Page 197 - Environment
Hil commences second phase production at Golan Plant, Gujarat
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Saving wetlands topmost priority of govt: Environment minister
West Bengal Environment minister Suvendu Adhikary Wednesday said saving wetlands was the topmost priority of the state government. He said 12,500 hectares of wetlands was protected in recent times by the state government. "Our team keeps regular tab on existing wetlands as part of the mission to save water bodies and we take the help of police in this drive," Adhikary told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar organised by West Bengal Bio-diversity Board. He said two-three constructions on wetlands had been raged down in recent months in the city and surrounding areas. To a question about the fate of a proposed six-km flyover project over part of East Kolkata Wetlands, which was opposed by a section of environmentalists, Adhikary said "the new committee on wetlands, with me as the Chairman, will take up the issue at our first meeting very soon." "One thing is sure, we will not do anything which will cause any damage to our water bodies," he said. The minister said the ..
106 coastal and marine sites identified as conservation reserves: Govt report
The Centre has identified over 100 coastal and marine sites as conservation reserves under its National Wildlife Action Plan for 2017-2031, a biennial report released by the government said. As per the second biennial update report (BUR) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), submitted to the UN body on climate change in December 2018, India is encouraging participation of local communities in governance by recognising the conservation reserves. "India is implementing measures to sustainably harness the potential of blue economy while building the climate resilience of the ecosystems and local coastal communities. Around 106 coastal and marine sites have been identified as conservation or community reserves to increase participation of local communities in governance," it said. Under the National Wildlife Action Plan for the period 2017 to 2031, the government is working towards the conservation of coastal and marine ecosystems from the impacts of climate change, the ...
J-K Highway: NGT slaps Rs 1 cr fine each on Gammon India, Hindustan Construction
The NGT has slapped a penalty of Rs 1 crore each on the Gammon India Limited and the Hindustan Construction Co Ltd for damaging the environment by dumping soil in Chenab and Tawi rivers for construction on a stretch of the Udhampur-Banihal National Highway in Jammu and Kashmir. A bench headed by National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel also ordered them to furnish a performance guarantee of Rs 1 crore for improving the situation within the next three months. "The deposit of compensation be made with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) within one month and the performance guarantee may also be furnished to the satisfaction of the CPCB within one month. Let further report of the committee be furnished after three months but before June 30, 2019," the bench said. The tribunal passed the order after perusing a report by a monitoring committee, headed by former judge of Jammu and Kashmir High Court Justice J R Kotwal, which informed it that the project ...
Increase in per capita consumption to push power demand, says R K Singh
Power demand is expected to rise further as the per capita consumption of electricity will increase two to three times from the current 1,200 units, Union minister R K Singh said Wednesday. The power sector is witnessing an increased demand which is further expected to go up in the near future. The current consumption of 1200 units per capita is expected to grow 2-3 times at par with the international consumption after each and every individual of the country has access to electricity," Singh said at a conference organised by NTPC Ltd. About financing for the sector, the power minister suggested measures like pre-payment for consumption of electricity from both discoms and end consumers, privatising distribution companies to make the process more market oriented. We need to efficiently use all energy sources available and devise measures to enhance storage of energy to meet the constantly growing demand. Simultaneously, on the operations' front, it is imperative to not postpone any ...
Patnaik lays foundation stone for Subarnarekha port in Odisha
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Pattanaik Wednesday laid the foundation stone for a Rs 5,000 crore new port in Balasore district. The all weather commercial Subarnarekha Port is being developed jointly by Tata Steel having 51 per cent share and Chennai based Creative Port Private Ltd (CPPL) with 49 per cent share, is scheduled to be commissioned within 36 months period. "I am delighted to lay the foundation stone for the proposed Subarnarekha port today," Pataik said while addressing a regional Youth Conclave of Biju Yuva Bahini here at the police line field. "Estimated project cost of the port is Rs 5,000 crore for which 692 acres of land have already been provided to the developers," an official statement said. Balasore MP Rabindra Jena said "This port will create direct and indirect employments for at least 12,000 people." "The proposed port to be built at Chumukh area in Baliapal block under Balasore district, will have 12 berths and will handle goods of 25 to 55 ...
Conference on Global Health & Medical Tourism (GloHMT)
A four-day International Conference on Global Health and Medical Tourism will be held here from March 7. The conference, organised by IIM Kozhikode, aims at creating a platform for industry and academia to interact, deliberate and create knowledge resources that will be useful to all stakeholders, a press release from the institute said. Panel discussions on key segments, topics such as Global Health Scenario and Medical Tourism Issues in India, would be discussed at the conference. The second phase of the global health conference,which is set to be held at Indian Institute of Health Management Research university in Jaipur from March 11-13, will witness various sessions and panel discussions on related topics along with a visit to a cultural village,the release said.
