Page 501 - Environment

'New way to remove ice buildup without chemicals'

MIT researchers, including those of Indian origin, have developed a completely passive, solar-powered way of combating ice buildup, without using heating systems or chemical sprays. From airplane wings to overhead powerlines to the giant blades of wind turbines, a buildup of ice can cause problems ranging from impaired performance all the way to catastrophic failure. However, preventing that buildup usually requires energy-intensive heating systems or chemical sprays that are environmentally harmful, according to the research published in the journal Science Advances. The new system developed by Kripa Varanasi, Susmita Dash and colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US is remarkably simple. It is based on a three-layered material that can be applied or even sprayed onto the surfaces to be treated. It collects solar radiation, converts it to heat, and spreads that heat around so that the melting is not just confined to the areas exposed directly to the ..

One-nation-one-card for public transport soon: NITI Aayog

India will shortly unveil a one-nation-one-card policy for public transport that will bring seamless connectivity between various modes of transport, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Monday.

RSS to start countrywide environmental awareness movement

The RSS and its allied organisations will start a mass movement for environmental awareness and water conservation in the country, a senior Sangh functionary said on Monday. "Discussions on starting such a movement were held during the Sangh's three-day all India coordination meeting which concluded on Sunday at the Raghavendra Swamy Mutt here," RSS Joint General Secretary Manmohan Vaidya told PTI. The meeting was attended by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and BJPpresident Amit Shah. "During the meeting, it was felt that there is a need to spread awareness about water conservation, environment and minimizing plastic waste," Vaidya said. "Various organisations which are part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) family are already working in this direction. And there is a need to make it a movement by taking the society together," he said. The issues related to the environment and how it can be conserved will now also be discussed in RSS shakhas, he said. The coordination meeting was ...

CAPL wants AP govt to scrap PPA on power project

: Coastal Andhra Power Limited (CAPL), a subsidiary of Reliance Power Limited, has written a letter to the Andhra Pradesh government requesting it to cancel the power purchase agreement (PPA) it had signed for its 4000 MW power project, a non-starter, at Krishnapatnam. A senior government official said Reliance Power is willing to surrender its 2,600 acres of land in lieu of which the company wants its bank guarantees back and also revoke liquidated damages besides land cost of Rs 226 crore. "Reliance Power Ltd (RPL) had requested the Andhra Pradesh Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (APSPDCL), as the lead procurer ofKrishnapatnam UMPP (ultra mega power projects) to scrap the PPA and revoke the claim of liquidated damagesamounting to Rs 400 crore and initiate the action for release and return of bank guarantees of Rs 300 crore by all procurers to RPL," the official told PTI quoting the letter. The Reliance Power, through its letter, informed that CAPL would ...

Sri Lankan officials to be armed to protect elephants

Wildlife officials in Sri Lanka will soon be armed with assault rifles to protect elephants from poachers and to save human lives in the long standing human-elephant conflict.

Sri Lanka probes deaths of wild elephants

Sri Lankan authorities on Monday began investigating the deaths of wild elephants in the east of the island after pulling seven carcasses out of a marsh, a minister said. Wildlife Minister Palitha Thewarapperuma said six out of the seven animals found in the swamp were young -- below the age of 12 -- and he suspected that many more may have died there. "We have wildlife experts and vets who are investigating the cause," Thewarapperuma told AFP from the district of Polonnaruwa, 220 kilometres (135 miles) east of Colombo. He said a possible reason was that the swamp is currently strewn with water hyacinth, an invasive plant known locally as Japan Jabara. The swamp is located on a migratory route and the animals may have become bogged down and exhausted battling through the plants and then drowned. Japan Jabara was introduced to Sri Lanka at the turn of the last century and has spread rapidly since World War II. Allied forces stationed in Sri Lanka planted the free-floating species on ...

