In the past year, some things changed - the Supreme Court urged the government to mull an environmental tax on privately-owned cars as cities were smothered by smog, while some things remained unchecked – even a total plastic-bag ban in New Delhi didn’t keep the city from choking on its own plastic waste. Global emissions continued to climb, opined a report by the United Nations, while the rate of deforestation in the Brazilian rainforests slowed down. As usual, there was some good news, peppered with the bad. Here, GT will take you through the enviro-news stories that were born in 2012 and continue to show some sparks in 2013…
Koodankulam struggle intensifies
As does the debate about the safety of using nuclear power to light up our homes and workplaces and heat/cool our cities. In March of 2011, three reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power plant suffered a meltdown after an earthquake triggered tsunami. This set off a chain of events that have left the nuclear industry reeling. Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Japan announced phase-out plans for their nuclear power plants, while Egypt, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait and Thailand suspended or delayed plans of nuclear power expansion. Recently, Japan’s newly elected government said they wanted to re-start their nuclear power plants. India has never strayed from the path to nuclear power, even though nuclear power skeptics have been making all sorts of noises.
But for the people of Koodankulam, it is not power or politics, it is their lives and futures. The Koodankulam struggle, or the protests by residents of the area against the construction of the 9200MW Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) in Koodankulam village in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, has spanned 24 years. Let us take a look at the Koodankulam struggle so far and what is going to happen.
Whose forest is it anyway?
The floods in Assam killed hundreds of rhinos, deers and other species in the Kaziranga National Park and surrounding areas. But animals suffered other killers, as well as administrative apathy. In 2012 we learnt that if you live in the forest, life is tough. For man or animal. A study by Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) and Society for Promotion of Wasteland Development (SPWD) told us that every state in India—as well as every forest—is embroiled in land rights disputes. One third of the Indian population is impacted by land and forest takeovers. But all is not lost, me hearties! There is still some good news for the tiger enthusiasts (actually, for everybody because who doesn’t love tigers). The Wildlife Conservation Society reports that tiger population in the Western Ghats lying in Karnataka has quadrupled over the past 30 years. There are now 250 to 300 tigers currently living in the area. More, more? Well… there once was a shy boy tiger called T3 who was moved from Pench to Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. He was so homesick that he wouldn’t play with any of the other tigers and even tried to walk 400kms back home. But things changed once he was brought back to Panna again. Today, the reserve has 18 tigers. The cubs are T3’s children from two tigresses T1, from Bandhavgarh and T2, from Kanha.
Going green becomes savvy ‘in’ thing
Recycling is passé, the new pink for those who are chic-green is composting. In the year 2012, Dia Mirza and Priyanka Chopra expressed their support for Saving the Planet, while Isabella Rosselini made a series of thought-provoking films on bees and biodiversity. These are only a few of the many fashionistas who turned to Mother Nature to up their cool quotient. The fashion industry is going green. And its proponents are claiming all is being done for the sake of environment and people.
Science as savior
Scientists are at it all the time – applying their brains to figure out this big, fascinating world around us. Recently, biotechnologists of the GGS Indraprastha University in Delhi found that onion and garlic waste from the food industry could be used to mop up hazardous heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium, iron, lead, mercury and tin in contaminated materials. Earlier this year, a study in the journal Science confirmed that Greenland is losing ice mass at five times the rate of the early 1990s. Is there anything science can not do?
Convention(al) logic
India was lauded for successfully hosting the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October. Here’s what happened… of course, there is the daily live reportage and more stories in our October 2012 issue, for you to check out. CoP 18 - the latest in the long and exhausting line of climate summits saw negotiators make much ado over nothing in Doha, Qatar this month. Just in case you missed out, here is a comprehensive assessment of CoP 18 by Sunita Narain, Director Centre for Science and Environment.
On that note, let us compose ourselves for an exciting new ride in 2013. Now… will it be a rollercoaster or a donkey-back ride? You tell us.
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