ESG in the News

Leo Saldanha, Convener of the city-based NGO Environment Support Group, said that the state government had a “laissez faire approach” towards real-estate companies. “There is such an aggressive commercialisation of land in the city, that biodiversity is seen as a liability,” he said. A closer look at the process by which the real estate projects assessed biodiversity impacts in the city revealed some worrying trends.

Leo Saldanha, Co-ordinator, Environment Support Group, said that the appointments were made only after the court’s intervention. “The lake division came up with excuses whenever matters related to encroachment evictions came up.Judicial powers will help in resolving such conflicts. Instead of one coming to the court for everything, most matters can be resolved at the district or BBMP level now,”

Leo F Saldanha, coordinator of Environment Support Group (ESG), a non-profit based out of Bengaluru, said: “Centralisation has failed and it is clearly evident from the effects of the 2012 order. Decentralisation is necessary as all efforts are doomed without public engagement. The meetings will be open to all citizens and sustained advancement will help in the control and commandment of lake rejuvenation.”

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Ashok S. Kinagi passed the order while modifying the 2012 directions of the High Court on a PIL petition filed by Environment Support Group and Leo F. Saldanha. The CEO of respective zilla panchayats and one higher officer each from Departments of Forest, Minor Irrigation, Environment would be the members of the committee and the member-secretary of the respective district legal service committee would be the secretary

Chief Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ashok S Kinagi passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group.

Leo Saldanha, coordinator and trustee of the Environment Support Group, said that the gym equipment is not required and instead birding and boulder-climbing should be encouraged. “These equipment will set bad precedence as non-forestry projects like this will now be replicated in other districts as well,” he added.

The ESG Lakes PIL was heard for several years after it was filed in 2008. The final judgment was delivered on April 11, 2012 directing the State of Karnataka to ensure that local communities were involved in lake rehabilitation and management, and that their regulation was devolved to lake protection committees constituted for major urban areas (corporations and councils).

Overhead power lines directed to be taken underground; industry in talks with technical experts

Leo Saldanha from the Environment Support Group termed the situation “insane.” “Biomedical waste is being mixed with domestic waste, as much of this is now generated in homes, given the sheer numbers of those infected and home quarantined. This is helping spread COVID-19, bacterial and fungal infections, exposing particularly those who are forced to handle the waste without sufficient or any protection,” he said. Lot of it is dumped mixed in landfills and also “recklessly incinerated”, with serious consequences to public health.

Leo F Saldanha, who works with policy advocacy organisation Environment Support Group, says Doreswamy never gave anyone an inkling of his age. “This grand young man of India, whose presence was cherished immensely by anyone who met him, has moved on…

The blowback was strong across the state. Former Chief MinisMinister Siddaramaiah even demanded that Chief Minister ediyurappa and Health Minister Dr Sudhakar must resign.

“Nowhere in history have we seen such a sudden stop in economic activities, which could be comparable to pre-industrial levels of pollution. This offers an incredible opportunity to study current levels and set benchmarks,” notes Leo Saldanha from th…

Mr. Saldanha pointed out that besides being violative of earlier directions issued by the High Court on Mavallipura landfill, the decision poses danger to the public attending the cremation, and impacts the operation of flights by the Indian Air Force station at Yelahanka.

Activists of the Environment Support Group said that the Karnataka High Court has ordered the BBMP to take up biomining in the abandoned landfill to decontaminate it. It urged the government to treat the COVID victims with respect and said that a crematorium will lure scavenging birds and risk the safety of IAF trainee pilots.

Leo Saldanha from the Environment Support Group spoke about services done by various groups like Mercy Angels and urged the BJP leaders to learn from them. Referring to the BBMP war room, Aparna H S tweeted: “Just because there were 173 hindus, it (the war room) will not become a mutt. The 17 muslims won’t make it a madarasa either. Everyone who works for us is ours,” she said.

Leo Saldanha, a Bengalurean who works at Environment Support Group, says, “When I used to cycle during the 90’s, the roads were covered with a beautiful canopy on both sides. Neginhal was just the right person in the department who called for people’s participation in maintaining ecological integrity in the city.”

