January-March 2014 Quarterly Newsletter CMS...

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Environment calendarJanuary

4- Oil Conservation Week

15 – Oil Conservation Fortnight

30- National Cleanliness Day

February

2- World Wetlands Day

28- National Science Day

March

2-4 World Sustainable Day

21- World Forestry Day

22 - World Water Day

23 -World Meteorological Day

April

5- National Maritime Day

7- World Health Day

22- World Earth Day

May

11- International Migratory Day

22 - International Biodiversity Day

31 - World No Tobacco Day

June

5 - World Environment Day

8 - World Ocean Day

17 - World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

July

11 – World Population Day

28- World Nature Conservation Day

August

6- Hiroshima Day

9 – Nagasaki Day

9 – International Day of the World Indigenous people

September

16- World Ozone Day

28 - Green Consumer Day

October

2-8 Wild Life Week

4 - World Animal welfare Day

5 - World Habitat Day

10 – International Day for Natural Reduction

16 – World Food Day

November

6- International Day for preventing the Exploitation

of the Environment in War and Arm Conflict

10 – World science Day

21 – World Television Day

December

2– Bhopal Tragedy Day/ National Pollution Day

11- International Mountain Day

14 National Energy Conservation Day

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1350Green Films

1142Web Links

942Green Filmmakers

124Journalists

2116Ad Agency

142TV Channels

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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Green Voice3A Newsletter from CMs ENVIs CENtRE on Green Media

55,620Green media

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1350Green Films

1142Web Links

942Green Filmmakers

124Journalists

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142TV Channels

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The green mediatorJhimli Mukherjee Pandey, Times of India , Thursday, January 02, 2014

KOLKATA: While growing up in the Rabindra Sarobar neighbourhood, one thing that struck him most was the mutilation of the 192-acre water body and accompanying greens. His sessions at the Vivekananda Park cricket nets once again made him sad. At mid-off you had to negotiate garbage again, wantonly dumped all over the greens. Mudar Patherya vowed to do something about this when he grew up.

This promise that he made to himself stayed with him through his college days and after he debuted professionally as a sports journalist, which he quit to foray into financial communications and started his own company, Trisys. Then one day, he decided to take time off work and get his hands soiled.

Along with a band of school children and good wishes of few corporates who were otherwise his clients, Patherya started cleaning Rabindra Sarobar lakes. Soon, the city watched in awe as the veil of scum and garbage got lifted gradually and the vast expanse of water became visible in all its shimmering grandeur. As time went by, even the keeper of the lakes, the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), got excited and emerged on the scene.

Having tasted this success, Patherya wouldn’t let go easily. So, the next stop was Vivekananda Park. “You had heaps of plastic and even household garbage dumped at vantage points at the park, making it difficult for people to use the park properly. This was abominable especially because parks and open spaces are shrinking by the hour in this city,” Patherya said. Along with school children from Modern High School, La Martiniere for Boys and Girls, St James, Ashok Hall, St Xavier’s Collegiate School and Khalsa High School, Patherya was able to accomplish what seemed impossible for so many years.

In Black and White

It was then that the focus of the media shifted towards Santragachi Jheel in Howrah, which for some years now has become a haven for migratory birds. In 2010, the media wrote that the forest department, which was the custodian of the jheel, had not cleared it of water hyacinth and hence migratory birds would give the spot a miss. Patherya took it up as a citizens’ initiative and rustled up a huge public opinion about the issue, enthusing corporates to lend payloaders to clear the waterbody. Within a span of 20 days, the Lake was cleared and the birds were back. Santragachi was catapulted into one of the city’s must-visit spots in the winter season.

Patherya calls himself a “social broker”, who uses his corporate contacts to get socially relevant issues moving. He also puts NGOs with an immediate social agenda in touch with his corporate contacts to launch philanthropic projects. The latest in his kitty is “Kolkata Gives”, a networking platform for donors and NGOs that was able to generate Rs 1 crore to support different social causes, ranging from rescue of kids from red-light areas and bringing them on to the mainstream to reaching medical aid to marginalized people. “Kolkata Gives is a union of six entities - hotelier Mukti Gupta, Pawan Agarwal of NK Realtors, Jyoti Sonthalia of JVS Financial, PS Group’s Sourav Dugar and Anant Neotia, who runs the Rural Healthcare Foundation.

“Mudar started connecting corporates to causes even before the term ‘corporate social responsibility’ became a lingo in the Indian corporate scene. What is interesting is his is a collaborative and contributive model of operations. He just connects the end users without donning the tag of an NGO,” said Harsh Neotia, chief of the Ambuja Neotia group.

Subhrangshu Mitra, who runs NGO ‘Hamaari Muskan’ for kids of red-light areas, said, “You just have to name the problem and he has a solution. Mudar is extremely well-networked and uses it to promote social causes. He is a busy professional but every bit of his free time gets devoted to getting causes off the ground.”

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/The-green-mediator/articleshow/28253142.cms

300 Chennai schools get access to green centreAsha Sridhar, The Hindu , Tuesday, January 07, 2014

An environmental information dissemination centre (EIDC), a central resource centre for school students, has been opened for students and teachers from schools that are a part of the National Green Crops (NGC).

The centre, which has been set up at a Chennai Corporation Middle School in Choolai, is the first EIDC in the city, and has already been set up in 10 districts during the previous academic year by the department of environment, said the centre in-charge and NGC district co-ordinator, G.Thangaraj.

“It is a centre where students and teachers from NGC schools in the city can learn about environment-related topics such as pollution and energy conservation,” he said. There are around 300 such schools in the city.

Teachers to be trainedThe centre has a resource room — with books, multimedia and a television — that can house up to 60 people. It also has a lab where teachers will be trained to use soil, water and air testing kits.

“The trained teachers will in turn teach the students and NGC schools will be given one set each,” he said, adding that they had already trained 50 teachers.

The centre will be open to Chennai Corporation, government, government-aided and private schools that are part of NGC.

Joseph Patrick, an NGC co-ordinator at a government-aided school, said the centre can be a common meeting ground for environment-related activities for school students.

Mr. Thangaraj said the centre would be used to conduct training and seminars and students could be brought there in turns.

Compost pit, medicinal garden, nextThey are also planning to display models on rainwater harvesting, and set up a vermi-compost pit and medicinal plant garden on the premises. The centre is stocked with a set of telefilms and books given by the department of environment and ministry of environment and forests.

Green Voice4 A Newsletter from CMs ENVIs CENtRE on Green Media

Some NGOs are also involved in the centre, said Mr. Thangaraj. He said it would be fully functional by the next academic year.

The centre was inaugurated in December 2013, by the director of environment H. Malleshappa in the presence of other officials, said Mr. Thangaraj.http:/ /www.thehindu.com/news/cit ies/chennai/300-chennai-schools-get-access-to-green-centre/article5546251.ece

Amol Palekar heads jury of film fest on environment Business Standard , Friday, January 10, 2014

Veteran actor-filmmaker Amol Palekar watched 86 movies as the head of jury for the seventh CMS VATAVARAN - International Environment and Wildlife Film Festival and Forum, which will start here Jan 30.

He headed the 12-member jury and saw more than 24 hours of national and international films competing at the fest, which is an outcome of not-for-profit organisation Centre for Media Studies’ core commitment to go “beyond research”.

Amol is “glad to be a part of the green movement, to protect and celebrate our nature by being a part of the CMS Vatavaran Award jury”.

“Films are a powerful medium of change and I hope award winning films are used extensively for the same,” the 69-year-old, known for his films “Baaton Baaton Mein” and “Gol Maal”, said in a statement.

The jury committee comprised 13 experts from widely divergent sectors and streams representing environment, film and media and communication.

Based on discussions, the jury has selected the awards - 15 in national category and 12 in international.

A total of 541 entries were received in both categories. From these, 86 have been nominated in 11 categories by the nomination jury of 31 experts headed by Srinivasan Iyer, assistant country director and head, Energy and Environment Unit, United Nations Development Programme India.

The awards will be announced and presented Feb 2 during the CMS VATAVARAN-Environment and Wildlife Film Festival and Forum, scheduled from Jan 30-Feb 3 at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts lawns.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/

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Greens’ protest scales new highBusiness Standard , Thursday, January 23,

2014

Environmental activism literally reached a new high on Wednesday, when Greenpeace activists clandestinely entered Essar Group’s multi-storey corporate office in South Mumbai and hung a massive banner (36 ft by 72 ft), which read ‘We kill forests’: Essar.

The banner also had pictures of the Union Minister of Environment and Forest Veerappa Moily and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The environmental action group, which is know for its unconventional actions, is protesting against the recent allocation of Mahan coal block to a joint venture company of Essar Power. The group fears that coal mining will destroy the bio-diverse Mahan forests, which is located in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh.

The group is demanding that Essar should scrap its plans of developing the coal mine, and that the Prime Minister should remove Moily from the Ministry. It has alleged that the Minister is granting environment clearances to large project at great speed, with a complete disregard for forest, wildlife and human beings, at the project sites.

“In a matter of 20 days, our new Environment Minister has cleared 70 projects worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore which means he can’t possibly have considered each proposal properly,” said Priya Pillai, Greenpeace India campaigner, in a media statement.

She claimed that the sequence of events leading to the allocation of Mahan block to Essar is questionable. It was rejected by Moily’s

predecessor Jairam Ramesh but the company used its influence and got first stage clearances. Pushing for the mine without implementing the Forest Rights Act is a clear violation of the constitution.

At Essar’s office villagers from Mahan area also sat for a dharna demanding scrapping of project, which will impact about 14,000 people.

Kripanath, a resident of Amelia village in Singrauli district in the statement said that Essar is encroaching upon people’s homes in Mahan forest. It is robbing people’s livelihood in order to make quick money. “We have travelled 2,000 km to their head office in Mumbai to send them a strong message that our voices cannot be silenced,” he said.

Essar Group in a media statement said the Greenpeace action is nothing but blatant trespassing, in which some people, at behest of Greenpeace, masqueraded as building cleaning agents and gained access to the office, “In this illegal act, the trespassers misused the office premises to spread anti-corporate, misleading and false propaganda,” the statement said.

The statement added that with a view to gaining publicity for Greenpeace, these people suspended themselves from the top of the building. In doing so they also endangered lives of those working in the building and disrupted normal working of the employees. Eventually police arrested the trespassers and helped to clear the building.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/greens-

protest-scales-new-high/article5606287.ece

Green activists pose as cleaners to scale corporate highrise, unfurl protest bannerNergish Sunavala & Anahita Mukherji, The

Times of India , Friday, January 24, 2014

MUMBAI: Twelve Greenpeace activists in tiger costumes scaled the headquarters of a corporate giant at Mahalaxmi and spent five hours dangling off the skyscraper to put up a huge banner to protest against allocation of a coal block that allegedly threatens forest land and endangers the livelihood of villagers dependent on it.

Greenpeace activists were joined by tribals


from villages in Mahan (Madhya Pradesh) where a coal block has been allocated to Mahan Coal Ltd, a joint venture between Essar and Hindalco. Permission for the coal block was granted despite initial rejection of the project by then Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh in 2011.The protesters gained access to the top of Essar’s corporate office highrise posing as window cleaners, and unfurled a giant banner around 2pm, which read ‘We Kill Forests: Essar’.

Essar stated on its website: “In a blatant and anarchic act of trespassing, some people, at the behest of Greenpeace, masqueraded as building cleaning agents and gained access to the Essar office in Mumbai. In this illegal act, the trespassers misused the office premises to spread anti-corporate, misleading and false propaganda.”

The activists managed to evade arrest till after 7pm as the ladders set up by the fire brigade couldn’t reach the protesters. Eventually, they had to be hauled up from the top of the building, said a senior media officer with Greenpeace, Jagori Dhar.

Seventy-five Greenpeace activists have been detained by Tardeo police. “The police have not pressed charges against them. Our lawyers are talking to the police,” said a Greenpeace spokesperson at the time of going to press.

“A specialized team, trained in the art of scaling skyscrapers, planned the entire protest,” added Dhar. “They were equipped with full safety gear, including double harnesses and helmets.”

Greenpeace had also stationed protestors on top of the building who lectured Essar representatives on the reason behind the protest.

“Fourteen villages are directly dependent on the Mahan forests and another 62 for seasonal non-timber forest produce,” says a report by Greenpeace. Mahan Coal block alone will fell as many as 5,12,780 trees, which play an important role as the watershed for the Rihand Reservior, the release alleged.

A letter from V Kishore Chandra Deo, Union

panchayati raj minister, to MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan talks of the “gross violation of the Forest Rights Act in Mahan” during allotment of the coal block, including 11,074 allegedly forged signatures at a gram sabha in Mahan on March 6, 2013.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Green-

activists-pose-as-cleaners-to-scale-corporate-highrise-

unfurl-protest-banner/articleshow/29224951.cms

Govt to release Rs 13,000cr for Green India MissionThe Times of India , Friday, February 14, 2014

CHENNAI: The Union cabinet will soon sanction 13,000 crore for the initial phase of the 10-year Green India Mission to increase forest cover and quality of forests in the country, said Union forest and environment secretary V Rajagopalan. He said the project with a budget of 46,000 crore will get its first allocation by the end of this month.

