करते हैं तो सरकार को बुरा लगता है और जब सरकार के कदम से मामला ग्लोबल हो जाता है तो किसे बुरा लगना चाहिए मैं इसमें पड़ना ही नहीं चाहता. लोकल लेवल पर कांग्रेस महासचिव प्रियंका गांधी ने दिशा रवि के पक्ष में ट्वीट किया है कि डरते हैं बंदूकों वाले एक निहत्थी लड़की से. फैले हैं हिम्मत के उजाले एक निहत्थी लड़की से. #ReleaseDishaRavi, #DishaRavi, #IndiaBeingSilenced प्रियंका के साथ साथ कांग्रेस नेता जयराम रमेश, पी चिदंबरम, आनंद शर्मा, शिवसेना की राज्य सभा सासंद प्रियंका चतुर्वेदी, दिल्ली के मुख्यमंत्री अरविंद केजरीवाल, सीपीएम नेता सीताराम येचुरी, अभिनेता सिद्धार्थ, अमरीकी की उपराष्ट्रपति की भांजी मीना हैरिस, कनाडा की कवयित्री, रुपी कौर, सुनीता नारायण, बिल मक्किबेन से लेकर तमाम लोगों ने दिशा रवि की रिहाई की मांग की है. संयुक्त किसान मोर्चा ने भी कहा है कि किसानों के समर्थन में आने वाली दिशा ए रवि के साथ खड़े हैं. तुरंत रिहाई की मांग करते हैं. वही हाल नौदीप का है. मज़दूरों के अधिकारों के लिए लड़ने वाली 24 साल की एक लड़की नौदीप कौर जेल में है. क्या यह भी गलत काम है कि कोई लड़की मज़दूरों के अधिकारों के लिए लड़े? इससे तो भारत की छवि और शानदार होती है कि भारत में दिशा और नौदीप जैसी लड़कियां हैं. क्या आप दिशा और नौदीप से घबरा रहे हैं तो खुल कर कहिए. डरिए नहीं. राजद्रोह का सहारा मत लीजिए.

How to design an energy transition that includes everyone— including the most vulnerable

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed an “interdependent” world with “huge issues of inequity,” said Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). Without addressing these realities, “we cannot deal with the virus, and it’s the same with climate change.” Narain issued the warning at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum during a panel moderated by Robert Hayward, chief operating officer at Chem-Energy and a Veterans Advanced Energy fellow with the Council’s Global Energy Center. Narain was joined by Bonnie Norman, president of E3 International and Jacqueline Patterson, senior director of the Environmental and Climate Justice Program at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), to talk about ensuring justice in the energy transition. “Health, clean energy, equity, and economic recovery all go together. To create the better future we’re all striving for, to ignore one is to weaken the others. So we must move forward… intentionally including everyone, especially the most vulnerable,” said Norman. Patterson added that in her work, ensuring justice in energy isn’t only about efficacy; it’s also a matter of establishing “a world that transitions us away from an extractive economy to one that actually uplifts the civil and human rights of all, in harmony with earth rights.” Below are highlights from a discussion that touched on everything from the interplay between energy and marginalized groups to how exactly the government and private sector can design a just energy transition and sector. Energy impacts everyone—but some more than others The root of the problem: The energy transition means shifting from fossil fuels to more sustainable sources of energy. But “sustainability is not possible unless we can have affordable and inclusive growth for all,” Narain said. Her organization CSE, based in New Delhi, advocates for development that is sustainable and equitable. As an example, she noted that large numbers of people today “use very dirty biomass fuel” for cooking because “the poor are too poor to buy monetized fuel.” This reliance on dirty fuels leads to health problems, Narain added. “The [lack of] access to clean energy is about as dehumanizing as anything can be and it is unacceptable.” Women face “wicked” impacts: Of all marginalized and vulnerable groups, Narain said “the face of the poor woman is what you need to consider when it comes to” everything from “climate justice, to the issues of development rights, to the issue of poverty, [and] to the issue of food.” Women use biomass fuels to cook because it is expensive to purchase liquid petroleum gas cylinders, she explained. “This impacts the lives of women; it is a wicked, wicked problem because women’s health is always seen as the last priority.” But women also offer hope: “If we can keep the face of that last woman in mind, we will get our policies right,” Narain said, noting how developing miniature electricity grids in villages could help support women with cleaner energy. “When women get extra money, it goes into the health and well-being of their families,” Norman said, but “so very often, they don’t have the capacity-building and training,” which E3 International focuses on in an effort to develop sustainable energy strategies that promote energy security. The top indicator of vulnerability: “There are so many ways that we see a disproportionate impact of climate change and energy and justice on women,” Patterson noted. Smokestacks, for example, release emissions with endocrine disruptors that have an effect on birth outcomes, while extreme heat has been tied to high maternal mortality rates in African American communities. Race, she added, is the number-one indicator of likelihood to be exposed to disproportionate impacts from polluted air and water associated with fossil fuelbased energy use. “An African American family making $50,000 dollars a year is more likely to live next to a toxic facility than a white American only making $10,000 a year,” she said, and “an African American child is three to five times more likely to enter the hospital from an asthma attack than a white American child.” Such outcomes “are directly tied to the environment of these communities,” she added. Hand over the steering wheel: These marginalized groups are “also the most likely to be impacted by this transition to a new energy economy,” Patterson continued. So “we have to… not only just [consider] folks who are most vulnerable, but [put] folks who are traditionally marginalized in the front lines of decisionmaking and leadership and really [stand] behind their leadership.” Through the Black Labor Initiative on Just Transition project, led by the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program, “we’re making sure that they’re in the driver’s seat in terms of determining what kind of policies we need to put in place in the context of this transition.” Watch the full event How policy can jumpstart a just energy transition Community first: To ensure justice in the energy transition, Patterson argued that elected officials should “start with the visions of the communities in terms of what they want to see and then… implement the community’s vision” of a just energy transition. A market-based approach: Norman, also a board member of the Montgomery County Green Bank, which provides residents and businesses competitive loan rates and credit access for clean-energy projects, highlighted the role of green banks. “Green banks are policy tools” that use money from public-purpose bonds to attract private investment in clean energy, she explained. A green bank’s “mission is to make financing affordable and accessible to those who need it most.” Solutions, too, must be just: For Narain, the biggest challenge is figuring out how to put “money back into the hands of the communities.” As land-based solutions—like carbon sequestration through trees—become more prevalent, Narain noted, the land and rights of the poor become more endangered. Just policies can help ensure “their lands are not used as another way to clean up the dirt of the rich, but that the poor communities actually benefit, and they have rights, and they get the real value for their land and their labor.” | February 8, 2021

