Page 26 - Environment

Development dilemmas, at home and abroad

The confluence of an impossible trinity at home and natural, economic, technological and geopolitical disruptions globally raises major concerns

Tanneries return to work, reviving Kanpur's Rs 12,000 cr leather industry

Kanpur's tanneries shut down last year for Kumbh and were not allowed to reopen because of environmental concerns.

Himalayan states demand separate Ministry, green bonus for conservation

Sitharaman inaugurated the one-day Himalayan conclave held here on Sunday

Bitcoin causing annual CO2 emissions comparable to those of Vegas: Study

Although Bitcoin is a virtual currency, the energy consumption associated with its use is very real

Drink a pint, waste less food

A brewery in England, has been using discarded breakfast cereal to make beer in a project intended to address the issue of waste

Rajasthan: Tigress T-73 gives birth to 3 cubs at Ranthambore Tiger Reserve

A Ranthambore tigress, popularly known as T-73, has given birth to three cubs at the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve here.Mukesh Saini, Divisional Forest Officer, told ANI, "A few days back, we received information about new cubs in the reserve. Though there were pugmarks in the area, we couldn't authenticate it.""The three cubs were first spotted with their mother on Sunday when they were captured on CCTVs installed for tiger surveillance in a no-tourism zone of the reserve," he added."To ensure the safety of the cubs, the authorities have tightened the security in the reserve where they were spotted," Saini said.Further, he added that T-73 belongs to famous Machhli's family and this is for the second time that T-73 has given birth in the reserve.T-73 is the daughter of T-17 tigress Sundari.

Mangaluru: 261 kgs of plastic seized during raids on local shops

Health and environment officials of Mangalore City Corporation (MCC) conducted raids on local shops in the city and seized 261 kilograms of banned plastic items.Plastic materials including poly bags, disposable glasses, packaging items were seized on Tuesday and were taken away in a tempo. A penalty of Rs 2500 has been imposed on the shop owners.A woman official was also present during the raids.States across the nation including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Puducherry have recently imposed a ban on using and selling of single-use plastics.On March 23 last year, the Maharashtra government had issued a notification, imposing a ban on the manufacture, use, sale and distribution of all plastic materials like plastic bags, spoons, plates, bottles and thermocol items. On April 13, the Bombay High Court had called the ban 'reasonable'.

In legal first, court faults France over air pollution

A court on Tuesday found the French state had failed to take sufficient steps to limit air pollution around Paris, a legal first in the country hailed by environmental campaigners as a victory for victims of dirty air. The case at the administrative court in Montreuil outside Paris was brought by a mother and daughter who argued their health had been harmed by the air in a notoriously congested area of the city. But the court also said it did not find any direct link between the pair's health problems and failures of the state, throwing out their demand for damages. Backed by NGOs, the complaint was the first brought by individuals against the French state over health problems caused by air pollution. "The state committed a fault by taking insufficient measures concerning the quality of air," the court said in a statement. It said that between 2012 and 2016, the state had failed to take sufficient measures to bring concentrations of certain polluting gases below allowed limits. "For ..

UP Jal Nigam on ventilator, need to find substitute for it, says Adityanath

Expressing dissatisfaction at the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Tuesday sought to find a "substitute" for the department, saying that it is "on ventilator". "It is important to find a substitute for this department (UP Jal Nigam) now. It is on a ventilator and we are getting lots of complaints against it. An expenditure of around Rs 1,000 crore has been done under the Varanasi Drinking Water Scheme since 2017, but nothing has happened in Varanasi," Adityanath said. The chief minister also ordered for initiation of strict action against erring officials. The official website of the UP Jal Nigam (http://jn.upsdc.gov.in) says, "The basic objective of creating this corporation is development and regulation of water supply and sewerage services and for matters connected therewith." In order to speed up the Namami Gange Mission, Adityanath directed officials to form a district Ganga committee within the next 15 days and collaborate with organisations and persons ...

