Page 430 - Environment

Foundation stone for BPCL's bio-refibery laid in Odisha

The foundation stone for second generation ethanol bio-refinery, being set up by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore, was laid Wednesday in Odisha's Bargarh district. Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal laid the foundation stone at Baulasingha in Bhatli Tehsil in presence of Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Setting up ethanol plant in Bargarh is an example of the developmental works of the Centre with a mission to make India world's super power with the active help and support by each and every citizens of the country, the governor said. The plant is dedicated for the welfare of tribal and farmers of the state, he said. With around 18 lakh tonne paddy being produced in Bargarh, there is an equal amount of straw production in the atea. While 6 to 7 lakh tonnes are used as fodder and other purposes, 10-12 lakh tonnes are burnt creating environmental hazard, said Pradhan. The setting up of the bio-refinery will provide a permanent ...

Delhi's air quality remains poor for third consecutive day

Delhi's air quality remained 'poor' for the third consecutive day on Wednesday due to change in direction of wind, which is now flowing from stubble burning areas in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana. The overall air quality index (AQI) recorded at 4 pm stood at 239, which falls under 'poor' category. On Tuesday, Delhi's AQI stood at 256, according to the data by the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR). An AQI between 0-50 is considered 'good', 51-100 'satisfactory', 101-200 'moderate', 201-300 'poor', 301-400 'very poor', and 401-500 'severe'. On Wednesday, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon also recorded 'poor' air quality levels at 233 and 243 respectively, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data showed. The PM10 level (presence of particles with diameter less than 10 micrometers) in Delhi stood at 224 and the PM2.5 level was recorded at 102, according to the data. The drop in the air quality is due to change in direction of wind, which is now flowing

State to adopt double accounting system for transparency in civic bodies: UP govt

Uttar Pradesh government Wednesday decided to implement double-entry accounting system for local bodies involving identification and enlisting of all their assets and liabilities with provisions for the people to see the data. The decision to implement the double-entry accounting system, as suggested by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) to ensure transparency, was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. "With a view to ensure transparency in local bodies, we will be implementing the double-entry accounting as suggested by the CAG," Urban Development Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said. The procedure involves opening each year a balance sheet enlisting all the identified assets and liabilities of civic bodies after their physical verification besides updating and creating their records with approval of the municipal councils, the minister said. "It will be done in next 24 months and all the assets and liabilities of the local bodies will be ...

Higher land, borrowing costs keeping solar tariff above Rs 3 per unit in UP

Higher land and borrowing costs have kept solar power tariff above Rs 3 per unit in the 500 MW capacity auction conducted by Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA), a source said. The Rs 3.17 per unit tariff is higher than lowest ever tariff of Rs 2.44 per unit discovered in solar energy project auctions in the country. Recently, in September, bidders quoted Rs 2.44 per unit for 500 MW solar capacities auctioned by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam. Earlier, in June Rs 2.70 per unit was quoted in an auction conducted by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for 750 MW Solar PV earlier. Solar tariff had touched an all-time low of Rs 2.44 per unit last year in May. The source said the UPNEDA conducted the auction for 50 GW capacities, allowing bidders to quote multiple bids for different packages and the tariff remained higher at Rs 3.17 per unit due to expensive land prices in Uttar Pradesh. The developers will install this solar capacities across the state. ..

Pb, Hary paddy growers 'soft targets', say experts on stubble burning

Paddy growers of Punjab and Haryana have become "soft targets" as they are often blamed for causing air pollution in the NCR region due to stubble burning, farm experts said Wednesday, as they pitched for incentivising growers for the management of crop residue. The experts said penalising farmers without addressing their issues should not be encouraged. Steps like crop diversification and investments in producing bio energy with paddy straw can help tide over the issue, they suggested. A dialogue between farmers, policy makers and farm experts on farm-related issues, including stubble burning, was held here. "Farmers have become easy targets as they are blamed for causing air pollution in NCR region including Delhi," agriculture policy expert Devinder Sharma said. He said holding only farmers responsible for pollution was "biased thinking". "In Delhi, urban class will always blame the rural people. People in Delhi do not want to reduce pollution as they want to use cars and do not ...