Vaccine leadership, not chauvinism

The WHO's initiative to provide equitable access to vaccines - COVAX - is devoid of the funds needed to procure and supply the shots to poorer countries. Sunita Narain Exactly one year later, the world is moving towards the next decisive phase in the fight against Covid-19. Vaccines are now available and people are being inoculated — many rich countries have set targets for full immunisation by mid-year. With this done, they say, it can be back to business. But for this to happen, we need a hard introspection by our scientific and political leadership during this critical phase of recovery. Today, on the one hand, the virus is mutating and becoming more unpredictable and there is still too much that we do not know. For instance, it is not clear if antibodies, which provide protection against the virus, will last beyond a few months. If this is the case, then herd immunity — serological surveys in Delhi, for instance, are showing that over 50 per cent of the population could have antibodies — may not be the magic bullet. On the other hand, the mutating virus is learning faster to find weak spots in our immune system to spread faster as well. The UK, South Africa and Brazil variants of the virus are found to be more infectious because antibodies cannot detect them. So, it is a war — the virus or us. Amidst all these, the global community — our leadership — is not learning from the mistakes of the past year. First, it is important that we understand the principle of inter-dependence. This means that we need to ensure that vaccines are available, affordable, and accessible, to all in the world. Inequity in the distribution of vaccines means that the virus will remain with us; and, it means it will mutate and will find its way into our bodies — perhaps in a variant that we are not protected against. It is also clear economic costs will be devastating in a situation where large proportions of the global population remain vulnerable. But as yet, it is a dog-eat-dog world and it is every country for its own. In mid-January this year, when the World Health Organization (WHO) gathered some 2,800 scientists across the world virtually, they pointed out just how vast and glaring this vaccine divide was. As of now, some 30 million vaccine doses have been administered globally, mostly in advanced economies. The WHO’s initiative to provide equitable access to vaccines — COVAX — is devoid of the funds needed to procure and supply the shots to poorer countries. It is not just lack of money that is at the core of the problem. It is also the complete lack of scientific cooperation. This is the second lesson that the world needs to learn. In this “war”, both the speed and scale of the intervention are pre-requisites. There is no doubt that scientific ingenuity, innovation, and enterprise have been extraordinary in the past year. There are already three-four vaccines that have been deployed and many more are in the works. Success will now depend on how fast these can be put to work; and for this, we need to know that the vaccine is both efficacious and, more importantly, safe. Currently, all drug regulators in the world are examining the vaccines as they become available. Pharma companies are conducting the trials, but it would take months, if not years, for new vaccines, to go through the existing process. But with the world running out of time, there is a need to speed up. How can this be done without compromising on safety? This is where we need new learning and global cooperation. We need drug regulators of the world to come together to scrutinise the data of the trials — not take decisions one after another. For instance, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been cleared for use in the UK and India, but it is still awaiting the green signal from the EU, the US, and the WHO’s internal process. In the waiting are some 50-odd candidates. Why then can’t national scientific resources be pooled at global level? This is also important because there is a need to re-think the drug clearance process. Clinical drug trials are rigorous and rightly so. But the fact is that many more Covid-19 vaccine candidates will be closer to deployment. How quickly will the vaccines get clearance? For instance, phase 3 clinical trials require extensive protocols for giving people the real drug and the placebo. Will this be possible when people are putting their arms forward desperately for the real thing? All this is only possible if there is global cooperation and if there is credibility in the institutions of decision-making. Governments will have to ensure that there is full disclosure by the pharma companies of clinical trial data. This must be transparent and available to the public. At present, we have none of this. When the Indian government announced emergency use of a vaccine that had not yet cleared phase 3 clinical trials, it may not have been wrong. But what it completely messed up was its communication. It seemed that the vaccine was untested; that it had been released to us; and, that this was being done to prove our domestic scientific might. What is clear is that winning this “war” will need more information, strong institutions with credibility and more democracy, not less. What will make us lose forever is vaccine chauvinism. The writer is at the Centre for Science and Environment | sunita@cseindia.org | Twitter: @sunitanar

