Page 46 - Environment
Gehlot seeks Centre's support to strengthen Rajasthan's financial management
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday sought the Centre's help for strengthening Rajasthan's financial management besides demanding the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) be declared a national project.
Wild elephant dies due to electrocution in Udham Singh Nagar
A wild elephant died due to electrocution at Jaspur here on Saturday. The mishap took place when he was trying to enter a sugarcane field fenced with electric wires. The elephant was an adult male of about 20 years, said Forest Ranger Mahesh Sharma."It appears that the elephant died due to electric shock. However, our team of doctors will conduct the post-mortem examination. He is a male of about 20 years of age," he said."The elephant came from nearby forest range. We are also looking into the matter that how the electric fencing is done and appropriate action would be taken," added Sharma.In the backdrop of the fact that herd of pachyderm or sometimes a wild pachyderm alone, often comes out of the forest to devour upon the standing sugarcane crop, farmers employ various measures to drive them away from their field. This includes bursting of crackers, making drum-beat noises, fencing the field with electric wires, and so."If the elephants are coming out and eating our crops, then the
Wild elephant kills 2 men in as many days
A wild elephant trampled two persons to death in as many days in Dumka district, police said Saturday. Another person was also injured in an attack by the same animal. Police said the male elephant killed Betka Soren, an elderly person, near Kaljhar under Kathikund police station when he was going to take bath in a nearby river on Saturday. Niyaz Ansari was attacked and seriously injured near his paddy field in the same area. He has been hospitalised. The elephant had trampled 20-year-old Robin Tudu near Kathalia village under Raniswar police station on Friday when he was searching for his cow. Divisional Forest Officer Saurabh Chandra said Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 have been provided to the families of Soren and Tudu respectively as compensation. Process has also started to give Rs 10,000 to the injured man, he said.
Need to diversify rural energy: Official
While electrification of households in rural areas is the primary need of the hour, it is also imperative to diversify rural energy, V Saravana Kumar, Director, Department of Science and Technology, said. Addressing Rajasthan Rural Energy Startup Summit today, Kumar said increase in productivity, energy efficiency, reducing and recycling waste, refrigeration, cold storage and transportation, among others should also be focused on. Kumar further said that startups should focus on Hybrid and Micro power generation as well as distribution. Startup Oasis CEO Chintan Bakshi, in the introductory address, said, the objective of the summit is to foster innovation in energy sector of Rajasthan. He further informed that the summit is the culmination of a three month accelerator programme with Department of Science and Technology wherein five startups were mentored and their operational as well as financial plans were developed.
Singh exudes confidence of meeting COP21 target at G20 meet
Union Minister R K Singh Saturday assured international community that India will achieve the target set under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change to reduce emissions, saying that the country "is moving towards those goals". India had committed to reduce its emissions by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels under the Paris agreement (COP21). "India is implementing one of the largest Renewable Energy expansion programs, Energy Efficiency programmes and moving towards the achievement of our target to fulfill our commitment made in Paris Agreement on Climate Change," Singh said while making interventions at the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global Environment for Sustainable Growth, being held in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, Japan on June 15-16. The power and new & renewable energy minister highlighted the path breaking achievements in household electrification and providing energy access to all in India. The minister also mentioned about the ...
Netherlands keen to develop business ties with Bengal
Ambassador of Netherlands in India Marten van den Berg has said that West Bengal and Dutch have a long history of maritime trade and industry and there are various similarities between the two places. Speaking at a BCCI seminar here on Friday, he said Netherlands is a sea faring nation and West Bengal is gateway to the North-East. "There are various similarities between Netherlands and there are ample areas to work together. We have to see how we can develop our logistic hub function. The business interaction will help to find challenges, what the needs are and what solutions can be offered", he said. The Ambassador said to develop a logistic function there is need for strategic planning, good institutions, require hinterland connectivity, find challenges in development of river. "Large ports, hinterland connectivity, agriculture, infra development, river and flood management is our expertise and we are focussing on these areas in Bengal as already many Dutch companies .
Israeli experts meet Sukhbinder Sarkaria, discuss comprehensive water management plan
Punjab Minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria Saturday met a team of experts from Israel to prepare a comprehensive water management master plan for the state. The Israeli team comprised International Special Projects Coordinator of National Water Company, Mekorot, Diego Berger, Project Manager Niv Pintow and Water Engineer Tomer Malol, according to an official statement here. The experts told Sarkaria that they will submit their report of recommendations within 18 months, the release said. The Israeli team, which is on a three-day visit here, along with senior Punjab water resource officers had earlier visited various parts of the state to assess the present situation and the challenges in the water sector. In April, Mekorot and the Punjab government had signed an agreement in this regard.
