Page 502 - Environment

Not newborns but medical waste in plastic bags: Kolkata officials clarify after shock and scare

The 14 plastic bags recovered from a vacant piece of land in the southern part of the city contained only medical waste and not bodies of newborns or foetuses as stated earlier, police said Sunday. Initially, police officials said they were verifying whether the bags recovered from the Haridebpur area contained bodies of newborns or foetuses. Later at a press conference, DC South West Division Nilanjan Biswas said it appeared the bags contained foetuses. Following what seemed a shocking revelation, Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar and other officials rushed to the spot. Within an hour of his earlier comment, Biswas took a U-turn saying after examination at a hospital it was found that the bags contained medical waste and there was "no sign of any human foetus". The plastic bags actually contained medical waste, it was found later, another official said. The plastic bags were found on the grassy land on Raja Rammohan Roy Sarani under the Haridebpur Police ...

Himachal aims to increase green cover

The Himachal Pradesh government has taken various initiatives to increase its green cover and ensure environment conservation, including three forestry projects with the participation of local people, an official said on Sunday.

Germany dismisses Bild report on Volkswagen petrol cars, no indication of fraud so far

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Transport Ministry said on Sunday there was no fresh news in a Bild am Sonntag report that Volkswagen engineers told investigators certain petrol engines in VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles can be used to manipulate emissions tests.

Four naxals killed encounter in Chhattisgarh: Police

Four naxals, including a woman, were killed Sunday in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district, around 350 kilometers from here, police said. The gunfight took place at around 2:30 pm in the Gumiyabeda village forest when a team of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) was out on an anti-Maoist operation, Narayanpur Superintendent of Police Jitendra Shukla told PTI. The ultras fled the spot and entered the dense forest after a brief exchange of fire, he said. The bodies of four naxals and weapons were found at the spot, the SP said. The combing operation is underway in the area, he added.

China culls 38,000 pigs as swine fever spreads

More than 38,000 pigs have been culled across China, state media said Sunday, as the world's largest pork producer scrambles to contain an outbreak of African swine fever. The disease has been discovered in five Chinese provinces, the official Xinhua news service reported, quoting statistics from the country's ministry of agriculture. China reported its first case of the disease in August in northeast Liaoning province. Since then the disease has moved south, with cases discovered as far as 1,000 kilometres away, raising concerns it could infect pig farms across the country. Although the virus has continued to spread, a spokesman for the agriculture ministry said it is "generally under control," Xinhua reported. Last week, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned the disease could spread to other parts of Asia. African swine fever is not harmful to humans but causes haemorrhagic fever in domesticated pigs and wild boar that almost always ends in death within a few days. There ..

KVIC develops carry bags made by mixing paper, plastic waste

The KVIC has added another feather to its achievement by developing in-house paper carry bags by mixing plastic waste with paper pulp a major step towards environmental conservation, an official said on Sunday. Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said a unique process has been adopted to make the hand bags. Plastic garbage collected from the drains were cleaned and processed. The final has only 20 per cent polythene waste, he said. Earlier the cost of production of handmade paper from white cotton rags was Rs 1,00,000 per metric tonne (MT), but after mixing polythene waste it has come down to Rs 66,000 per MT -- a reduction of 34 per cent, the KVIC said in a statement. Earlier it used cost Rs 15.50 to make one bag from white cotton rags, but now it costs Rs 12.10, it said. "For manufacturing of one lakh carry bags 10 metric tonnes of pulp is required. Now with this experiment of mixing 20 per cent of plastic waste, two metric ton plastic waste ...

