Page 560 - Environment

Yamuna overflow: Haryana releases 21,006 cusec of water

The water level of Yamuna river in the national capital is expected to rise further as 21,006 Cusec of water has been released from the Hathani Kund Barrage on Tuesday night.The water was released by Haryana at10 pm.The water level in Yamuna river in Delhi was recorded at 205.96 meter mark at the same time.Earlier on Tuesday, 19,662 Cusec water was released at 6 pm from Haryana's Hathani Kund Barrage. At that time, the water level in Yamuna river was recorded at 206.05 meter mark.This comes after the Indian Railways earlier temporarily suspended the rail traffic over old Yamuna Bridge 'Loha Pul'.Due to the closure of the Yamuna Bridge, at least two passenger trains have been cancelled while 19 trains have been terminated. Meanwhile, 17 trains have been diverted after water level crossed the danger mark.Earlier ANI reported how families residing near old Yamuna Bridge in the national capital are allegedly forced to stay on roads due to less availability of shelter homes.The families ...

CM mulls shifting some offices to north Karnataka

Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Tuesday hinted at shifting some offices to north Karnataka to quell demand for a separate state.

Over 100 wildlife rangers died on duty in past year: WWF

More than 100 wildlife rangers died on the job in Asia and central Africa over the last year, nearly half killed by poachers, the WWF reported today. Illegal hunters are decimating endangered wildlife to gather rhino horns and big cat body parts to sell in East Asia, as well as bush meat -- including gorillas, monkeys, lions and pangolins -- to eat. One-in-seven park rangers across the two regions -- home to many of the planet's richest biodiversity hotspots -- were seriously injured over the same period, either in accidents or in clashes with illegal hunters. The death toll was slightly higher that the previous July-to-July reporting period, bringing to 871 the total number of wildlife guardians who have lost their lives in the line of duty since 2009, according to the International Ranger Federation (IRF) and the Thin Green Line Foundation, which compile the grim tally. "Forty-eight rangers of the 107 lost this year were murdered at their place of work," said Sean Willmore, ...

Maha records highest growth in tree cover in non-forest areas

Maharashtra registered the highest increase in tree-cover in non-forest areas in the country in the last two years, the government today said. Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said that as per an audit by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), in the last two years, the tree-cover under non-forest areas in the state increased by 273 sq km, the highest in the country. Further, the state accounted for half the growth in the area under mangroves in the country, he said. "The area under mangroves increased by 82 sq km in the state," he said. Under the state government's plantation drive this monsoon, over 14 crore trees have been planted since July 1, he said. Over 36 lakh participants planted 14,71,88,417 trees this season against the target of 13 crore, he said. Four districts exceeded their plantation targets: Aurangabad, Nanded, Chandrapur and Yavatmal. The government has set an ambitious target to plant 33 crore trees next year. As per the FSI audit, bamboo plantation in ...

8,000 saplings of native tree species to be distributed at metro stations: DMRC

As many as 8,000 saplings of native tree species would be distributed free-of-cost from various metro stations in the next two months as part of a campaign for promoting environment conservation, officials today said. The sapling would be distributed from 20 metro stations, including Green Park, Hauz Khas, Dilshad Garden, Laxmi Nagar, Jamia Milia, Dwarka Mor, Vaishali, Kalkaji Mandir and Botanical Garden, a senior DMRC official said. "The Delhi Metro, in association with the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) will distribute 8,000 saplings of native tree species as part of the 'Adopt a Tree' campaign. These saplings would be distributed free-of-cost at the stations from 4-7.30 PM on every Thursday and Friday during the months of August and September," he said. The Adopt a Tree Campaign was initiated by WWF-India in 2005 with the aim of encouraging both individuals and organisations to plant and care for native species of trees. Other stations where saplings would be distributed from, ...

Venezuelan captial hit by 80 per cent power cut: government

A power failure cut electricity to 80 per cent of the Venezuelan capital Caracas today, provoking transport and communications chaos, authorities said. Electricity minister Luis Motta said the government was "working on restoring the service." The power outage sparked traffic jams in the capital where both the metro and traffic lights were affected. The Maiquetia airport serving Caracas was also impacted. "We were stuck in immigration for around 40 minutes. There was no telephone signal or internet," Estefania Freire, who was waiting to take an international flight, told AFP. Power cuts are a regular occurrence in crisis-hit Venezuela, in particular in the rural interior. In the western oil-rich region of Zulia, electricity is rationed with blackouts sometimes lasting up to 12 hours. Venezuela has faced food and medicine shortages resulting from a prolonged economic and political crisis, as well as the breakdown of many public services, such as electricity, water and transport. The ...