Air quality deteriorates in state during winter; Kollam, Kannur districts severely polluted

The study was done using the air quality monitoring stations that are set up in different cities. Kochi: A study report has pointed out decrease in the amount of pure air that the state received during lockdown times. The study also suggested that Kollam and Kannur districts are moving towards severe air pollution. The study was conducted by Centre for Science and Environment with the help of Pollution Control Department and Indian Meteorological Department. The study that was conducted until January 26 showed that pollution levels are increasing during winter season. The study focused on the pollution level in cities of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Lighting of crackers in connection with Deepawali festival is the main reason for the dip in air quality level in Kannur and Kozhikode. The air quality in places like Kozhikode, Kochi, Kannur, Thiruvananthapuram came down in the week after Christmas. Compared to other regions, Thiruvananthapuram is not severely affected by air pollution in the winter season. The study revealed that Kochi’s air quality level deteriorated by 5 times in December as compared to April- May months. The study was done using the air quality monitoring stations that are set up in different cities.

How to design an energy transition that includes everyone—including the most vulnerable

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed an “interdependent” world with “huge issues of inequity,” said Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). Without addressing these realities, “we cannot deal with the virus, and it’s the same with climate change.” Narain issued the warning at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum during a panel moderated by Robert Hayward, chief operating officer at Chem-Energy and a Veterans Advanced Energy fellow with the Council’s Global Energy Center. Narain was joined by Bonnie Norman, president of E3 International and Jacqueline Patterson, senior director of the Environmental and Climate Justice Program at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), to talk about ensuring justice in the energy transition. “Health, clean energy, equity, and economic recovery all go together. To create the better future we’re all striving for, to ignore one is to weaken the others. So we must move forward… intentionally including everyone, especially the most vulnerable,” said Norman. Patterson added that in her work, ensuring justice in energy isn’t only about efficacy; it’s also a matter of establishing “a world that transitions us away from an extractive economy to one that actually uplifts the civil and human rights of all, in harmony with earth rights.” Below are highlights from a discussion that touched on everything from the interplay between energy and marginalized groups to how exactly the government and private sector can design a just energy transition and sector. Energy impacts everyone—but some more than others The root of the problem: The energy transition means shifting from fossil fuels to more sustainable sources of energy. But “sustainability is not possible unless we can have affordable and inclusive growth for all,” Narain said. Her organization CSE, based in New Delhi, advocates for development that is sustainable and equitable. As an example, she noted that large numbers of people today “use very dirty biomass fuel” for cooking because “the poor are too poor to buy monetized fuel.” This reliance on dirty fuels leads to health problems, Narain added. “The [lack of] access to clean energy is about as dehumanizing as anything can be and it is unacceptable.” Women face “wicked” impacts: Of all marginalized and vulnerable groups, Narain said “the face of the poor woman is what you need to consider when it comes to” everything from “climate justice, to the issues of development rights, to the issue of poverty, [and] to the issue of food.” Women use biomass fuels to cook because it is expensive to purchase liquid petroleum gas cylinders, she explained. “This impacts the lives of women; it is a wicked, wicked problem because women’s health is always seen as the last priority.” But women also offer hope: “If we can keep the face of that last woman in mind, we will get our policies right,” Narain said, noting how developing miniature electricity grids in villages could help support women with cleaner energy. “When women get extra money, it goes into the health and well-being of their families,” Norman said, but “so very often, they don’t have the capacity-building and training,” which E3 International focuses on in an effort to develop sustainable energy strategies that promote energy security. The top indicator of vulnerability: “There are so many ways that we see a disproportionate impact of climate change and energy and justice on women,” Patterson noted. Smokestacks, for example, release emissions with endocrine disruptors that have an effect on birth outcomes, while extreme heat has