He was inaugurating the fifth international ‘Casuarina workshop’ at Mamallapuram to tap the potential of casuarina cultivation for environment and livelihood.

The mission envisages increasing green cover in the country from 24% to 33% in 10 years. The mission is one of the 10 national missions under the environment ministry to deal with climate change and its impact. Rajagopalan said Green India Mission targets afforestation of 10 million hectares and methods being taken up include agroforestry to ensure livelihood support for local communities.

When asked about allegations that the Union ministry has cleared projects worth 1.5lakh crore immediately after the resignation of Jayanthi Natarajan as the environment minister, Rajagopalan said the projects were cleared following procedures. “They were long pending. There was nothing unusual in that,” he said.

The international casuarina workshop is hosted by the Coimbatore-based Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding. Addressing the workshop attended by scientists, farmers and industries, Rajagopalan said the cultivation, harvest, processing and transport of casuarinas generate employment and a stable market in the rural areas.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/

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Mission/articleshow/29830025.cms

Citizens win green war at LakeSubhro Niyogi & Saikat Ray, The Times of India,

Friday, February 28, 2014

KOLKATA: A citizens’ movement on Thursday morning stopped the destruction of greenery at Rabindra Sarobar - a sprawling man-made lake off Southern Avenue - and forced a senior minister’s intervention that led to an alteration in the plan being implemented by a government agency.

It was around 7 in the morning that walkers discovered a large open space in front of Calcutta Rowing Club and Lake Club being paved with concrete to make way for a car park. Till a few years ago, this 2,500 sq metre area was a wooded patch to the east of Baroj Road that connects Southern Avenue with the Lake Gardens flyover. Scores of trees have been uprooted in recent storms, leaving only 20 standing, among them mahogany, gulmohur, coconut, parul, bakul and banyan. If that wasn’t shocking enough, labourers hired by Kolkata Improvement Trust (KIT) contractors were chopping off the roots to pave as much of the ground as possible with concrete.

“I was doing the daily rounds this morning when I came across labourers axing the trees. When I confronted them and asked what they were up to, they said the roots were coming in the way of paving the area, and hence, they were being removed. This is absolutely scandalous. How can KIT that is the custodian of this lake allow labourers to destroy greenery?” an agitated Debasis Purakait wondered aloud.

Like Purakait, who is an advocate at the Calcutta high court, other morning walkers were anguished at what was happening. “Look at the amount of bricks, sand and stone chips that have been dumped here. Is this an appropriate place to carry out large-scale construction?” questioned homemaker Samita Banerjee. SK Chowdhury, who is in government service, was so enraged that they cornered the men wielding the axes and snatched them away.

By 8am, several dozen walkers had assembled, catalyzing a spontaneous movement. “Let KIT engineers come here and explain why


concrete is replacing greenery here? The urban development ministry has released funds for the beautification and upkeep of Rabindra Sarobar and not to replace the earth and trees with paved concrete,” retorted businessman Anup Saraf.

Though a few dispersed by 9am to carry on with the day’s work, many stayed back to keep a vigil. Someone even telephoned urban development minister Firhad Hakim, telling him a citizens’ agitation was building up against the KIT car park project that had been approved by his department. The gathering was big enough for the police to dispatch teams to the spot to ensure that the situation did not go out of hand.

When KIT executive engineer Sudhin Nandi reached the spot around 10am, he was mobbed by the angry crowd that demanded work be stopped immediately. “Why is the government spending money to pave an area so that club members can park cars? Why not spend the money to improve the condition of potholed roads?” questioned retired serviceman Robin Ganguly.

Nandi and KIT chief engineer S Chatterjee, who arrived later, tried to explain that they were simply implementing the first phase of the Rabindra Sarobar makeover project prepared by government-appointed consultant Bengal Urban Infrastructure Development Ltd. “There are two car parks proposed in the plan. One of them is this one. We are preparing the facility as per the direction laid out in the project document,” reasoned Chatterjee.

But the morning walkers, who called themselves Lovers of the Lake, would have none of it. “Why is there a need to create a parking lot here when cars have been banished from Victoria Memorial Hall, Indian Botanic Garden and Eliot Park? Has an environment assessment study been carried out? Instead of planting trees, the manner in which the area is being paved will kill the existing trees. No one seems to even care that it will also reduce ground water recharge as rain water will run off instead of percolating below,” said engineer Rathin Prasad Mitra.

Even as the situation was turning volatile with no solution in sight, urban development minister Firhad Hakim arrived and took charge

of the situation. The first instruction to the KIT officials was to immediately remove the concrete slab and ensure that there is no further damage to trees. “Why is the earth being covered with the impervious layer? Put paver blocks with holes so that water can percolate,” he said after listening to the aggrieved morning walkers.

On the demand to restrict parking, he reasoned with them that given the spurt in car count, parking lots were also essential. “We have to strike a balance. While greenery must be protected, cars have to be taken off the road because parking on them lead to traffic snarls,” he added.It was noon by the time the issue was resolved and everyone finally dispersed. “Some went to office late. Others skipped an appointment with the doctor. Still others left their household chores to be here. That is because we want the greenery to survive and hand it over to the next generation. We are glad the minister understood the concern and took prompt action,” said retired scientist Debjani Ghosh.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Citizens-

win-green-war-at-Lake/articleshow/31123791.cms

Pollution getting worse in Indian cities: PachauriThe Hindu , Tuesday, March 18, 2014

A study pointing that the pollution levels in New Delhi is worse than that of Beijing may have been quoting the data from the worst period of the year but the air quality in Indian cities is progressively getting worse, UN climate change chief Rajendra Pachauri said on Monday.

“We also have to allow the fact that there are variations in the composition of PM 2.5 in the atmosphere which varies from season to season. It may very well be the study they are quoting is that of the worst period during the year,” he told media here at a pre-launch function of the report on the India-China Low Carbon Study.

The report will be formally launched on Tuesday.

But at the same he said the situation is progressively getting worse in Delhi and Bangalore and even in second rung cities like Ludhiana.

“Frankly I have to look at the numbers to be able to comment. All I can say it is getting progressively worse,” he said responding to questions on a study by Yale University stating that Delhi’s air quality is worse than that of Beijing, which is battling out worst polluted smog considered to several higher than the levels prescribed by the WHO.

Dr. Pachauri, chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice president Al Gore in 2007.

The Yale data was contradicted by officials in Delhi who contradicted it citing data of their own obtained from monitoring stations on the ground.

About the quality of the data provided by the officials in Delhi, he said: “There are gaps in Delhi data. It is an issue needs to be investigated. We are taking about imperfect and inadequate information, we should need to get into this.”

The Ministry of Environment should commission two or three institutions to carry out detailed assessment of the situation and what are the drivers of things making this is worse and future policy making, he said.

On the debate about the safety of the nuclear power plants, he said: “Frankly we have to demystify nuclear energy. People have to have make decision. In a democracy you cannot ignore that aspect.”

He ducked the question whether he is for the nuclear energy or not saying that “one has to be cautious. I would not say close your eyes let us go ahead with nuclear power“.

“Nuclear energy is not a panacea to solve all our problems. We are little glib about it,” he said. He was answering questions abut China’s plans to build 28 nuclear power plants which are under various stages of construction.

Asked about what India can learn from China, he said both can learn each from their strengths. “One cannot generalise. Some sectors they have done well, some we have done well. There has to be exchange of knowledge which will have enormous value for both,” he said.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pollution-getting-

worse-in-indian-cities-pachauri/article5796785.ece


Climate change set to displace hundreds of millions of people by end of centuryThe Times of India , Wednesday, March 19, 2014

WASHINGTON: A new UN report suggests that climate change will displace hundreds of millions of people by the end of this century, increasing the risk of violent conflict and wiping trillions of dollars off the global economy.

The second of three publications by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, due to be made public at the end of this month, is the most comprehensive investigation into the impact of climate change ever undertaken. A draft of the final version seen by the Independent says the warming climate will place the world under enormous strain, forcing mass migration, especially in Asia, and increasing the risk of violent conflict.

Based on thousands of peer-reviewed studies and put together by hundreds of respected scientists, the report predicts that climate change will reduce median crop yields by 2 percent per decade for the rest of the century - at a time of rapidly growing demand for food. This will in turn push up malnutrition in children by about a fifth, it predicts.

The report also forecasts that the warming climate will take its toll on human health, pushing up the number of intense heatwaves and fires and increasing the risk from food and water-borne diseases.

According to the draft report, a rare grassy coastal habitat unique to Scotland and Ireland is set to suffer, as are grouse moors in the UK and peatlands in Ireland. The UK’s already elevated air pollution is likely to worsen as burning fossil fuels increase ozone levels, while warmer weather will increase the incidence of asthma and hay fever.

The report predicts that by the end of the century “hundreds of millions of people will be affected by coastal flooding and displaced due to land loss”.

The majority affected will be in east Asia, southeast Asia and south Asia. Rising sea levels mean coastal systems and low-lying areas will increasingly experience submergence, coastal flooding and coastal erosion.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/

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World not prepared to face climate change: expertsThe Hindu , Monday, March 31, 2014

A U.N.-backed panel said on Monday climate change impacts are already taking place on all continents and across the oceans, however, the world is unprepared for risks from a changing climate.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finalized a report on the impacts of climate change on human and natural systems, and possible methods of adaptation during the five-day conference last week in the Japanese city of Yokohama.

“Impacts from recent climate-related extremes, such as heat waves, droughts, floods, cyclones and wildfires reveal significant vulnerability and exposure of some ecosystems and many human systems to current climate variability,” the report said.

“We live in an era of man-made climate change,” Vicente Barros, co-chair of the working group in charge of drawing up the latest report, said in a statement.

Climate change is a growing threat to human security as it causes damage to homes and property, disrupts access to food and water and leads to forced migration, according to the IPCC, which is composed of hundreds of scientists and government representatives.

However, “in many cases, we are not prepared for the climate-related risks that we already face,” Mr. Barros said.

“Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change,” Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC, told a news conference on Monday.

Risks from climate change are “high to very high” if temperatures increase over 4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, where the world is now heading, the report said.

If temperatures rise between 1 to 2 degrees Celsius, risks increase “disproportionately,” it said.

The report issued on Monday assesses the impacts of climate change, adaptation and vulnerability of human and natural systems. It is the second of three assessment reports by the IPCC.

“One thing that we have come up with is the importance of adaptation and mitigation choices because this is the only way we might be able to reduce risks of climate change,” Mr. Pachauri said.

Adaptation to reduce such risks is starting to take place, but, with a stronger focus on reacting to past events than on preparing for a changing future, said Chris Field, co-chair of the working group.

“Governments, firms and communities around the world are building experience with adaptation,” Mr. Field said. “This experience forms a starting point for bolder, more ambitious adaptations that will be important as climate and society continue to change.” “We’re walking a tightrope, but if we act boldly and cut climate pollution faster major threats to human security can still be avoided and vital ocean systems, forests and species protected,” said Kaisa Kosonen, a Greenpeace International official.

“The report makes it clear that we still have time to act,” said Samantha Smith from the World Wide Fund for Nature campaign group.

“We can limit climate instability and adapt to some of the changes we see now. But without immediate and specific action, we are in danger of going far beyond the limits of adaptation,” she said.

In September, the IPCC warned that humans were primarily responsible for global warming, which has led to a faster-than-predicted rise in sea levels, rapidly melting glaciers and ice sheets.

A third report, which will focus on mitigation of climate change, is due for release in April in Berlin.

A summit in Paris in 2015 will focus on the creation of new international climate treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the first phase of which came to an end in 2012.

ht tp : / /www.theh indu .com/sc i - tech /energy-and-

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ARTICLE

INDIAN MASS MEDIA AND ITS ROLE IN INCREASING ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS LEADING TO FAVOURABLE CONSUMER ATTITUDES - A CONCEPTUAL STUDY

Jubilee GoyalLecturer, IEL, Dehradun

Abstract:-Increasing economic activities in developing countries result in more energy and consumption demand, which generally lead to environmental degradation. Keeping this in mind, an increasing awareness on the various environmental problems has led a shift in the way consumers go about their life. There has been a change in consumer attitudes towards a green lifestyle. People are actively trying to reduce their impact on the environment. However, this is not widespread and is still evolving. Organizations and business however have seen this change in consumer attitudes and are trying to gain an edge in the competitive market by exploiting the potential in the green market industry.The current study introduces the concept of green marketing, consumer attitudes towards green marketing, environmental awareness and looks into the role of mass media in Indian context in increasing the environmental awareness. A conceptual framework is presented and the information is analyzed on the basis of the framework.

Keywords: Green marketing, green consumer, environmental awareness, mass media.

INTRODUCTIONGreen Marketing – What it is?

Defining green marketing is not a simple task. This term is often understood in a very narrow sense of the word.

Generally terms like Phosphate Free, Recyclable, Organic, Ozone Friendly and Environment Friendly are most associated with green marketing; however in contrast green marketing is a broad concept covering a range of activities. Green Marketing includes consumer goods, industrial goods and also services. Other terms similar to green marketing often used are environmental marketing and ecological marketing.

According to the American Marketing Association, “Green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe”. Thus, green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes in the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising.

Green marketing involves developing and promoting products and services that satisfy customers want and need for Quality, Performance, Affordable Pricing and Convenience without having a detrimental input on the environment.