Gram Vastavya 2.0: Kumaraswamy leaves for Karegudda village

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday left for Karegudda village in Manvi district under 'Gram Vastavya 2.0' programme.Kumaraswamy was accompanied by State Tourism Minister Sa Ra Mahesh. Both the ministers boarded the train to Karegudda village today.On June 22, the Chief Minister had revived his 2006 rural outreach programme, in which he stayed at the homes of villagers. Kicking off the programme from Gurmitkal in Yadgir district."The tour will start from today onwards. I wanted to do a minimum two to four 'Grama Vaastavya' every month," he told ANI here.The JD(S) leader had during his first stint as chief minister of the state in 2006 had stayed in the homes of villagers.Under the programme, Kumaraswamy will stay in a hamlet overnight where he will interact with its people on the issues they face regularly.

CPCB stops Ansal Properties' township project, imposes fine of Rs 14.6 cr

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has directed Ansal Properties and Infrastructure to stop all construction activities for its township project in Gurgaon for violation of environmental norms and also asked the real estate developer to pay Rs 14.69 crore as compensation. In its order dated June 18, the apex pollution control body held the builder guilty of discharge of untreated waste for 281 days in its 604 acre residential complex at Sushant Lok, Phase 1, in Gurgaon. The CPCB directed the chairman of the firm "to stop all the construction/expansion activities in Sushant Lok, Phase 1, Gurgaon with immediate effect". The company's spokesperson could not be immediately contacted for comment. According to the CPCB, the builder has encroached green areas and is illegally extracting ground water without a No Objection certificate (NOC) from the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA). The National Green Tribunal was also seized of the matter and the CPCB, in pursuance to the NGT's .

Switch off power supply for half-an-hour every day: Minister

In order to stop wastage of electricity during the monsoon season, the West Bengal government Tuesday requested the people of the state to switch off power supply for at least half-an-hour every day. The state government has taken up a programme "save energy, save earth and environment", Power minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay said after a meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. "Monsoon is nearing and to ensure that the power generation, transmission and distribution are not hampered we held a long meeting today. We have taken up a programme 'Save Energy, Save Earth and Environment'. We will not be forcing anybody but will be requesting the consumers to switch off the power supply for 30 minutes each day," Chattopadhyay said. He said that the state government would hold awareness camps in the districts for the purpose and in order to make people understand the misuse of power. Chattopadhyay further alleged that because of the "faulty" policies of the Central ...

Uttarakhand govt to challenge high court ban on night stay in Himalayan meadows

The Uttarakhand government will soon challenge in the Supreme Court the Uttarakhand High Court's order imposing a ban on camping and night stay in the meadows of the high Himalayan region. "We have prepared enough ground to challenge the high court order in the Supreme Court and an appeal against the ban will soon be filed in the apex court," state Forest Minister Harak Singh Rawat said in the state Assembly on Tuesday. He said the ban on camping and night stay in the meadows of the high Himalayan region that came in August 2018 has badly hit trekking activities and traders associated with adventure sports, causing much concern to the government. Admitting that there was a delay in taking the matter up, Rawat said the process involved coordinating with other departments such as Animal Husbandry and Tourism. Enough information has been collected and the state government is fully equipped to challenge the high court ban in the Supreme Court, the minister said.

Water ATMs, underground bins under NDMC smart city projects

The New Delhi Municipal Council has completed 72 projects under the smart-city initiative, including installation of water ATMs, decentralised sewage treatment plants and underground bins, and 39 more projects are in the pipeline, the civic body's chairman said Tuesday. A total of 111 projects were identified under the initiative at a cost of Rs 1,576.20 crore and 72 have been completed, NDMC chairman Naresh Kumar said at a press conference. Solar rooftop panels have also been installed on 92 buildings, along with 95 solar poles at several roundabouts as part of the renewable energy initiatives taken by the civic body. Two solar bus queue shelters have also been installed and a solar tree has been put up in Connaught Place where leaves are working as solar panels and lighting the tree at night and also providing mobile charging facility.