PIL for wildlife rescue centres in Delhi: HC seeks AAP govt stand
The Delhi High Court Wednesday sought the response of the AAP government, its Forest Department and the Central Zoo Authority on a PIL seeking setting up of rescue centres in the national capital for wild animals in distress. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao issued notices to the Delhi government, its Department of Forests and Wildlife, the Central Zoo Authority and the National Zoological Park here, seeking their stand on the plea by July 10. The petition has been moved by animal rights activist Gauri Maulekhi, who has contended that there was "not a single wildlife rescue centre throughout the whole of Delhi, let alone a formalised system/channel to address distress calls of injured/dying wild animals, and an utter lack of any trained personnel on call for the same purpose, which has lead to the unfortunate and painful death of many wild animals". She has argued that this amounts to "severe inaction and abdication of constitutional and statutory duty" by ..
Arvind plans to cut carbon emissions by 30 pc
Textile firm Arvind Wednesday said it plans to reduce carbon emissions by 30 per cent with the installation of rooftop solar projects across its facilities in three cities and by shifting from coal to renewable biomass for boilers. As company ramps up the three-phase installation, it plans to target 40 MW captive solar capacity, a company statement said. According to the statement, it has currently installed 16.2 MW rooftop solar at its Santej facility in Gujarat. This is India's largest installation of rooftop solar at a single location. The rooftop solar installation across facilities will generate 22 million units (KWh) of power per annum. It will contribute in reducing 20,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually and over 5,00,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over its lifetime. Once capacity of 40 MW is reached, overall generation will exceed 55 million units per year and will reduce carbon emissions by 50,000 tonnes per annum. Speaking about this initiative, Punit Lalbhai, Executive .
Construction of Himachal dam will start this year: CM
The construction of a water storage dam in Himachal Pradesh that will provide water to the national capital and five other states will commence by the year end, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Wednesday.
Mars may have underground volcanic activity
Mars may have volcanic activity below its surface, according to scientists who argue that without an underground source of heat it would not be possible for the Red Planet to host liquid water. Previous research has suggested that liquid water is present beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars. According to the study published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters, there needs to be an underground source of heat for liquid water to exist underneath the polar ice cap. Researchers from University of Arizona in the US suggest recent magmatic activity -- the formation of a magma chamber within the past few hundred thousand years -- must have occurred underneath the surface of Mars for there to be enough heat to produce liquid water underneath the kilometer-and-a-half thick ice cap. On the flip side, the team said that if there was not recent magmatic activity underneath the surface of Mars, then there is not likely liquid water underneath the ice cap. The presence of liquid ...
NASA to make final attempt to contact Mars Opportunity Rover
US space agency NASA will make one final attempt to contact its Opportunity Rover on Mars late Tuesday, eight months after it last made contact. The agency also said it would hold a briefing Wednesday, during which it will likely officially declare the end of the mission. Opportunity landed on Mars in 2004 and covered 45 kilometers on the planet, securing its place in history after lasting well beyond its expected 90-day mission. But a giant dust storm last year blocked sunlight from Mars, stopping Opportunity's solar-powered batteries from being able to recharge. Despite NASA engineers' best efforts to get a response via radio channels, its last communication was on June 10, 2018. In August, NASA caused an outcry after setting a 45-day deadline before it would declare "Oppy" dead. In October, it extended the deadline to January to reevaluate the situation.
Arunachal guv seeks Centre's aid to boost tourism
Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig (Retd) B D Mishra on Wednesday sought help from the Centre to boost tourism in the state, an official statement said. The governor, during his meeting with Union Minister of State for Tourism K J Alphons at New Delhi, stressed that the state's tourism sector, with an adequate aid from the Centre, can create jobs and generate more revenue, it said. Mishra also sought the central government's assistance to develop places which have tourism potential. He assured Alphons of optimum utilisation of funds allotted by the Union government to build tourism infrastructure in the state, the statement added. Mishra had recently chaired a meeting of state tourism officials to discuss the status of development projects at Parshuram Kund in Lohit district. The state government is taking initiatives to develop Parshuram Kund as a major pilgrimage site. Dedicated to sage Parshuram, the site attracts pilgrims from across the nation and Nepal every year, ...
Illegal mining causing damage to fisheries, admits Himachal Minister
Illegal mining in Himachal Pradesh has been causing damage to fisheries and aquifer. The state has produced 563 tonnes of fish in this fiscal till January and its production is declining due to four-laning of roads.
