Page 462 - Environment
Rajasthan's first flower mandi comes up in Muhana
Rajasthan Agriculture Minister Prabu Lal Saini Tuesday inaugurated the state's first flower mandi in Muhana, Jaipur. "This is the country's biggest flower mandi in which 144 shops have been allotted to traders. The mandi will benefit farmers, traders and consumers," the minister said. It has been constructed in 8 bigha of land. He also laid the foundation stones of dome covering (shelter) in vegetable and potato blocks and one park in the Muhana mandi. The minister on the occasion highlighted the achievements of his department saying several initiatives were taken in the agriculture sector which made Rajasthan a progressive state in the field of agriculture. Rural Development Minister Rajendra Rathore, PWD Minister Yunus Khan, Higher Education Minister Kiran Maheshwari and others were present on the occasion, according to a release.
Taj Mahal protection: SC gives UP time till Nov 15 for vision document
The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended till November 15 the time for Uttar Pradesh government to come out with a vision document on protecting the Taj Mahal, and asked it to consider declaring a portion of the area surrounding the monument as 'heritage'. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur, S Abdul Nazeer and Deepak Gupta was informed by the state government that Delhi-based School of Planning and Architecture, which is preparing the vision document, has sought for extension of time till November 15 to finalise it. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, who was appearing for the state government, told the court that "in-principle" there cannot be any objection in declaring entire Agra as a heritage city but that would have several ramifications. He said it would be difficult to declare entire Agra a heritage city but some portion of it could be brought within its ambit covering sites like Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri and Agra Fort. "If it is difficult for entire city of Agra then .
SC asks UP to consider declaring portion of Taj's surrounding area as heritage
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Uttar Pradesh government to consider declaring certain portions of the area surrounding the Taj Mahal as heritage.
Delhi records year's best quality in the year on Tuesday: Authorities
The best quality of air in Delhi in this year was recorded Tuesday as incessant rains washed away pollutants from the air, said authorities. This is the third time in the year that the quality of air was registered as good and the Air Quality Index (AQI) was recorded at 38, which is the lowest for this year, according to the Centre's System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research institute (SAFAR). An official of Central Pollution Control Board said rains in the last few days washed away pollutants from the air which led to the quality of air improving. Last Saturday AQI of 48 was recorded, while on July 28 AQI of 43 was recorded. An AQI in the range of 0-50 is considered 'good', 51-100 'satisfactory', 101-200 'moderate', 201-300 'poor', 301-400 'very poor' and 401-500 'severe'. The PM10 level (presence of particles with diameter less than 10 mm) was recorded as 'good' at 37 in Delhi-NCR and 35 in Delhi. The PM2.5 level (presence of particles with diameter less than 2.5 ...
: Ginger (Inferior) Rs.13,500/-,
: Ginger (Inferior) Rs.13,500/-, Ginger (Medium) Rs.17,500/-, Ginger (Best) Rs.18,500/-, Turmeric Salem Rs.8,500-9,000/-, Turmeric-Erode(Agmark) Rs.9,000/-, Nuxvomica Rs.-----, Ambahaldhar Rs.10,500/-, Kolinjan 14,000-15,000/-, Kachura Rs.------, Kapurkatchili Rs.14,000-17,000/-, Betelnuts Rs.18,000-19,000/-, Rice Raw (No.1) Rs----/-,Rice Raw (No.2) Rs.2,900/-, Rice Boiled (Sulekha) Rs.3,750/-, Rice Jaya (Boiled) Rs.3,200/-, Rice Broken Rs.2,400/-, Wheat Rs.2,750/-Rs.2,875/-, Chola Rs.--------, Chillies Rs.10,500-14,800/-, Bengal Gram Rs.4,500-5,400/-, Black Gram Rs.6,500-7,300/-, Gingelly Rs.11,000/-, Green Gram Rs.6,700-7,200/-, Horse Gram 4,500/-, Peas Dal Rs.5,100-5,500/-, Toor Dal Rs.5,900-6,200/-, Pepper New Rs.36,700/- Pepper light Rs.-------, Pin Heads Rs.------, Sugar (per bag) Rs.3,560/-(All rates per quintal). COIR YARN : Cochin Parur Thin (85 M/Kg) Rs.4,800/-, Vycom Thick 180M/Kg) Rs.4,900/-, Choriwal Thin Rs.------.