India, Finland to work closely for environment conservation

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with Finland to facilitate closer and long-term cooperation in the field of environment protection and management of natural resources.

Cabinet approves India-Finland agreement on environmental cooperation

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved a Memorandum of Cooperation between India and Finland on environmental cooperation.This memorandum will bring in the latest technologies and best practices suited for bringing about better environmental protection, better conservation, and better management of climate change and wildlife protection/conservation in the country.It is also believed that the Memorandum of Cooperation between the two countries will pave way for long-term cooperation in the field of environment protection and management of natural resources on the basis of equity, reciprocity and mutual benefits, taking into account the applicable laws and legal provisions in each country.The areas of cooperation under this Memorandum of Cooperation shall include: air and water pollution prevention and purification, remediation of contaminated soils; waste management including hazardous wastes, and waste-to-energy technologies; promotion of ...

HC seeks NHSRCL, TMC's reply on builder's land reserved for bullet train project

The Bombay High Court directed the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) and the Thane civic body Wednesday to reply to a construction firm's plea against a notice to stop work on a land now reserved for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project. Atlanta Limited had moved the high court last month challenging the notice issued on May 2 by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), asking it to stop the construction work on its three hectare land near Mumbra town in Thane district. According to the notice, the building was coming up on the land reserved for the bullet train project spread across three districts of Maharashtra. The petitioner's counsel, M M Vashi, argued before a division bench of Acting Chief Justice N H Patil and Justice G S Kulkarni Wednesday that their plot was not mentioned in the TMC's notice. NHSRCL lawyer T J Pandian said it was a mistake, to which the bench observed that the petitioner was suffering because of this "inadvertent mistake". The ...

Strike by separatists hits life in poll-bound areas in Kashmir

Normal life was affected in poll-bound areas in Kashmir Valley Wednesday due to a strike called by separatists against the urban local bodies elections in the state. Voting for the second of the four-phased elections was underway in the Valley. It began at 6 am and will end at 4 pm. Shops, fuel stations and other business establishments were shut in the poll-bound areas of the Valley, officials said, adding some other areas of the city also observed a spontaneous shutdown as shops remained closed. Authorities have reduced the mobile internet speeds across the Valley as a precautionary measure, they said. The officials said public transport was off roads in the poll-bound areas but plying normally in the rest of the Valley. The government has declared a holiday in the poll-bound areas. The separatists - under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) Tuesday asked people in the region to observe strike. "In the poll-bound areas in the second-phase of the elections, people will ..

Trade rules need to address Chinese excess capacity: EU's Moscovici

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Any rewrite of global trading rules must deal with the issue of excess industrial capacity in China, European Commission Economic Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Wednesday.

Cabinet approves agreement between India, Finland on environment protection

The government on Wednesday approved an agreement between India and Finland on cooperation in environment protection in both the countries. The Cabinet, in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the memorandum of cooperation between the two countries, which include partnership in air and water pollution prevention and purification, waste management and climate change, among others. "The memorandum of cooperation is expected to bring in the latest technologies and the best practices suited for bringing about better environment protection, better conservation, and better management of climate change and wildlife protection/conservation," the government said in a statement. The agreement will also include cooperation in promotion of circular economy, low-carbon solutions, sustainable management of natural resources conservation of marine and coastal resources, integrated water management of oceanic or sea islands, it said. The Cabinet also gave its ex post facto ...

'Oldest flying squirrel fossil found'

Scientists have discovered the oldest flying squirrel fossil ever which sheds new light on the origin and evolution of these airborne animals. Described in the journal eLife, the 11.6-million-year-old fossil was discovered in a landfill, about 40 kilometers outside the Can Mata city in Spain. "Due to the large size of the tail and thigh bones, we initially thought the remains belonged to a primate," said Isaac Casanovas-Vilar from the Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP) in Spain. Further excavation revealed that it was a large rodent skeleton with minuscule specialised wrist bones, identifying it as Miopetaurista neogrivensis -- an extinct flying squirrel. Combining molecular and paleontological data to carry out evolutionary analyses of the fossil, Casanovas-Vilar and the team demonstrated that flying squirrels evolved from tree squirrels as far back as 31 to 25 million years ago, and possibly even earlier. Their results showed that Miopetaurista is closely ...

