Page 652 - Environment
AAI to spend Rs 2476 cr on Chennai Airport expansion; gets
An Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) under the Ministry of Environment, has accorded environmental clearance for the Rs 2476 crore Chennai Airport expansion programme by Airports Authority of India (AAI). According to the minutes of meeting held on May 30, an the Committee while clearing the project said the proposed modernisation project will be carried out within the existing airport premises over an area of 1301.28 acres. As the entire land is already under possession of AAI, no additional land acquisition is involved. Once the expansion is done, the passenger capacity after modernisation of proposed Chennai airport will be 30 Million Passenger Per Annum (MPPA) from the existing 14 million, the EAC said. "The EAC, on being satisfied with the submissions of the project proponent (AAI), recommended the project for grant of environmental clearance and stipulated the following specific conditions along with other environmental conditions while considering for accord of ...
Cotton exports likely to jump 43% in 2018-19
India's cotton exports are expected to jump 43 per cent to 10 million bales (of 170 kg each) in the 2018-19 marketing year on strong overseas demand, especially from China, according to industry body CIA. Overall cotton shipments are likely to cross 7 million bales in the ongoing 2017-18 marketing year (October-September). Already 6.2 million bales have been exported till May 2018, it said. "The demand for Indian cotton is high as prices are almost 10 per cent lower than the international prices," Cotton Association of India (CAI) President Atul Ganatra told PTI. Indian cotton is quoted at Rs 46,500 per bale in the spot market, much lower than Rs 54,000 per bale in the US and Rs 58,000 per bale in Australia, he said. Therefore, China - the world's second largest producer - has signed an advance contract for 5 lakh bales of new cotton crop from India for delivery in November-December of the 2018-19 marketing year. Ganatra said total cotton exports to China could increase to 30-40 lakh .
PM dedicates SAIL's upgraded Bhilai Steel Plant to the nation
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today dedicated to the nation the modernised and expanded Bhilai Steel Plant of state-owned SAIL. With this, the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has completed its around Rs 72,0000 crore modernisation and expansion programme which will take its production capacity to 21 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from the present 13 MTPA. Addressing a gathering here, the Prime Minister said the Bhilai Steel Plant will make the foundation of 'New India' stronger than steel. Modi also said he was dedicating to the people of Chhattisgarh schemes of around Rs 22,000 crore. The Prime Minister is on a day-long visit to Chhattisgarh where he inaugurated different projects. He visited SAIL's Bhilai Steel Plant located in Durg district of the state. Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said four years back the steel industry was going through a tough time, but today India is the second largest steel producer. Bhilai Steel Plant, he said, is today producing 130 metre long ...
Man arrested for killing blackbuck in MP
The police has arrested a 28-year-old man for allegedly killing a blackbuck in Madhya Pradesh's Dewas district, an official said today. Acting on a tip-off, the police raided a hideout in Kharpa village last evening and arrested the man, identified as Farooq, for killing the endangered animal in a forest area, Kannod police station in-charge Vishwadeep Singh Parihar said. The police also seized 11 kg meat of the blackbuck and its skin from the man's possession, he said. Parihar said the accused admitted to have killed the blackbuck in the Kharpa forest area of Kannod tehsil along with his associate, who is absconding. The police also seized a sickle and an axe apparently used to kill the animal, he said. A case was registered against the accused under relevant sections of the Wildlife Protection Act. The police launched a search for Farooq's associate, Parihar added. The blackbuck, also known as the Indian antelope, is an endangered species protected under the Wildlife
Uttarakhand forest official under probe reinducted
A forest official in Uttarakhand, against whom a vigilance probe is in progress, has been reinstated to the post from which he was removed by the state government following allegations of financial irregularities. Kishan Chand was removed as deputy director of Rajaji Tiger Reserve in November last year and reinducted as deputy conservator of forest in June, the post he held as deputy director of the reserve. According to the rules, the deputy director also holds the post of the deputy conservator of forest. The order for Chand's reinduction was issued by principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) Jairaj on June 11. A copy of the order is with PTI. Rajaji Tiger Reserve Director Sanatan said the re-induction is in violation of the state government order removing Chand as the deputy director and attaching him with the office of chief wildlife warden DVS Khati. Sanatan said he has written to the PCCF and Additional Principal Secretary (Forests) Ranbir Singh apprising them with his view
Climate change accelerating rise in sea levels: Study
Rising sea levels could be accelerated by vulnerable ice shelves in the Antarctic, a study has found. Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada discovered that the process of warmer ocean water destabilising ice shelves from below is also cracking them apart from above, increasing the chance they will break off. "We are learning that ice shelves are more vulnerable to rising ocean and air temperatures than we thought," said Christine Dow from University of Waterloo. "There are dual processes going on here. One that is destabilizing from below, and another from above. This information could have an impact on our projected timelines for ice shelf collapse and resulting sea level rise due to climate change," said Dow. The study, published in the journal Science Advances, applied methods similar to forensic science on ice shelves which had already calved. Using radar surveys and Landsat imagery, the study reports direct evidence that a major 2016 calving event at Nansen Ice ...