Greenpeace 'occupies' Indonesia palm oil plant with rock band
Greenpeace activists have scaled an Indonesian palm oil refinery with a popular rock band who played some of their pro-environment songs from the top of the structure, it said Tuesday, protesting a commodity found in everything from soap to biscuits. The green group said 30 activists - including several foreigners - and Indonesian metal group Boomerang were "occupying" the site in Sulawesi island to draw attention to widespread environmental destruction caused by planting the widely used edible oil. They painted "Dirty" in large letters and dropped a banner that read "Drop Dirty Palm Oil Now" on storage tanks owned by Singapore-listed Wilmar International, the world's biggest palm oil trader which supplies major brands including Colgate, Nestle and Unilever, it said. One group of activists also climbed the anchor chain of a tanker ship transporting palm oil and are preventing it from moving, according to the group. Meanwhile, Boomerang - which got its start in the mid-nineties and ...
Dust storms discovered on Saturn's moon Titan: NASA
In a first, scientists have discovered giant dust storms on Saturn's largest moon Titan, using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The discovery, described in the journal Nature Geoscience, makes Titan the third solar system body -- after Earth and Mars -- where dust storms have been observed, NASA said in a statement. Titan in ways is quite similar to Earth, researchers said. "We can add another analogy with Earth and Mars: the active dust cycle, in which organic dust can be raised from large dune fields around Titan's equator," said Sebastien Rodriguez, an astronomer at the Universite Paris Diderot in France. Titan is the only moon in the solar system with a substantial atmosphere and the only celestial body other than our planet where stable bodies of surface liquid are known to still exist. The difference is that, on Earth such rivers, lakes and seas are filled with water, while on Titan it is primarily methane and ethane that flows through these liquid reservoirs. In this unique
Rapid urbanisation, climate change ruining farmers
Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Tuesday said rapid urbanisation and erratic climate are ruining the lives of farmers.
Germany to hold diesel summit amid differing views on how to tackle crisis
BERLIN (Reuters) - There will be another high-level diesel summit in the German chancellery on Friday, two government sources said on Tuesday, as the transport minister said his top priority was to ensure that diesel owners can swap their old vehicles for cleaner ones.
New York seeks to claw back 'Big Oyster' past
One sunny morning in New York, a dozen biologists and volunteers stand in knee-deep water, chucking net sacks of oyster shells down a human chain, before planting them in containers on the riverbed. Why? To build an oyster reef. The goal? To restore a billion oysters by 2035 to America's largest city -- not as a delicacy for the dinner table but in an environmental bid to clean up its notoriously filthy harbor water and generate greater biodiversity. Dressed in waders, the group battles under the hot morning sun on the Brooklyn shoreline, the Statue of Liberty and iconic skyscrapers of New York's Financial District rising up on the horizon. The net sacks contain empty oyster shells, or ones that have been assiduously cleaned or "cured" -- then inserted with oyster larvae -- and placed into containers planted on the seabed that will form a reef. "This was the Big Oyster before it was the Big Apple," jokes Mike McCann, an urban marine ecologist with the non-profit group The Nature ...
Mathura-based organisation urges prez, PM to ban burning of Ravana's effigy on Dussehra
An organisation here has urged the president and the prime minister to ban the burning of Ravana's effigy on the Dussehra festival, saying the mythical king of Lanka was a propounder of "value-based culture". 'Lankesh Bhakta Mandal' chief Omveer Saraswat said the members of the organisation pay obeisance to Ravana who is "such a learned devotee of Lord Shiva". "The president of India, prime minister and Uttar Pradesh chief minister, in separate letters, have been urged to impose ban on burning of effigies of Ravana on Dussehra, slated for October 19," Saraswat, a senior advocate, said. Ecologically as well as culturally, it is "unfair" to burn effigies of Ravana since he was not only knowledgable but virtually the propounder of value-based culture, he said. Saraswat said this custom of burning effigies should be permanently banned and instead the Rama-Ravana battle on Dussehra should be associated with Swachh Bharat Mission for a cleaner environment. Dussehra is celebrated across the .
India's Mars probe completes four years in orbit: ISRO
India's maiden interplanetary mission -- the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) -- has completed four years orbiting the red planet, according to ISRO. The mission, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on November 5, 2013, successfully placed itself into Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 in its first attempt. Although the designed mission life of MOM was six months, the satellite has continued to beam back science data from Mars for the past four years. "It's been 4 years since I am around! Thank you for your love and support," the ISRO's Mars Orbiter twitter handle said Tuesday. The tweet included an image taken by the orbiter of Olympus Mons -- the largest known volcano of the solar system. MOM is built with full autonomy to take care of itself for long periods without any ground intervention. The spacecraft came out of communication 'blackout' during this period. MOM is the only Martian artificial satellite which could image the full disc of Mars in one view frame ...
Prince William visits Africa ahead of UK wildlife conference
Britain's Prince William is in Africa this week to discuss threats to conservation ahead of a London conference on the illegal wildlife trade. The Duke of Cambridge was in Namibia on Tuesday and will visit Tanzania and Kenya. On Monday he met Namibian Vice President Nangolo Mbumba. The prince's weeklong trip ends Sunday. Kensington Palace says Prince William is making the "private working trip" as president of the United for Wildlife group and patron of Tusk, another conservation organization. The prince has campaigned against the killing of elephants, rhinos, pangolins and other species. He has also noted that poaching has a human toll when rangers are killed, communities lose the benefits of wildlife tourism and criminal networks flourish. Britain hosts a meeting on the illegal wildlife trade on October 11-12.
