Page 353 - Environment

India produces 1.16 million tonnes sugar until mid-November

Sugar production in the country until November 15 has been 1.16 million tonnes, compared to 1.37 million tonnes during the corresponding period last year, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said on Monday.

Translocated tiger died of multiple organ failure, says post-mortem report

The three-year-old male Royal Bengal Tiger, Mahavir, which was translocated from Madhya Pradesh to the Satkosia Wildlife Sanctuary in Odisha's Angul district, died due to infection and multiple organ failure, official sources said Monday. "The ante-mortem wound in the neck region was infested with maggots and the subsequent infection had led to septicaemia, resulting in multiple organ failure," the post-mortem report released by the forest department said. The big cat, which was translocated from the Kanha Tiger Reserve of Madhya Pradesh, was found dead in the Satkosia Tiger Reserve (STR) on November 14. The post-mortem report also mentioned that a provisional diagnosis indicated that the tiger had died due to multiple vital organ failure, which was initiated since the creation of the wound in the neck region. The forest department has also collected specimens from the tiger's liver, kidney, lungs, spleen, intestine and stomach for laboratory tests. "Around 8-10 porcupine quills were .

Delhi's air quality 'very poor'; EPCA chairman says enforcing agencies completely dormant

Delhi's air quality remained "very poor" on Monday due to slow wind speed and high humidity, authorities said even as a study pointed out that during the past two decades, Delhi's air quality was the "most deadly" in 2016 as it reduced the life expectancy of a resident by over 10 years. Even as the study asserted that the national capital was the second among 50 most polluted areas of the country, the Supreme Court-empowered Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) Chairman Bhure Lal said enforcing agencies were "completely dormant" and bodies like the DDA and the MCD were indulging in a blame game. Speaking at an event, Lal stressed on the need to strengthen public transport, especially the bus fleet, while asserting that there was a "laxity of administration" in adopting measures for combating pollution. North Delhi Mayor Adesh Gupta, however, rejected the allegation saying, the civic body "follows all instructions" as directed by the apex court-appointed ...

Centre releases SOPs for safety of sewer workers

In the light of several incidents of the death of sewer workers, the Central government on Monday released Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for cleaning of sewers and septic tanks in order to ensure the workers' safety and prevent accidents.

Cong farmers wing writes to party leaders owning sugar mills

Pushed by the agitation by sugarcane farmers, Karnataka Congress' farmers wing has written to party leaders who own sugar factories to clear the ryots' dues. Farmers in Belagavi and other northern districts have been protesting for the last few days demanding clearance of their pending arrears by sugar factories for the cane suppliedand announcement of purchase price for sugarcane for thecurrent season as had been done in neighbouring Maharashtra. The President of the state congress' Kisan Khet Mazdoor Congress, Sachin Meega, shot off aletter to party leaders Ramesh Jarkiholi, Satish Jarkiholi,Shrimant Patil, S R Patil, S S Mallikarjun, Anand Nyamagouda and S S Malagam. "Farmers have supplied sugarcane they have grown to your factories and money has got be deposited to them, but as the money given was lesser than what was fixed, farmers are indistress and are agitating across the state," Meega said in his letter. He said, in this backdrop, the farmers' wing of the ...

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan falls for first time in 3 years

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan fell 29 per cent in 2018 down to 6,400 tonnes, following a bumper crop the previous year, according to a UN report published on Monday.

Rs 546.21 crore Central assistance for K'taka

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday chaired a meeting of the High Level Committee (HLC) to consider additional central assistance to Karnataka, which was hit hard by floods and landslides during 2018-19.The HLC approved the additional assistance of Rs 546.21 from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to the state. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba and senior officers of the Ministries of Home Affairs, Finance and Agriculture and NITI Aayog were present in the meeting.

Putin and Erdogan mark key phase in natural gas pipeline

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have marked the completion of a key phase of TurkStream, a natural gas pipeline connecting the two countries. Speaking at a ceremony in Istanbul, Erdogan announced the offshore part of TurkStream's two parallel lines two kilometers deep in the Black Sea had been finished and said the final leg of the "historic project" had been reached. The lines are expected to supply Russian gas to Turkey and European markets through Turkish territories. Together, the two 930-kilometer (578-mile) lines under the Black Sea, along with the Russian and Turkish onshore pipes, will carry 31.5 billion cubic meters (1.1 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas annually. "We are witnessing a very important event that is a clear demonstration of a partnership and cooperation between our countries in dealing with the most complex and ambitious projects," Putin said. Erdogan said the two countries aimed for long-term cooperation and their ..

Afghan opium producers hit hard by drought in 2018

Afghan opium producers were hit hard by the worst drought in living memory this year and excessive supply, with output and prices falling sharply as the area under poppy cultivation shrank, an annual survey said Monday. In sharp contrast to a bumper 2017, the value of opium -- a key source of funding for the Taliban -- as it left poppy-growing farms fell 56 per cent to USD 604 million, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said. Potential opium production from this year's harvest dropped 29 per cent to 6,400 tons -- partially reversing last year's 87 per cent increase -- as cultivation shrank by 20 per cent and yields fell. The sharp drop in area under cultivation to 263,000 hectares (650,000 acres) was still the second-highest level since systemic opium poppy monitoring began in 1994, according to the Afghanistan Opium Survey, jointly compiled by the UNODC and the Afghan counter-narcotics ministry. Crops failed on a "major scale" across northern and western Afghanistan due to the dry ...

