All mainstream newspapers still equate big dams with development. They show a lot of concern for the environment only in very general terms but when it comes to specific projects they argue that the projects should not be stopped on environmental grounds. The have seldom taken initiative in reporting the environmental problems. They report them only after the environmental problems are raised by the grassroots level activists. For Poornananda it is clear that the press does not set the environmental agenda.
Official sources are the major sources of environmental information.
Whenever independent sources are quoted official statements countering the statements of the independent sources are also used. This shows that journalists believe in the official version and view independent sources with lot of suspicion. Decline after 1990 Water pollution, air pollution, deforestation and wild lifer endangerment have been the major environemental issues throughout the 1980s and 1990s. As I have already said the coverage begins to increase dramaticlly after 1984 and shows a declining trend after 1990. The year 1986 registered the highest coverage given to the environment in the two decades.