Clearly green marketing is the part and parcel of overall corporate strategy; along with manipulating the traditional marketing mix (product, price, promotion and place).

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:The following are the objectives of the present study:

To study the basic concept of ‘Green 1. Marketing’. What is it and why is it important?A brief understanding of the green 2. consumer attitudes and green consumer behaviour.Role of environmental awareness in 3. forming favourable consumer attitudesRole of mass media in environmental 4. awareness, with special reference to Indian context.To suggest how companies in India can 5. better understand the consumer and increase their environmental awareness, to promote green buying behaviour.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:The study is mainly based on secondary data and review of available literature.Insight into Green Marketing - Review of literature:(Pride and Ferrell, 1993) - states that green marketing is an organization’s effort at designing, promoting, pricing and distributing products that will not harm the environment.(Jacquelyn Ottman, 1993) - concludes that green marketing practices may help companies to- gain more profits, increase market share and competitive advantage.(Walker et al., 1998) - observed that green marketing is the reduction of waste in input and output of production and is highly useful to the society.(Charles W. Lamb et al., 2004) - explained that green marketing has also become an important

way for companies to build awareness and loyalty by promoting a popular issue. By positioning their brands as ecologically sound, marketers can convey concern for the environment and society as a whole.(Roger A. Kerin et al., 2007) - suggests that green marketing takes many forms. It comes from product development opportunities that emanate both from consumer research and results in programs like ? “Pollution Prevention Pays program”, which solicits employee suggestions on how to reduce pollution and recycle.(Arun Kumar & N. Meenakshi, 2009) - concludes that consumers have to play an important role if companies have to practice green marketing and are to be made responsible for preservation of the environment. They should stop buying products of companies which are polluting the environment. Apart from companies, NGOs also have very important roles to play. NGOs should carry out research and tell the companies how they can make their process more environment-friendly.(Rajan Saxena, 2010) - maintained that green products and services are today increasingly being accepted by both the companies and customers.(Moloy Ghosh, 2011) - examined that green marketing was still in infancy. The green marketers must understand to satisfy two objectives: improved environmental quality and customer satisfaction.

Why Green Marketing?Green marketing is inevitable. As society becomes more concerned with the natural environment, businesses have begun to modify


ARTICLEtheir process in an attempt to address society’s new issues. Some businesses have been quick to accept the newer challenges or changes like environmental management, minimization of the waste aligning with organizational activities. Companies aim at marketing sustainable and socially responsible products and services. Now is the era of recyclable, non-toxic and environment-friendly goods. This has become the new mantra for marketers to satisfy the needs of consumers and earn better profits.(Miles & Covin, 2000) -indicated that there are two theories that explain why companies invest in developing superior environmental performance:

The Slack resources theory proposes that •the company that has sufficient assets tends to allocate discretionary resources for socially responsible practices, such as environmental enhancements (Graves&Waddock, 1994).This investment is designed to develop and enhance competitive advantage through reputation, image, and long term cost savings (Miles & Covin, 2000; Miles & Russell, 1997). Good management theory suggests •that companies that have innovative management tend to seek out emerging sources of competitive advantage such as new environmental practices to better satisfy their customers, (Russo & Fouts, 1997). Managers believe that gained realization of superior environmental performance in public would give a distinctive advantage that intensifies their competitive power, (Miles & Covin, 2000).The two theories indicate that the •primary reason for companies to engage in conducting and developing superior environmental performance is to improve the image of the company by conducting green practices and eventually to obtain the competitive advantage.

Green Consumer:In order to create a clearer picture of the green consumer (Shrum, McCarty and Lowrey, 1995) focused their study on trait and attitudinal variables which they found were more specific. They suggested that particular consumer attitude are related to propensity to buy green, but the relations are qualified somewhat by gender and by the nature of the green buying behaviour.

They found that a person who makes a special effort to buy green has “an interest in new products, is an information seeker and talks

to others about products. Additionally green consumers consider themselves as opinion leaders and hence may provide word of mouth information that other consumers respect.

The green consumer is also a careful shopper, not prone to impulse buying and pays attention to price ( Shrum,McCarty and Lowrey,1995).

The Indian Green Consumer:There has been a growth of public concern in India regarding environmental issues over the last few decades ( Bhate, 2002).

He investigated the extent to which consumers of India, Greece and the UK were aware of environmental issues and the extent to which their awareness was reflected in buying activities. The result was that the Indian respondents were most involved with environmental issues, similar to the involvement of UK respondents. The respondents in India were dissatisfied with the non availability of green alternatives by purchasing consumer goods. These respondents also opined that they purchase products with recycle packaging and are willing to change their retail outlet to another one in case of non availability of products in one of them.

Closer home in a comprehensive attitudinal and behavioural analysis of Indian Consumers as regards green

marketing, Jain and Kaur, 2004; found that Indian consumer survey reports a high level of concern for the environment and engagement in environmental behaviour.

On a personal level respondents positively affirm that they have been influenced by green communication campaigns. They exhibit willingness to take environmentally friendly actions, seek environment related information and pursue activities that help conserve the environment.

Green Consumerism:Green Consumerism is based on public awareness of pressing environmental issues. Green marketers hope to capitalise on this by developing strategies that allow consumers to integrate green products into their lifestyles. Many such efforts by green marketers have met with considerable success.

Green Consumer Purchasing Behaviour:Consumer behaviour involves the psychological processes that consumers go through in recognizing needs, finding ways to solve these needs, collect and interpret information, make plans, and implement these plans (eg. by engaging in comparison shopping of actually purchasing a product), making purchase decisions (eg. whether or not to purchase a product and, if so, which brand and where) and post purchase behaviour. In simple words, consumer behaviour can be defined as, “Study of how people or organization behaves when obtaining, using, and disposing of products and services”, (Sahu, 2012).Green Consumer behaviour involves the use and disposal of products as well as the study of how they are purchased. This means understanding the consumer’s behaviour as a process in purchasing goods and services. Product use is often of great interest to the marketer, because this may influence how a product is best positioned or how we can encourage increased green consumption.

In India even the post purchase behaviour such as, product disposal is great area of interest in green consumer

behaviour study, for example second hand market for car is quite big, hence Maruti entered in this segment by introducing True Value.

Green Consumer Conservation BehaviourLimiting use of scarce natural resources for the purposes of environmental conservation can be called as greenconsumer conservation behaviour. When are consumers likely to conserve and how can consumers be motivated to act in more environment friendly ways are two big questions in front of marketers. Consumers are most likely to conserve when they accept personal responsibility for the pollution problem. For example, consumer who perceive that there is an energy shortage because of consumption by all consumers (including themselves) are more likely to accept personal responsibility and so do something about it. However, consumers often do not feel accountable for many environmental problems and are not motivated to act. Consumers are also most likely to conserve when there are no barriers to doing so, (Sahu , 2012).


Green Consumer Attitude:According to Wesley, “attitude of •environmental concern are rooted in a person’s concept of self and the degree to which an individual perceives him or herself to be an integral part of the natural environment.”(Schutz et al., 2000).Consumers’ product purchasing decisions •are often based on their attitude, (Irland, 1993; Schwepker and Cornwell, 1991) favourable to the environment. As feelings of connection increase, environmental concern increases.Consumer attitude are a composite of •a consumer’s (1) beliefs, (2) feelings, (3) behavioural intentions, towards some object. These components are viewed together since they are highly interdependent and together represent forces that influence how the consumer will react to the object.Similarly, if an attitude is “an enduring set •of beliefs about an object that predispose people to behave in particular ways toward the object” (Weigel, 1983); one may expect people with a pro environmental attitude to act in ways consistent with that attitude, (eg. to recycle household waste or to support environment initiatives).Consumer attitude that drive the desire •to act in environmentally responsible manner resulting in purchase behaviour therefore can be defined as ‘a learned predisposition to respond consistently in favourable manner with respect to the environment by buying environmentally sustainable products / green products’Attitude can be broadly classified as •cognitive and emotional. Environmental consciousness and environmental concern talked earlier are specific attitude that lead to environmental behaviour like buying of green products, products with eco labels and recyclable packaging.“Environment consciousness’” •corresponds to the cognitive dimension of environmental attitude and “environment concern” refers to the emotional disposition (Hartmann and Ibanez, 2006).In the case of the variable attitude, the •attitude of green consumers must by definition express environmental concern (Kinnear et al., 1974). Environmental concern may be defined as an attitude that is related to environmental consequences (Antonides and Van Raaij, 1998). This attitude is influenced by direct personal experiences, by the experiences of other individual and by the communication produced by the media.

The Attitude-Behaviour Link:It has always been believed by consumer •behaviourists that an individual’s actions can be predicted by their attitudes. There have been a number of attempts to improve the ability to predict an individual’s actions and a variety of factors have also been suggested to involve factors which can be classified as either dispositional or situational.(Spruyt, 2007) indicate that prediction •of behaviour is directly dependent on attitude of the consumer which is found to be associated with knowledge and personal experience they have (Davidson et al., 1985). The impact of beliefs and attitude on consumer buying habits has been studied extensively (Fazio & Zanna, 1981; Ajzen ,1989).Furthermore research in this area has •indicated that if attitudes are to be used in predicting the consumers behaviour’s then there are a number of methodological issues that have to be sorted out. According to (Ajzen& Fishbein, 1977) behaviour and attitudes have to be measured at the same correspondence level.There are a number of theories that have •been put forth to explain the process by which attitudes predict behaviour.According to (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) •theory of reasoned action, “people consider the implications of their actions before they decide to engage or not engage in a given behaviour”. Thus according to the above theory, people’s attitudes play a significant role when it comes to their forming an intention to act in certain behaviour.The model primarily argues that people •engage in processing that leads to the formation of attitudes, norms and intentions prior to performing the behaviour.

Concept of Environmental Awareness:Environmental awareness refers to the individual’s perception of the impact of human behaviour on the environment (Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002). Some researchers have found a positive association between the individual’s degree of awareness of environmental problems and the environmental behaviour of the adults and children in their samples ( Barr, 2003; Grob, 1995; Strong, 1998 ). (McGuire,1985) in his input/output matrix model of the persuasive effect of communication shows that the message awareness of individuals is a necessary precondition if social marketers are to succeed in changing the attitudes and behaviour of those individuals.

Thus, an individual’s awareness of environmental problems might act as a first step, giving rise to various forms of environmentally sensitive behaviour including green purchase behaviour. (A. J. Roberts, 1996) has found in his study that a high degree of environmental awareness, distinguishes green consumers from non green consumers.

The role of mass media in creating environmental awareness:

The mass media considered here trying •to explain environmental awareness are newspapers, radio and television due to the fact that these are the most widely and frequently used modern mass media in India.Since independence, the number of Indian •newspapers has multiplied several folds. Today Indian newspapers are brought out in 93 languages and dialects.But we need to discuss how extensively, •environmental issues are covered in the daily newspapers. Times of India has abandoned its weekly column and none of India’s daily newspapers has a regular space reserved for environmental news so that these are only addressed as government, ministry and legal news as well as in contexts of science or health. Roughly it can be said that India’s most important newspapers like Times of India, The Hindu, Hindustan Times or Indian Express have an article on environmental issues at least every second day , with Times of India doing the best job in terms of frequency.This however is specific to general •environmental awareness and not specific to consumer, sustainable consumption or green purchase behaviour.The reason for this low growth is that •environment coverage is competing with all the other issues covered in the newspaper whereby the most severe selection criterion is the news worthiness of an issue. Also, the interest of the reader as far as news on environment are concerned is supposed to be still fairly low by the editors.Although its number of readers is only •around 16.000, India’s only environmental magazine “Down to Earth” has to be mentioned when writing on environment and media, because it fills an important lack in Indian media and their coverage of environment. Started in 1992 this magazine is a kind of chronology of Indian environmental history.Radio is cheap, most easily accessible •and radio signals cover almost the whole


country. In addition to the relatively small number of people listening to the radio the role of radio in creating environmental awareness cannot be considered an important one due to the fact that there are only very few regular environmental programs, although there is an instruction by Supreme Court for all media that programs on environment should be broadcast. Again these are spreading environmental awareness and are not spreading specific environmental awareness related to green consumption.Due to the high level of illiteracy in India, •electronic media are in a key position. Furthermore, inquiries have shown that both radio and television are perceived as authoritative and friendly media by vast percentages of the population, compared to newspapers and radio. Television does a good job in covering environmental issues: Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and Animal Planet Channel are broadcasting exclusively on endangered species, wild and sea life.Television has programs to spread •environmental awareness targeted at educated people. “Earth Matters” offers information on the sources, explains the consequences of the problem considered and gives us suggestions for solution by changing individual behaviour.Purchase habits of consumer like recycling, •using jute bags foe shopping, information of eco-labelling, organic foods are all give very clearly in this programme.Weekly “Terra quiz”, India’s first •environmental quiz show on television, is a competition of the top ranking schools from Green Olympiad and is sent between Hindu and English news. “Nature Plus” is another programme broadcast daily.Advertisements, another tool of mass •communication has however been found to be the most effective way of increasing environmental awareness.

FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS:According to the research conducted in Indian context to assess the level if environmental awareness, in a study it was seen that though Indians lack sufficient awareness about environmental issues, there is a generally high concern for the environment and most surprisingly, Indian consumers score very high on environment friendly behavior, especially in purchase decisions i.e. buying greener products (Jain and Kaur, 2004).

