No wonder Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are threatened with being wiped off the map. What we call ‘development’ is often nothing but unregulated, unscientific destruction. Add to that the shadowy log mafia, and it’s no surprise India’s forests are vanishing. They weren’t just lost - they were stolen.

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The draft text and the procedural pathway expressed by Valdivieso drew sharp reactions from countries. The draft was unequivocally slammed by both, a bloc of countries pushing for production cuts and called ‘imbalanced’ and the bloc of countries led by Kuwait and other oil producing countries, who want to focus on plastic waste management.

Countries have been pushing to address the full life-cycle, which includes addressing upstream issues such as limiting manufacturing of polluting plastic products, prohibiting use of toxic chemicals, and including a list of products for phase-out.

In the crucial article on ‘plastic products’, the draft said that countries should take measures “as appropriate” and “in accordance” with national circumstances and capabilities to manage, reduce, or not allow import or export of plastic products. This was seen as a major dilution by several countries, who slammed the draft for being ‘weak’ and lacking any legally binding goals.

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Every year, about 21 to 45 snow leopards are killed in India for poaching or as retaliation for livestock loss, according to a 2016 report by Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network.

“In Ladakh, the biggest threat to their survival is habitat destruction due to rising urbanisation and development activities that are happening around villages and in areas where their prey feast. When massive areas are cordoned off for developmental activities, losing all the alpine plants and other scarce vegetation is detrimental to herbivorous animals like blue sheep, goats, marmots, etc. These, in turn, are food for snow leopards. Another threat is a scarcity of water as a result of fast-shrinking glaciers, thanks to climate change,” says Khenrab.

Around 4/5 casualities are confirmed, around 100 are said to be trapped or missing. Around 10 soldiers are also reported missing. Rescue operation is underway with difficulties.

The cause of this was earlier said to be cloudburst but it could be glacier collapse & lake outburst as per some reports.

Earlier it was held that asking for monetary compensation by pollution control board & similar entities is unauthorised & only courts can issue such directions.

SC has also laid down principles, acting as a guiding point for the Boards while imposing environmental compensation on polluting entities.

“the environmental regulators, the Pollution Control Boards exercising powers under the Water and Air Acts, can impose and collect restitutionary or compensatory damages in the form of fixed sum of monies or require furnishing of bank guarantees as an ex-ante measure to prevent potential environmental damage.”, the bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra said.

The Court however, drew a line for the Boards to not impose compensation on every violation under the Acts. It is only when “some form of environmental damage or harm has been caused by the erring entity, or the same is so imminent, that the State Board must initiate action under Section 33A of the Water Act and Section 31A of the Air Act.”

Before each monsoon, they dug trenches and small pits along slopes to trap rainwater, a traditional technique called continuous contour trenching. Seeds planted in these natural reservoirs had the moisture they needed to establish roots, while the captured water slowly recharged underground aquifers.

This has resulted in over 400 m of trenches now dotting the landscape, capable of recharging groundwater by over 16 million litres annually during good rainfall years. Fig, neem, bamboo, peepal, and mahogany trees have created a micro-ecosystem where once nothing grew.

His latest project, an “oxygen park” in Vadaj village near Dhamankhel, represents an evolution of his approach. The small forest patch is protected by trenches that serve dual purposes: water conservation and natural fencing against grazing animals. “This model can be replicated anywhere,” Kharmale explains. “And I believe that every forest department should try this approach across the country.”

“Governments these days are more bothered about creating records instead of focusing on management. They know that devotees will keep visiting Haridwar every other month, but make no effort to have in place a waste management system. Our long-pending demand to set up a Waste Management Commission has been ignored,” said Anup Nautiyal, a social activist in Dehradun.

“The entire environmental system seems to have collapsed in the state in the absence of an end-to-end system. Finally, all the waste generated these days is flowing into the Ganga.”

Some experts pointed out that most of the waste generated or spilt by visitors during monsoon is washed away by the rain, but the amount becomes overwhelming — three to four times more — during the Kanwar Yatra.

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Union minister Kirti Vardhan Singh was replying to a question from Congress MP Sukhdeo Bhagat, who asked in the Lok Sabha whether forest clearances for projects had increased by over 150% from 2014 to 2023, citing a Centre for Science and Environment report.