Drop in bird count at Bhitarkanika park in Odisha

The number of migratory birds, which throng the mangrove belts of Bhitarkanika National Park for annual nesting, has dropped this year, much to the worry of the forest officials. Although the visit of local birds in large numbers re-established Bhitarkanika in Kendrapara district as one of the prominent heronries of the state, the number of monsoon visitors has plummeted this time, said Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) Forest Division, Prasanna Kumar Acharya. "The annual headcount drive, conducted between August 23 and 30, also showed that the seasonal birds skipped Bagagahana heronry at the park, one of their preferred destinations, for Mathadia wetlands," he said. Bagagahana played host to hardly a few hundreds of monsoon birds while the nearby Mathadia wetlands were abuzz with activities of the winged species, Acharya said. "Lack of human interference, ideal climatic condition, cool breeze and the river system have always attracted the ...

Kerala requires Rs 30K cr for rebuilding: Minister

Flood -battered Kerala needs Rs 30,000 crore to rebuild, Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said on Monday.

NASA challenges public to find ways of surviving on Mars

NASA has announced a CO2 Conversion Challenge to take some assistance from the public on how its astronauts can endure on the Red Planet.Mars has plenty of CO2 and to leverage the planet's natural resource to make it useful for the astronauts is what the agency is looking at. The challenge is for the public to find ways to turn carbon dioxide into compounds which would be useful on Mars, Engadget reported.The challenge will focus on glucose and the first phase will require teams to submit their design explaining their approach. Five teams could win USD 50,000 each. The second phase of the challenge will require the selected teams to build and demonstrate their solutions. Winning candidate from the group could win up to USD 750,000.The registrations are open and participants can submit their entries until February 28, 2019. The winners are likely to be announced by April.

'NASA seeks ideas to convert CO2 into useful compounds'

NASA has launched a public competition seeking novel solutions to turn carbon dioxide into useful compounds that may help future astronauts exploring Mars. When astronauts begin exploring Mars, they will need to use local resources, freeing up launch cargo space for other mission-critical supplies, NASA said in a statement. Carbon dioxide is one resource readily abundant within the martian atmosphere. NASA's new CO2 Conversion Challenge is a public competition seeking novel ways to convert carbon dioxide into useful compounds, the US space agency said. Such technologies will allow us to manufacture products using local, indigenous resources on Mars, and can also be implemented on Earth by using both waste and atmospheric carbon dioxide as a resource, NASA said. "Enabling sustained human life on another planet will require a great deal of resources and we cannot possibly bring everything we will need. We have to get creative," said Monsi Roman, manager of NASA's Centennial Challenges ..

NASA asks public to help astronauts survive carbon dioxide on Mars

NASA has launched a public competition that asks people to find solutions to turn carbon dioxide into molecules that would help astronauts endure the harsh atmosphere on the Red Planet.

NASA plans 45-day effort to get its Mars rover back

US space agency NASA is planning to start its effort to restore communication with the Mars rover Opportunity.

Dry ice, not infants skeletons found in plastic bags: Kolkata police

The Police has rejected reports of skeletons of 14 infants being found in plastic bags in Kolkata and clarified that no human tissue but some dry ice have been recovered from the packets.It was previously reported that the skeletons of at least 14 infants were found wrapped in plastic bags at a plot of land in southwest Kolkata's Haridevpur area on Sunday.However, a close examination by doctors terminated the speculations and brought clarity over the contents of the recovered packets."No human tissue was found in the packets when they were opened by doctors. Some dry ice is there. An examination is on for exact nature of the material," said Nilanjan Biswas, deputy commissioner of Kolkata police's southwest Division.Biswas had earlier informed that some labourers were removing the garbage from the plot when they discovered 14 plastic bags with questionable contents.He said, "The labourers were removing the garbage today morning when they saw the 14 plastic bags. They informed the local

4 Naxals killed in encounter in Chhattisgarh

Four Naxals were killed in following an encounter with District Reserve Guard (DRG) in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh on Sunday.The security personnel also recovered ammunitions including one INSAS rifle and two 12 bore pistols as well as other incriminating materials. The encounter took place in the forest of Kokrajhar's Gumiyabeda.On August 6, as many as 15 Naxals were gunned down and four Naxals were apprehended from a forest area in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district.In May, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said that 40 Naxals have been killed so far this year. He also informed that135 Naxals were killed in 2016 and 77 in 2017.

