logo
Manufacture, storage of biodegradable carry bags gets cabinet nod

Manufacture, storage of biodegradable carry bags gets cabinet nod

Hans India18-07-2025
Bengaluru: The cabinet has approved an important amendment to allow the manufacture, storage, and sale of biodegradable carry bags, announced Minister for Forest, Ecology and Environment Eshwar B. Khandre on Thursday.
Speaking to the media after the cabinet meeting, Khandre said that under the 2016 state notification, the manufacture and sale of plastic carry bags, flex banners, posters, plastic plates, cups, and spoons were completely banned. However, with the recent innovation of plant-based biodegradable bags, which decompose within 180 days, the government has now approved a policy change to facilitate their use.
He recalled that during a recent meeting of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, he had proposed amending the 2016 notification to align with the 2021 Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules issued by the Union Ministry of Environment.
Khandre clarified that the amendment will now permit eco-friendly, biodegradable (compostable) bags, as well as pre-sealed packaging plastic that meets specific safety standards. The decision is in accordance with the Centre's 2021 directive.
The move is expected to ease restrictions for industries producing biodegradable alternatives while ensuring that environmental safety remains a top priority.
Boundary Revision of Shettihalli wildlife sanctuary okayed
The Cabinet has approved a proposal to revise the boundaries of the Shettihalli Wildlife Sanctuary located across Shivamogga, Tirthahalli, and Hosanagara taluks of Shivamogga district, Forest Minister Eshwar B. Khandre announced on Thursday.
Khandre said that the sanctuary was originally notified in 1974 with a designated area of 395.60 sq. km. The revision will now officially define the sanctuary's area as 396.165 sq. km, without reducing the original extent.
The Minister explained that when the sanctuary was first declared in November 1974, it inadvertently included infrastructure and human settlements such as roads, bus stands, inhabited villages, patta lands, and areas earmarked for Sharavathi backwater rehabilitation.
To resolve issues and reduce inconvenience to local residents, the Forest Department decided to revise the boundaries while maintaining ecological integrity.
The proposal was sent to and has been approved by the National Board for Wildlife, clearing the path for formal re-notification of the revised limits. This update is expected to improve both wildlife protection efforts and community relations in the region, striking a balance between conservation and
local development.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Chikkamagaluru residents demand preventive action on human-elephant conflicts
Chikkamagaluru residents demand preventive action on human-elephant conflicts

Time of India

time18 hours ago

  • Time of India

Chikkamagaluru residents demand preventive action on human-elephant conflicts

Chikkamgaluru/Bengaluru: Protesting alleged inaction by forest officials over frequent human-elephant run-ins, Chikkamagaluru residents held a massive rally and observed a bandh on Monday. Over the last four days, two persons – Subrayagowda and Anith – fell victim to wild elephants at Balehonnur in N R Pura taluka of Chikkamagaluru district, prompting the protests. Elephants typically venture out of forests in search of food and water during severe droughts. However, of late, the jumbos have been moving out of their natural habitats even though there is enough rainfall across the state and ample fodder available in the forests, leaving many an animal expert baffled. Forest minister Eshwar Khandre held a virtual meeting with field officials and senior forest officials on Monday. "All field officials must pay attention to this trend [elephants venturing out of the forests] and ensure that deaths do not recur in the future," Khandre told the officials. Following the minister's directives, a rescue mission is set to be launched in Balehonnur. Khandre sought a report on why these human-animal conflicts were being reported from new areas. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like These 11 Everyday Foods Might Be the Key to Knee Pain Relief Undo He instructed forest officials to make use of Elephant Rapid Action Force personnel to drive the jumbos back into the forests. Cautioning forest officials, the minister further said: "Due to heavy rains over the past three months, the elephant-proof trenches are badly damaged. Solar fencing and tentacle fencing have also snapped due to treefall. These must be repaired on priority and beat foresters must keep a watch on these." The minister said the state govt has released funds to take up rail barricade fencing work immediately. Khandre directed forest officials to submit a detailed project report for setting up a centralised command centre to disseminate alerts about wildlife movements in human habitats. He instructed the chief wildlife warden of Karnataka to hold weekly virtual review meetings with the chief conservators, conservators and deputy conservators. BOX: Hunt on for jumbos An operation to rescue and relocate wild elephants and Kumki elephants will be carried out at Balehonnur. C N Meena Nagaraj, the deputy commissioner, Chikkamagaluru, said: "Captive elephants from the Sakrebailu camp in Shivamogga have arrived and the officials will launch a rescue operation on Tuesday, along with three veterinarians and other support staff.

