Page 521 - Environment
NGT directs MoEF to submit action plan on management of e-waste
The National Green Tribunal has directed the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to submit an action plan on management of electronic waste within three months. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said scientific disposal of e-waste is an important factor for protecting the environment. "Proper disposal of e-waste is undoubtedly an important issue.... We consider it necessary to direct the MoEF, UP Pollution Control Board and the Central Pollution Control Board to look into the matter and prepare an action plan for enforcement of the rules as well as taking appropriate action against those violating the said rules," the bench said. The direction came when the NGT was disposing a plea filed by one Shailesh Singh against unauthorised "recycling, collection, dismantling, burning, selling" of e-waste and other solid waste on the road side or riverbanks in violation of E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016 and Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Claiming that ...
Kerala should request WHO for anti-cholera vaccines: Tharoor
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has suggested that the Kerala government request the World Health Organisation (WHO) to supply two million anti-cholera vaccines to minimise the risk of water-borne diseases in the flood-ravaged state.
Prof Appa Rao Podile selected for J C Bose Fellowship
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad, Prof Appa Rao Podile, has been selected for the prestigious J C Bose Fellowship-2018. The fellowship is given in recognition of his performance in the area of plant-microbe interactions in general and induced resistance in plants in particular, according to a university press release here today. He has made 'significant' contributions in three closely related areas of research that revolve around the recognition of pathogen-derived molecules by plants that activate defence response and contribute to improved health/yield, it said. The J C Bose Fellow will receive a fellowship amount of Rs 25,000 per month and a research grant of Rs 15 lakh per annum and is provided initially for a period of 5 years. The release said Podile has developed a concept to use chitinolytic bacteria that attack the rigid cell wall of fungal pathogens for control of fungal diseases and also as PGPR.
8 Indian fishermen arrested by Sri Lankan Navy
At least eight Indian fishermen have been arrested and their trawler seized by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly poaching in the island nation's waters. A Sri Lankan naval ship made the arrest in the seas, 16 nautical miles off the Arippu area, for "illegal fishing" in the island nation's waters, according to a statement of the Sri Lanka Navy. The arrested fishermen were taken to a naval base for a medical examination. Later, they were handed over to the authorities, the Navy said. A Tamil Nadu Fisheries Department official said the fishermen belong to Tuticorin. On August 10, 27 Indian fishermen were arrested by the Lankan Navy on the charge of fishing in the island nation's waters. The Lankan Navy had also impounded four country boats of the fishermen.
Use of agricultural residues in power plants can cut Delhi pollution by 8 pc by 2025: Study
The use of agricultural residues in power plants can help reduce pollution in the Delhi-NCR region by 8 per cent by 2025, a new study has suggested. The study, conducted jointly by The Energy and Resources Institute and Automotive Research Association of India, suggests several measures that could help in reducing pollution by 2025. It indicated that up to 26 per cent of pollution in the city in summer is caused by internal factors like vehicular emissions and this goes up to 36 per cent in winter. The study suggested that use of agricultural residues in power plants can help cut down pollution by 8 per cent by 2025. Last year, the Union Power Ministry directed the state-run power producer NTPC to blend crop residue with coal at its plants to reduce stubble burning on agricultural lands, which triggers thick smog in Delhi every year. Increasing LPG penetration in the NCR by 75 per cent by 2025 and 100 per cent by 2030 could help reduce pollution by 6 per cent, the study suggested. A ..
CCL's 17 coal mining projects facing delays
Coal India arm CCL says its 17 out of the 21 ongoing mining projects worth Rs 4,095.5 crore are facing delays due to various reasons including non-grant of green clearances. Of the 21 projects, Parej East and Hurilong projects could not be started due to non-grant of environment and forest clearances, Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) said in its Annual Report 2017-18. Kalyani open cast project, one of the ongoing projects, will be started after green clearances, it said. "Of the remaining 18 projects, Amrapali OCP is on schedule and other 17 are delayed due to problems which are broadly classified as authentication of land, forestry clearance and site hand over, environmental, coal evacuation problem, R&R (rehabilitation and resettlement) issues and safety reasons," the report said. As on March 31, 2018 there are 21 ongoing and 34 completed mining projects under CCL with sanctioned capacity of 112.85 million tonne (MT), it said. The sanctioned capital for the ongoing and completed ...