Environmental Awareness can be increased by the supply of right product information and environmental information. The government; politician and lack of enforcement of laws are seen to be responsible much for the environmental problems. Lack of information provided to the consumers, lead to respondents having poor awareness about the environmental issues. More information about environmental issues will therefore lead to better environmental awareness.

There is an assumption that the better green consumers will be informed and the more they will know about the qualities of an eco-friendly product the more they will be motivated to buy the product. Awareness is a criterion that has an impact on green Consumer Behaviour in all the stages of decision making process on buying an eco-friendly product.

In Indian context a common weak point shared by radio, TV and newspaper in India is that there are no journalists specialized (only) on environmental issues, that journalism on environment is neither a part of the education as a journalist nor is there a possibility of further training in this field. Further typical limitations of modern mass media in India are the language. However both Central and state Governments through its advertisements on all these medium including internet launch very effective campaigns to increase the environmental awareness.(e.g. campaign against the use of crackers in Hindu Festival Diwali or the promotion of bags out of natural materials instead of plastic) .

Companies like Nokia, HLL, P&G, Wipro, O.N.G.C. and ITC to name a few are the big names that are practicing green marketing in a big way, however the efforts of increasing the environmental awareness of consumers are missing. Campaigns by the effective use of mass media should be made to involve youth in the green marketing activities by increasing their environmental awareness.

Females should be targeted by increasing their product knowledge to increase their environmental awareness as in Indian families females play an important role in consumer decision making.

A combined effort of consumers, mass media, government, NGO’s and corporate are required to get the desired results, focusing

on sustainable consumption, increased green purchase behaviour, favourable pro-environmental attitudes and increase environmental awareness.

REFERENCES:Azhagaiah R. and Ilangovan A. (2006), 1. “Green Marketing and Environmental Protection.” Indian Journal of Marketing, vol. XXXVI, No.1.

Chopra, S.Lakshmi (April 2007), “Turning 2. Over a New Leaf”, Indian Management, Vol. 64.

Dainora Grundy et al (2008), “The Baltic 3. Journal on sustainability”. Vol.14 (2).

Ghosh Moloy (2010), “Green Marketing- 4. A changing concept in changing time”, BVIMR Management Edge, Vol 4, No.1.

Jagale N. Chetan & Dalvi D. Sharad 5. (2013), “Green Marketing: Marketing & Social Issue”, Journal of Arts, Science & Commerce, Vol. IV, Issue 1(2).

Mishra Pavan & Mishra Payal (2011), 6. “Green Marketing in India: Emerging opportunities & challenges”, Journal of Engineering, Science & Management Education, Vol 3.

Ottman J.A. (1993), “Green Marketing: 7. Challenges & Opportunities”, NTC Business Books, Chicago, IL.

Polonsky M.J. (1994), “An Introduction 8. to Green Marketing”, Electronic Green Journal 1, no.2.

Prakash Aseem (2002), “Green Marketing, 9. Public Policy and Managerial Strategies.

Shelton, R.D. (1994), “Hitting the green 10. wall: Why Corporate Programs get stalled”, Corporate Environment Strategy, Vol. 2, No. 2.

Thomas L. Friedman (2007), “The Power 11. of Green”, The New York Times.

Tiwari Sandeep, Tripathi M Durgesh, 12. Shrivastav Upasana, Yadav P.K. (2011), “Green Marketing- Emerging Dimensions”, Journal of Business Excellence, Vol. 2, Issue 1.

The ICFAI Journal of Environmental 13. Economics, Vol.-IV, No. 4, Nov.06.

www.wikipedia.com14.

www.greenmarketing.net15.

www.epa.gld.gov.au16.

www.tnpl.com17.

Source: Indian Streams Research Journal, ISSN 2230-7850, Volume-4 | Issue-2 | March-2014


George Monbiot

I had an unhappy time at university, and I now regret having gone to Oxford, even though the zoology course I took – taught, among others, by Richard Dawkins, Bill Hamilton and John Krebs – was excellent. The culture did not suit me, and when I tried to join in I fell flat on my face, sometimes in a drunken stupor. I enjoyed the holidays more: I worked on farms and as a waterkeeper on the River Kennet. I spent much of the last two years planning my escape. There was only one job I wanted, and it did not yet exist: to make investigative environmental programmes for the BBC.

After hammering on its doors for a year, I received a phone call from the head of the BBC’s natural history unit during my final exams. He told me: “you’re so fucking persistent you’ve got the job.” They took me on, in 1985, as a radio producer, to make wildlife programmes. Thanks to a supportive boss, I was soon able to make the programmes I had wanted to produce. We broke some major stories. Our documentary on the sinking of a bulk carrier off the coast of Cork, uncovering evidence that suggested it had been deliberately scuppered, won a Sony award.

Just as it began to work out as I’d hoped, Margaret Thatcher and Marmaduke Hussey launched their attack on the independence of the BBC. They forced the resignation of the director-general, Alasdair Milne, in January 1987, and this brave, dynamic organisation became a cow’rin, tim’rous beastie almost overnight. A few weeks later my boss told me that it was all over: we would no longer be making investigative programmes.

I moved to the World Service, to work as a current affairs producer, but I was already planning to leave the BBC. While I was working for the natural history unit, I had come across the story of Suharto’s transmigration programme in Indonesia. Backed by the World Bank and Western governments, he was moving hundreds of thousands of people

from the inner islands to the outer islands, with terrible consequences for both the migrants and the indigenous people in whose lands they were dumped. I had wanted to make a series about it: instead I took the idea to Penguin and persuaded them to give me the money to write a book. Towards the end of 1987 I travelled to Indonesia with the photographer Adrian Arbib. After forging a travel pass, we spent the next six months in West Papua.

We were as reckless and foolish as only young men can be – this is why wars get fought. We threw ourselves into and out of a great deal of trouble. At one point we had to walk and canoe for four weeks from the central highlands to the south coast. We became lost in the forest for several days and ate insects and rats to stay alive. I was stung almost to death by hornets. We also had some close brushes with the occupying Indonesian army. The story we uncovered – and our adventures along the way – are related in my first book Poisoned Arrows.

It did quite well, earning me enough of an advance on the next book to live in the Amazon for two years. I was 26 when I arrived in Brazil (in 1989), but I see this period as the beginning of my education. It was there that I had my first contact with extensive social movements: the resistance networks established by peasants and indigenous people defending their land from the people trying to seize it. I became closely involved with a peasant movement in Maranhão, which led to a beating by gunmen working with the military police.

I then followed the evicted peasants across the Amazon to the gold mines of Roraima, where I saw the devastating impacts of their attempts at survival, on both the forests and the Yanomami people. Masquerading as a shipping agent, I traced mahogany being stolen from indigenous and biological reserves to Britain for the first time: in one case to the furniture restoration department at Buckingham Palace. The story of these investigations is told in my book Amazon Watershed. I returned to Brazil some time later, to make a Radio 4 programme called Going Back, during which I managed to track down the police sergeant responsible for torturing and killing peasant activists in Maranhão. The episode was used for several years on the BBC’s health and safety training course as an example of what not to do.

Working once more with Adrian Arbib, I then moved to East Africa, in 1992, to investigate assaults on the lives of the nomadic peoples of Kenya and Tanzania. Living with the Turkana people in northern Kenya, I contracted cerebral

malaria, failed to recognise it and very nearly died in Lodwar district hospital. The experience was a shattering one. During my recovery, I suffered, as cerebral malaria patients often do, from psychosis for several days. It was the most frightening time of my life. It took me some months to get my health back, and more than a year to regain my confidence. The episode cast a shadow over the rest of my work there, and for several years I was unable to talk or write about it. The story we uncovered is told in my book No Man’s Land.

After six years working in the tropics, I decided to return to Britain. There I became involved in the direct action movement: first against timber companies importing mahogany from the Amazon, then against the government’s road-building programme. In the summer of 1994, while contesting the road being built through the flank of Solsbury Hill, I was hospitalised by two thugs in yellow tabards, who impaled my foot on a fencing spike, smashing the middle bone. I was one of 11 people admitted to accident and emergency in the local hospital that day as a result of beatings by the security guards.

I saw the road-building programme as an example of the kind of enclosure the peasant movements in Brazil were fighting. Reading histories of land alienation and resistance movements in Britain, I began to see that these forces had played a major role in our politics, but were now largely forgotten. I co-founded a group called The Land is Ours, whose purpose was to try to revitalise public engagement in decisions about how the land is used. We occupied a number of sites, including 13 acres of prime real estate beside Wandsworth Bridge in London, which was destined for yet another supermarket. We held it for six months, beating the owners, Guinness, in court, and built a village there, which was eventually destroyed in the eviction.

After writing a few op-eds for the Guardian, I was offered a regular column in 1996. Thanks to the tolerant and open-minded editors I have been blessed with ever since, I have been able to explore the issues that interest me, however obscure they may be. I cannot think of any work I would rather do, except perhaps tracking wolves, but there’s not much call for that in Britain.

As a result of some of the things I learnt while researching my columns, I began the investigations which culminated in my next book, Captive State: the corporate takeover of Britain, published in 2000. The discoveries

FACET

it made, I felt, shone new light on politics in this country. But while the books I had written about other countries were reviewed in most of the papers, Captive State was reviewed hardly anywhere, at least when it was first published. The deathly silence with which the book was received suggested to me that some issues are treated by the media as too impolite to discuss.

After identifying what I felt were some of the problems curtailing democratic politics, I set out to propose some solutions, in my next book, The Age of Consent. Like Captive State, this sold well. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there has been little progress towards the solutions it proposed. Since then I have published three more books. The first is Heat: how to stop the planet burning, which shows how we can cut carbon emissions by 90% without destroying our quality of life; the second is a collection of essays called Bring on the Apocalypse. The latest, which was first published in 2013, is about rewilding: the large-scale restoration of ecosystems. It’s called Feral: searching for enchantment on the forntiers of rewilding. It’s a wonderful subject. Researching it felt like stepping through the back of the wardrobe.

My work is more sedentary than it used to be, so I temper it with plenty of physical activity: sea kayaking, ultimate frisbee, running and some heavy duty gardening: growing my own vegetables and much of my own fruit.

Here are some of the things I love: my family and friends, salt marshes, arguments, chalk streams, Russian literature, kayaking among dolphins, diversity of all kinds, rockpools, heritage apples, woods, fishing, swimming in the sea, gazpacho, ponds and ditches, growing vegetables, insects, pruning, forgotten corners, fossils, goldfinches, etymology, Bill Hicks, ruins, Shakespeare, landscape history, palaeoecology, Gavin and Stacey and Father Ted.

Here are some of the things I try to fight: undemocratic power, corruption, deception of the public, environmental destruction, injustice, inequality and the misallocation of resources, waste, denial, the libertarianism which grants freedom to the powerful at the expense of the powerless, undisclosed interests, complacency.

Here is what I fear: other people’s cowardice.I still see my life as a slightly unhinged adventure whose perpetuation is something of a mystery. I have no idea where it will take me, and no ambitions other than to keep doing what I do. So far it’s been gripping.http://www.monbiot.com/about/

CMS VATAVARAN and Panos South Asia (PSA) proudly announce the winners of the PSA CMS Media Excellence Awards 2013PSA-CMS Young Journalist Awards1. Mr. Chandan Haygunde, Indian Express, Pune, India2. Ms. Juhi Chaudhary, CNN-IBN, New Delhi, India

SACCA Media Excellence Awards 1. Ms. Subhra Priyadarshini, Editor, Nature-India, New Delhi, India2. Mr. Amantha Perera, Freelance Journalist, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Congratulations, winners!The awards which includes a citation and a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 each wiere presented to the winners at the inaugural ceremony of the CMS-Vatavaran Environment and Wildlife film festival,on December 6th at New Delhi.The awards are presented for excellence in environmental journalism to individuals who have done “exemplary investigative and inspired reporting on environment issues in the country”

http://www.panossouthasia.org/index.asp?sname=HOME

Congrats to SEJ Members Dan Fagin and David Philipps, and All 2014 Pulitzer Prize WinnersSEJ congratulates the 2014 Pulitzer Prize winners on their stellar achievement, including writers, editors and freelance friends at The Washington Post and The Guardian, which won the prize for Public Service, and Newsday as a Finalist; The Boston Globe Staff for Breaking News Reporting, and The Arizona Republic Staff (covering fast-moving wildfire) and The Washington Post Staff as Finalists; and for Editorial Writing the Editorial Staff of The Oregonian, and Dante Ramos of The Boston Globe and Andie Dominick of The Des Moines Register.

Members of SEJ won the Prize in the following categories:General Nonfiction: Special congratulations to past SEJ board president Dan Fagin for “Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation” (Bantam Books), a book that “deftly combines investigative reporting and historical research to probe a New Jersey seashore town’s cluster of childhood cancers linked to water and air pollution.

National Reporting: David Philipps of The Gazette, Colorado Springs, CO, for “expanding the examination of how wounded combat veterans are mistreated, focusing on loss of benefits for life after discharge by the Army for minor offenses, stories augmented with digital tools and stirring congressional action.”