been tied to high maternal mortality rates in African American communities. Race, she added, is the number-one indicator of likelihood to be exposed to disproportionate impacts from polluted air and water associated with fossil fuel-based energy use. “An African American family making $50,000 dollars a year is more likely to live next to a toxic facility than a white American only making $10,000 a year,” she said, and “an African American child is three to five times more likely to enter the hospital from an asthma attack than a white American child.” Such outcomes “are directly tied to the environment of these communities,” she added. Hand over the steering wheel: These marginalized groups are “also the most likely to be impacted by this transition to a new energy economy,” Patterson continued. So “we have to… not only just [consider] folks who are most vulnerable, but [put] folks who are traditionally marginalized in the front lines of decision-making and leadership and really [stand] behind their leadership.” Through the Black Labor Initiative on Just Transition project, led by the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program, “we’re making sure that they’re in the driver’s seat in terms of determining what kind of policies we need to put in place in the context of this transition.” Watch the full event How policy can jumpstart a just energy transition Community first: To ensure justice in the energy transition, Patterson argued that elected officials should “start with the visions of the communities in terms of what they want to see and then… implement the community’s vision” of a just energy transition. A market-based approach: Norman, also a board member of the Montgomery County Green Bank, which provides residents and businesses competitive loan rates and credit access for clean-energy projects, highlighted the role of green banks. “Green banks are policy tools” that use money from public-purpose bonds to attract private investment in clean energy, she explained. A green bank’s “mission is to make financing affordable and accessible to those who need it most.” Solutions, too, must be just: For Narain, the biggest challenge is figuring out how to put “money back into the hands of the communities.” As land-based solutions—like carbon sequestration through trees—become more prevalent, Narain noted, the land and rights of the poor become more endangered. Just policies can help ensure “their lands are not used as another way to clean up the dirt of the rich, but that the poor communities actually benefit, and they have rights, and they get the real value for their land and their labor.”

CSE opposes proposal to extend emission norms deadline for thermal power plants

Will have grave repercussions in the fight against air pollution, says Director-General Sunita Narain The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has cautioned the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) against agreeing to the Power Ministry’s proposal for extending the deadline of meeting emission norms for coal-based thermal power plants in the country. The Ministry of Power has requested the MoEF&CC to extend the deadline for all thermal plants from 2022 to 2024. “Extending the deadline once again will have grave repercussions for the fight against air pollution. It will also mean a complete mockery of the Supreme Court and Indian regulators’ efforts to control pollution from the coal-based thermal power sector over the last five years,” said Sunita Narain, Director-General, CSE. The extension was sought on the account of uncertainties and delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and other issues like import restrictions, lack of local availability of components, liquidity crunch in the power sector, credit refusals due to high stress in the sector, regulatory delays etc. “Most of the centrally-run power stations such as NTPC, NLC and DVC have shown progress in their efforts to meet the deadline,” says Soundaram Ramanathan, Deputy Programme Manager, industrial pollution unit, CSE. “The laggards largely consist of privately-run power stations such as Lanco, Sembcorp, etc. Instead of lobbying for these stations, the Power Ministry should support the MoEF&CC in implementing the norms.” The Power Ministry’s another recent proposal for a dilution of the sulphur dioxide norms cites an incomplete study by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), the CSE said in a statement. “The Power Ministry’s move seems to have been influenced by the industry’s consistent efforts to dilute and delay the norms. The industry is obviously not bothered about the health risks posed by pollution from these coal-based power plants,” Narain said. “The Power Ministry’s request is nothing but rewarding those plants that have not taken adequate action on the 2015 notification till now. We request the MoEF&CC to incentivise plants that are meeting the norms and penalise units that are defaulting,” said Nivit Kumar Yadav, Programme Director, industrial pollution unit, CSE.