PM writes to all village panchayat heads asking them to conserve rain water
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has written to heads of all village panchayats in the country urging them to conserve rain water and make it a people's movement. In a letter to sarpanchs (village council heads), he urged them to either construct or repair water bodies in their areas to conserve rain water. "The monsoon season is around the corner. We are fortunate that God has blessed our country with adequate rainwater. But it is our duty to respect this gift from nature... As soon as the monsoon begins, we have to make arrangements to conserve as much rainwater as possible," Modi wrote last week. He urged them to join hands to build check dams and embankments along rivers and streams, clean up ponds for storage of dam water. "If we are able to do this, then not only will the crop yield increase, but we will also have a large reserve of water, which we will be able to utilise for many purposes," the prime minister wrote in the letter. He asked the sarpanchs to convene a meeting and read
Manipur farmers opt for lesser pesticides to yield better profits
Farming in Manipur is changing one farmhand at a time, wherein Heirangkhongjam Shantikumar, a native of Leimaram Mamang Leikai village, cultivates crops on his 1.5 hectares (approx.) of land on minimal pesticides with a profit of Rs 5 lakh annually.The inspiration for this change in the region can be credited to Shantikumar, who said, "I gave up the conventional practice of growing paddy because of the excessive use of chemical fertilisers, I chose food crops based on minimal use of chemicals. I believe consumers should not be fed edibles that are toxic."A village which commonly tills for rice once a year and waits for the season to recur to repeat the process is slowly opting for multi-crop farming with minimal use of chemicals throughout the year, to bring home a constant income. This change is all thanks to Shantikumar - the first to adopt this method in the region.Shantikumar recalled that his mindset changed during his visit to Central Agricultural University (CAU). The CAU ...
Gir National Park to remain shut for four months from Sunday
The Gir National Park, which is home to over 520 Asiatic lions, will remain shut for tourists, both domestic and foreigners, from June 16 to October 15, an official said Saturday. The park is closed during this period every year as it is the breeding season for many animals, including the big cats, said Rajiv Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary of Environment and Forest Department of Gujarat government. "Four months of monsoon are considered the best season for the breeding," he said. The Gir sanctuary, located at Sasan in Junagadh district, is the only home for the Asiatic lions and attracts a large number of tourists from India and abroad. "During the monsoon, the condition of roads inside the forest area also deteriorates and it becomes unsafe for visitors to travel on such roads," he said. Besides, the forest department also undertakes maintenance work of the national park in September as peak tourist season starts from November and continues till March end, the ...
Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat meets Union Minister Nitin Gadkari
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Saturday said Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has assured him Centre's help in the construction of the Chardham Highway."There were some issues related to the Chardham Expressway which begins from Rishikesh. There were some issues related to Rishikesh which we wanted to get sorted before the Kumbh in Haridwar, especially the construction of a ring road. The minister assured us that the Centre will support us in every way," he told reporters here.Char Dham Highway is a proposed two-lane express National Highway in the state of Uttarakhand. The proposed highway will complement the proposed Char Dham Railway by connecting the four holy places in Uttarakhand states includes Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri The project includes 900 km national highways which will connect whole of Uttarakhand state.Rawat thanked Gadkari for being fully supportive from the start and said that almost 84% percent of ...
No water to fall back on for farmers in Ujani's backwater area
Narayan Lawand, a 45-year-old farmer in Pune district, died of electrocution while using a submersible water pump to irrigate his fields last month. His death has brought into focus the plight of people living in the area around Ujani dam in western Maharashtra because of the terrible drought this year. Rui, Lawand's village in Pune's Indapur tehsil, falls in the backwater region of Ujani dam across the Bhima river. As the backwater spreads through hundreds of small inlets and streams in the area, it is common for farmers to draw water from them using submersible pumps. But the water level in the reservoir has depleted to such a precariously low level this year that small rivers and streams which flow off the main waterbody have gone dry. Submersible pumps and pipes which draw water from them, thus, lie exposed. In many places, farmers, who mainly grow sugarcane, have pooled money to dig trenches or shallow wells alongside the parched streams. The water that percolates ...
Greenland loses over 2 bn tonnes of ice in a day
In a sign that this year could once again set records for loss in Greenland ice, researchers have found that the island's ice sheet lost more than two gigatonnes (a gigaton is equal to one billion tonnes) of ice in just a day this week due to a widespread melting event.