Water worlds could support life: Study

The conditions for life surviving on planets entirely covered in water are more fluid than previously thought, opening up the possibility that water worlds could be habitable, scientists say. Scientists have assumed that planets covered in a deep ocean would not support the cycling of minerals and gases that keeps the climate stable on Earth, and thus would not be friendly to life. The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, found that ocean planets could stay in the "sweet spot" for habitability much longer than previously assumed. The researchers from the University of Chicago and Pennsylvania State University in the US based their findings on more than a thousand simulations. "This really pushes back against the idea you need an Earth clone -- that is, a planet with some land and a shallow ocean," said Edwin Kite, an assistant professor at University of Chicago. As telescopes get better, scientists are finding more and more planets orbiting stars in other solar systems. Such

Water worlds could support life: Study

The conditions for life on planets entirely covered in water are more fluid than previously thought, which opens up the possibility of water worlds being habitable, according to a new study.

Volkswagen emissions manipulation also extended to petrol cars: Bild am Sonntag

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen engineers have told investigators that certain petrol engines in Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles can be used to manipulate emissions tests, Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag said.

Robotic drones can herd birds away from airspaces

Scientists have developed an algorithm that enables a flying drone to herd a flock of birds away from a designated airspace without breaking their formation. Researchers from Imperial College London in the UK and California Institute of Technology in the US investigated the problem of diverting a flock of birds away from a prescribed area, such as an airport, using a robotic unmanned aerial vehicle. The team developed the herding algorithm on the basis of macroscopic properties of the flocking model and the response of the flock. They tested their robotic autonomous drone by successfully shepherding an entire flock of birds out of a designated airspace in South Korea. "It is quite interesting, and even awe-inspiring, to monitor how birds react to threats and collectively behave against threatening objects through the flock," said David Hyunchul Shim, a professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). "We made careful observations of flock dynamics and ...

343 infra projects show cost overrun of Rs 2.23 lakh crore

As many as 343 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or above, have shown cost overrun of Rs 2.23 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons, a report said. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation monitors infrastructure projects worth Rs 150 crore and above. "Total original cost of implementation of the 1,332 projects was Rs 16,26,675.52 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 18,49,766.91 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 2,23,091.39 crore (13.71 per cent of original cost)," the ministry's latest report for April 2018 said. Of these 1,332 projects, 343 reported cost overrun and 253 time escalation. According to the report, the expenditure incurred on these projects till April 2018 is Rs 6,63,109.75 crore, which is 35.85 per cent of the anticipated cost of the projects. However, it said the number of delayed projects decreases to 187 if delay is calculated on the basis of latest schedule of completion. "For 634 ...

Can crunch talks bring the Paris climate treaty to life?

As the pace of global warming races ahead of efforts to tame it, diplomats from more than 190 nations begin crunch UN climate talks in Bangkok Tuesday to breathe life into the Paris Agreement. This year is the deadline to finalise the "rule book" for the 2015 treaty, which calls for capping the rise in global temperatures at "well below" two degrees Celsius, and 1.5 C if possible. The pact also promises USD 100 billion annually from 2020 to poor nations already coping with floods, heatwaves, rising seas and superstorms made worse by climate change. "The Paris Agreement was like a letter of intent," said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University. Unless detailed rules of implementation covering dozens of contentious and unresolved issues are agreed upon, he and other experts said, the landmark treaty could run aground. Lamenting "uneven progress" to date, co-chairs of UN talks last month urged rank-and-file negotiators to produce .

Jewar Airport: 159 more agree for land acquisition, says MLA

A hundred and fifty nine more landowners have agreed for the acquisition of their land by the Uttar Pradesh government for the proposed Jewar airport, MLA Dhirendra Singh said Saturday. The Jewar MLA said this in a statement after an interaction with farmers and landowners at the villages, whose land is to be acquired for the mega project in Gautam Buddh Nagar district. A total of 5,000 hectare of land is to be acquired for the proposed airport with an estimated cost of Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore. Over 1,300 hectares of the land is to be acquired from five villages in the first phase of the project. "159 landowners from Ranhera, Rohi, Kishorpur etc have agreed to acquisition of 32 hectare of land for the airport project. Earlier 1,411 landowners have agreed for the acquisition of 575 hectare of land," Singh said. The MLA urged the people to consider the development of the area and the future of their children and upcoming generations and decide accordingly. During the ...

