The Western Ghats issue has become hotter with the biodiversity hotspot being bestowed with a Unesco World Heritage Site tag.  Now, with the Karnataka government declaring that it is against the move and will not sign any proposal, the issue has taken another twist. In this backdrop, MK Ashoka spoke to Anantha Hegde Ashisara, the chairman of the Western Ghats Task Force. 

Bangalore: Karnataka Government today deferred taking any decision on the UNESCO declaring 10 locations of Western Ghats in the state as heritage spots.  Though the issue was mentioned at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, it was not discussed, sources told PTI here.

Madhav Gadgil, lead author of the ecology expert panel report on the Western Ghats, wants its recommendations to be discussed at public forums. “The recommendations are not the final voice. They are the starting point for public discussion in deciding how natural resources must be utilized,” Gadgil said. “The 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution mandate that locals must be involved in decision-making but the government has been reluctant to do this,” he added.

Research from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) shows that sea levels are rising much faster between North Carolina and Massachusetts than anywhere else in the world. The news comes less than two weeks after North Carolina’s Senate passed a bill banning state agencies from reporting predictions of increasing rates of sea-level rise.

The World Heritage Site tag is unlikely to affect life and land-use patterns in the Kerala part of the Western Ghats. Life is expected to go on unhindered in the sites and adjoining areas despite the tag. There will not be any fresh restrictions on activities that are currently permitted in the forest areas of Kerala, say authorities.

What would you do if dandruff bothers you? Either you apply a hair conditioner or seek medical advice. But A. Muthumari of Chathirapatti uses the leaves of ‘Poduthalai’ herb to get rid of the trouble permanently. In fact, most of the people in rural areas turn to nature for any health problem. “Not many in the cities bother,” says E. Gopalakrishnan, an agriculturist. “Even if the people are told, they refuse to accept the benefits of medicinal herbs or organic farming and brush it aside as not worthy. The common knowledge of rural populace is found lacking among the urbanites,” he rues.

About 1.3 million homes and businesses in the eastern United States remained without power amid a heat wave on Tuesday, and storm damage and high temperatures forced many Fourth of July celebrations to be canceled.

It’s not just India that is baking. Globally, this seems to be one of the worst summers in recorded history. The global average temperature for May was the second hottest ever since 1880 – the year records were first compiled — US National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC) has said. Only 2010 witnessed a worse May.  The NCDC said such a hot May was never recorded in the northern hemisphere. 

And so the saga concludes. A tired, weather-beaten group of States have retreated from Rio de Janeiro after a half-hearted attempt to rescue the world from a host of unsolved problems including climate change and unsustainable development. What unfolded was largely predictable. The Rio+20 declaration, ‘The Future We Want,’ is punctuated with old rhetoric around action and responsibility, laden with sweet murmurings on change, some affectionate recognition of imminent apocalypse and defined by absence of commitment.

Leatherback turtles, the largest sea turtle species on Earth, could be wiped out completely if global temperatures continues to rise unabated, a new study has claimed. According to the new study, published in journal Nature Climate Change, deaths of turtle eggs and hatchlings in nests buried at hotter, drier beaches are the leading projected cause of the potential climate-related decline. Leatherbacks are among the most critically endangered due to a combination of historical and ongoing threats, including egg poaching at nesting beaches and juvenile and adult turtles being caught in fishing operations.