Indonesia returns five containers of waste to the US
Indonesia has returned five containers of rubbish to the United States and will not become a "dumping ground", officials said Saturday, the latest Southeast Asian country to return imported waste. The containers were supposed to contain only paper scrap, according to the customs documents. Instead they were loaded with other waste including bottles, plastic waste, and diapers, said senior environment ministry official Sayid Muhadhar. "This is not appropriate and we don't want to be a dumping ground," Muhadhar told AFP. The five containers -- owned by a Canadian company -- were shipped from Seattle in the United States to Indonesia's second biggest city Surabaya in late March, Muhadhar said. It was not immediately clear where the rubbish originated from. Indonesia is currently examining several other containers in Jakarta's port and the city of Batam on the island of Sumatra. It is the latest country to return imported rubbish after neighbouring Malaysia vowed to ship back hundreds of .
K'taka CM seeks Centre's early nod for Mekedatu project on Cauvery river
Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Saturday met Union Water Resources Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and sought early nod for the proposed Rs 5,912-crore reservoir in Mekedatu on the Cauvery river. Kumaraswamy, also asked the Centre to notify orders issued by both the tribunals on usage of its share of water from Mahadayi and Krishna rivers. "In the meeting, the Union minister has assured that a gazette notification on Mahadayi and Krishna river water will be issued after discussion with state governments concerned," an official statement said. The Krishna River Water Disputes Tribunal-II has allocated 166 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of water to the state for irrigation and other purpose, while the Mahadayi River Water Disputes Tribunal has allocated 13.2 TMC of water to Karnataka. Kumaraswamy said the state has not been able to use the allocated Krishna water in the absence of a gazette notification. He said the state has not been able to take up a project to build a ..
Guj CM meets Union Agriculture minister, discuses farmers' issues
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani Saturday called on Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to discuss issues relating to farmers' welfare such as the Kisan Kalyan Nidhi Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. A delegation led by Rupani, Gujarat Agriculture Minister R C Faldu, Chief Secretary J N Singh, Chief Principal Secretary to CM K Kailashnathan, Additional Chief Secretary (Agri) Sanjay Prasad and officers of the agriculture department met Tomar, according to an official statement. Union Minister of State for Agriculture Shri Parshottambhai Rupala was also present at the meeting. The issues on pending claims of interest subvention of crop loan advance by banks of the state and extension of date to purchase of mustard in the Price Support Scheme were also discussed in the meeting, the statement read. It was decided in the meeting that the last date for purchase of mustard under the Price Support Scheme shall be extended up to June 30. The government also decided to
Nipah scare over, says Kerala Health Minister
After one positive case and over 300 suspects, the scare of the second attack of Nipah virus in Kerala is over, state Health Minister K.K. Shailaja told the media on Saturday.
Punjab to prepare water management plan with Israel
To prepare a comprehensive master plan for the conservation and management of water resources to tackle declining ground water in Punjab, Water Resources Minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria on Saturday met a three-member team of experts from Israel in Amritsar.
Zero elephants poached in a year in top Africa wildlife park
One of Africa's largest wildlife preserves is marking a year without a single elephant found killed by poachers, which experts call an extraordinary development in an area larger than Switzerland where thousands of the animals have been slaughtered in recent years. The apparent turnaround in Niassa reserve in a remote region of northern Mozambique comes after the introduction of a rapid intervention police force and more assertive patrolling and response by air, according to the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the reserve with Mozambique's government and several other partners. Monitoring of the vast reserve with aerial surveys and foot patrols remains incomplete and relies on sampling, however. And despite the sign of progress, it could take many years for Niassa's elephant population to rebuild to its former levels even if poaching is kept under control. Aggressive poaching over the years had cut the number of Niassa's elephants from about 12,000 to ...
Maharashtra: Fadnavis to expand Cabinet tomorrow
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said the expansion of the Maharashtra cabinet will take place on Sunday."We will do the Cabinet expansion and will tell about that in detail at the appropriate time", Fadnavis told media.Earlier on Tuesday, Minister for Finance and Planning in the Maharashtra government Sudhir Mungantiwar said the cabinet expansion will be done by Chief Minister before the assembly session. He also said the cabinet expansion would help fulfil the expectations of the Shiv Sena and other NDA allies.On being asked about his meeting with Union Cabinet minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Fadnavis said, "We discussed on making Maharashtra a drought-free state. We discussed how, through river linking projects, we can use river water that flows into the sea. We also informed him about water conservation projects in Maharashtra. He assured of the Centre's help in the projects.""In Niti Aayog meeting, drought situation and the issue of water management ...