Biodiversity losing ability to adapt to climate change?

Nature has been reacting to climate change by altering behaviour and movement. For example, with the winters getting warmer, flowers change their flowering period and owls develop darker body colour. However, whether plants and animals will be able to adjust quickly enough to survive the changing temperature remains uncertain.The latest research indicated that in the past, plants and animals reacted to environmental changes by adapting, migrating or going extinct. Findings of the paper point to radical changes in biodiversity due to climate change in the future.Professor David Bravo-Nogues, lead-author of a new study, said, "We compiled an enormous amount of studies of events, which we know influenced biodiversity during the past million years. It turns out, species have been able to survive new conditions in their habitat by changing either their behaviour or body shape. However, the current magnitude and unseen speed of change in nature may push species beyond their ability to ...

30 merrymakers rescued from island in Betwa river

Police rescued 30 picnickers trapped on an island in the Betwa river near the tourist town of Orchha in Madhya Pradesh Saturday morning. Orchha Police Station in-charge Virendra Singh Chouhan said a group of 30 persons from the town had gone to the island for a picnic. They got stranded there when the water level surged suddenly, he said. Police rescued them by using a motorboat, he said.

75,000 fishermen keep off sea, flay rise in fuel prices

About 75,000 fishermen from some coastal districts of Tamil Nadu did not put to sea today to condemn the rise in price of diesel, a fishermen association representative said. Speaking to reporters here, president of Tamil Nadu Coastal Mechanised Boats Fishermen Association P Sesuraj said it's time diesel and petrol were brought under the goods and services tax as that would bring down the price of the fuel. Also, he said fishing activities have been less over the last one month as the fishermen could not afford to buy fuel for their boats. The spiralling price has affected the livelihood of the fishermen, he added.

Drought puts Iraq at risk of jihadist resurgence: study

Iraq risks a jihadist resurgence if it fails to tackle a critical drought and other climate-related security issues, according to a study presented to the UN Security Council and made public Saturday. "The combination of its hydrological limitations, increasing temperatures and extreme weather events puts pressure on basic resources and undermines livelihood security for Iraq's population," the Expert Working Group on Climate-Related Security Risks warned in its report. "Failure to monitor and manage these climate-related risks will increase the risk of ISIS and post-ISIS terrorist groups gaining support and regaining strength within resource-constrained communities," it said. The jihadist organisation, also known as the Islamic State group, seized a third of Iraq's territory in 2014 before being beaten back in a sweeping government offensive last year. The water study, presented to the Security Council in July, draws a clear link between climate change and security. Iraq is in the ..

Experts for solutions to check rising air pollution in Bengaluru

Alarmed over rising air pollution in south Indian cities, especially in Bengaluru, environment experts have called for greater awareness and solutions to check the menace, particularly indoors.

Man arrested with 10 kgs of medicinal herb Nag Chatri in Jammu

Police and forest department officials Saturday arrested a man and recovered 10 kgs of banned rare medicinal herb Nag Chatri from his possession in Jammu city. A team of police and forest department officials, during a surprise check, intercepted the man, a senior forest department official said. They recovered 10 kg Nag Chatri (Trillium govanianum), he said, adding a case has been registered. The sale and purchase of Nag Chatri is prohibited in Jammu and Kashmir, he said.

J K Forest Dept's crackdown on encroachers in Jammu

The Jammu and Kashmir Forest Department Saturday launched an anti-encroachment drive in forest areas of this division and retrieved over four acres of prime land. The land was retrieved from encroachers -- Babu Din, Naayat Ali and Kasam Din -- in compartment number 50 of the Bajalata forest block, a senior official said. The operation was carried out successfully despite resistance from the encroachers, he said. In an another anti-encroachment operation, a forest team dismantled an illegal tin shed constructed on National Highway near the Batra Hospital by one Mohd Asgar of Sidhra here, he said.