Kudos to other winners and finalists who reported on important issues of the environment:Chris Hamby• of The Center for Public Integrity, Washington, D.C., who won the Investigative Reporting prize “for his reports on how some lawyers and doctors rigged a system to deny benefits to coal miners stricken with black lung disease, resulting in remedial legislative efforts;”John Luther Adams• whose “Become Ocean” was awarded the Music prize. The “haunting orchestral work suggests a relentless tidal surge, evoking thoughts of melting polar ice and rising sea levels.” (Taiga Press/Theodore Front Musical Literature);Finalists in the National Reporting category • John Emshwiller and Jeremy Singer-Vine of The Wall Street Journal who reported on and created a searchable database on “the nation’s often overlooked factories and research centers that once produced nuclear weapons and now pose contamination risks;”Finalist in the History category • Eric Schlosser whose book “Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident and the Illusion of Safety” (The Penguin Press), is “a chilling history of the management of America’s nuclear arsenal, exploring the fateful challenges and chronicling the ‘near misses’ that could have triggered a cataclysm.”

http://www.sej.org/congrats-sej-members-dan-fagin-and-david-philipps-and-all-2014-pulitzer-prize-winners

Green Voice13A Newsletter from CMs ENVIs CENtRE on Environment and Youth

AWARD


Green Mediahttp://www.greenmedia.com/

Green Media is dedicated to establishing and building effective partnerships, within the international development and sustainable development sectors.

We do this by addressing global challenges, by facilitating high-level collaborations between businesses, governments and NGOs, and by delivering business insight and intelligence to our clients, partners and community.

Unique in that we focus on both sectors simultaneously, our global communications platform compromises a portfolio of industry forums, exhibitions and conferences, supported by a range of authoritative publications and reports which we publish in partnership with UN agencies and leading NGOs.

Our flagship projects include the Aid and International Development Forum (AIDF) – the world leading forum and exhibition for the humanitarian aid, relief and development sectors, in addition to Climate Action a multi-format communications tool in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to focus on business solutions and actions towards carbon neutrality and the green economy.

Green Media’s work on sustainable development is centred on climate change and the green economy. This is primarily delivered via Climate Action Programme in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Climate Action has developed into an annual publication, website (climateactionprogramme.org), and Sustainable Innovation Forum, which takes place alongside the United Nations Framework and Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) on an annual basis. In addition we organise the Sustainable Innovation Expo alongside the Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GMEF) which is held annually at UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

Newly added to the portfolio this year is our ‘Sustainable Cities’ publication, which was published in partnership with the leading NGOs in the built environment sector and was launched at the ‘Rio+20’ Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Our work within international development focuses on the Aid and International Development Forum (AIDF) - the world leading forum for the humanitarian aid, relief and development sectors which facilitates partnerships, addresses global humanitarian and development issues and encourages the sharing of expertise. AIDF takes place annually in Washington DC and brings together decision makers from UN, government, intergovernmental organisations, NGOs and the corporate sector who are involved in the delivery of humanitarian aid relief and development.

In 2013, AIDF will be launching AIDF Asia-Pacific; a dedicated forum for the Asia Pacific market which will be taking place in Bangkok, Thailand between 30-31 January.

NGO Vignettes


UNEP News Centrehttp://www.unep.org/newscentre/

Environmental News Networkhttp://www.enn.com/

Environmental Media Associationhttp://www.ema-online.org/

Valley Green Media

http://valleygreenmedia.com/index.html

Chris Green Mediahttp://www.chrisgreenmedia.com/

Think Green Media

http://www.thinkgreenmedia.com/

The Environmental Magazine

http://www.emagazine.com/

Environment News Service (ENS)

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Guardian dominates list of top 10 environmental journalistsThe UK’s green journalists were asked to rate their peers by the Press Gazette: Guardian and Observer writers fill half the top 10, including George Monbiot at number one.

When I worked at BBC News Online and had to write up the awarding of a journalism prize to our site, a senior editor had to sign the story off in what I thought of as an “immodesty check”.

There’s no such formal process here at the Guardian, but modesty is an attractive virtue, so I will relate the Press Gazette’s survey of environmental journalists in the UK with little comment. All lists are flawed in some way, but this one does have the virtue of being drawn up from the opinions of other journalists working in the field, who were asked to “name the people whose work they most highly rate.”

Here’s the top 10:1. George Monbiot - The Guardian

2. Charles Clover - The Sunday Times

3. John Vidal - The Guardian

4. Fiona Harvey - The Guardian

5. Fred Pearce - Freelance

6. Michael McCarthy - The Independent

7. Richard Black - BBC Online

8. James Murray - BusinessGreen

9. Juliette Jowit - The Observer

10. Leo Hickman - The Guardian

Five of the top 10 on on staff at the Guardian and Observer, while Fred Pearce is a regular contributor, as is James Murray, via the Guardian Environment Network.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/mar/07/environment-journalists

ENVIRONMENT JOURNALIST

Profile of world top 10 environmental journalists01. George Monbiot - The Guardian

George Monbiot is the author of the bestselling books The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of

Britain, as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed and No Man’s Land.

His most recent book is Heat: How We Can Stop the Planet Burning. He has held visiting fellowships or professorships at the universities of Oxford (environmental policy), Bristol (philosophy), Keele (politics) and East London (environmental science).

He is currently visiting professor of planning at Oxford Brookes University. In 1995 Nelson Mandela presented him with a United Nations Global 500 Award for outstanding environmental achievement. He has also won the Lloyds National Screenwriting Prize for his screenplay The Norwegian, a Sony Award for radio production, the Sir Peter Kent Award and the OneWorld National Press Award. A full archive of his articles, with references, is available at monbiot.com.

02. Charles Clover - The Sunday TimesCharles Clover has been the E n v i r o n m e n t Editor of The Daily Telegraph, Britain’s biggest s e l l i n g b r o a d s h e e t paper, since 1987. He won the British

Environment and Media’s National Journalist of the Year award in 1989, 1994 and 1996. Previously, he was an editor at The Spectator and a features writer for the Daily Telegraph.

He is a frequent contributor to BBC TV, Sky and BBC Radio news, as well as Newsnight, the leading long-form television news program in Britain.

In addition to his most recent book, The End of the Line, Clover is also the co-author, with the Prince of Wales, of Highgrove: Portrait of an Estate, (1993) a best-selling study of Prince Charles’s conversion to organic farming and gardening, and a clarion call for sustainable farming and the reform of Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy. He is a contributor to other books including Interpreting the Precautionary Principle, edited by Tim O’Riordan, and The Environmental Impact of World War Two, the official program for the 50th anniversary of VE day.

He is the founder and first chairman of the Spitalfields Society, a civic society trying to rebuild the social and architectural fabric of an inner London parish. He is the co-founder of the Agricultural Reform Group, a group promoting agricultural reform; many of its objectives are now stated principles of British Government policy. Clover is also a trustee of Dedham Vale Society, the society dedicated to protecting the Dedham Vale area of outstanding natural beauty on the Essex/ Suffolk border, and a member of the Fisheries Reform Group.

He was educated at the Westminster School and York University where he studied English and Philosophy. He lives in Essex with his wife and two sons.

03. John Vidal- The GuardianJohn Vidal is the G u a r d i a n ’ s e n v i r o n m e n t editor. He joined the John Vidal is the Guardian’s e n v i r o n m e n t editor. He joined the paper in 1995 after working for

Agence France Presse, North Wales Newspapers and the Cumberland News. He is the author of McLibel: Burger Culture on Trial (1998) and has contributed chapters to books on topics such as the Gulf war, new Europe and development.


04. Fiona Harvey - The Guardian Fiona Harvey is an award-winning e n v i r o n m e n t journalist for the Guardian. Prior to this, she worked for the Financial Times for more than a decade. She has reported on

every major environmental issue, from as far afield as the Arctic and the Amazon, and her wide range of interviewees include Ban Ki-moon, Tony Blair, Al Gore and Jeff Immelt.

05. Fred Pearce - Freelance Fred Pearce is a freelance author and journalist based in the UK. He is e n v i r o n m e n t consultant for New Scientist magazine and author of numerous books,

including Earth Then and Now: Potent Visual Evidence of Our Changing World, and The Climate Files: The Battle for the Truth About Global Warming.

06. Michael McCarthy - The IndependentM i c h a e l

M c C a r t h y , formerly the Independent ’s l o n g s t a n d i n g E n v i r o n m e n t Editor, now its E n v i r o n m e n t Columnist, is one of Britain’s leading writers

on the environment and the natural world. He has won a string of awards for his work, including Environment Journalist of the Year (three times) and Specialist Writer of the Year in the British Press Awards in 2001. In 2007 he

was awarded the Medal of the RSPB for “Outstanding Services to Conservation,” in 2010 he was awarded the Silver Medal of the Zoological Society of London, and in 2011 the Dilys Breeze Medal of the British Trust for Ornithology. In 2009 McCarthy published Say Goodbye To The Cuckoo (John Murray), a study of Britain’s declining migrant birds.

07. Richard Black - BBC OnlineR i c h a r d

produced and p r e s e n t e d science and e n v i r o n m e n t programmes for BBC World Service prior to becoming a news correspondent.

He regularly covered major environment conferences such as the UN climate summits in Copenhagen and Cancun and the UN biodiversity summit in Nagoya in 2010, and recently made radio documentary series on forests, whaling and fisheries.

08. James Murray – BusinessGreenJames Murray is the founding editor of BusinessGreen having launched the site in October 2007.He is responsible for BusinessGreen’s leading news,

opinion and analysis, and also contributes to the brand’s expanding events programme.James is one of the UK’s leading commentators on the low carbon economy. He writes occasionally for the Guardian newspaper and has also reported for BBC Radio on a number of green technology stories.

He reports daily on a wide range of green business issues, with a particular focus on low carbon policy, economics and technology.

In March 2011, he was voted number eight in the Press Gazette’s list of the top 50 environmental journalists in the UK.

Prior to launching BusinessGreen James spent five years as a technology journalist working on a variety of IT titles.

09. Juliette Jowit - The ObserverJuliette is an e n v i r o n m e n t journalist for The Guardian and The Observer newspapers. She p r e v i o u s l y worked for The Financial Times, where she won two awards for

business journalism, and has written for other publications including The New Statesman, the Kew Gardens magazine and Parliamentary Monitor. Although she writes widely about policy, science and other issues, she has particular interest in and wonder at the natural world, and loves being outdoors.

10. Leo Hickman - The GuardianLeo Hickman is the chief adviser, climate change, at WWF-UK. Before joining WWF-UK in 2013, Leo worked at the Guardian for 16 years as a journalist, editor

and author. His books included A Life Stripped Bare, The Final Call, and Will Jellyfish Rule the World? He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Exeter in 2013 in recognition of his environmental journalism. He probably spends too much time on Twitter.


Profile of Indian Environmental JournalistsAmritanj IndiwarE-mail: [email protected]: FreelancerOrganisation: FreelanceSpecialisation: My Works In Hindi Print Journalism Focuses Mainly On Environmental Issues, Comprising Basically Of Agriculture And Horticulture Based Environment Issue.

Ankur PalliwalE-mail: [email protected]: CorrespondentOrganisation: Down to Earth (CSE)Specialisation: I Specialize In Assessing And Reporting Energy Poverty Which Has Huge Implications For Local Livelihoods And Global Environment. In India. More Than A Million Households.Work Profile: It Is Difficult To Put One’S Work Above Those Of Others. In Journalism Every Story Can Be Important. I Applied For This Award To Call Your Attention To The Environmental Challenges Of Energy Which Although Crucial To The Wellbeing Of The People And The Economy Seldom Get The Importance It Should In The Media. I Seek Acknowledgement For Writing About These Concerns.

I Work For Down To Earth Magazine, India’S Pioneering Magazine On Environmental Issues. Working Here I Have Developed A Perspective Which Does Not Look At Environment In Isolation But As The Critical Underpinning Of Development And As A Key To Sustainable Future. As Environment Is A Vast Area, I Chose To Report On Energy Issues. I Am Four Years Old In Journalism.

Many Articles Have Been Written About The Miserable Energy Scenario. But What Has, Perhaps, Not Been Highlighted Is How The Crisis Is Also An Opportunity To Design A Clean Energy Future With Renewable Sources. A Transition Is Already Taking Place. I Have Travelled Extensively To Capture This Transition Which At Times Has Been Successful And At Others Has Faltered. My Articles Highlight The Complexities Of These Experiments. I Believe Each Of My Articles Has A Perspective And Looks Beyond What Meets The Eye. They Analyse And Investigate Different Aspects Of A Problem.

Some Of My Reports Have Been Used By Policymakers For Modifying Policies To Make These More Result-Oriented. At The End I Will Let The Samples Of My Stories Speak For Themselves.

Arif Shafi WaniE-mail: [email protected]: Senior CorrespondentOrganisation: Greater KashmirSpecialisation: I Have Been Working In Greater Kashmir---The Leading English Daily Of Jammu And Kashmir For Past Over A Decade. I Have Done Masters In Mass Communication And Journalism From Kashmir University And Specialize Covering Issues Confronting Environment, Including Receding Glaciers, Pollution Of Water Bodies And Vandalization Of Forests In Kashmir.Work Profile: I Am The First Journalist In Kashmir To Undertake Sustained Campaign For Over A Decade On Conservation Of World Famous

Dal Lake Which Had Been Marred By Extensive Pollution, Encroachment And Official Appathy. Many Of My Stories Expecially On Deteriorating Condition Of Water Bodies Including Dal, Nigeen And Brari Nambal Lagoon In Kashmir Prompted The Jammu And Kashmir Government To Take Immediate Action And Launch Conservatin Measures.One Of My Stories Exposing The Government’S Plan To Construct A Concrete Cantilever Through Dal Lake To Save Hotels Of Influential Persons From Demolition For Road Widening Foreed Authoriteis To Cancel The Plan.