In an Environmental Public Hearing held in crowded Yavanika on July 5, 2000, to ritually accord environmental clearance, Doreswamy stood up in protest before then District Commissioner Sanaulla and a panel comprising retired Environment Secretary A N Yellappa Reddy, and appealed to their conscience to not rubber stamp this project.

Leo Saldanha, of Environment Support Group, said the only true tribute to Neginhal would be to fight harder to save the trees he planted, that dot the city’s streets and are facing the axe due to several development projects. In his retirement years, Neginhal would voice his opposition to tree felling in the city.

Committee member Leo Saldanha, also from the Environment Support Group, explained that “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promotion of 450GW of energy production from renewable sources is fraught with various inconsistencies, particularly the lack of appreciation of various details relating to finance demands, and social and environmental impacts. It appears that the message to State Governments is to assist the transnational and national private sector to secure land in any manner.”

Leo F Saldanha, co-ordinator of the Environment Support Group, said that the State’s COVID response strategy should be decentralized. “This will enable people’s access to oxygen, physicians, medical care, and vaccination within the ward or panchayat. The entire mechanism should be governed transparently and with accountability,” he noted.

The lakes don’t have a self-cleaning mechanism. Someone has to do it manually,” Leo Saldana, convenor at Environment Support Group, a social justice initiative, had told LiveMint in 2016, commenting on mass fish die-offs in the city’s centrally-located Ulsoor Lake.

The pandemic has also highlighted decades of poor urban planning. We have not learnt from the plague of 1894 which pushed Bengaluru to redesign itself. Post-independence, the expansion of the city, horizontally and vertically, has ghettoised communities and made even high-end enclaves set up for disasters with enclosed spaces for the virus to prance and proliferate.

Leo Saldanha from ESG said: “The Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promotion of 450 GW of energy production from renewable sources is fraught with various inconsistencies, particularly the lack of appreciation of various details relating to finance demands, and social and environmental impacts.”

The court made these observations while hearing a petition ffiled by city-based Environment Support Group (ESG), a non-profit organization. On its part, the state government is likely to submit its opinion on the formation of lake committees in the next hearing, scheduled on April 20.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that the National Green Tribunal does not have the powers to examine validity of laws or strike down laws (Environment Support Group v. National Biodiversity Authority).

A letter written by the Environment Support group states that the thought of cremating the dead in a landfill was “shocking” and the process should be suspended without any further progress.

Environment Support Group (ESG) which works on a host of environmental and social issues has also strongly objected to the BBMP proposal and submitted a petition. “The thought of cremating the dead in a landfill is in itself shocking, to say the least. And I hope this effort will be suspended without any further progress,” reads the ESG petition.

Leo Saldanha, coordinator, Environment Support Group, says vested interests act in collusion to grab public land. He blames the BWSSB for letting sewage into rajakaluves and turning them into potential encroachment sites.

Terming the TenderSURE projects as the perfect representation of undemocratic and unaccountable urban infrastructure project foisted on the public, Leo F Saldanha of Environment Support Group said the amount of investment made in this project has been repeatedly highlighted for its inefficiency in audits and yet the state, not BBMP itself, persists with these projects backed by centralized decision making.

Over 250 people including activists and residents have been protesting against the Karnataka government’s move to develop Turahalli minor forest into a tree park. Bulldozers have started rolling into the area on Kanakpura Road on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The protest is being led by ’Changemakers of Kanakpura Road’ and ‘Clean Up Turahalli’.

On Saturday, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa announced that three forest-turned-eco-parks will be ready by June this year. The state government’s move to convert a large part of the four reserved forests in the City into conventional parks has not gone down well with environmentally conscious citizen. Bhargavi Rao, inter-disciplinary researcher and trustee of Environment Support Group (ESG) said, “Currently we see extensive use of exotic plants, which are water guzzlers. Importance is not given to grow natural and local vegetation”

Evidence suggests that the Assam Solar Policy 2018 has been drafted so as to advantage private ventures to grab land by any means. Leo Saldanha of the Environment Support Group, Bhargavi Rao of the Center for Financial Accountability, and Amit Kumar of the Delhi Solidarity Group. They were on a two-day visit on reaching Assam on January 26. Apart from local people, they also met state officials. It is not known if they met executives of the developers of the solar project, Azure Power. The fact-finding team note said, “Not only the land, the environment and the wildlife are also threatened as we came to know that elephants keep crossing through the village. Fresh elephant dung and elephant foot marks were witnessed by the members.”