Cauvery management authority asks K'taka to release 40.43 TMC water to Tamil Nadu

The Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) Tuesday asked Karnataka to release nearly 40.43 thousand million cubic feet water to Tamil Nadu for the months of June and July, sources said. The decision is, however, subject to review depending on the rainfall received by Cauvery basin and the water storage of four reservoirs in Karnataka. According to the monthly schedule fixed by the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal, the quantum to be released by Karnataka from Biligundlu site is 9.19 TMC and 31.24 TMC for June and July, respectively. The decision was taken by the CWMA in a meeting which was attended by representatives of the Centre and the riparian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Puducherry. The existing arrangement between Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will continue. Several parts of Tamil Nadu are grappling with acute water shortage. The Centre had last month issued a drought advisory to the state in the backdrop of depleting water levels in its reservoirs. "The water will be

Pre-monsoon preparations: WR chops down 51 trees, trimmed 1591

The Western Railway (WR) Tuesday said it chopped down 51 trees and trimmed 1591 others in the last six months ahead of monsoon. According to authorities, the action was taken in the wake of some instances wherein trees leaning towards railway tracks either caused delay or cancellation of services. "Western Railway has carried out trimming of 1591 trees and cut 51 trees during the last six months as part of the pre-monsoon preparation work, after few recent instances where certain Ashoka trees which had leaned towards railway tracks had caused loss of punctuality and cancellation," WR Chief Public Relations Officer Ravinder Bhakar said in a press release issued Tuesday. He referred to a recent incident in which a tree leaning towards tracks between Charni Road and Grant Road stations caused cancellation of two trains and delayed a suburban train. The tree was cut down to avoid any usual disruption in the peak hours. Meanwhile, the WR has also urged residents of private ..

'15th Finance Commission speaks of "enigma of two Karnatakas"

There is an enigma of two Karnatakas with the existence of both high per capita income and high poverty numbers in the state at the same time, the 15th Finance Commission said on Tuesday, as it stressedon the need for closer attention on the matter. Also, the debt to GDP ratio in Karnataka is rising and thestate needs to be mindful of this going forward, the commission cautioned,though it is aligned with the targets set as of now. Commission Chairman N K Singh said it was somewhat ironic that as one speaks of Karnatakaas India's engine of growth, home of technology and startup industries and where entrepreneurialinstincts come naturally, per capita income is significantly higher than that of the nation, but poverty numberswere unacceptably high. "In a sense as what many have said there is not one Karnataka, there are two Karnatakas," he said. One was a prosperousKarnataka and alongside it one far less prosperous and which really demonstrated how intra-state disparities .

NTPC bags 40 MW solar projects in UPNEDA's auction

State-run power major NTPC Tuesday said it has won 40 MW solar energy projects in an auction conducted by Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA). "NTPC participated in UPNEDA's tender for 500 MW Solar capacity with two bids of 20 MW each at Auraiya and Rihand," the company said in a statement. Reverse auction was carried out on June 25 and NTPC won entire 40 MW of solar capacity at a levellised tariff of Rs 3.02/kWh applicable for 25 years, it said. The projects shall be set up under EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) mode and shall add to the installed capacity of NTPC, the statement said. With these projects, NTPC has won aggregate solar capacity of 545 MW under tariff based competitive bidding tenders of states/SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India).

Ahead of Monsoon, Kejriwal urges officials to ensure 'no inconvenience' caused to Delhiites due to water logging

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday directed the senior officials to take all possible effective measures to ensure that residents of Delhi do not face any inconvenience due to water logging during Monsoon season.The Chief Minister's direction came during the programme to launch the Flood Control Order report for the current year, in presence of his cabinet colleagues and all the top officers of the Delhi government and civic agencies.Kejriwal directed the Chief Secretary Vijay Dev to ask all the concerned departments to provide a list of all the already identified vulnerable water logging points across Delhi within next seven days, along with the status report of what has been done to prevent water logging and problem areas, if any, before the Monsoon sets in."All departments do a good job in implementing flood control measures in Delhi, but let us be clear that there are shortcomings in tackling water logging during Monsoon. Vulnerable water logging points are known and .

Scientists successfully transfer 1st test tube rhino embryo

Scientists in Europe say they've successfully transferred a test tube rhino embryo back into a female whose eggs were fertilized in vitro, as part of an effort to save another nearly extinct sub-species of the giant horned mammal. Thomas Hildebrandt of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin said Tuesday the procedure was performed last month on a southern white rhino at Chorzow Zoo in Poland. Hildebrandt is part of an international team trying to save the northern white rhino. The team is hoping to get permission from Kenya to harvest eggs from the last two surviving female northern white rhinos soon. He told reporters that "this is the first positive proof that the entire procedure we've developed in theory can be successful.