Industrial park rating will boost competitiveness: Prabhu

The development of an industrial park rating system would help increase industry competitiveness and boost the manufacturing sector in the country, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Monday.

Air pollution cuts average Indian's life expectancy by over 4 years: Study

India is the world's second most polluted country, slightly trailing only Nepal, the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) said on Monday.

More toilets posing greater challenges of untreated sewage

With eight crore toilets built in India since 2014, a new challenge in the form of untreated sewage confronts India, with the problems expected to surmount in coming years, officials said at the World Toilet Summit, here on Monday.

Patnaik scraps beer-bottling project in Dhenkanal

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday cancelled the setting up of a beer-bottling plant in Dhenkanal district, two days after a clash between locals and police over the felling of hundreds of trees for the project. Patnaik's action came on the basis of a report by D V Swamy, the revenue divisional commissioner (RDC) of the northern division, on Monday. "The chief minister has ordered cancellation of the bottling plant in that location after receiving the report of the RDC on tree-cutting," a statement released by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said. In his report, Swamy said, "The allocation of (the) Bottling plant may be cancelled and alternative site may be provided. Unnecessary felling of trees may be stopped forthwith and immediate plantation should be taken up." On Saturday, locals came out in large numbers to protest against the administration's move to cut down over 950 trees for the project by a private firm, P&A Bottlers Ltd, at Balarampur -- 78 km from ...

Nearly 60.50 lakh household toilets built under Swachh Bharat

Nearly 60.5 lakh individual households toilets have so far been constructed across the country under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said Monday. According to the ministry, around 4.7 lakh public toilet seats have been constructed so far. The target set under the mission was 5.07 lakh public toilet seats. On the occasion of the "World Toilet Day", the government also released Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for cleaning of sewers and septic tanks for field staff who respond to sewer overflows or spills. More than 12,000 public toilets have been built in Delhi since 2015, the ministry said. Speaking at an event here, HUA Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said 19 states and UTs were already Open Defecation Free (ODF) in their urban areas. "This has been achieved by the construction of nearly 60.53 lakh individual household toilets (against a mission target of 66 lakhs; i.e. 91.7% constructed and under-construction against target)," ...

Odisha to build houses for 13,000 cyclone-hit families

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday announced that the state will build houses for all the 13,000 families, whose homes were destroyed during cyclone Titli, officials said. The house will be provided under the Biju Pucca Ghar scheme and the decision was taken at a high level meeting here chaired by Patnaik, the officials said. The chief minister asked the department concerned to expedite the process and ensure transparency, an official said, adding, the house will be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 176 crore. It was also decided that local businessmen and self-help groups (SHGs) will be roped in to carry out the construction work. The state government will also urge the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to assist the SHGs, train the masons and provide necessary assistance to the affected families, the official said.

At KMP expressway inauguration, Modi hits out at previous Cong govt over delay

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday made a scathing attack on the previous Congress government over the delayed Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway project, saying it is a "case study" of how public money is wasted. Without naming the Congress-led UPA dispensation, Modi blamed it for the slow pace of development of infrastructure projects across the country. He inaugurated the 83-km stretch of KMP, also known as western peripheral expressway, and the Rs 580-crore 3.2-km elevated stretch of the Violet Line of the Delhi Metro through video-conferencing from Sultanpur village in this district. The metro corridor linking the Kashmere Gate station in New Delhi with Escorts Mujesar in Faridabad was planned for expansion up to Ballabhgarh, an industrial hub. The prime minister also laid the foundation stone of the Rs 989-crore Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, which will come up at Dudhola in Palwal district over 82.5 acres of land. The BJP government in Haryana has blamed the previous ...

Future 'smart' homes could 'listen' to you

Scientists, including one of Indian origin, are developing a system that could make future 'smart' homes adjust to your activity with only a few small, hidden sensors in the walls and floor. Researchers from Case Western Reserve University in the US are experimenting with the system that could read the vibrations, sounds and even the specific gait, or other movements associated with people and animals in a building. The system can also detect any subtle changes in the existing ambient electrical field, according to the research presented at the IEEE Sensors conference in New Delhi. While still a decade or so away, the home of the future could be a building that adjusts to your activity with only a few small, hidden sensors in the walls and floor and without the need for invasive cameras, researchers said. "We are trying to make a building that is able to 'listen' to the humans inside," said Ming-Chun Huang, an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University. "We are using ...

Centre approves Rs 546 crore additional assistance for Karnataka

The Centre on Monday approved Rs 546.21 crore additional assistance to Karnataka which has experienced floods and landslides during 2018, a Home Ministry statement said.

Air Quality drops, improvement likely on Tuesday

Air quality in Delhi and the adjoining areas worsened further to the "very poor" category on Monday. However, pollution is expected to decrease from Tuesday due to favourable winds and a "significant drop" in stubble burning in neighbouring states, officials said.

Karnataka villages are open defecation free, says CM

Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday said the southern state was open defecation free in its rural areas.