Cassini spots dust storms on Saturn's moon Titan
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has revealed giant dust storms in the equatorial regions of Saturn's moon Titan, making it the third space body after Earth and Mars where dust storms have been observed.
Infra development in northeast priority of NDA govt: Gadkari
The Centre has sanctioned Rs 1,90,000 crore for road projects spanning over 12,000 km in the northeast, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said Tuesday. He iterated that infrastructure development in the region has always been a priority of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre. "Our government accords highest priority to infrastructure development in the northeast. We seek cooperation of state governments for land acquisition, forest clearances and encroachment solutions," the minister for road transport and highways told reporters here. Gadkari, who arrived in Shillong Monday on a two-day visit, reviewed Monday all national highway projects in the eight northeast states. He urged the state governments in the region to regularly monitor the progress of the infrastructure projects. "A total of Rs 1,66,026 crore has been sanctioned for construction of 10,892 km of roads in all eight states under National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited. ...
Malaysia government to review Australia rare earths plant
An ardent critic of an Australian rare earths plant in Malaysia said Tuesday she will head a government review into the controversial site after her political alliance took power at landmark elections. Shares of Australian miner Lynas have been hit since reports emerged that MP Fuziah Salleh had been picked to probe the plant, which has long been opposed by green groups over concerns it produces dangerous radioactive waste. The factory began processing rare earths sent from Australia in 2012. The miner hopes the USD 720-million plant can reduce Chinese dominance in the market for rare earths, which are used in everything from missiles to mobile phones. Malaysia's political opposition had long been against the plant, and the review comes after they unexpectedly ousted the coalition of Najib Razak at the polls in May. Fuziah, a deputy minister in the prime minister's department, confirmed that she will chair a 10-member committee to examine operations at the site in Kuantan in Pahang ...
Plan to release water from Pong dam deferred till Wednesday morning
The plan to release excess water from the Pong dam on the Beas river in Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district has been deferred till Wednesday morning, providing relief to the residents of low-lying areas of the state and neighbouring Punjab. However, excess water from the Pandoh dam in Mandi district has been released at 11 am on Tuesday morning, a Central Water Commission official said. The plan of releasing water from the Pong dam has been deferred till Wednesday morning, considering the reduced inflows and the weather forecast of subdued rain activity in the catchment area, a Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) official said. The decision has been taken despite the fact that the water level in the dam reached 1,389.44 feet at 1 pm against the danger level of 1,390 feet, the official said. Earlier, the BBMB authorities had decided to release 49,000 cusecs of water from the dam on Tuesday afternoon as the water level in the dam was nearing the danger mark, he added.
Goa minister allays fear of formalin in fish
Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane Tuesday allayed concerns about formalin-laced fish being still sold in the state. Rane along with officials of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) visited a market at Margao town near here to check fish samples, amid claims by the Opposition Congress that formalin-laced stock was still being sold in the state. The FDA had said in July that formalin, a toxic chemical, was applied as a preservative on fish brought to the state from outside. The state government had then banned the import of fish for about a fortnight. Earlier this month, the government had withdrawn the stringent checking of fish brought from outside Goa and said it will conduct random inspection of the stocks in local markets. "We conducted tests with certified kits and formalin was not found in any of the fish samples. The FDA team was specially invited to rule out the fear created in the minds of people by the Congress," Rane told reporters here. He said the ...
J-K govt asks forest dept to setup VLCs for protection of forests
The Jammu and Kashmir government Tuesday asked the forest department to constitute Village-level Forest Committees (VFCs) for protection of forests in the state. Commissioner Secretary Forests, Environment & Ecology, Manoj Kumar Dwivedi who reviewed the functioning of the territorial forest divisions of this province here at a meeting of senior functionaries of the forest department, asked them to constitute the Village level Forest Committees (VFCs) at the earliest. He directed the divisional forest officers (DFOs) to remain vigilant in their respective jurisdiction and keep a close liaison with their counterparts in the district administration. Dwivedi asserted that the issue of forest land diversion shall be dealt as per law and no agency will be allowed to execute work without approval of the government. He, however, said the DFOs will expedite all FCA cases as soon as possible with the close cooperation of user agencies. He stressed on adopting zero tolerance towards forest ..
Global energy demand seen growing 33 percent to 2040: OPEC
MADRID (Reuters) - Global energy demand is expected to grow by 33 percent to 2040, the Secretary General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Mohammad Barkindo, said during an event in Madrid on Tuesday.