Page 206 - Environment
Pakistan signs offshore pipeline agreement with Gazprom
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan has signed a provisional agreement with Russian energy giant Gazprom on a feasibility study for an offshore pipeline that would supply natural gas from the Middle East to Pakistan and other parts of South Asia.
New species of bird-like dinosaur found in Mongolia
Scientists say they have discovered a new species of feathered, bird-like dinosaurs in the the Gobi desert of Mongolia. A study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, described an incomplete skeleton of an oviraptorosaur from the Late Cretaceous found in the Nemegt Formation of the Gobi desert. Despite the abundance of nearly complete oviraptorosaur skeletons discovered in southern China and Mongolia, the diet and feeding strategies of these toothless dinosaurs are still unclear, said Yuong-Nam Lee from Seoul National University, South Korea. Oviraptorosaurs were a diverse group of feathered, bird-like dinosaurs from the Cretaceous of Asia and North America. The new species, named Gobiraptor minutus, can be distinguished from other oviraptorosaurs in having unusual thickened jaws. This unique morphology suggests that Gobiraptor used a crushing feeding strategy, supporting previous hypotheses that oviraptorosaurs probably fed on hard food items such as eggs, seeds or hard-shell mollusks, .
UP Budget: Rs 612.6 cr for stray cattle, gaushalas
The Yogi Adityanath government will spend over Rs 600 crore on cattle welfare and the construction and maintenance of gaushalas in the financial year 2019-20. The announcement comes amid reports of farmers in several districts locking up stray cattle in schools and public health centres after suffering damage to their crops. An amount of Rs 247.60 crore has been proposed for maintenance and construction of gaushalas in rural areas, state Finance Minister Rajesh Agarwal said in his budget speech. For 'Kanha Gaushala' and cattle shelter scheme in urban areas, Rs 200 crore has been earmarked, he said. In addition, Agarwal said, a special cess has been imposed on liquor sales in the state. Of the total cess collected, an estimated Rs 165 crore will be used on maintenance of stray cattle. The government was seeking support from the other departments as well in this regard, he said. A provision of Rs 64 crore has been made to set up 10,000 units under the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Small ...
PM to lay foundation stone of Rs 1,938 cr highway proj in West Bengal Friday
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of Rs 1,938 crore highway project in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal Friday, the government said. The project on completion will reduce the distance from Salsalabari and Alipurduar to Siliguri in West Bengal by nearly 50 km. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for the four laning of the Falakata-Salsalabari section of NH -31D in the northern part of West Bengal tomorrow (Friday)," Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement. This 41.7 km long section of National Highways falls in the Jalpaiguri district of the state, and will be constructed at a cost of about Rs 1,938 crore. A faster access to Siliguri would result in better access to railways and airways, the statement said adding that the National Highway will also facilitate better movement of tea and other agricultural produce from the region to markets. Moreover, the improved connectivity will also lead to an increase in tourism in the ...
Vikings may have enjoyed warm Greenland
Vikings may have been basking in pleasant summer weather when they settled in Greenland, according to a study which debunks the pop-culture belief that the Norse people braved subzero temperatures in fur pelts and iron helmets. After reconstructing southern Greenland's climate record over the past 3,000 years, researchers at Northwestern University in the US found that it was relatively warm when the Norse lived there between 985 and 1450 CE, compared to the previous and following centuries. "People have speculated that the Norse settled in Greenland during an unusually, fortuitously warm period, but there weren't any detailed local temperature reconstructions that fully confirmed that," said Yarrow Axford, senior author of the study published in the journal Geology. To reconstruct past climate, the researchers studied lake sediment cores collected near Norse settlements outside of Narsaq in southern Greenland. Since lake sediment forms by an incremental buildup of annual layers of ...
Animal rights body jumps to elephant's defence
Days after the Madras High Court advised authorities not to put a roaming jumbo to any discomfort, an animal rights body Thursday urged the state government to keep 'Chinnathambi' in the tusker's natural forest home. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India also advised the government to adopt only humane and scientific methods to protect crops and villages or to translocate the animal to another forested area, if necessary. PETA said compassionate methods such as planting chillies around farm perimeters can be adopted while dealing with human-elephant conflict, citing the example of farmers in Africa dealing with such problems. The animal rights body also urged the government to incorporate adequate town planning as an anecdote to the increasing encounters between elephants and humans. Some humane methods for managing human-elephant conflicts include restoring elephants' habitats, strengthening anti-poaching efforts, and working with villages located in
2018 was Earth's fourth-hottest year on record: NASA, NOAA report
Earth experienced its fourth-hottest year in 2018 since global temperature records began, according to a report by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which found the trend of hotter-than-average annual temperatures continued last year. Scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) here found that global temperatures in 2018 were 0.83 degrees Celsius warmer than the 1951 to 1980 mean. Globally, 2018's temperatures rank behind those of 2016, 2017 and 2015. The past five years are, collectively, the warmest years in the modern record, NASA said in a statement. NOAA's analysis found 2018 global temperatures were 0.79 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average. "2018 is yet again an extremely warm year on top of a long-term global warming trend," said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt. Since the 1880s, the average global surface temperature has risen about one degree Celsius. This warming has been driven in large part by increased emissions .
2G case: HC directs Shahid Balwa, others to plant 15,000 trees
In an innovative punishment, the Delhi High Court on Thursday directed Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Usman Balwa and four others to plant 15,000 trees in the Delhi South Ridge, observing that they have failed to file a response on an ED appeal challenging their acquittal in the 2G case.