China culls thousands of pigs as African swine fever spreads
More than 14,500 pigs have been culled in an eastern Chinese city, officials said today, as the world's largest pork producer scrambles to contain an outbreak of African swine fever. Beijing reported its first case of the disease in early August, and since then the virus has spread to pigs in several cities across China, requiring authorities to destroy large numbers of hogs. 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 is no antidote or vaccine, and the only known method to prevent the disease from spreading is a mass cull of the infected livestock. The government of the port city of Lianyungang, about 500km north of Shanghai, said it had culled the swine by Monday night in a quarantined area. Authorities said they had inspected four million other pigs in the city and found no other abnormalities. In a report to the World Organisation for Animal Health, Beijing ..
Croc nesting season comes to end at Bhitarkanika park
Altogether 36 estuarine crocodile babies have emerged from the artificially hatched eggs at Bhitarkanika National Park, marking the culmination of this year's nesting season for the reptile, a senior forest official said. The hatchlings will be released in a "captive pond" in the park and reared till they grow up to one metre, he said. "Of the forty eggs collected from the wild for artificial nesting, 36 have hatched. The sight of baby crocodiles breaking out of eggshells and crawling aimlessly around the breeding centre was a visual treat," Divisional Forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) Division, Bimal Prasanna Acharya, said. Earlier this month, naturally bred crocodile fledglings had broken out of their eggshells to make their way to water bodies in and around the park, he said. "The emergence of baby crocs from the nests, both in captivity and in the wild, marks the culmination of the annual breeding season of these reptiles," Acharya stated. Usually, it ...
Nepal forms panel to discuss energy cooperation with China
The Nepal government has formed a seven-member committee to hold talks with China to implement a bilateral agreement on energy cooperation, officials said. The two countries had signed the MoU on Energy Cooperation during the visit of Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to China during the third week of June. Energy Secretary Anup Kumar Upadhyay has been appointed as the co-chair of the committee, which includes representatives from Nepal Electricity Authority and the Energy Ministry as its members. The committee meeting will be held in Kathmandu on September 27 and 28. The meeting will hold discussions on energy cooperation and progress on investment exchange in the sector, the officials said. The committee will prepare the ground for creating a conducive environment to promote investment in the energy development from both government and private sectors. Nepal had signed similar energy cooperation agreements with India and Bangladesh also.
Man trampled to death by wild elephant in C'garh
A 35-year-old man was trampled to death by a wild elephant in a forest in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, a forest official said today. The deceased, identified as Bhuvan Dhanwar, was attacked by the pachyderm last night near Basajhar village under Chhal forest range, Divisional Forest Officer (Dharamjaigarh forest division) Pranay Mishra said. Dhanwar, who was from Dhodagaon village in the area, was walking across the forest to reach Kharra, his in-laws' village located near his place, he said. After being alerted about the incident this morning, a team of forest personnel reached the spot and sent the body for the post-mortem, the DFO said. The kin of the deceased was given immediaterelief amount of Rs 25,000, while the remaining Rs 3.75 lakh will be given within 15 days, once all the formalities complete, the official added. The thickly forested northern region of Chhattisgarh, comprising Surguja, Korba, Raigarh, Jashpur and Koriya districts, is notorious for ...
Seven labourers injured as under construction bridge collapses
Seven labourers were injured when an under construction bailey bridge collapsed in Manipur's Jiribam district today, police said. The bailey bridge was being constructed over Gorkhale river to connect Borberkra village to Jattarpur. At around 8 am this morning the bridge collapsed injuring seven labourers, they said. The injured labourers were rushed to Borbekra health centre from where they were referred to a hospital in Silchar in neighbouring Assam, the police said. District officials said the 160 feet long bailey bridge was being constructed by a private contractor and the project was being funded by the Rural Development Ministry under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
FSSAI notifies standards for honey & its products to curb adulteration
The regulator FSSAI has come out with food safety standards for honey and its products, in a bid to curb adulteration. The move comes in the wake of government promoting farmers to venture into the beekeeping business to increase their income. The standards will help fetch farmers better prices for their products. At present, there are no separate quality standards for honey and its products. "We have notified the standards for honey and its products recently. This will help address adulteration. Both domestic manufacturers and importers will have to comply with the new norms," Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSAI) CEO Pawan Agarwal told PTI. As per the FSSAI notification, honey should comply with 18 parameters like that of sucrose content, glucose ratio, pollen count, foreign oligosaccharides among others. The FSSAI has fixed maximum 5 per cent limit for sucrose content in the honey, while 10 per cent for carviacallosa and Honeydew honey. The moisture percentage should be ...