In Recoginition Of My Work, I Have Been Honored With The First Sher-E-Kashmir (Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, Former Chief Minister) Award For Environmental Awareness In 2007 By Member Parliament And Former Chief Minister Of Jammu And Kashmir And Union Minister Of Renewable Energy, Dr Farooq Abdullah.

I Am Also Recipient Of The Ozone Award For Best Environmental Reporting In 2008 And Award Of Excellence For Best Environmental And Tourism Reportage In 2009 And 2012 By Travel Agents Association Of Kahsmir. I Am Also The Recipient Of Green Journalist Award In 2012 In Recognition Of His Contribution As Journalist In The Conservation Of Dal Lake, By Xpress Group In Collaboration With The Earth Infrastructure Ltd.. In 2013, I Was Awarded Parvaran Mitra Award By The Environmental Medical Association Of India. I Was Also Felicitated This Year With Award Of Honour For Environmental Reporting By Jammu And Kashmir Ski And Mountaineering Association.

Chandan HaygundeE-mail: [email protected]: Principal CorrespondentOrganisation: The New Indian ExpressSpecialisation: The Sahyadri Tiger Reserve (Str), Spread Over 741 Square Kilometer Area, Mainly In Sangli, Satara And Kolhapur Districts Of Maharastra, Faces Serious Threats Due To Illegal Mining, Unauthorized Private As Well As Government Constructions, Poachers, Lack Of Staff And Equipments, Etc. The Str Is Ninth Tiger Reserve In India. It Includes The Chandoli National Park And Koyna Wildlife Sancturary. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (Ntca) Declared The Str On May 21, 2007. Later, The Maharashtra Government Notified The Str On January 5, 2010. Str Is Believed To Have 13 Tigers.Work Profile: I Have Been Reporting From Ground Zero About The Illegal Activities And Problems In The Sahyadri Tiger Reserve (Str). It Involved Extensive Travelling, Actually Visiting The Problem Areas And Proper Investigation By Taking Photographs, Collecting Documental Evidence, Meeting Forest Officials And Government Authorities, Villagers, Environmentalists And Also Those Involved In The Wrongdoings In Str. I Also Highlighted The Problems In Str While Working On Fellowship By Center For Science & Environment.

I Investigated How Two Government Approved Bauxite Mines Were Flouting Supreme Court Orders By Their Illegal Activities In Str. Report-Bauxite Mines: 10 Km From National Park On Paper, Ntca Say 1 Km In Reality (Published On May 26, 2012).

I Exposed An Illegal Construction In The Koyna Wild Life Sancturary By A Businessman And Seven Illegal Roads In Str Made Under The Government’S National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Nregs). Report- In Koyna Sancturary, 7 Nregs Roads, Private Construction Defy Court Ban (Published On May 31, 2012),


The Report – Koyna Quake Study Proposal Raises Hackles (Publishes On June 8, 2012) Explained How A Project For Studying Earthquake Mechanism Was Initiated In Str Despite Stiff Opposition From State Forest Department. The Project By National Geophysical Research Institute Required Drilling Deep Holes, Blasting, Installation Of Heavy Machinery, In The Core Area Of Str, Possibly Causing A Major Damage To The Wildlife Habitat.

I Have Also Reported On Illegal Liquor Parties, Wind Mills In Str And How Lack Of Staff And Equipments Hampered Tiger Count. An Award Will Boost My Enthusiasm.

Imran KhanE-mail: [email protected]: Senior ReporterOrganisation: TehelkaSpecialisation: My Interest Include Politics, Human Rights, Development And Civil Rights And Of Course Environment.Work Profile: My Article Was The First To Question The Project Coming Up On Land, The Pastoral Communities Of Chhitradurga District In Karnataka Had Protected Over Two Centuries. The Issue Was Very Much In News Due To The Mass Movement Opposing This Project. However, Most Of The Local And National Media Shied Away From Questioning The Diversion Of Land For A Defence And Nuclear Research Which Could Entirely Wipe Off The Livelihoods Of The Neigh Bouring Villagers And In Turn Threatening The Flora And Fauna Of This Place. Research, Field Visit And Subsequent Investigation Showed That, Not Only The Diversion Of Common Lands Was Done Arbitrary, Without The Consent Of The People, But It Was Illegal Too-According To The Stipulated Laws Of The Land. Supreme Court Taking Cognizance Of This Matter Deemed The Diversion Of Lands Illegal And Has Referred The Matter To The Green Bench. Just Yesterday-Our Findings About This Place Being A Potential Habitat Of Great Indian Bustard Has Been Confirmed By The Ministry Of Environment And Forests Before The Tribunal.

Juhi ChaudharyE-mail: [email protected]: Senior CorrespondentOrganisation: CNN-IBNSpecialisation: I Specialize In Environment Reporting And Production For Television. Investigation Is My Forte. In Fact, I Began My Career In Tv Journalism In 2008 With An Investigation On Illegal Wildlife Trade Called ‘Blood On The Brush’ Which Led To On-The-Spot Arrest Of Two Traders Selling Paint Brushes Made Of Banned Mongoose Hari, Over The Last Five Years, I Have Covered A Range Of Environment Stories For Cnn-Ibm With Prime Focus On Issues Like Wildlife Conservation, Development Projects Vs. Environment, Mining In Aravallis, Environment Policies And Climate Change. I Have Also Worked As A Producer For A Number Of Environment Shows.Work Profile: I Am Among The Very Few Journalists In India Who Have Consistently Reported Exclusively On Environment Issues For A National Television.

While ‘Environment Reporting’ Is Ofter Considered A ‘Soft Beat’, I Have Tried To Change The Perception Through Hard-Hitting, Investigative News Stories. E.G. In 2009 I Did And Expose On Illegal Mining In Aravallis Following Which Supreme Counrt’S Committee (Cec) Ordered The Haryana Govt To Conduct An Inquiry. The Story Was Even Quoted In The Parliament By Jairam Ramesh, Former Environment Minister, In 2011,

I Exposed How A Top Hospital In Delhi Was Dumping Dangerous Bio-Medical Waste In Violation Of The Rules. Following This, Nhrc And Delhi Pollution Control Committee Sent Notices To The Hospital.

- I Have Filed A Range Of Environment Stories Out Of Which I Am Submitting The Following Three Reports Published In 2012:1. Govt Violating Wildlife Laws?: It Highlights The Plight Of Wild Elephants In India While Exposing How Moef Allowed The Capture Of Wild Elephants In Violation Of Its Own Rules. Impact: Environment Ministry Withdrew Its Order2. Fresh Row Over Dlf Forest Land – And Expose On How The Haryand Govt Showed Prime Forest As ‘Barren Land’ On Paper To Facilitate Construction Of A Mini-City In Gurgoan.3. Saving The ‘Kite’ From Kites – An ‘Indian Positive’ Story That Focuses On Green Solutions. It Features Two Brothers Who Re Saving Injured Raptors In Old Delhi Against All Odds.

-I Was Also The Recipient Of 9Th Cse Media Fellowship Which Enabled Me To Do Ground Reporting On Climate Change In Gujarat.

-I Was Featured In Daily Mail On 16Th May 2012 In An Article ‘Woment On A Wild Mission Entering Conservation Profession’.

Kumar Sambhav ShrivastavaE-mail: [email protected], [email protected]: CorrespondentOrganisation: Down to Earth (CSE)Specialisation: In The Past Three-And-A-Half Years Of Reporting On Environment, I Have Focused On Forest Resources, Community Rights Over Them And Wildlife Management. In India, Over 20 Per Cent Of The Landmass Is Under Forest Coer. About 200 Million Landless Tribal And Poor People Depend On It For A Living. One-Fourth Of The Forests Are Known Biodiversity Hotspots. But Then These Forests Happen To Stand On Bountiful Mineral Resources. This Has Led To Conflict Between Communities, Wildlife, Industry And Governments I Have Been Reporting On These Conflicts And Analyzing The Events In The Light Of The Underlying Politics.

Work Profile: Down To Earth Has Given Me The Opportunity To Report Day-To-Day Events From An Environmental Perspective. While Reporting From Rural And Forest Areas In 12 States, I Have Given National Environment Issues A Village Perspective. I Have Also Reported On International Negotiations On Forests And Biodiversity.

Some Of My Articles Have Had A Significant Impact. A Series Of Articles On Implementation Of Forest Rights Act Contributed To The Policy Debate On Rights And Livelihood Of Forest Dwellers. The Debate Led To Deregulation Of Bamboo-Rights To Harvest And Sell Bamboo Were Passed From The Government To Communities.

My Reports On Tourism In Tiger Reserves Exposed Unjust Exploitation Of Forest Resources By The Tourism Industry And Denial Of Benefits To Communities Living Near Forests. An Investigation Into Frequent Tiger Deaths In Corbett Tiger Reserve In Uttarakhand Unearthed The Disorder Created By A Turf War Between Powerful Lobbies Of Bureaucrats, Businessmen And Politicians.


Major National Dailies Reproduced My Investigative Articles On Environmental Violations By Lavasa Corporation While Building Its Hill City In Maharashtra, And The Irregularities In Vedanta And Posco Mining And Steel Projects In Odisha. My Articles On Farmers Living In Ecologically Fragile Areas, Who Were Shifting To Goat Rearing, And On The Trade And Production Of Timber, Were Considered By Government Panels Deliberating These Matters.

I Intend To Continue With My Work Of Understanding And Reporting On Environmental Matters. If Considered For This Award, I’Ll Take It As A Recognition Of The Way I Perceive And Report On The Environment.

Monika GuptaE-mail: [email protected]: Sr. Copy EditorOrganisation: The Public AgendaSpecialisation: I Am Specialized In Economic And Environmental Issues. Worked On Various Subjects The Respective Field And Got Recognition Form Many Media Tycoons.Work Profile: I Think Self Praise Is Very Hard To Deliver Oneself. But I Must Say That The Works Which I Have Done On Environmental Issues Have Created Great Impact On Society. The Novamundi Environmental Pollution Story Published In The The Public Agenda (22Nd Issue Iind Year-9- Dec 2009) Draws Unanimous Attention Of State Government And Other Organizations Towards The Plight Of People Of West Singhbuhum’S Bordering Areas Located In Between Jharkhand And Orissa States. After The Publication Of The Said Article The Jharkhand State Government Directed The Companies Indulged In Mining Works To Regularly Perfuse And Sprink Water In And Around Mini8Ng Areas. The Direction Got Implemented Too And Hence People Got Relief From Iron Ore Dust. Similarly My Work On Saranda Published In The The Public Agenda (2Nd Issue Vith Year-28 Feb 2013) Also Created Impact On Society. There The Companies Involved In Mining Have Increased There Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) And Hence People Got Benefited.

Navya P.K.E-mail: [email protected]: Senior Journalist (Formerly)Organisation: Citizen MattersSpecialisation: I Write On A Range Of Topics Including Environment, Local Governace And Infrastructure. Within Environment, I Have Focused On Urban Waste Management, Lake Degradation, Water Scarcity Etc. I Have Reported On Commercial Exploitation Of Ground Water In Bangalore, Irregularities In Bangalore City Corporation’S Garbage Tender Process, Policies That Lead To Loss Of Green Cover Etc.

I Am Interested In Reporting Further On Environment Conservation At The Policy-Making Level, Sustainable Development Practices, And On How Political And Commercial Interests Have Been Exploiting The Environment.Work Profile: For The Award, I Am Submitting A Series Of Stories That Exposed Massive Environmental Threat Due To An Upcoming Rs. 2300 Crore Special Economic Zone (Sez)-Cum-Township Project In South Bangalore. The Project Was Located Over 72 Acres Next To Bellandur Lake, Upon Fragile Wetland Area.

I Found That The Project Had Encroached Primary Drains That Connected Two Lakes. This Would Increase The Risk Of Flooding Nearby During

Rainy Season, And Also Cause Groundwater Depletion In The Already Water-Starved Area. The Traffic In The Road Located Along The Project Would Be Exponential Once The Project Became Operational.

The Promoters Had Failed To Get Full Statutory Clearances And Had Falsified Details Too. The Series Also Exposed How Government Agencies Had Changed Land Use Classification Of The Project Site Over The Years, Changing It From A Protected Area To A Mixed Use Zone.

Since The Project Was Massive, Several Government Offices Were Involved In Its Approval. It Took Many Visits To These Offices, Multiple Interviews And Rti Data To Piece Information Together. That The Project Promoters Were Not Co-Operative, Made Data Gathering More Difficult.

The Exposes Were Followed By Coverage In Major Television Channels And Action By Local Residents. Some Government Agencies Issued Notices To The Promoter, Asking For Explanation. Karnataka High Court Has Issued Notices To The Promoter And State Agencies Based On A Pil Filed By Residents. My Series Is And Example Of Massive Environmental Degradation That Has Been Occurring Across The Country In The Name Of Development, And Of The Change That Can Be Affected By Exposing Such Issues.