Kachai gets its first market shed to promote organic products

Untouched by the Green Revolution, many parts of the northeastern region remain pure organic, where a very little amount of fertilizers and pesticides are used in agriculture.Kachai, a village in Ukhrul district, known for its unique lemon, continues to be organic with limited use of chemical inputs.Realising the potentials of these organic products and in a bid to promote the regions organically produced vegetables and fruits, especially lemons, , Horticulture and Soil Conservation Minister Th. Shyamkumar Singh recently inaugurated the first rural vegetable market shed under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) scheme."Next year, we will construct one pack house for storing horticulture produces for the welfare of the farmers. I will also speak with the concern officers what kind of help can be given to the farmers of the lemons of Kachai village," the minister said.The minister also reiterated that Manipur Organic Mission Agency (MOMA) will provide pest and .

Pakistan kicks off tree plantation campaign against climate change

Pakistan on Sunday kicked off the "Plant for Pakistan" campaign by Prime Minister Imran Khan who in the drive planted a sapling in the country's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

Imran Khan launches massive tree-plantation drive in Pak

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday launched a massive tree-plantation drive to plant 10 billion saplings in the country in the next five years. Khan planted a sapling in Haripur near Islamabad under the Plant 4 Pakistan' drive to make Pakistan greener and environment friendly. "Today we launch our tree plantation drive #Plant4Pakistan across the entire country," he said in a message on Twitter. "I want everyone to join this #GreenPakistan drive so we can counter the twin threats of climate change and pollution confronting our future generations." Talking to media after launching the plantation drive, Khan said that Pakistan would become a desert if timely action was not taken to plant trees. The government said that 1.5 million saplings were planted on the first day under the initiative.

Bogibeel Bridge to be inaugurated by PM this year: Sonowal

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal Sunday reviewed the progress in the construction of Bogibeel Bridge over Brahmaputra river at Dibrugarh and said it would be inaugurated this year. The 4.94 km bridge, work on which started in 2002, is the longest rail-cum-road bridge in India. It will connect Dhemaji and Dibrugarh districts at the north and south banks of Brahmaputra river. In a meeting to takie stock of the construction work, Sonowal urged General Manger of NF Railway and officials of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and concerned agencies to complete the road overbridge being constructed over National Highway 37 connecting Bogibeel Bridge within November 30. He also called on the NF Railway to provide technical knowledge and required manpower for completing the overbridge within time. Sonowal said that the Centre has been pushing for rapid infrastructure development in the Northeast region and for that, bridges like this are being completed ...

'Smartgram' initiatives aimed to transform villages: Pranab Mukherjee

Former president Pranab Mukherjee said Sunday that the 'Smartgram' initiatives were aimed to transform villages into happy, harmonious and hi-tech places, by connecting the villagers with the initiative. These villages have been adopted by the Pranab Mukherjee Foundation. The foundation named after the former president that will initiate, support and execute projects aimed at improving the quality of life of people, was launched earlier this year in Delhi. The 'Smartgram' initiative was inaugurated for five villages of Haryana -- Tajnagar, Dhaula, Alipur, Harchandpur and Rojka Meo by Mukherjee, who was then the President, on July 2, 2016. "They are aimed to transform villages into happy, harmonious and hi-tech villages, by connecting the villagers with the initiative," Mukherjee said while addressing people of Harchandpur, Alipur and Nayagaon villages in this district. On May 1 last year, it was approved that the initiative be extended to 100 villages in the vicinity of the ...

4 elephants to be deployed to trap tigers in Maha's Yavatmal

Four elephants will be be deployed to trap tigers which have reportedly killed 13 persons in the last few months in the Ralegaon-Kelapur forest belt of Maharashtra's Yavatmal district, a senior official said Sunday. Deputy Conservator of Forests A Abharna said that the four elephants would arrive in Ralegaon here from Madhya Pradesh in a week's time. The official said that a tiger, a tigress and two cubs are moving about in the area for the past one-and-half years and are believed to be behind the attacks on people in villages nearby. However, the official added, that it was not known which among the group of four tigers had turned man-eater. Besides plans to deploy trained elephants, the forest department had set up 63 camera traps as well as solar lamps at various spots in the forest belt to get a sighting of the tigers, the official said. Bhavana Gawali, Lok Sabha MP from Yavatmal-Washim, demanded that the tigers be trapped quickly and the kin of those who had died ..