Weekly Environmental News Roundup for Week 6, 2025
Weekly environmental news roundup from across different media networks for Week 6 (3 to 9 Feb) 2025.
1. Supreme Court slams government over pollution: Are power plant extensions a ‘license to pollute’?
In light of the air pollution crisis in Delhi-NCR, the Supreme Court on January 27, 2025, voiced its dissatisfaction and concern regarding the government’s decision to provide power plants with an additional three-year extension to meet statutory emission standards for sulphur dioxide and other pollutants.
2. Delhi Election 2025: Are Sustainability Manifestos of Political Parties Addressing Poor Air Quality
Bryan Johnson, an American entrepreneur and a venture capitalist, had arrived in India as a guest in Nikhil Kamath’s podcast but had to leave midway as he could not bear Mumbai’s “bad air quality”.
3. Compressed biogas offers a sustainable solution to Delhi’s pollution crisis: Report
The pollution crisis in Delhi calls for a large-scale shift in agricultural waste management and compressed biogas offers a sustainable solution by tackling both stubble burning and vehicular emission, according to a report.
In the 22-km stretch between Wazirabad and Okhla in Delhi where Yamuna flows, the Delhi Development Authority and other agencies were directed to remove encroachments in the floodplains in a 2019 order passed by the National Green Tribunal and an April order last year by the Delhi High Court.
5. FIR against Arvind Kejriwal for ‘poison in Yamuna’ remark hours before Delhi polls
With just hours to go before the Delhi Assembly elections, a case has been registered against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at Haryana’s Shahbad Police Station.
Overflowing mobile toilets, rooms in poor condition, no drinking water, blocked bathrooms, no electricity—these are some of key shortcomings of accommodation provided to the central armed police forces deployed in 13,033 booths spread across Delhi for Assembly elections.
7. Delhi’s kachra rajneeti has created a public health crisis in Bawana
About 17 villages in an area already burdened with a landfill oppose Delhi’s fifth waste plant, fearing it will pollute their air, water, and land.
8. CPWD urges departments to prioritise use of recycled C&D waste
With government agencies in Delhi-NCR failing to meet the target set for using construction and demolition waste recycled products, the Central Public Work Department has asked all departments to ‘take pride’ in consuming reprocessed waste generated from construction, renovation, and demolition of concrete structures such as houses, roads, and bridges.
9. AIIMS launches unique waste conversion system
All India Institute of Medical Sciences Delhi launched an automated biomedical waste conversion rig on Monday, developed by CSIR-NIIST, Thiruvananthapuram.
10. Delhi HC seeks action report on 249 unauthorised religious structures on public land
The Delhi High Court has directed the city’s religious committee to compile data from land-owning agencies on 249 unauthorised religious structures built on public land and submit an action report on their removal.
Dozens of civil society organisations, activists, and lawyers urged the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change to revoke the exemption given to white-category industries from the mandatory consent requirement for environmental clearance from pollution control authorities related to air and water pollution.
12. Retired foresters write to PM Modi seeking scrapping of Aravalli Zoo safari project
A group of 37 retired principal chief conservators of forests and other former Indian Forest Service officers from across the country have recently written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, opposing the proposed 10,000-acre Aravalli Zoo safari project in Gurugram and Nuh districts of Haryana.
13. Haryana emphasises need to restore Aravallis
Haryana’s principal chief conservator of forests Dr Vivek Saxena on Thursday emphasised the urgency of restoring the Aravallis, and called for collaborative efforts to rehabilitate the ecosystem.
14. Illegal trees cutting in Greater Noida not taken seriously by UP govt: NGT
The National Green Tribunal has observed that the illegal felling of 980 trees in Greater Noida was not taken seriously by the Uttar Pradesh authorities, and asked the principal chief conservator of forest to appear virtually before it on May 13 to apprise it on the action taken.
15. Aravali Green Wall project to combat desertification in 5 yrs, says minister
As the Union environment ministry gears up for the ambitious ‘Aravali Green Wall’ project, it is set to identify key broken mountain chain areas and create a 5-10km buffer zone to conserve biodiversity.
16. SC imposes hefty fines for illegal tree felling in Taj Trapezium Zone
Illegal tree felling in an area of 10,400 square kilometres around the Taj Mahal, known as the Taj Trapezium zone, will attract hefty fines of up to ₹25,000 per tree, the Supreme Court held on Tuesday, acting on a recommendation by an expert panel proposing harsh measures to curb illegal cutting of trees in districts around the iconic monument as the existing law failed to provide a deterrent.
17. Underground works in forest land for projects eco-friendly: Govt
The Union environment ministry has clarified that all underground works in forest land linked to linear, irrigation, hydel, and other development projects should be considered equivalent to underground mining, which is an environmentally-friendly activity and exempt from compensatory afforestation.
18. SC to government: Don’t do anything that shrinks forests
As amendments brought by Centre in the Forest (Conservation) Act has allegedly resulted in 1.97 lakh square km of land getting excluded from forest area, Supreme Court on Monday restrained central and state govts from doing anything which would lead to reduction of forest area in the country.
19. UK stands up for working people by boosting economic, clean energy and climate links with India
The UK and India joined forces this week to unlock economic growth from the clean energy transition, supporting new jobs, creating export opportunities and tackling the climate crisis.