Neha SinhaE-mail: [email protected]: Policy officerOrganisation: Bombay Natural History SocietySpecialisation: I Specialize In Covering And Writing On Decisions And Issues Relating To The Environment, But Within A Deep Analysis Of Contexts And Policy Frameworks. My Reports And Writing Are On Environmental Issues, Biodiversity, Species Conservation, And Related Decisions, But They Include Research On Court Judgments, Multilateral Environment Treaties That India Is Party To, And Existing Policies; To Facilitate Informed Debate On The Issues, But Also Bring To Light Implications Of The Issue At Hand.

The Idea Is To Bridge The Gap Between What Is And What Should Be, As Per Our Legal, Policy And Normative Commitments.Work Profile: I Work In Conservation Biology And Planning, But Actively Write And Report On Environment In An Independent Capacity. My Writing Raises Issues With A Focus On Nuances Based On Policy, Utilizing Available Data (Like Bird Counts) And Placing Context Through Precedents (Eg. Normative And Judicial Precedents), To Create Linkages Between Different Fields Of Ecology, Health And Planning, And Ultimately To Explore Implications Of The Issue At Hand On Direct And Indirect Environments. I Address Different Audiences Through Writing In Journals Read By Policy Makers, And Newspapers And Magazines Read By Civilians.In My Report On Nicobar Megpode And Narcondam Hornbill, I Wrote On Defence Projects Which Were Impacting Habitats Of These Endangered Birds. I Questioned Whether Every Defence Project Is Tantamount To ‘National Security’, And Going Beyond Just A Site Story, I Discussed Habitat Niches, Stressing On The Propensity Of Island Endemics Towards Extinction.

In My Report On A Supreme Court Judgment On Lions (2013), I Stressed On Facetes Other Reporters Have Missed: On The Apex Court Calling For A ‘Species Best-Interest Standard’ And ‘Intrinsic Worth Of Species’.I Have Analysed Several Supreme Court Judgments To Present A Case Not


Just For Lions But All Endangered Species, And The Importance Of Looking At Species On A Landscape Level, Rejecting A Parochial State-Planning Level.

In An Incident Reported Simply As A Rabid Dog Biting A Tiger, I Exposed How This Reveals Our Failure In Keeping Wild And Feral Animal Populations Apart, And The Threat Of Anthropogenic Disease To Wildlife.

Ratnadip ChoudhuryE-mail: [email protected], [email protected]: Principal Correspondent Organisation: TehelkaSpecialisation: Developmental Issues, Border Issues, Conflicts, National Policies, Social & Human Rights Issues. The Recent Thrust Area Has Been Conflict On Natural Resources, Environment & Wildlife. Also Frequently Write On Human Interest Stories, Features On Culture And Lifestyle Of Ethnic Tribes & Crime Against Women.

Work Profile: On May 12, 2012. Issue Volume 9 Issue 19, Tehelka Published My Ground Zero Investigation Headlined : Where The Wild Things Were, That Expose To The Rest Of The World How Reckless Mining And Stone Quarrying Is Devouring The Wild Habitat In Kaziranga, The Home Turf Of The Famous One-Horn Rhinos And A Unesco World Heritage Site. The Investigation Supported By Some Clinching Evidences And Photographs Tracked The High-Stakes Game Of Illegal Stone Mining. On 19 April 2012, The National Green Tribunal (Ngt) Asked The Moef To Submit A Site Inspection Report Development Zone Near The Kaziranga National Park. Tehelka Decided To Look For The Truth. On 24 April 2012, We Found A Stone Crusher In Borbheta Under The Bokakhat Sub-Division Near Kaziranga, Where A Giant Automated Stone Crusher Was At Work And Trucks Full Of Stones Were Waiting To Be Unloaded. It Was All In Front Of Us, Giving The Lie To The Government Claim. Before We Could Go Looking For The Owner, We Were Spotted By A Group Of 35-40 Workers, Who Surrounded Us And Demanded That We Hand Over Our Camera To Them. Our Photographer Was Roughed Up And His Camera Broken, But We Fought The Stone Mafia. Undeterred, Tehelka Followed Up With Another Ground Report O May 26, 2012, Issue 21 Volume 9, Headlined: Renewing Licenses To Make A Killing Where Found Out How Even After A Green Tribunal Restricted Stone Quarrying Activities Around The Kaziranga National Park, The State Has Renewed Mining Licences In The Area, Overlooking Environmental Concerns, The Tehelka Reportage Create Impact. On 7 September 2012, While Delivering A Landmark Judgment On A Petition Filed At The National Green Tribunal (Ngt), Which Was Filed Following The Tehelka Story, The Green Panel Ordered The Immediate Removal Of Industrial Units From The No-Development Zone (Ndz) Near The Kaziranga National Park. This Story Was Also Awarded The First Northeast Green Journalism Award 2013 In Guwahati On June 5, 2013.

Sai ManishE-mail: [email protected]: FreelancerOrganisation: TehelkaSpecialisation: I Have Reported On A Host Of Issues For Tehelka Ranging From Human Rights To Environment And Politics. Apart From Chasing Current News Stories, I Have Done Special Reports And Investigative Reports For Tehelka.Work Profile: I Am Submitting Two Stories That I Did From Sikkim For Tehelka Magazine While Working For Them. One Of Them Was Done In

2011 When I Reported On The Devastation Caused By The Earthquake In The Himalayan State. As A Follow Up, I Went Again Next Year In 2012 To Investigate The Status Of Rehabilitation Of Earthquake Victims. While Reporting During The Earthquake, I Was One Of The First Journalists To Point Out The Environmental Destruction That Had Been Caued By Hydro Electric Projects In Sikkim. By Visiting Areas Close To The Epicenter Of The Quake And Sourcing Documents, I Was Able To Establish The Linkage Between The Destruction Caused By The Earthquake To Indiscriminate Dam Building Activities Going On In Sikkim. My Report Brought To Light How Damaging Sikkim’S Pristine Ecosystems Had Exacerbated The Impact Of A Natural Phenomenon Like An Earthquake. I Went Again In 2012 And Through By Investigative Report Exposed The Corruption In Relief And Rehabilitation Of Sikkim’S Earthquake Victims. The Report Exposed How Indigenous Tribes In Sikkim Living In Protected Areas Like The Zhongu Reserve Were Being Short Changed By The Sikkim Administration In The Name Of Earthquake Relief. I Believe, My Twin Reports On Sikkim Helped Highlight Pressing Environmental Issues Of A State And Its People Whose Voices Are Never Heard In Mainstream Media, My Ground Reporting And Investigative Reporting Should Find Favour With The Distinguished Judges Of The Award.

Sandeep KumarE-mail: [email protected]: FreelancerOrganisation: FreelanceSpecialisation: Development Journalism (Environment/ Tribal/Gender/ Health Issue)Work Profile: I Am Submitting Only One Story Because I Think This Is More Worthy Rather Than My Hundred And More Other Stories. Because Of Factories, Have Life Is Nined Is Some Places, Is The Focuse Of My Report While Preparing This Report, I Was Surprised To Know The Facts And Ground Reality. I Think Not Me, But This Report Desencs & Lot Of Consideration & Complinets.

Santosh John ThoovalE-mail: [email protected]: Sr. ReporterOrganisation: Malayala ManoramaSpecialisation: Report On Environmental Issues, And Human Interest Stories. Dealing With Environmental Issues & Rivers, Forests, Paddy Fields For The Lait 10 Years.Work Profile: I, Santhosh John, Of Sr. Reporter, Representing Malayala Manorama Daily, The Largest Selling Regional Langner Newspaper Is India For A Decade I Am Writing For Environmental Issues Like Sand Mining In The Rivers, Killing Trees, Transforming Paddy Fields Etc. The Submitting Series Of Article Published N Malayala Manoram On August 07-13 This Year, Which Expreices Environmental Issues And Safety Preparedness.

Savad RahmanE-mail: [email protected]: Sr. Sub EditorOrganisation: MadhyamamSpecialisation: Worked With Several Grass Root Movements For Many Years And Later Switched To Journalism To Make Activism More Meaningful. Now Specialized In Human Rights And Environmental Journalism. Writes Reports Featuring Rural Life In India. Regular Columnist In Much Discussed Malayalam Socio-Cultural Portal www.Nalamidam.com.


Work Profile: Two Major Challenges Kerala Faces Today Is Power Crisis And Waste Management. Discussions At Various Levels Were Being Progressed With A Prejudice That These Issues Cannot Be Solved; It Was Then My Reports Were Published With Explicit Solutions. I Strongly Believe That As An Environmental Journalist It Was An Admirable Service That I Could Propound Clearly Green Proposals To The Society And Re-Ignite Discussions On The Said Issues.

Me, A Former Cse Environmental Media Fellow Currently Pursuing National Media Fellow-Ship Awarded By National Foundation For India Will Get More Energy To Move Forward And Exploring More For The Benefit Of Nature And Generations..

Seetha GopalakrishnanE-mail: [email protected]: ConsultantOrganisation: India Water PortalSpecialisation: Getting To Know More About Agriculture And How It Moulds The Lives Of The People Practicing It Have Interested Me Greatly. This Led Me Some Of The Rural Pockets Of Tamilnadu To Know More About Their Perceptions, Difficulties And Successes.Work Profile: An Award, Big Or Small, Motivates And Inspires Individuals To Push Their Limits. I Am Still At The Early Stages Of My Journey To See And Learn More. I Feel This Award Would Inspire To Help Expand My Net And Help Me In My Quest To Know And Share More About The Rural Landscape.

Shiba BoseE-mail: [email protected]: ReporterOrganisation: The StatesmanSpecialisation: Completed Pg Diploma In Journalism And Mass Communication With Environment Reporting As Special Subject From Indian Institute Of Mass Communication (Iimc). Covered The Plight Of The Victims Cyclone Aila. Exposed Government’S Lackadaisical Attitude In Implementing And Encouraging Renewable Energy, Including Solar Power, N Villages Of West Bengal. Awarded 17Th Media Fellowship By The Centre For Science And Environment (Cse) On The “Fragile Ecosystem In India” In 2013.Work Profile: Starting Career As A Crime Reporter, Environment Seems Less Provocative. It Was A Chance Opportunity That Made Me Realize How Biger Crime It Is To Ignore Environmental Issues. While Covering Local Environmental Problems I Found Common People’S Unawareness In General And Government’S Apathy In Particular Toward Environmental Issues.

Certainly These Are Enough For A Young Reporter To Be Provoked. The Series of Investigating Report, Which I Am Sending For The Award, Are Prepared On The Threats Of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (Glof) On The Eastern Himalayan Region. After The Calamity In Uttarakhand It Was Proved That How Government Is A Happy With Some Paper Work Rather Than Installing Any Proper Mechanism To Assess The Reality Of A Region Which Is Fast Losing Its Temperament Due To Global Warming And Heavy Construction On The Hills.

Even The Series Of Reports On The Threats Of Glof Had Made The Indian \ Army To Sought Explanation From The Sikkim Government On

The Measures It Has Taken. It Was A Proper Warning Mechanism During Cyclonic Storm Phailin That Saved Huge Number Of Lives. But It Seems Government Is Not Ready To Learn Or To Take Lesson.I Think My Selection For The Award Would Inspire Me For The Next Level Of Encouragement To Combat Government’S “Leave-It-For-Another-Day” Attitude, Moreover, The Prize Money Is Another Impetus That Would Help Me To Explore Other Parts Of India, As Want Of Money Often Makes Our Strongest Desire Less Provocative.

Usha DiwaniE-mail: [email protected]: ConsultantOrganisation: India Water PortalSpecialisation: Presenting Stories Which Showcase Sustainable Ideas Or Practices In Audio-Visual Media So There Can Be More Intelligent Replications In Others Parts Of The Country.Work Profile: While It Is Important To Show Whats Going Wrong, It Is Equally Important, If Not More, To Show What Is Going Right So It Can Be Promoted Or Not Tampered With In The Future. Most People Today Are Looking For Solutions To Problems That Are Gnawing At Us. Hence I Am Trying To Bring Forth Such Positive Examples Of Work That Offer Sustainable Solutions To Those.

http://www.Indiawaterportal.org/articles/springs-hope-film-revival-dying-springs-sikkim

http://www.Indiawaterportal.org/articles/sowing-seeds-change

http://www.Indiawaterportal.org/articles/ingenious-system-manage-sewage-kolkata

Vivek MishraE-mail: [email protected]: FreelancerOrganisation: FreelanceSpecialisation: Off Grid Renewable Energy – I Analyzed Renewable Energy Policy Of Bihar Government And Its Impact. Flood & Climate, River – I Analyzed Ghaghra River Flood In Eastern U.P & Some Parts Of Bihar Between May 1, 2013 And July 15, 2013. I Completed A Book On Distress Of Displaced People Due To Flood In Ghaghra River.Work Profile: I Am Young Journalist Have Passionately Worked On Environment & Development Issues With Different Media. This Year Between April & July, I Got Amar Ujala National Journalism Fellowship. Under This Fellowship, I Had Extensively And Covered Water Scarcity & Flood Problems In Eastern Uttar Pradesh And Some Parts Of Bihar. My Work Would Be Compiled As Book In Coming Days, After This I Also Conferred Delhi Based Centre For Science & Environment 16Th Media Fellowship On Off Grid Renewable Energy Situation In Bihar During My Fellowship Period, Between July & Sept (2013), I Visited North Bihar And Reported On It. My Work Was Published By Patna, Prabhat Khabar. In Hindi It Is Hard To Get Space For Environment & Development Issue. But My Ground Reporting Compelled A Newspaper To Publish.