Experts point to growing impact of climate change on Himalayan river systems

Indian authorities are searching for more than 150 people missing in a flood that was believed to have been caused by a breach in a Himalayan glacier as experts pointed to the impact of climate change in the region. Water, sludge and debris careened down the Rishiganga river in the state of Uttarakhand on Sunday, crashing through at least two hydropower plants and sweeping away workers and locals in its path. Officials have confirmed more than 10 deaths and at least 150 people remain unaccounted for, with dozens of workers thought to be trapped in tunnels in the plants. Disaster response personnel and security forces were searching for the missing on Monday while teams of scientists travelled to the region to determine the cause of the surge. While the trigger for the flooding was unclear, experts believe it could have been the result of a glacial lake bursting its banks. Some raised the possibility that it was a mudflow, possibly sparked by an avalanche. They pointed to the region’s increasingly fragile ecosystem, as climate change has melted glaciers high in the Himalayan mountains that feed the Ganges river system. This puts downstream communities at risk and disrupts the water supplies on which hundreds of millions living in India’s northern plains depend. “It’s well established that there’s a huge impact of climate change on glaciers and it’s on the verge of reaching the tipping point,” said Samrat Sengupta, climate change programme director at the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi. “Almost the whole economy of north India depends on this perennial river system.” Sengupta said not enough was known about the effects of rising temperatures on Himalayan glaciers. “India should be more worried. All our infrastructural investment, either agriculture or power, is based on this perennial river system water supply,” he said. “We should be more invested in research to understand what damage has happened.” Others pointed to the risk that excess construction in the region was destabilising the ecosystem. Kundan Singh, whose nephew from a nearby village was missing, told the Times of India newspaper: “What happened today was nature’s way of telling us things are horribly wrong.” Thousands of people died in Uttarakhand in 2013 by severe flooding sparked by intense rain in one of India’s worst natural disasters in recent years. Authorities said there was limited risk of further flooding after Sunday’s surge. “Rescue operations are ongoing in full swing and we are hoping to save more lives,” Trivendra Singh Rawat, chief minister of Uttarakhand, wrote on Twitter. Maharaj Pandit, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Delhi, said: “We’ve shown that the Himalayas is one of the more rapidly warming mountain regions in the world.” “Given ongoing climate change, a large number of precariously perched glaciers, glacial lakes and other water bodies are absolutely ready to burst even when a little water gets deposited in there,” he added.

Man vs Nature: SC panel says need to value natural capital along with economic progress

The committee pointed out that felling of 356 trees for construction of 5 RoBs on NH 35 in West Bengal, in a larger perspective is a complex issue, which entails environmental management and its relationship with human development. The expert committee comprises Soham Pandya, Nishikant Mukarji, Sunita Narain, Bikas Kumar Maji and Niranjita Mitra. The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) moved the top court against tree felling for the project. The committee emphasised that indiscriminate tree felling cannot be justified as development, instead suggested measures to create both economic and environmental wealth. According to a Ministry of Environment and Forests circular if a road length is less than 100 Km, there is no need to get EIA from any government agency. "Such argument, in present case, is an attempt to circumvent the law of the land. We feel deriving such conclusion is erroneous and needs rethinking on the part of implementing agency (West Bengal)," said the committee. The committee said the current compensatory afforestation policy is not sufficient to protect the environment. "To compensate for the trees that are cut, the present policy norm is that 5 trees are planted to compensate for the cut tree. This policy actually begs the issue. There is obviously no equivalence between a 100-year-old tree and fresh sapling," said the committee in a report. The committee recommended that given this enormous imbalance, the effort should be to achieve as fast as possible, the original lead area index (LAI), which has been lost with the cut tree. A majority in the committee concluded that 10 saplings should be planted to compensate for a tree with a small crown size; 25 saplings for a tree of medium crown size and 50 saplings for a tree with a large crown size. "There is enough land available for this measure to be successful and land is not a constraint," said the report. The committee pointed out that the compensatory planting often fails in the absence of an accountable mechanism to protect and nurture the newly planted saplings. It recommended organisational structure within the project organisation to be made accountable. The experts reckoned that the tree should be nurtured for at least 10 years against the existing 2 years and compensatory planting should begin parallel with the project. This project is a part of a mega project outlined by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in which 208 RoBs are to be constructed in 19 different states of the country with Rs 20,800 crore. Out of these 22 RoBs were identified in West Bengal. The case is related to 5 RoBs where 356 trees are to be cut to implement the project and no environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been done in this project, which covers 59 Km (Barasat to Bongaon) The committee also calculated that total cost of a tree per year, which is Rs 74,500. This means that 300 trees if allowed to live for a period of 100 or more years, will give products worth Rs 2.2 billion. On February 3, the Chief Justice asked advocate Prashant Bhushan, who was representing APDR, to draw a protocol where governments explore possibility of using either railway or waterways, instead of cutting trees. The top court will further hear the matter after two weeks.

