Page 432 - Environment
Photography exhibition on Indian coastal communities opens
Maritime traditions scholar and historian late Lotika Varadarajans 50 photographs on the Indian coastal communities are on display at the India International Centre (IIC) here in an exhibition that opened on Tuesday.
HC allows Centre, NBCC to seek approvals for revised plan of 6 Delhi housing projects
The Delhi High Court has allowed the Centre to approach the appropriate authorities to seek necessary approvals for the revised proposals regarding re-development of six south Delhi colonies, including Sarojini Nagar and Netaji Nagar. A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao said that since the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has reviewed the proposals to re-develop the six colonies, the ministry or the NBCC, which would carry out part of the work, can seek the necessary approvals and the authorities shall consider it in accordance with law. The court, in its interim order, said the ministry or the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) shall also be at liberty to approach the Tree Officer of the Delhi government, if required as per the revised proposal, for tree felling permissions. "Further action or steps shall be taken by respondent No.1 (ministry) or NBCC as per the decision of the statutory authorities," the bench said. The court had reserved
Court orders diesel ban on major Berlin roads
Diesel drivers in Berlin faced the prospect of bans from major arterial roads as a court Tuesday ordered the German capital must follow in the footsteps of Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart with exclusion zones. A renewed focus on air quality in the wake of Volkswagen's 2015 "dieselgate" scandal -- in which the car giant admitted to cheating regulatory tests on 11 million cars worldwide -- has seen a wave of courtroom action across Germany. "The current clean air plan does not include sufficient measures to meet annual limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2)," the Berlin judges said. To bring down levels of the harmful pollutant, city authorities "must order a driving ban for the streets where the threshold is not met," targeting vehicles up to the Euro 5 emissions standard. Definite exclusion zones include 11 stretches of major arteries like the north-south axis Friedrichstrasse and the east-west Leipziger Strasse. Meanwhile, the city-state's government must also examine whether driving ...
HP launches software to enhance transparency in forest evictions
Aimed at bringing more transparency in forest encroachment evictions carried out in Himachal Pradesh, the state forest department has launched a new software on public portal, an official spokesperson said Tuesday. The software will be available for view and monitoring of the progress of evictions on a day-to-day basis and common citizens can also have an access to it, the spokesperson said. A day-long training programme on monitoring of forest encroachment eviction system was also organised here for the field and office functionaries of Shimla and Rampur Circle, he said. The programme was presided over by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Ajay Sharma. During the programme, DFOs, ACFs, Range officers, Forest Guards, office assistants and data entry operators were given a detailed training on how to maintain a data base on the encroachments detected, the spokesperson said.
Maha approves Rs 1,610 cr for Tarli irrigation project
The Maharashtra government Tuesday gave administrative approval of Rs 1,610 crore for the Tarli Irrigation Project in the state's Satara district. It is the fourth time that the state government has given a revised administrative approval for the project which comprises eight lift irrigation schemes on the Tarli River, a tributary of River Krishna. The project will bring 6,507 hectares in the Tarli Valley and 8,876 hectares in the Maan and Khatav talukas of Satara district under irrigation. An official from the Chief Minister's Office said that permission from the Central Water Commission will be taken for the project. In another decision taken at the cabinet meeting Tuesday, the government decided to set up an education fund to train personnel of cooperative institutions. The cabinet also decided to levy penalties on pharma manufacturers, retailers and accredited laboratories for violating rules.
Zika cases rise to 29 in Rajasthan, Centre says no need to panic
The Health Ministry Tuesday appealed to people not to panic and assured them that the Zika outbreak was under control, after 29 people were tested positive for the disease in Rajasthan's Jaipur. Rajasthan's Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Veenu Gupta told reporters in Jaipur that 29 people, including three pregnant women, have so far been tested positive for Zika virus in the city and efforts are on to contain the spread of the virus. "Zika cases have been detected due to our strong surveillance systems. Our surveillance is very robust and all such cases get detected. We have standard protocols, and in collaboration with the WHO, we follow them to see whether it is an isolated case or a collective case. "The ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research), National Centre for Disease Control and DGHS (Directorate General of Health Services) are monitoring the current situation continuously. I want to assure citizens of India that everything is under control and there is no need to ...