In Details. I Feel My Reports, Which Are Giving Ground Picture, Are Worth Enough To Line Your Given Criteria & Standard.


VIEWPOINT

7 million deaths worldwide in 2012 due to air pollution: WHOAbantika Ghosh, The Indian Express , Wednesday, March 26, 2014

New estimates released by the World Health Organisation on Tuesday state about 7 million people in the world died because of exposure to air pollution in 2012. This is an eighth of all deaths in the world.

With a total of 5.9 million pollution-related deaths, low and middle income countries in Southeast Asia — including India — and countries in the Western pacific were the worst off.

Union health ministry had set up a committee in January 2014 to examine the health effects of air pollution.

According to WHO, one-eighth of the total deaths in the world is caused by air pollution — both indoor and outdoor. Reuters

Deadly ExposureDeaths by Outdoor pollution

Indoor pollution

“Risks from air pollution are far greater than previously thought, particularly in terms of heart disease and strokes. Few risks have a greater impact on global health today than air pollution. The evidence signals the need for concerted action to clean up the air we breathe,” said Dr Maria Neira, director of WHO’s department of public health, environmental and social determinants of health.

The biggest culprits for indoor air pollution in countries like India are solid fuels like wood crop wastes, charcoal and coal used in open fires for cooking. Globally about 3 million

people cook this way, often in poorly ventilated spaces where indoor smoke can be up to 100 times more than acceptable levels for particles like soot that penetrate into lungs.

With more than 50% of premature deaths among children due to pneumonia caused by inhaling this soot and 3.8 million premature deaths annually due to non-communicable diseases like stroke, ischaemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer attributed to exposure to household air pollution, indoor air pollution is the cause of high levels of maternal and infant mortality

WHO estimates state outdoor pollution was responsible for 3.7 million premature deaths worldwide in 2012, of which 88% were in countries in Southeast Asia and Western Pacific due to burning of agricultural waste, forest fires and charcoal production.

“It will not suffice to say that pollution is a side-effect of development. The Chinese prime minister in his address to the state council three weeks ago had said the country would fight pollution with the same urgency with which it fought poverty. Unless we in India respond immediately to this major public health challenge, we stand the risk of condemning three generations to the ill health and untimely death because of air pollution,” said Dr K S Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India who is a member of the health ministry’s committee on health effects of air pollution.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/7-million-

deaths-worldwide-in-2012-due-to-air-pollution-who/


TV News Trends 2009-2013The year wise analysis of six prominent news channels (Aaj Tak, DD news, Zee news, ABP, CNN IBN and NDTV) reveals that the news on politics, sports, entertainment and crime had maximum coverage in five years (see figure below). In 2009, the coverage on environment was only 1.53% and news on politics was 20.36%. In the year 2010 the coverage of sports news was 17.93% in comparison with the environment news 1.29%. Since 2011 to year 2013 the coverage on politics had dominated on the other social issues. The coverage on environment news had declined since 2009 which is the alarming situation for environment conservationists.

Prime time coverage of stories 2009-2013The media in five years had focused rarely on different environmental issues such as agriculture, weather, natural disaster and wildlife. In the year 2009 ABP, Aaj Tak and Zee news channels mostly focused on the stories on natural disaster. In the same year, Zee news channel had delivered the maximumtime 3.78% minutes on natural disaster issues.Here, the NDTV news channel had provided 1.3% on environment & wildlife stories.

The next year 2010 the ABP news channel had 7.8% and Aaj Tak 6.6%coverage onthe natural disasters (see figure below). And the Zee news channel had the highest coverage slot of 5.88% minutes. The stories coverage on weather had also increased manifolds by Aaj Tak news channel that contributed 2.1%. Andthe NDTV news channel had provided 2.26% the highest time slot in the environment and wildlife category (see table below).

Since 2011 the gradual decrease in the coverage on natural disaster, weather and environment & wildlife were recorded in all the prominent news channels. The most apparent decrease was observed on the coverage of environment and wildlife stories in Aaj Tak, ABP news, Zee news and CNN IBN news channels in the year 2013 (see figure below). The DD and NDTV news channel had the 0.4% coverage on environment and wildlife. In the year 2011-2013 the news channels had provided very limited slot of 0.01% to 0.05% minutes to agriculture and weather issues.

Media Analysis Fig.1 Five year Environmental Trend in Six News Channels

Figures are Percentage of Total News Time of 6 National News Channels

Figures are based on Prime Time (7-11 PM) Coverage of 6 National News Channels

News Channels–Aaj Tak, CNN IBN, DD News, NDTV 24x7, Star News/ABP News & Zee News

Source: CMS Media Lab

2009 2010 2011

TV News Trends

16.03

20.36

17.93

12.47

16.09

17.68

10.13

4.86

12.74

5.74

9.72

5.16

0.85

0.18

0.51

0.19

0.60

0.09

1.53

1.87

1.29

1.19

0.84

1.00

0 10 20 30

Figures are Percentage of Total News Time of 6 National News C

0 10 20 30 0 10

Figures are based on Prime Time (7-11 PM) Coverage of 6 Natio

News Channels–Aaj Tak, CNN IBN, DD News, NDTV 24x7, Star N

1 2012 2013

s 2009 2013

13.06

28.69

10.04

28.62

10.16

6.63

9.58

8.31

0.63

0.08

0.69

0.05

0.65

1.00

0.32

1.06

Channels Source: CMS Media Lab

20 30 0 10 20 30 0 10 20 30

nal News Channels

News/ ABP News & Zee News

Table 1. Yearly Time Slots Provided to Environment Stories in Six News Channels (in minutes)

ClassificationAajtak DD News Star News Zee News CNN IBN

NDTV 24X7

T % T % T % T % T % T %

Environment & Wildlife

748 1.56 1474 2.31 653 1.29 530 1.23 477 0.89 944 1.71

Accident Natural Disaster

1224 2.55 1070 1.67 1767 3.49 1633 3.78 906 1.70 1185 2.14

Weather 286 0.60 454 0.71 281 0.56 352 0.81 270 0.51 210 0.38

Agriculture 20 0.04 360 0.56 31 0.06 48 0.11 41 0.08 81 0.15

2010


459 0.97 834 1.34 732 1.45 435 0.97 392 0.69 1264 2.26


1920 4.05 1299 2.08 2518 4.97 2648 5.88 1123 1.99 1261 2.25

Weather 576 1.21 736 1.18 292 0.58 568 1.26 184 0.33 385 0.69

Agriculture 40 0.08 502 0.80 7 0.01 25 0.05 7 0.01 39 0.07

2011


156 0.32 845 1.28 402 0.79 223 0.46 324 0.58 823 1.38


1444 2.99 1075 1.63 1658 3.26 1815 3.71 807 1.44 690 1.16

Weather 231 0.48 439 0.67 118 0.23 222 0.45 87 0.16 32 0.05

Agriculture 3 0.01 195 0.30 11 0.02 45 0.09 15 0.03 27 0.05

2012


56 0.11 577 0.92 289 0.58 201 0.39 367 0.74 632 1.02


1449 2.95 597 0.95 1370 2.73 1558 3.05 570 1.15 790 1.27

Weather 772 1.57 375 0.60 394 0.79 582 1.14 88 0.18 51 0.08

Agriculture 0 0.00 178 0.28 7 0.01 38 0.07 1 0.00 28 0.05

2013


8 0.02 336 0.54 111 0.2 119 0.25 238 0.43 215 0.34


2632 5.7 2158 3.5 2176 4.5 1887 3.95 1563 2.79 1961 3.06

Weather 593 1.3 209 0.3 232 0.5 417 0.87 77 0.14 113 0.18

Agriculture 3 0.01 114 0.18 7 0.01 2 0.00 26 0.05 10 0.02

Green Business is Good For The Bottom Line. Operating a green business is not only good for the environment but good for your business’s bottom line. Conserving resources and cutting down on waste saves money. Whether you run a home-based business or a large company, doing a few simple things can make your business environment-friendly.Here are ten easy-to-implement ideas for running a green business. (Source: Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade)

Turn off equipment1. when it’s not being used. This can reduce the energy used by 25 percent; turning off the computers at the end of the day can save an additional 50 percent.Encourage communications by email2. , and read email messages onscreen to determine whether it’s necessary to print them. If it’s not, don’t!Reduce fax-related paper waste3. by using a fax modem and by using a fax cover sheet only when necessary. Fax modems allow documents to be sent directly from a computer, without requiring a printed hard copy. (Check out www.efax.com to set up a free electronic fax account.)Produce double-sided documents4. whenever possible. Print internal documents in draft mode if your printer has the option.Do not leave taps dripping5. ; always close them tightly after use. (One drop wasted per second wastes 2,640 gallons per year.)Install displacement toilet dams in toilet reservoirs.6. Placing one or two plastic containers filled with stones [not bricks] in the toilet’s reservoir will displace about a gallon of water per flush — a huge reduction of water use over the course of a year.Find a supply of paper with maximum available recycled 7. content.Choose suppliers who take back packaging for reuse.8. Instigate an ongoing search for “greener” products and 9. services in the local community. The further your supplies or service providers have to travel, the more energy will be used to get them to you.Before deciding whether you need to purchase new office furniture, 10. see if your existing office furniture can be refurbished. Or, check out used furniture. It’s less expensive than buying new and better for the environment.

Ten more tips worth considering…Buy an insulated coffee carafe to keep coffee hot. Pour a pot of 1. coffee into the carafe once it’s finished brewing and turn off your coffee pot. Use ceramic mugs—Styrofoam can’t be recycled.Shopping for a printer? Consider the energy costs associated with 2. each kind. There are basically two types of printers: laser & ink jet. While lasers are the most popular because of their high quality, they draw an average of 80-100 watts or more when printing. Ink jets, the most energy efficient of all, use about 10 watts.Use CFL light bulbs everywhere. Not only are you using less 3. energy, you’ll save about $38 over the life of one light bulb. (Look for the Energy Saver star on the label.Recycle everything, including computers and other electronics. 4. Check out www.Earth911.org to locate recycling centers near you.For the outdoors, eliminate as much grass as possible from your 5. office landscaping. Replace with perennial wildflowers, natural grasses and trees.Work from home one day a week. If all Americans avoided work 6. travel one day a week we’d cut 143 billion pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Check tire pressure of your vehicle(s) frequently. Correctly inflated tires means better gas mileage. If your business has a vehicle fleet check tire pressure frequently. 7. Correctly inflated tires means better gas mileage. Have your heating & air unit checked out seasonally. Consider a 8. more energy efficient unit if yours is outdated. It might be less expensive in the long term to upgrade. Turn the thermostat up in the summer and down in the winter. (Buy all of your staff wool socks in the winter!) Keep space heater use to a bare minimum. They’re big energy hogs.Recycle. (Duh!) If you use a shredding service, make sure the 9. paper is being recycled. Triad Shredding, for example, recycles its shredded paper. And, Interstate All Battery Center accepts almost all types of batteries for recycling.Sell your planet-friendly ideas to bosses, co-workers, and/or your 10. staff.

Creating a Planet-Friendly Officeby Annette McMichael

Naturally, we all care about the environment. And, most of us make some attempt to reuse, recycle and cut waste at home. But, do you transfer this same dedication to the office?

Make it fun. Keep it simple. By adopting some of these ideas you’ll feel good about making a contribution towards halting global warming. We all need

to try harder. I intend to. How about you?

http://www.greenmediaservice.com/savetheplanet.php

For more information: Anand A Jha, Co-ordinatorCMS ENVIS Centre, RESEARCH HOUSESaket Community Centre, New Delhi 110 017P: 91-11-2684 4020, 2685 1660, F: 91-11-2696 8282 [email protected]

CMS ENVIS Parent organisation: P N Vasanti, Director, [email protected]

www.cmsindia.org

EnvironmentPromoting Responsibility

Established in 1991, CMS has carved out a niche for itself as a research based think tank committed to rigorous and objective analysis to support improved

policymaking.

CMS Environment, the team behind all the environmental endeavours of CMS, has been involved multifariously in policy research and programme evaluation aimed at creating sustainable solutions for environment protection. CMS Environment Team has also been consistently undertaken capacity building and enhancing initiatives with range of stakeholders to orient on contemporary environment issues like climate change, sustainable transport, conservation, etc.

CMS ENVIS CENTrE Established in 2000, CMS ENVIS is a premiere centre designated by Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India to facilitate information dissemination and further the cause of environment awareness and sensitisation. A separate space in its campus has been allocated to house documentary films, spots/ public service messages, info-mercials, quiz programmes, jingles etc. on environmental and wildlife issues. www.cmsenvis.nic

Green Films resource Centre Established in 2007, the Audio Visual Resource Centre (AVRC) is a state-of-the-art archive of documentaries, films and audio spots on environment and development issues.

© Copyright: CMS ENVIS Centre 2014

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