Air pollution back to pre-pandemic levels in Karnataka

HUBBALLI: A study conducted by Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has found air pollution has returned to, or even exceeded, pre-pandemic levels during the winter season in the five southern states. Air quality improved dramatically during the nationwide lockdown, but pollution levels steadily rose during the second half of 2020 which coincided with restrictions being eased and economic activity resuming. It wiped out the gains made on the environment front during the lockdown. The study finds Karnataka has the highest total burden of health costs. Air pollution has spiked in Hubballi, Chikkaballapura, Vijayapura and many other cities after the onset of winter. Avikal Somvanshi, programme manager, CSE’s Urban Lab team of Sustainable Cities programme told TOI that, generally, winter isn’t harsh in the southern cities. “Yet pollution build-up has been noted,” Somvanshi said. “Although the average level of PM2.5 for the summer and monsoon months in 2020 was considerably lower than in previous years, PM2.5 levels this winter have risen beyond that of 2019 in most cities. The region cannot rely only on the natural advantage of warmer winters and sea breeze to avoid bad air.” The analysis is based on publicly available granular real-time data (15-minute averages) from the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) official portal. Somvanshi said the air quality trend does not include investigation of local sources of pollution. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, CSE, said the study dispels the myth about safer air in the south compared to other regions. “Health impacts are nearly equally bad. This demands quicker regional reforms to curb pollution from vehicles, industry, power plants and waste burning,” she said.

Delhi air worse this January than last year

NEW DELHI: The capital’s air was more polluted this January than in the same month last year, Central Pollution Control Board data shows. The average air quality index (AQI) for January this year was 324 as compared to 286 during the same period in 2020. Track the pollution level in your city This January, Delhi saw six “severe” air days as against two in 2020. However, the average AQI in January 2021 was marginally better than 2019 and 2018. Experts said the region saw only one western disturbance this January while the count was six last time. More western disturbances led to high wind speed, low temperature and more number of rainy days. Kuldeep Srivastava, scientist at India Meteorological Department and head of Regional Weather Forecasting Centre, said, “Under the influence of a western disturbance, the region receives rain, which helps in bringing down the pollutants. Delhi received rain from January 3 to 6 in 2021, but there were more rainy days in 2020.” The wind speed also picks up when a western disturbance passes a region, he added. Besides, the mean minimum temperature in January 2021 was 7 degrees Celsius, which was lower than the average recorded during the same month in 2020. With seven cold wave days this January, the low temperature trapped pollutants closer to the surface. Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director of research and advocacy at Centre for Science and Environment, said a combination of factors made January 2021 more polluted than 2020. Besides the meteorological factors, “the economy that was hit by Covid-19 pandemic also bounced back”, Roy Chowdhury pointed out. “The January smog happens without stubble burning. It is purely because of pollutants due to local emissions getting trapped. It shows that how much stronger our action needs to be. We need much higher level of ambition, scale and speed to implement the cleaner action plan,” she added. Though Delhi’s air was more polluted this January, it was better than 2019 and 2018. The average AQI recorded in both January 2019 and 2018 was 328 as against 324 this year. With seven “severe” air days in 2019, the number was higher than this January. However, only two “severe” air days were recorded in 2018. The number of monitoring stations was 38 each in 2021 and 2020, 35 in 2019 and 17 in 2018.