Environment ministry notifies rules for management of contaminated sites
Environment ministry notifies rules for management of contaminated sites

Hindustan Times

timea day ago

  • Hindustan Times

Environment ministry notifies rules for management of contaminated sites

NEW DELHI: The Union environment ministry has notified the Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules, 2025 for remediation of contaminated sites by those responsible for contamination These rules are important in light of incidents such as the Baghjan oil field blowout in Assam in 2020 The rules also provide for voluntary remediation of sites that are not already identified as contaminated. The local body or district administration, on its own or on receipt of a complaint from the public, shall identify an area affected with contaminants and list all such areas as suspected contaminated sites in its jurisdiction on a centralised online portal, according to the rules. The notification names 189 contaminants and their response level for agricultural, residential, commercial and industrial areas. A senior official said the rules will not apply to radioactive waste as defined under clause (xxii) of rule 2 of the Atomic Energy (Safe Disposal of Radioactive Wastes) Rules, 1987 or mining operations as defined under clause (d) of section 3 of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 among others. But, if the contamination of a site is due to a contaminant mixed with radioactive waste or mining operations or oil spill or solid waste from a dump site, and if the contamination of the site due to the contaminant exceeds the limit of response level specified in these rules, then remediation of the site would be covered under these rules. The rules cover various halogenated aromatic compounds, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, organofluorine compounds, and some metals, among others. These rules are important in light of incidents such as the Baghjan oil field blowout in Assam in 2020, near the Maguri-Motapung Wetland and the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, which impacted the ecosystems in the area. The local body or District Administration shall furnish the state board with a list of suspected contaminated sites on a half-yearly basis. Upon receipt of a list of suspected contaminated sites, the state board, either on its own or through a reference organisation, undertakes a preliminary site assessment of the suspected contaminated site by sampling and analysis within ninety days from the date of receipt of such a list. The state board shall then furnish a list of probable contaminated sites and investigated sites to the Central Board on the centralised online portal within thirty days from the date of completion of the preliminary site assessment. The state board shall issue a public notice restricting or prohibiting any activity during the preliminary or detailed assessment of the suspected or probable contaminated site, taking into account the risks involved to human health and the environment. It shall publish the list of contaminated sites on the centralised online portal, inviting comments and suggestions from the stakeholders likely to be affected, within sixty days of such publication. It is the state board's responsibility to identify, following an inquiry, the person responsible for causing the site contamination within a period of ninety days. In case the contaminated site has been transferred by the person (transferor) causing the contamination to another person (transferee), the state board shall determine the transferee as the responsible person. Where the responsible person is identified, the state board shall direct the responsible person to prepare a remediation plan and undertake remediation through a reference organisation as selected by the state board and bear all the expenses towards it. The state board shall review and approve the remediation plan submitted by the responsible person within three months from the date of submission of remediation plan, and forward it to the Central Board. However, where the responsible person is not identified, the state board shall, on its own or through the reference organisation, prepare a remediation plan within six months from the date of publication of the contaminated site, for undertaking remediation of the contaminated site either out of its own resources or through support from State Government or both and resources of Central Government. The central board may appoint any reference organisation to verify the completion of remediation activities. In all cases, funds for conducting preliminary assessment and detailed assessment for suspected contaminated site and probable contaminated site, respectively, may, to the extent feasible, be initially met in whole or part by the Central Government from the Environmental Relief Fund under sub-section (9) of section 7 of the Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991 and also by the State Government. Further, the central government shall constitute the Central Remediation Committee to review the remediation activities under these rules. The committee will consist of chairman, Central Board; a representative from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry; the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers; the Ministry of Science and Technology; the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; two technical experts from the field of environment, geotechnical and industrial waste management to be nominated by the Central Government among others. The state board may impose environmental compensation on any responsible person who does not comply with the provisions of these rules in undertaking the remediation or does not undertake the remediation under these rules in respect of a contaminated site and poses risks to human life and the environment, contributing thereby to loss, damage or injury tothe environment or human health. 'The Rules address a long-pending legal vacuum around the remediation of legacy pollution sires, but they place disproportionate operational and oversight burden on the State and Central Pollution Control Boards, which are already constrained by limited capacity. The composition of the Remediation Committees is also skewed toward industrial, urban development, and chemical sector ministries, with little to no representation from the Ministries such as Agriculture, Jal Shakti, or Environment which are important trustee of the soil and water. Furthermore, the absence of independent ecologists, public health experts, and social science raises concerns about balanced decision-making. There should also be a third-party audit or an independent verification mechanism in the remediation or monitoring phases for proper monitoring,' said Debadityo Sinha, Lead- Climate & Ecosystems, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