Bill and Melinda Gates release 2019 Annual Letter: "Things We Didn't See Coming"
On Wednesday, Bill and Melinda Gates share their 2019 Annual Letter, "Things We Didn't See Coming". In this year's letter, Bill and Melinda share nine things that have surprised them over the course of their nearly two decades of work together in global health and development.They share surprises that both worry and inspire them, and observe that surprises are often powerful calls to action:"Twenty-five years ago, we read an article that said hundreds of thousands of kids in poor countries were dying from diarrhea. We believe in a world where innovation is for everyone - where no child dies from a disease it's possible to prevent. But what we saw was a world still shaped by inequity," write Bill and Melinda Gates. "That discovery was one of the most important steps in our journey to philanthropy", said Bill and Melinda Gates.Surprises in this year's letter address topics including the importance of investing in Africa's growing population of young people, sources of greenhouse gas ...
India, China contribute most to global greenery: NASA
India and China are leading the way in greening lands, thanks to ambitious tree-planting programs and intensive agriculture in both countries, NASA satellite data has shown.
Novel artificial leaves convert carbon dioxide into fuel
Scientists, including those of Indian origin, have created artificial leaves that convert atmospheric carbon dioxide to fuel ten times more efficiently than natural plants. Artificial leaves mimic the process whereby plants use water and carbon dioxide from the air to produce carbohydrates using energy from the Sun. However, even state-of-the-art artificial leaves only work in the laboratory because they use pure, pressurised carbon dioxide from tanks. Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago in the US have proposed a design solution that could bring artificial leaves out of the laboratory and into the environment. Their improved leaf, which would use carbon dioxide -- a potent greenhouse gas -- from the air, would be at least 10 times more efficient than natural leaves at converting carbon dioxide to fuel. "So far, all designs for artificial leaves that have been tested in the lab use carbon dioxide from pressurised tanks," said Meenesh Singh, assistant professor at ...
Harrison Ford blasts Trump, other world leaders over climate change threat
Veteran actor Harrison Ford has taken a dig at US President Donald Trump over the country's decision to opt out of Paris climate agreement, saying those who deny the threat of climate change are on the "wrong side of history". During his speech at the final day of the World Government Summit here on Tuesday, Ford said the world needs to protect nature as humans are facing the "greatest moral crisis of our time". "All of us, whether rich or poor, powerful or powerless, will suffer the effects of climate change and ecosystem destruction as we're faced with the greatest moral crisis of our time," he said. "The land and the sea are the legacy we will leave to future generations... We must intervene and act before it is too late... We need to protect nature because nature does not need people, but people need nature," he added. According to Arab News, the 76-year-old veteran, famous for playing cult characters such as Han Solo in "Star Wars" franchise and the title character of "Indiana ...
Climate change could wipe out Bengal tigers
Sundarbans -- the iconic Bengal tiger's last coastal stronghold and the world's biggest mangrove forest -- could be destroyed by climate change and rising sea levels over the next 50 years, scientists say. Spanning more than 10,000 square kilometres, the Sundarbans region of Bangladesh and India is the biggest mangrove forest on Earth, and also the most critical area for the endangered Bengal tiger, researchers said. "Fewer than 4,000 Bengal tigers are alive today," said Bill Laurance, a professor at the James Cook University in Australia. "That's a really low number for the world's biggest cat, which used to be far more abundant but today is mainly confined to small areas of India and Bangladesh," Laurance said. "What is most terrifying is that our analyses suggest tiger habitats in the Sundarbans will vanish entirely by 2070," said Sharif Mukul, an assistant professor at Independent University Bangladesh. The researchers used computer simulations to assess the future suitability of .
India proposes to construct Lower Arun Hydro project
The Indian government has proposed the construction of Lower Arun Hydropower Project in Nepal with a capacity of 400 Megawatts (MW)."In a meeting with Minister for Energy, Water Resource and Irrigation Barshaman Pun at New Delhi on Monday, Indian Minister of State for Power Raj Kumar Singh put forth a proposal that the new project can be developed adopting the same model of 900-MW Arun III project," state-run Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) reported."A proposal has been made from Indian side to develop the Lower Arun on the same model being adopted by Indian company while constructing the Arun III. Nepal has put its stance for further discussion observing the progress on the construction of Arun III," Minister Pun was quoted by the agency as saying.Minister Pun noted that the Nepal government would make a proper decision whether or not to award the construction of Lower Arun to India after seeing the progress in Arun III hydro project.Minister Pun arrived in New Delhi to participate in