Coorg beekeepers rue decline in honey trade, seek govt handholding for revival

The beekeepers and producers of ‘Coorg Honey’ said they want the authorities concerned to take their brand across the country and beyond and bring back the halcyon days when the hill district used to be the country’s top honey producer. Be sweet with Coorg Honey. Those were the words of Sri Shambhavananda Swamiji from Sri Ramakrishna Mission who developed a unique method of beekeeping known as ‘Coorg Standard Hive’ in the hilly district of south Karnataka- Coorg (Kodagu). Now, the beekeepers want the state government to not only make the practice sustainable but also go big on promoting brand ‘Coorg Honey’. Citing a recent investigation by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which found that honey sold by major brands in India was laced with modified sugar syrup, the beekeepers and producers of ‘Coorg Honey’ said they want the authorities concerned to take their brand across the country and beyond and bring back the halcyon days when the hill district used to be the country’s top honey producer. After becoming the first president of Sri Ramakrishna Saradashrama in Coorg way back in 1928, Swami Shambhavananda initiated a bee-keeping project in the district knowing that the lush, hilly terrain presented an ideal setting for the practice which could also contribute to the local economy. In 1936, Swamiji set up the ‘Coorg Honey and Wax Producers Cooperative Society Ltd’, which, in time, became the first honey producers’ cooperative in the country. Over the last few years, the practice of bee-keeping and honey collection in the district has declined, to the extent that the Coorg Honey and Wax Producers Cooperative Society Ltd is now forced to procure honey from North Indian states just to keep their brand alive. Speaking to indianexpress.com, Kodira Praveen Chengappa, former president of Coorg Honey and Wax Producers Cooperative Society Ltd, said, “Everyone who comes to Coorg, which is one of the country’s top tourist destinations, wants to take home a pot of ‘Coorg Honey’. However, the beekeepers in the district are not producing honey now like they used to. Since the production has reduced, our society has little option but to buy honey from beekeepers in Chikamagaluru, Karnataka, Bihar, Punjab and other places, who collect pure and original honey. We do a strict quality check then if the honey meets our standards, we sell it under the ‘Coorg Honey’ brand name.” Advertisement Kodira Praveen Chengappa taking honey from his honey bee box. (Express Photo Darshan Devaiah BP) Apis Cerana bees, known as the honey bees of Coorg, still flock around the colourful indigenous flowers, lining the Western Ghats, drawing nectar. However, the practice of beekeeping has been severely hit. “Earlier, many trees were planted and wildflowers, including coffee blossoms, paddy, ragi, were cultivated, drawing bees by the droves. However, honey collection has been severely dented as the use of pesticides these days is killing the bees,” Chengappa said. Apiculture or beekeeping used to be one of the important farming activities in Coorg and contributed substantially to the income of local farmers. “In 1936, Shambhavananda Swamiji started the first honey producers’ co-operative in India at Virajpet in Coorg district. Later, in 1938, he founded the Ramakrishna Ashram and started to impart beekeeping lessons to local youth, who took an interest in the practice, at his office and a honey processing unit. He also sent local enthusiasts to beekeeping training centres in Pune and Coimbatore. He also marketed ‘Coorg Honey’ in Mumbai and other cities,” Chengappa said. Though the production of ‘Coorg Honey’ has declined drastically, the former boss of the co-operative said the demand for the brand remains undiminished and with a bit of hand-holding from the government and other authorities concerned, the district could return to its glory days of honey making. Advertisement Bee hive boxes kept inside a coffee estate in Coorg. (Express Photo by Darshan Devaiah BP) Traditional beekeepers, who have been harvesting honey since ages, are struggling these days as the honey bees of Coorg are declining in number, largely because of the use of pesticides. They said that radiations from mobile towers in the district are proving fatal for the bees. Nagesh, an apiarist at Bittangala village in South Coorg who has been into beekeeping for three decades, told indianexpress.com, “I request our farmers not to use pesticides as it is because of these chemicals that the honey bees are dying. I have also seen the bees dying because of radiation from mobile towers. As much as 30 to 50 per cent of bees are dying due to mobile tower radiation and another 80 per cent because of the use of pesticides.” Nestled in the midst of rolling hills and dense forests, Coorg experiences periodic shifts in climate and temperature, making it a favourable haunt for four major species of honey bees. According to Nagesh, a Coorgi, the honey tastes different as seasons roll and also at time of crop cultivation. “During the harvesting of coffee beans, the honey tastes very different compared to the season when paddy is cultivated,” Nagesh said, adding that the main four species of honey bees found in Coorg are Ponn thene (Apis dorsate) in forest areas, Potti thene (Apis cerena), Kaddi thene (Apis floria) and M ooli thene(Apis trigona), which are domesticated. Beekeepers in Coorg keep around 30 to 50 bee boxes within an area of one to one-and-a-half kilometres, depending on the source of bee forage, in their coffee estate or areca nut farms. Nagesh said bee colonies, these days, is very hard to find as they are facing the risk of a colony collapse disorder where the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear. A beekeeper in Coorg can harvest 2-3 kgs of honey from one box. “Earlier we used to harvest 10 to 20 kgs of honey from one box. During the peak time, honey can be extracted once in 15 days from one box if there are strengthened colonies. However, that is not possible now,” Nagesh said. The horticulture department has started providing Bee Hive Boxes and training to interested people at the beekeeping training centre in Bhagamandala, North Coorg. Founded in 1953, the centre provides three months of training, where students are taken through the basics of bee collecting, bee hiving and honey collecting or extraction, among other practices. Prakash Mandanna, a beekeeper who took his lessons in the practice at Bhagamandala training centre, said, “After enrolling for a training course 10 years ago, I started beekeeping. However, six years later, the bees were afflicted with diseases such as Thai sac brood. Planting of exotic trees such as Silver Oak, Eucalyptus and Acacia Auriculiformis in the coffee estates affected pollinators and altered the native flora of Coorg.” “The loss of forest cover and native trees is also an important reason for less honey bee production in Coorg. The government should focus on revival of bee production through the expansion of forest cover and forage plants in the district,” Mandanna told indianexpress.com. He said the need of the hour is for the state horticulture department to promote beekeeping among the youth in the district. “Our government has undertaken various initiatives to promote beekeeping but the problem is that people are losing interest in the practice as the bees are not available in plantations and forests now. The horticulture department should come forward and support beekeeping in Coorg,” he said. Officials in the horticulture department said various initiatives have been taken up in recent years to increase production of honey and provide subsidy to farmers interested in Apiculture. Speaking to indianexpress.com, Dr Hemalatha, senior assistant director, Horticulture (Apiculture), said, “We have three different schemes at central, state and district levels to help farmers who are interested in apiculture. As part of the state sector, we are giving a budget for beekeeping development and under the central sector scheme, we are providing pollination support. We are also giving residential beekeeping training at the Bhagamandala centre in Coorg where approximately 15 to 20 interested farmers can take a training in beekeeping every year and earn a stipend.” She said the horticulture department is also reaching out to farmers across the state, who are interested in beekeeping. “Our schemes are aimed at helping farmers interested in Apiculture and we are spreading the word through local newspapers and grama sabha meetings. Honey Mela is also organised every year in Bengaluru to promote Apiculture,” Hemalatha said.