Shop licence cancellation proposed for possessing banned
The Maharashtra government wants to make the plastic ban in the state more stringent by cancelling shop licences if such material is found there, state Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam said Tuesday. He said that a primary level meeting had already been held here to decide on how to go about implementing this new proposal. "We have succeeded up to 60 per cent in imposing plastic ban across the state. Now we want to make it more stringent by cancelling the license of shops if they are found in possession of banned plastic material," Kadam said Tuesday. "A primary level meeting has already been held in Mumbai regarding cancellation of licence. We will take appropriate action next week on how it is going to be implemented," the minister informed. He said that visible littering of plastic bags had come down since the ban, adding that 290 tonnes of banned plastic had been seized and fines of Rs 2.53 crore collected in this period. Kadam said that 12 regional offices of the ...
'Delhi's air quality remains poor for second consecutive day'
Delhi's air quality remained 'poor' for the second consecutive day Tuesday and the authorities forecast it to further deteriorate in the next couple of days due to change in direction of wind, which is now flowing from stubble burning areas in Punjab and Haryana. The overall air quality index (AQI) recorded at 4 pm on Tuesday was 256 which falls under 'poor' category. On Monday, the AQI of Delhi was registered at 262, according to the data by the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR). Ghaziabad and Gurgaon recorded 'very poor' air quality at 307 and 328 respectively, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data. The SAFAR has predicted further deterioration of air quality with increase in the dangerous PM2.5 (presence of particles with diameter less than 2.5 micrometers) which is expected to fall under the 'very poor' category in the next couple of days. The PM2.5 level is expected to reach 124 by Wednesday, the SAFAR data ...
Come out with own initiatives for climate action: Harsh Vardhan to states
Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said that states are important partners in implementing the vision to tackle climate change in the country and asked them to come out with their own initiatives in this regard beyond implementing central policies. He underlined that both the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) had been conceptualized almost a decade ago and will be revised to reflect the current realities. The NAPCC and SAPCC guide climate actions in the country. Harsh Vardhan said the fight against climate change has to become a social movement and asked state governments to increasingly play a proactive role in implementation of climate policies. "States must create their own initiatives for climate action beyond implementing central policies. The issues of transfer of technology and finance continue to be major issues in dealing with climate change," the Minister said at the inaugural session of the ...
Rising electricity demand in India leading to costlier coal imports: ICRA
The recent energy demand rise in India has improved offtake from the power generators but has also resulted in higher dependence on costlier coal imports as the supply of the dry fuel from domestic sources was insufficient, research and ratings agency ICRA said Tuesday. The all-India electricity demand growth remained steady at 5.6 per cent during the first five-month period of FY2019 and the increased demand is being met from higher generation by both thermal and renewable energy plants, the report said. This is also reflected in an improvement in thermal power PLF (plant load factor or capacity utilisation) to 60.6 per cent in 5M FY2019 (April to August) against 59.1 per cent in 5M FY2018, it said. ICRA Ratings Sector Head and Vice President Girishkumar Kadam said, "With international coal price level increasing by about 20 per cent in nine months of 2018 on a Y-o-Y basis and the rupee also seeing a sizeable depreciation against the USD, this resulted in an upward pressure on cost ..
Punjab agri officials instructed against paddy stubble burning
The Punjab government has instructed the staff of all agricultural boards, co-operations and related departments to ensure paddy crop stubble is not burned on lands owned and cultivated by them K S Pannu, state nodal officer for anti-stubble burning campaign, Tuesday said the state government has issued instructions to all departments to ensure that they themselves do not take part in straw burning. "The employees have been directed to create awareness among farmers about the ill-effects of stubble burning as it causes irreversible damage to nature and human health," he said. In case any employee fails to comply with these directions then disciplinary proceedings would be initiated, he said. The agriculture officials have also been mandated to report incidents of stubble burning across the state, he added. As part of the state government's programme to manage unusable paddy straw, without burning them, 24,315 subidised agro-machines have been supplied to farmers, cooperative societies
Khaira slams Punjab govt for penalising farmers for stubble burning
Rebel AAP leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira Tuesday condemned the Punjab government for "failing to tackle" stubble burning and falsely challaning over 100 farmers for burning crop residue. He said the administration has imposed a fine of Rs 2.56 lakh on the farmers. He deplored the district administration of Amritsar for challaning 101 farmers in the past three days for flouting the ban on burning of crop residue in their fields. Khaira said although he stands for clean environment and does not support burning of stubble but farmers have no option, as the government has completely failed to provide machinery, subsidy or financial assistance to them to consume the straw in the fields instead of burning. In a statement, he said the government had one full year to make arrangements for the required equipment to consume straw in the soil but it failed to do so. Khaira said the farmers of Punjab are already under a huge debt burden of Rs 1 lakh crore and continue to commit suicides in large ...
