Environment Support Group

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THE ANATOMY OF A SOLAR LAND GRAB – Report of a Fact-Finding Committee

Karbi and Adivasi farmers belonging to Mikir Bamuni Grant village in Nagaon district of Assam reported that about 93 acres of the land they were cultivating was taken over forcibly during 2020 by Azure Power Forty Private Limited, a subsidiary of international power corporation Azure Power Global Ltd. The farmers reported that their land was taken for establishing a 15 MW solar power plant by the company. In the process, ripened paddy crop raised on over 200 bighas of land was razed to the ground on 8th October, 2020 by the company. Villagers report that the local police and district authorities backed this forced dislocation of the farmers and forcible takeover of their lands.

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NewsletterPublications

Environment Justice Matters- Vol3. Issue 3 | Sidestepping Climate Change Accord Commitments in support of Mega projects |Amulya K. N. Reddy

A key strategy promoted to tackle climate change, especially from the North, is to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground and shift to renewables.  Which, as Thea Riofrancos argues in Foreign Policy, is fraught with serious inconsistencies even if this involves  shifting the mining of minerals critical to the renewable energy transition to the Global North. ”Global north onshoring does not repair the forms of environmental harm disproportionally meted out in the global south”, he argues. Besides, this would create new problems which primarily affect oppressed populations within affluent countries. 

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NewsletterPublications

Environment Justice Matters Vol. 3 Issue 2 |  Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council 

The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 appears poised to be the next victim of the continuing onslaught on environmental protections by the Union Government. The Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2021 endangers several common but declining species of wildlife by allowing them to be classified as “vermin” and thus be opened up to being hunted. Several species that were previously protected under the Schedules of the Act have been removed in the amendments without any justification.

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NewsletterPublications

Environment Justice Matters Vol. 3 Issue 1 | Prof. M K Prasad | The Mekedatu Project

Leading environmentalist, rationalist, educator and philosopher from Kerala, Prof. M K Prasad, lost his battle with COVID on 17th January 2022.   Prof. Prasad was the inspirational force behind the successful Save Silent Valley Movement, which forced former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to stop the dam that would have destroyed the rainforest

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NewsletterPublications

Environment Justice Matters- Vol 2. Issue 19

On 9th October 2021, the floating village Champu khangpok at Loktak Lake, Manipur celebrated World Migratory Bird Day organised by All Loktak Lake Areas Fisheries Union Manipur (ALLAFUM) in partnership with Ngamee Lup, Pumlen Pat Khoidum Lamjao Kanba Apunba Lup, Environment Support Group and Indigenous Perspectives. Renowned ornithologist Dr. S. Subramanya spoke on the critical importance of protecting wetlands like Loktak for protecting and conserving water birds, as he highlighted the wetland is a habitat of the Central Asian-Indian Flyway and East Asian-Australasia Flyway for migratory birds.

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NewsletterPublications

Environment Justice Matters- Vol 2. Issue 17

During March and June 2021, ESG worked with administrators of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and Karnataka Government, senior representatives of regulatory agencies,  representatives of multiple sectors across Bengaluru, academicians and experts, and importantly the wide public, in 9 webinars held through the 2nd major lockdowns imposed due to COVID  in developing “Make Bengaluru Climate Friendly: A blueprint for integrated, participatory and inclusive urban governance”.

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NewsletterPublications

Environment Justice Matters- Vol 2. Issue 13

Scientists have provided fresh evidence linking heatwaves that ravaged western Canada and the US with climate change. They termed the occurrence of the phenomenon “virtually impossible” without human influence. This explainer in the Indian Express decodes the phenomenon of ‘heat dome’, the basis of the unprecedented heatwave in North America. Lou Del Bello in conversation with climate resilience entrepreneur Barath Mahadevan, provides a glimpse of what went wrong in the West and some lessons for South Asia in countering heatwaves.

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NewsletterPublications

EJ Matters Newsletter Jan15’21

2020 was a year that brought unprecedented challenges for the whole world. The COVID pandemic upended lives everywhere and forced us to adjust to a new normal. As the aftereffects of 2020 press on challenging us to live with a new world order, replete with massive restrictions and constant adjustments to the diminishment of our fundamental freedoms and rights, ESG persists with its work to expand fundamental liberties and advance environmental and social justice.

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