Litigations delay Rs 11,700 cr Char Dham project
The ambitious Rs 11,700-crore Char Dham programme to connect Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath has been delayed and its completion will depend on the outcome of litigation pending with high courts, Parliament was informed on Thursday. The original target date of the completion of the 889 km projects under the programme was March 2020. Char Dham National Highway connectivity programme aims at development of 889 km length of NHs leading to Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath and part of route leading to Kailash Mansarovar yatra at a total cost of Rs 11,700 crore, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Mansukh L Mandaviya told the Lok Sabha in a written reply. "Out of a total 53 separate and independent projects under this programme 37 projects in total length of 633 km has been sanctioned, which include 28 projects in total length of 508 km at implementation stage," Mandaviya said. He said Rishikesh to Rudraprayag, Rudraprayag to Mana village, Rishikesh to
Elevated rail corridor can save Gir lions: Lawyer to HC
A lawyer told the Gujarat High Court on Thursday that an elevated rail corridor was the best solution to save lions from getting run over by trains passing close to the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary. Taking into consideration various other suggestions, a bench of justices S R Brahmbhatt and A G Uraizee ordered the formation of a committee to identify the problems and bottlenecks in the way of conservation of lions in the sanctuary. The bench was suo motu (on its own) hearing a public interest litigation (PIL), which was admitted by the court in March last year, over the issue of high death rate of lions in Gir due to various reasons like train and road accidents, falling into wells and electrocution. During the Thursday hearing, advocate Anand Yagnik, who does not represent any party in the case but was allowed by the court to share his views on the issue, told the bench that the maximum number of lions were getting killed after being run over by trains. He said the big cats could be saved ..
Coal India to procure mining equipment worth Rs 7000 cr
Coal India Limited (CIL) is fast tracking the process of procuring 360 high capacity mining equipment valued at over Rs 7000 crore to bolster production after reviving the one billion tonne production target, officials said Thursday. Those Heavy Earth Moving Machineries (HEMM) would be pressed into operation in the CIL's opencast mines, the major source of the maharatna coal miner. The miner will spend the amount from its capex kitty. "Nine global tenders built on a common NIT at CIL level through a transparent e-procurement process with reverse auction have been issued. All the subsidiaries of the CIL would reap benefit of this purchase process," said an official. The long shopping list of the CIL's machineries includes rear dumpers of varying capacities ranging from 150 tonne to 240 tonne, electric rope shovels of 20 and 42 cubic metres capacities, 15 cubic meters hydraulic face shovels, 10-12 cubic metres hydraulic shovels, 460 HP wheel dozers and 850 HP crawler ...
Our meat consumption driving Earth's biggest animals to extinction
Humans' meat-eating habits may be pushing at least 150 species of the planet's largest animals towards the threat of extinction, a study has found. The research, published in the journal Conservation Letters, showed that at least 200 species of "megafauna' are decreasing in number. Of nearly 300 species studied, 70 per cent are in decline, and 59 per cent of the species are threatened with disappearing from the globe, said William Ripple, a professor at the Oregon State University in the US. "Direct harvest for human consumption of meat or body parts is the biggest danger to nearly all of the large species with threat data available," Ripple said. "Thus, minimising the direct killing of these vertebrate animals is an important conservation tactic that might save many of these iconic species as well as all of the contributions they make to their ecosystems," said Ripple. Researchers were part of an international collaboration that built a list of megafauna based on body size and ...
Meat-eating humans shoving large animals toward extinction
Increased consumption of meat by humans has led to the decrease in the number of at least 200 species of large animals and have put more than 150 under the threat of extinction, finds a study of nearly 300 species of "megafauna".
Oil major Total makes significant discovery offshore South Africa
PARIS (Reuters) - French oil and gas major Total said it had made a significant gas condensate discovery after drilling its Brulpadda prospects on Block 11B/12B in the Outeniqua Basin, offshore South Africa.
British energy bills can rise by 117 pounds a year - regulator
(Reuters) - Britain's regulator said energy suppliers could increase consumer bills by 117 pounds ($151) a year from April 1 as it announced an increase in its annual price cap on Thursday, due to rising wholesale costs.
UP presents Rs 4.79 lakh cr budget, with around Rs 600 cr for guashalas
The Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday presented a Rs 4.79-lakh crore budget with focus on farmers by providing nearly Rs 1,500 crore for agricultural development and Rs 600 crore for maintaining destitute cow shelters in both rural and urban area.
NASA's first mini-spacecraft in deep space go silent
NASA has lost touch with the first mini-spacecraft that ventured into deep space, according to the US space agency which said that it is unlikely the twin CubeSats will be heard from again. The MarCO CubeSats were launched last year to test if such low-cost technology can operate in deep space. The twins, nicknamed EVE and WALL-E after characters from a Pixar film, served as communications relays during the InSight's Mars landing, beaming back data at each stage of its descent to the Martian surface in near-real time, along with InSight's first image. WALL-E sent back stunning images of Mars as well, while EVE performed some simple radio science. Having travelled well past Mars, the twin CubeSats seem to have reached their limit, NASA said in a statement. It has been over a month since engineers have heard from MarCO, which followed NASA's InSight to the Red Planet. At this time, the mission team considers it unlikely they will be heard from again. The experimental technology cost a ..
Pollution under control in tributaries of Ganga
Industrial pollution in tributaries of the Ganga in Uttarakhand is safe enough for pilgrims to take the holy dip in the river during the Magh and Kumbh melas, say experts.
Long, strange trip: How U.S. ethanol reaches China tariff-free
NEW YORK/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - In June, the High Seas tanker ship loaded up on ethanol in Texas and set off for Asia.
NASA's first deep space mini spacecraft go silent
NASA's first interplanetary mission to use a class of mini-spacecraft has fallen silent in deep space and it is unlikely that they will be heard again, the US space agency has said.