CAF rules deserve to be withdrawn:Jairam Ramesh to Harsh Vardhan
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has demanded withdrawal of rules that allow transfer of over Rs 50,000 crore to states to boost afforestation, saying they violate various constitutional provisions and the rights of tribals and local communities. In a letter to Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan, the Congress leader said the final Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) rules "go completely against the letter and spirit of the assurance" given by his predecessor, Anil Madhav Dave, in Parliament on July 28, 2016. "The rules deserve to be withdrawn for their grave violation of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 (PESA) and the Forest Rights Act," he said. The CAF Rules will pave the way for transfer of over Rs 50,000 crore to states and boost efforts towards restoration and enhancement of forest wealth, Vardhan had said recently. The rules were notified on August 10. Ramesh said that after studying the minister's reply to his ..
Coke, Pepsi, Nestle top makers of plastic waste: Greenpeace
LONDON (Reuters) - Drink companies Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle were found to be the world's biggest producers of plastic trash, a report by environmental group Greenpeace said on Tuesday.
Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nestle biggest ocean polluters: Report
Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle are among the companies that contribute most to ocean pollution with single-use plastics, according to a study presented on Tuesday by the "Break Free from Plastic" initiative.
War and drought produce Syria's smallest wheat crop in 30 years: U.N.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Syria's wheat crop this year was the smallest in three decades as war and drought cut production by around 30 percent, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said on Tuesday.
Fires leading cause of forest degradation in India: Report
Even as India has managed to increase its forest cover to over 20 per cent of its total geographical area, forest fires are a leading cause of degradation of the green cover in the country, a report said on Tuesday.
Aggressive strategy needed to control forest fires: Vardhan
Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan Tuesday said only an "aggressive strategy" can help in controlling forest fires which cause an annual loss of Rs 1,101 crore. Speaking at the launch of a joint report by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the World Bank on 'Strengthening Forest Fire Management in India', he noted that about 70 per cent of the forest area in India experiences forest fires. "Forest fires can be controlled by using aggressive strategy that includes incentivising communities and forest departments for preventing forest fires," Vardhan said. He also underlined the need to bring a social movement to prevent forest fires which currently cause an economic loss of Rs 1,101 crore. "No problem can be solved without making it a social movement. There is a need to carry the findings of the report to communities that are getting impacted by it and apprising them of ways they can adopt to prevent such fires," the minister said. Vardhan said a ...
In boon for farmers, Trump lifting restrictions on ethanol
The Trump administration is moving to allow year-round sales of gasoline with higher blends of ethanol, a boon for Iowa and other farm states that have pushed for greater sales of the corn-based fuel. President Donald Trump is expected to announce he is lifting a federal ban on summer sales of high-ethanol blends during a trip to Iowa on Tuesday. The long-expected announcement is something of a reward to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman led a contentious but successful fight to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. The veteran Republican lawmaker is the Senate's leading ethanol proponent and sharply criticised the Trump administration's proposed rollback in ethanol volumes earlier this year. At that time Grassley threatened to call for the resignation of the Environmental Protection Agency's chief, Scott Pruitt, if Pruitt did not work to fulfill the federal ethanol mandate. Pruitt later stepped down amid a host of ethics investigations. A
India making all efforts to combat climate change, Harsh Vardhan on IPCC report
Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan Tuesday said India did not wait for any report to realise that climate change posed a threat and made all efforts to combat global warming. He was reacting to a report released Monday by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) which stated that India could witness deadly heatwaves if the planet's temperature goes up by two degrees Celsius. Reacting to the findings of the report, Harsh Vardhan said, "We have not been waiting for a report to take action against climate change. We are already putting all our efforts to ensure that the global temperature does not further increase." He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of an event to release a report on 'Strengthening Forest Fire Management in India', jointly prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the World Bank. Vardhan also expressed confidence that with all the steps in place, "India would be able to combat climate change". Junaid Ahmad, ...