Procedure to redress chemically contaminated sites gets legal teeth
Procedure to redress chemically contaminated sites gets legal teeth

The Hindu

timea day ago

  • The Hindu

Procedure to redress chemically contaminated sites gets legal teeth

The Environment Ministry has notified new rules under the Environment Protection Act that lays out a process to address sites that are chemically contaminated. Called the Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules, 2025, these give a legal structure to the process of contamination, that until now was missing despite several sites being already identified across the country for decades. Contaminated sites, according to the Central Pollution Control Board, are those where hazardous and other wastes were dumped historically. This has most likely resulted in contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water that pose a risk to human health and the environment. Some of the sites were contaminated when there was no regulation on management of hazardous wastes. In some instances, polluters, responsible for contamination, have either shut their operations or the cost of remediation is beyond their capacity, thus the sites remain a threat to the environment. These sites may include landfills, dumps, waste storage and treatment sites, spill sites, and chemical waste handling and storage sites. There are 103 such sites across the country. Only in seven sites remedial operation has commenced, which involves cleaning the contaminated soil, groundwater, surface water and sediments by adopting appropriate technologies. A senior official in the Environment Ministry told The Hindu that the latest rules — made public on July 25 — were part of a process of 'legally codifying' the process in place once contaminated sites were identified. Under these rules, the district administration would prepare half-yearly reports on 'suspected contaminated sites'. A State Board, or a reference organisation, would examine these sites and provide a 'preliminary assessment' within 90 days of being thus informed. Following these, it would have another three months to make a detailed survey and finalise if these sites were indeed 'contaminated'. This would involve establishing the levels of suspected hazardous chemicals – there are currently 189 marked ones under the provisions of the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules 2016 – and if these exceeded safe levels, the location of these sites would be publicised and restrictions placed on accessing it. A 'reference organisation' — basically a body of experts — would be tasked with specifying a remediation plan. The State Board would also have 90 days to identify the person(s) responsible for the contamination. Those deemed responsible would have to pay for the cost of remediation of the site, else the Centre and the State — under a prescribed arrangement — would arrange for the costs of clean-up. 'Any criminal liability, if it is proved that such contamination caused loss of life or damage would be under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (2023),' the official told The Hindu. However, contamination resulting from radioactive waste, mining operations, pollution of the sea by oil, solid waste from dump sites would not be dealt with under the provisions of these laws as they are governed by separate legislation.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store