Micro-level plans for tiger corridors being assessed: NTCA official

Micro-level plans for the 32 tiger corridors identified across the country are being assessed for finalisation, officials today said. At a panel discussion held at the WWF-India premises here, Anup Kumar Nayak, member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), and other tiger experts also discussed about the man-animal conflict and steps being take to reduce it. "The 32 tiger corridors identified, was part of the macro-level plan. And, now, the micro-level plans for these corridors are being assessed and approved," he said. The event marked the World Ranger Day (July 31) and Global Tiger Day (July 29). In 2010, at St Petersburg, Russia, the heads of governments of Tiger Range states, which includes India, resolved to strive to double the number of wild tigers across their global range by 2022. They had signed the St Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation, and decided to celebrate July 29 as Global Tiger Day. There are an estimated 2,226 tigers in the country .

16 sewage treatment plants completed in U'khand

Sixteen out of the 31 sanctioned sewage treatment plants under the Namami Gange project have been completed in Uttarakhand, the Union government said today. In a review meeting held here yesterday, Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari instructed officials and contractors to complete all the STPs (sewage treatment plants), ghats and crematorium projects by December this year "Sixteen out of (the) 31 sanctioned STP projects in Uttarakhand are complete and work is in progress on the remaining 15 STPs. Projected sewerage generation in the year 2035 in Uttarakhand is 122 MLD (million litres per day) while the existing treatment capacity is 97.6 MLD. The projects under implementation will create a capacity for treating 131.7 MLD sewage after completion," Gadkari said in a statement. In Haridwar, there are four projects under implementation. These include interception and diversion (I&D) project at Jagjeetpur and Sawai (17.1 km), STP (hybrid annuity-based PPP) at Jagjeetpur and ..

Arrange clean drinking water to all hamlets by August 15: CM

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao today instructed officials to make necessary arrangements to supply clean drinking water to all villages in the state under the Misson Bhagiratha scheme by August 15 and to all households by the Deepavali festival. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, who gave these instrutions during a meeting with ministers and officials, said a major portion of works under the scheme have been completed, a release from his office said. The Chief minister said the other works should be completed on a war footing to meet the time schedule, it said. The Mission Bhagiratha scheme envisages supplying safe drinking water to all households.

SC to hear plea to declare Agra as heritage city

The Supreme Court on Monday posted for August 28 the hearing of a plea related to declaring Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, as a heritage city.

Power supply demand in Telangana touches record 10,429 mw

The demand for power supply in Telangana touched a record 10,429 MW today and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao congratulated the state power utilities for the way the situation was handled. A release from the CMs office said for the first time, the power demand touched 10,429 MW on Tuesday forenoon in Telangana state. "Despite such a high demand, power supply was uninterrupted all over the state and even for a minute no power cut was recorded," it said. Rao described the demand of 10,000 plus MW as an indicator of development, the release said. The chief minister opined that industries and IT companies are coming to the state in a big way in view of round the clock supply of quality power, it added.

Cleanliness drive in 5 Delhi stadia

Five stadia under the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in Delhi will be a "Plastic Free Zone" and will be ranked as per their standard of cleanliness between August 1 and October 2, it was announced on Tuesday.

Volkswagen says may have to recall 124,000 electric cars

Volkswagen today said it may be forced to recall 124,000 electric and hybrid cars due to the presence of cadmium, a carcinogenic metal, in the vehicles. "Clarification is under way for a recall order by Germany's Federal Motor Transport Authority," said a spokesman for the group, confirming a report in weekly Wirtschaftswoche. Usage of cadmium, a metal used in electric appliances like televisions, has been banned in most types of car parts. An unidentified supplier has however delivered a batch of battery chargers containing cadmium, which has been installed in some electric and hybrid cars of the Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche brands between 2013 and June 2018. The Wolfsburg group had detected the problem and on July 20 informed the authorities about the battery chargers which each contain 0.008 grams of the metal. The carmaker told AFP that 124,000 vehicles could be affected by the recall. The affected cars do not pose any immediate danger to drivers, said the group, explaining that ..