It directs govt. to respond to allegations of violation of 2012 court order. The High Court of Karnataka on Saturday rejected the State government’s plea for transferring to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) a PIL petition, through which the court is monitoring measures taken by the government and its authorities to protect, rejuvenate and maintain lakes in the State. In his application, Leo F. Saldanha of Environment Support Group, an NGO, alleged that visit to six lakes revealed that in some lakes, Sewerage Treatment Plants were permitted in no-construction zones and several other constructions that were prohibited as per the committee’s recommendations were allowed to be undertaken by the corporate entities.

In its final order in a PIL filed by the Environment Support Group advancing the cause of wise use and appropriate protection and rehabilitation of lakes, the Karnataka High Court had, on April 11, 2012, directed an end to the policy of privatisation of lakes. It supported a participatory scheme to ensure protection and rehabilitation of lakes and canal networks, not only in Bengaluru but across Karnataka.

State government approves ₹160-crore ‘Citizens Water Way Project’. Civic activists have welcomed the development of the important rajakaluve that runs through many populated areas in the city, but fear privatisation of public spaces with the involvement of the private sector. They want the project to conform to the orders of the High Court of Karnataka on protection of rajakaluves and lakes in the city, and for civic agencies to execute the project without the involvement of private companies. Leo Saldanha from the Environment Support Group pointed out that the proposed Design, Build, Operate and Transfer model privatises public space.

The excessive use of artificial lights, such as streetlights and hoarding lights, affects insects and birds, especially nocturnal ones such as fireflies, moths, bees and bats. “Appropriate lighting in public spaces during the night is essential to improve public security. But this needs to be done with nuance and care, to ensure light falls where it is needed, and not all over the place,” says Leo Saldanha, ESG.

ESG and CFA conducted an online workshop in collaboration with Program on Science, Technology and Society, Harvard Kennedy School, USA & Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Germany

Leo Saldanha coordinator, Environment Support Group, says decades of corruption in the BBMP will be wiped out if this newsystem is run effectively. “Khata is a fundamental right but the BBMP has made it a nightmarish experience for citizens. It must be made simple,” he says. Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/metrolife/metrolife-your-bond-with-bengaluru/bbmp-promises-e-khata-sans-tears-920318.html

An investigation conducted by the Environment Support Group found the following: IISc had built a check dam on a river on its campus, upstream of eleven lakes — including the one that went dry. IISc civil engineer Mohan Kumar claims that IISc had only rebuilt the check dam and that the construction was planned so that water would percolate into the soil and recharge the groundwater. Kumar makes a similar argument for the tree plantations the Science City has begun to grow: a temporary reduction in surface water-flow will be compensated by future groundwater recharge. Given that groundwater levels are critically low across much of Challakere, Kumar says IISc’s actions assure long-term benefits for the area.

Putting the entire blame of Friday’s Air India Express crash on pilot error, are aviation regulators ignoring their role in blocking pleas that warned about the inherent risks attached to tabletop airports? The Environment Support Group (ESG) says its repeated pleas from 2000 on the risks involved were ignored. Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/national/south/kerala-plane-tragedy-pil-against-tabletop-runways-learnings-from-mangaluru-airport-crash-ignored-871444.html

“Environmental disasters in the past few months (Baghjan blowout, LG Polymers gas leak and devastating landslides) across India indicate they are the direct outcome of the weak or non-implementation of existing environmental regulations, which now this draft further proposes to dilute,” said Leo Saldanha, a Bengaluru-based green activist associated with Environment Support Group. Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/specials/sunday-spotlight/draft-eia-a-case-of-fence-eating-the-crop-873848.html

The campaign is an initiative of Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC), Environment Support Group (ESG), World Resources Institute (WRI) and Bengaluru Needs You (BNY). Accessibility, congestion, affordability, comfort, safety and hygiene are some of the key barriers that prevent Bengaluru from adopting public transport.