CONCOR inks pact with Kandla Terminal for rail access
Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) has inked a pact with KICTPL for providing rail access to container services. The commencement of rail service shall facilitate the shipping lines and customers to utilise Kandla Port as gateway port for container business. The Mou with Kandla International Container Terminal (KICTPL) aims to promote seamless connectivity and faster clearance of EXIM containers from Kandla Port, CONCOR said in a BSE filing. Under the agrement, CONCOR shall have exclusive rail access to run the container rakes between KICTPL and various ICDs/Ports for movement of EXIM containers by rail, it added. CONCOR was incorporated in March 1988 under the Companies Act, and commenced operation in November 1989 after taking over the existing network of 7 ICDs (Inland Container Depots) from the Indian Railways. It now has the largest network of 79 ICDs/CFSs in India (72 terminals and 7 strategic tie-ups). In addition to providing inland transport by rail for containers, it ...
Kunal Kapoor raises Rs 1.2 crore to rebuild Kerala
Actor Kunal Kapoor's crowd funding platform Ketto has raised Rs 1.2 crore for rehabilitation work in flood-hit Kerala. He says it is overwhelming to see people come forward and support a cause.
Nepal to hold talks with China on energy cooperation
The Nepal government has formed a seven-member committee to hold talks with China to implement an agreement on energy cooperation, a senior official said.
Analysis: Global wheat supply to hit crisis levels; big China stocks won't provide relief
LONDON (Reuters) - A scorching hot, dry summer has ended five years of plenty in many wheat producing countries and drawn down the reserves of major exporters to their lowest level since 2007/08, when low grain stocks contributed to food riots across Africa and Asia.
Odisha: Bamboo pole turns into makeshift bridge for locals
For more than 3000 people in eight villages of Mayurbhanj district in Odisha, life hangs on a bamboo bridge - the only means of connectivity between the villages and parts of the district.Located at a distance of 40 kilometers from the block headquarters, the bamboo pole has been the only mode of connectivity for seven years for these villagers, who are forced to regularly risk their lives during their commute. The impoverished condition has impelled many of the villagers to move out of their villages, leaving behind eight villages with a population of 3000 people.Adults and children are forced to walk around 35 to 40 kilometers to reach Kanjia headquarters for their daily work. However, locals say that it is not the distance, but the route that bothers them."The distance is not a matter of concern but we are worried students have to cross Deo River 'nullah' to reach their schools. The 'nullah' remains dry for half the year. For the rest of the year, we tie bamboos to cross the ...
HC restrains Centre, TN from dispossessing owners of land for highway project
The Madras High Court today restrained the Centre and Tamil Nadu government from dispossessing people of their lands to be acquired for the proposed eight-lane highway project between Salem and Chennai till further orders. A division bench comprising Justices T S Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan passed the interim order on a batch of petitions opposing the Rs 10,000 crore greenfield project and posted them to September 11 for further hearing. "The respondents are directed not to dispossess the respective land owners from the land in question, which they propose to acquire until further orders in these writ petitions," the order stated. The bench, which went through pamphlets issued by the Kancheepuram District Collector in support of the project, noted that while various benefits of the highway had been highlighted, there was "absolutely no whisper about" the assurance given to land-owners that they will not be forcibly dispossessed of their lands. The project, which aims to ...
Trump plan scales back Obama''s coal emissions standards
The Trump administration today came out with new rules scaling back Obama-era constraints on coal-fired power plants, striking at one of the former administration's legacy programs to rein in climate-changing fossil-fuel emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency called the Obama-era regulations on coal power plants "overly prescriptive and burdensome." The Trump administration plan broadly increases the leeway given states to decide how and how much to regulate coal power plants. The EPA says it "empowers states, promotes energy independence, and facilitates economic growth and job creation." Combined with the EPA's proposal earlier this month to ease mileage requirements for vehicles, the move may actually increase the country's climate-changing emissions, according to some former top EPA officials, environmental groups, and other opponents. The Natural Resources Defense Council called the replacement proposal Trump's "Dirty Power Plan." Democratic Rep Frank Pallone of New ...
Railways to reschedule exams in flood-hit Kerala
The Railway Ministry will reschedule exams for the posts of Assistant Loco Pilots and Technicians for candidates hailing from Kerala, who were unable to appear in the tests due to devastating floods in the state, said an official on Tuesday.