'Carbon sink' Bhutan counts cost of plans for green future

The gentle whirring of the wind turbine speaks volumes of Bhutan's record as the world's only carbon negative country, but major challenges stand in the way of the Himalayan kingdom's decision to follow a green path over rampant economic expansion. The mountainous state, holding only its third election on October 18, absorbs three times more CO2 than it emits, thanks mainly to the lush forests covering 72 per cent of its land. Famed as the "last Shangri-La" for using happiness as a measure of success, Switzerland-sized Bhutan has been careful to keep its environment pristine, often by sacrificing profits. The nation of 800,000 has restricted tourist numbers with a daily fee of USD 250 per visitor in high season, helping keep at bay the kind of boom that has ravaged other scenic hotspots. In May, Bhutan opted out of an India-backed regional road connectivity project mainly over concerns that trucks coming in from other countries will pollute its air. The constitution stipulates that at

Australia issues El Nino alert, warns drought conditions may worsen

Australia has a 70 per cent chance of being affected by the El Nino phenomenon by the end of the year, which would aggravate the severe drought suffered by several parts of its territory, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has said.

Leading EU lawmaker sees smaller risk now of no-deal Brexit

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A European Parliament lawmaker dealing with Brexit, Danuta Hubner, said on Wednesday she saw a smaller risk now than before of failing to reach a divorce agreement with Britain.

Over 50,000 trees to be axed in UP's tiger habitat

The Uttar Pradesh government is set to chop about 55,000 trees in critical tiger habitats to build a road of strategic importance.

100% organic Sikkim shortlisted for FAO's Future Policy Award

Sikkim's achievement in becoming the world's first totally organic agriculture state has gotten it a place on the shortlist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) Future Policy Award.

Denmark mulls labelling food for climate impact

Denmark is planning to compel food manufacturers and supermarkets to put labels on their products to outline the impact on the climate and environment.The government, which is discussing the proposal, is being backed by the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, the industry umbrella organisation which is in favour of implementing the best practices in an effort to alleviate the effects of farming on climate change, CNN reported."Everyone knows that food production influences the climate, but if the rest of the world produced food the way we do in Denmark, the world would be a better place," Morten Høyer, director of the council, said.While Denmark has been working with the European Union for the past 10 years to develop a label on food products to rate climate change, Høyer believes that it would not be "easy" to implement the proposal."It may be necessary to compare the climate effect of a product with how nutritious it is. A soda might only have a small impact on the climate, but it .

Centre sanctions Rs 29,695 cr of CCL for Punjab's paddy procurement

The Centre on Tuesday sanctioned a cash credit limit (CCL) of Rs 29,695.40 to Punjab for the procurement of paddy in the Kharif marketing season of 2018-19.However, the Punjab government led by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had raised a demand of Rs 40,300 crore."The amount has been released by the RBI for procurement of paddy till October. The balance installment of Rs 10,604.60 would be released subsequently," an official spokesperson of the Punjab government said.Singh had been pursuing the issue of early release of CCL to ensure a timely payment of the paddy farmers.The Chief Minister, meanwhile, directed all state procurement agencies to take immediate steps to ensure prompt lifting of the procedure, followed by a timely release of payments to the farmers. He has also instructed to lift every single grain of the farmers' produce from the market and adhere to the prescribed norms of timely payment.Singh also reiterated the state government's decision to facilitate smooth .

Despite Germany's concerns, EU nations to seek 35% CO2 cut on cars by 2030

Several countries had sought a higher, 40 per cent reduction in car emissions, in line with targets backed by EU lawmakers last week