According to Leo Saldanha of the Environment Support Group, the 2006 and 2020 notifications are two sides of the same coin. “Both are based on the same destructive paradigm that pushes development at any cost,” he said. “In the early 2000s, obsessed by the Chinese model of development, India pushed ahead with its investment priorities based entirely on economic growth rates. P. Chidambaram, then Indian Finance Minister, proclaimed that the Government of India was ‘willing to tolerate debate, and perhaps even dissent, as long as it does not come in the way of 8 per cent growth’. In this manner, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments I and II re-emphasised what the NDA government had previously sought to achieve by setting up the Govindarajan Committee,” he added.

Barely three days before the public consultation on the controversial Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) on Saturday published an FAQ to address some of the concerns raised by citizens’ groups and environmentalists. Environment Support Group (ESG) said that the BDA had omitted judgments regarding lakes or encroachments. “It seems that they are going against all the judicial orders, including regarding buffer zones and no development zones around lakes,”

The 20 organizations that are collaborating with the JSES are the World Wildlife Fund, Pacific Environment, World Resource Institute, MC Mehta Foundation, Environment Support Group, Global Policy Insights……. . These collaborations will enable JSES students to undertake internships at these organizations, which will enable them to add to their understanding of environmental and sustainability issues.

Public outrage over the proposed axing of 8,561 trees for an opaque, questionable road-widening project had barely settled down when this news broke: Over 33,000 trees to make way for the Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project, spelling a green disaster unprecedented in scale. “It is not right for any infrastructure project to be retrofitted into a non-existent plan. Currently, there is no plan for Bengaluru’s expansion,” contends Leo Saldanha from the Environment Support Group (ESG). Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/specials/point-blank/development-vs-environment-over-41500-trees-to-go-for-road-projects-868190.html

The environment ministry is considering large scale mining, infrastructure and industrial projects for environment, forest and wildlife clearances by hosting video meetings of its expert panels. This is despite the expert panels admitting that time available for considering some of these projects is “very less” and in some cases just about 10 minutes per project. A nod from the expert panels, the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), and 10 Expert Appraisal Committees (EAC), is necessary for projects to get green clearances from the central government’s ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC). The EACs would not be able to carry out site visits to verify the information presented to it, and its decisions would depend entirely on documentation and reports provided by the project developer, said Leo Saldanha, coordinator at the Environment Support Group in Bengaluru. “About 99% of such reports are known to be fraudulent,” Saldanha said.

The government wants to fast-track environment clearances to promote ease of doing business, but this might cause irreversible damage to biodiversity. “The power of clearance can cause irreversible damage to the environment, and this is being done during a lockdown, when the public or stakeholders concerned do not have the freedom to protest or access information about the project to offer their comments,” says Leo Saldanha, coordinator of nonprofit Environment Support Group (ESG), calling the ministry’s activities a “major subversion of democratic decision-making”.

Activists, environmentalists and citizens urged the Karnataka Tank Conservation and Development Authority (KTCDA) to cancel the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it has entered into with various corporates for the rejuvenation and maintenance of some lakes across the state, six of which were in and around Bengaluru. These include as Doddakallasandra lake, Sarjapura lake and Doddanagamangala lake among others. At the first-ever meeting organised by KTCDA for residents and stakeholders, attendees brought up complaints and suggestions on ways to improve Bengaluru’s lakes. Leo Saldanha of the (Environment Support Group) said there was an urgent need for a systematic, scientific approach for the rejuvenation of lakes across the State. Quoting N.K. Patil’s report on lakes, he said that private sector participation would be based on their commercial interests and not in the interest of the lake or its ecology. “This colonisation of lakes by corporates should immediately be stopped,” he said.

This, after the Supreme Court orders the BDA to redo Environment Impact Assessment. There are four issues suppressed by BDA during the last EIA: PRR cuts across the eco sensitive Tippagondanahalli watershed and Jarakbande Kaval Reserve Forest. The road intersects with the Petronet gas pipeline at 17 locations and that the project will lead to over 16,000 trees being cut, said Leo Saldanha, Environment Support Group (ESG).

Environmentalists have opposed the State government’s plan to erect a 120-ft statue of Swami Vivekananda at Muthyala Maduvu waterfall in Anekal. Environment Support Group said that in a recent case, the High Court had issued a stay order on all activities in Begur lake, including proposed unveiling of the statue on the principle of public trusteeship and held that the nature of the land cannot be changed.