Kenyan minister under fire over rhino transfer fiasco

Kenya's wildlife minister today apologised for telling his critics to "go to hell" as he comes under mounting pressure over the death of 10 rhinos during a botched transfer. Tourism and Wildlife Minister Najib Balala had directed the comments to those calling for his resignation over the fiasco during a press conference yesterday. "People need explanations about the rhinos... people are angry. I am also angry," Balala told lawmakers today. "I have emotions and I reacted. I feel let down by my system that did not act quickly to stop the death of the rhinos." Kenyans have been left stunned after 10 of 11 rhinos being transferred from Nairobi and Lake Nakuru national parks to Tsavo East died after the operation. The 11th was attacked by lions, and is recovering. Balala has blamed Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) officials involved in the transfer for "negligence", suspending six senior officials. An initial enquiry indicated that the rhinos may have become dehydrated and died after drinking

Kumaraswamy seeks to mollify agitators demanding statehood for

As the demand for a separate north Karnataka state resurfaced, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy today said the state government was mulling shifting some government offices to Suvarna Vidhana Soudha inthe region, in an attempt to address alleged discrimination. Expressing his government's strong commitment for the region's development, the Chief Minister, who is in theeye of a political storm over the separate state demand issue, said he was one among them as he termed the issue a "conspiracy" by political opponents ahead of next year's Lok Sabha polls. "There are two Upa Lokayukta's in the state.I have plans to shift one Upa Lokayukta to Suvarna Vidhana Soudha.Then there are about five or six RTI commissioners. Among themI plan to shift three to northern districts- one toKalaburagi and other two to Belagavi Suvarna Vidhana Soudha,"he said. Plans are on to shift several offices, includingthe 'Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam', to northern districts, hesaid. Kumaraswamy said he had

ONGC wins top honours at Swachhta Pakwada

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) today bagged top honours at the Swachhta Pakwada Awards, an oil ministry initiative to honour companies and individuals doing exemplary work in cleanliness. ONGC, besides maintaining basic hygiene and cleanliness at its facilities, planted the most number of trees and launched projects for construction of total 4,282 units of Individual Household Latrine (IHHL), school toilets or community toilets in more than 45 villages across the country, an official statement said here. It also undertook awareness campaigns on menstrual hygiene, creating clean drinking water facilities using solar power and water ATMs, e-waste processing, clean Himalaya campaign and organic waste disposal. The award was given away by Oil Secretary M M Kutty to ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Shashi Shanker at the function here today. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) bagged the runner-up's award. The Ministry celebrated Swachhta Pakhwada fortnight from July 1 to 15 with the ...

Bengaluru among 14 global cities to clean toxic air

India's tech hub Bengaluru on Tuesday joined 13 other cities, including London, to clean up toxic air and check pollution in urban areas the world over.

UN: 20,000 Yemeni families benefit from UAE grant

Aden, July 31 (IANS/WAM) The United Arab Emirates grant to support the "Yemen: Humanitarian Response Plan 2018" of the UN has benefited over 20,000 Yemeni families, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said.

Goa IPB withdrew permission for 26 projects: Parrikar

The Goa government-run Investment Promotion Board (IPB) has withdrawn the in-principle nod it had granted to 26 projects on different grounds in the last four years, the state Legislative Assembly was told today. A question regarding status of the industrial projects in the coastal state was raised by Congress legislator Nilkant Halarnkar. In his reply, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said the IPB had given in-principle approval to 169 projects, including new projects and those seeking expansion, since its inception (in 2014). These projects entailed total investment of Rs 12,400 crore and had the employment potential of 27,715, he said. "Of 169 projects, the IPB has withdrawn permission granted to 26 projects," he said, adding that 71 of the 169 projects were new ones. Of the 26 projects which stood withdrawn, 14 projects were found to be in contravention of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms while in case of 12 projects, the firms did not show any interest in ...

50 per cent of cases being filed by blackmailers: NGT

The National Green Tribunal took today strong note of frivolous petitions being filed in the name of environment and said 50 per cent of the cases were filed by blackmailers. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said the tribunal would deal with only those cases which have an important question relating to environment and ecology. "Nowadays 50 per cent of cases are of blackmailers...Earlier, we used to issue notices...But now we are not issuing notices and disposing of the cases," Justice Goel observed. The observation came while disposing of a plea seeking a stay on the construction of 70-storey Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir in Mathura by ISKCON and asked the petitioner to approach authorities for its grievances. The green panel noted that 'Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir' being built by ISKCON had all the requisite approvals. The plea filed by one Manikesh Chaturvedi had alleged that construction of 'Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir' by ISKCON in the vicinity of ...