Green push: Delhi govt to lease only e-vehicles

Green push: Delhi govt to lease only e-vehicles Kejriwal made the announcement at the launch of a new campaign -- Switch Delhi -- to spread awareness about the subsidies provided by the city administration on electric vehicles (EVs). Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced that his government will, in the next six months, change its policy to lease only electric cars as part of an effort to accelerate the adoption of electric cars in the Capital. Kejriwal made the announcement at the launch of a new campaign -- Switch Delhi -- to spread awareness about the subsidies provided by the city administration on electric vehicles (EVs). The Delhi government currently leases more than 1,000 cars. Addressing a digital press conference, Kejriwal said vehicles are one of the main contributors of air pollution in the national Capital, which suffers from a chronic bad air problem. The Delhi EV policy, announced in August last year, envisages that 25% of all new vehicle registrations should be Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) by 2024. “We have to make EVs a jan andolan (mass movement) now. So, we are launching the Switch Delhi campaign today to create awareness about EVs. The idea is to convince people to switch from their current vehicles to EVs, which have zero emissions. I also urge the youth, who are looking to buy their first car or bike, to go for an EV as the Delhi government is giving huge subsidies and there is no road tax or registration charges,” Kejriwal added. The subsidies are based on battery capacity – ₹10,000 per kWh to the first 1,000 e-cars or electric four wheelers, with a cap of ₹150,000 per vehicle. Of the over 6,000 EVs (that include e-rickshaws, two-wheelers and cars) registered in the city since the policy was announced last year, only 2,653 have received the subsidies so far, data seen by HT showed. This data did not specify how many subsidies went to electric cars, but officials familiar with the matter said, “Due to the high cost involved, electric cars constitute the least of all EV sales in the city, and so, a significant proportion of subsidy on cars remains unused.” The government also announced a subsidy of ₹5,000 per kWh of the battery capacity up to a maximum of ₹30,000 for purchases of electric two-wheelers, auto-rickshaws, rickshaws and freight vehicles. The government also announced a scrapping incentive for those who make the switch -- essentially paying them for their old vehicles. The incentive, ranging from ₹5,000- ₹7,500, is offered subject to evidence of matching contribution from the dealer or (Original Equipment Manufacturer) as per the policy. The chief minister also announced that the government will soon ask for bids to set up 100 charging stations across Delhi. The Capital currently has 72 charging stations that are managed by the government, civic bodies and private power distribution companies. A senior transport department official said that a centralised tendering system will be adopted to hire an energy operator to run, maintain and upgrade charging stations. “Land-owning agencies will be required to provide land for the installation of public EV charging stations,” the official added. Kejriwal urged companies having a large fleet of vehicles to shift to EVs. “I request resident welfare associations (RWAs), market associations and delivery fleets to participate in the campaign to promote the use of EVs and switch to such vehicles. The Switch Delhi campaign also seeks to convince companies, malls, cinema halls, restaurants... to get charging stations installed,” he said. Kejriwal said around 6,000 EVs have been bought in Delhi since the city’s EV policy was announced. Thus far, the government has paid out ₹9 crore in subsidies. On August 7 last year, Kejriwal announced the Delhi EV Policy 2020, with a focus on increasing the adoption of electric vehicles by incentivising the purchase of EVs. The target was to register 500,000 EVs in the city by 2024. Currently, around 122,000 electric vehicles are registered in the Capital, of which the majority are e-rickshaws. There are 150 models of EVs available in Delhi, with the least expensive car starting at a price of around ₹900,000. “This zero emissions mandate is needed to cut air pollution... But firm milestones are needed for time bound implementation. This move is an important message for green recovery post pandemic,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy), Centre for Science and Environment.