Japanese utility eyes scrapping 2nd Fukushima nuclear plant
The utility responsible for meltdowns at a nuclear power plant in northeast Japan seven years ago says for the first time publicly it might decommission another plant in Fukushima that narrowly escaped the crisis. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said today it was considering dismantling four reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ni, or No. 2, plant. The Fukushima Dai-ichi, or No. 1, plant was heavily damaged in the March, 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami. Three reactors had meltdowns and a fourth had structural damage. Decommissioning of those reactors has started and the two others will be scrapped eventually. The decommissioning under consideration would mean all 10 of TEPCO's reactors in Fukushima will be dismantled eventually. Fukushima officials and residents have demanded TEPCO decommission its remaining reactors, saying uncertainty has hampered reconstruction.
India's May vegoil imports down seven percent at 1.3 million tonnes: trade body
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's vegoil imports in May fell 7 percent to 1.3 million tonnes from a year ago, a trade body said on Thursday.
Telangana govt. bans plastic in civic offices
The Telangana government has instructed municipal bodies across the state to stop usage of plastic.Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Principal Secretary Arvind Kumar, issued guidelines to discontinue the usage of single-use plastic items, like plastic and tetra bottles, single-use straws, plastic/styrofoam tea cups/containers, plastic below 50 micron plastic or plastic coated items and any other forms of single use /banned plastic.Kumar cited the example of Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao who has stopped using plastic bottles in his office and switched to using steel tumblers."No office shall be found to be in use or possession of below 50-micron plastic bags as mandated in the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016," the guidelines said."Furthermore, it is mandated that all offices follow the twin bin system and dispose of plastic waste strictly in compliance with Solid Waste Management Rules, 2000 and guidelines of ...
Smart village initiative for Arunachal Pradesh
The Arunchal Pradesh government has inked an agreement with Andhra Pradesh-based Smart Village Movement (SVM) to facilitate technology innovations, research and development in selected villages of the north-eastern state, an official release said. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed yesterday by director-cum-member secretary of State Council for IT & e-Governance, Neelam Yapin Tana, and SVM project director Shreya Evani, in the presence of Chief Minister Pema Khandu, Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein among other officials, it said. The man behind the Smart Village Movement, Solomon Darwin, will be the adviser to the project's core team. The project will focus on solving "pain-points" or challenges in rural segments by developing platforms driven by "open innovation" approaches, the release said. Darwin, who was present at the event yesterday, said SVM's open innovation approach will "integrate technology and indigenous rural practices" to generate ...
Air quality in Delhi remains beyond severe for third day
The air quality in Delhi remained beyond the "severe" level for the third day today, as authorities warned the dusty conditions are likely to prevail for another 3-4 days and advised people to avoid staying outdoors for long hours. The air quality deteriorated because of dust storms in western India, particularly Rajasthan, which increased coarser particles in the air, the Central Pollution Control Board said. The PM10 level (presence of particles with diameter less than 10mm) was beyond severe at 796 in Delhi-NCR and 830 in Delhi particularly, leading to hazy conditions. According to the CPCB, the air quality index - a measurement of the concentration of toxic particulate matter in the air - at several places in Delhi remained beyond the 500-mark, with east Delhi's Anand Vihar area recording a PM10 level of 929 and PM2.5 level of 301 this morning. An AQI between 0-50 is considered "Good", 51-100 "Satisfactory", 101-200 "Moderate", 201-300 "Poor", 301-400 "Very Poor", and 401-500 ...
Satellites document alarming ice loss in Antarctica
A new research provides an insight into the southernmost continent's response to climate warming, and the results are shocking, harrowing, and concerning.Scientists from the University of Maryland, the University of Leeds, and the University of California have reviewed decades of satellite measurements to reveal how and why Antarctica's glaciers, ice shelves, and sea ice are changing.Their report explained how ice shelf thinning and collapse have triggered an increase in the continent's contribution to sea level rise.The researchers also found that, although the total area of sea ice surrounding Antarctica has shown little overall change since the advent of satellite observations, mid-20th century ship-based observations suggest a longer-term decline."Antarctica is way too big to survey from the ground, and we can only truly understand the trends in its ice cover by looking at the continent from space," said Andrew Shepherd, the lead author of the review.In West Antarctica, ice ...
Mars rover threatened by unprecedented storm
An unprecedented sandstorm on Mars is threatening the survival of NASA's solar-powered Opportunity rover, the US space agency has announced.
Antarctica's ice sheet is melting 3 times faster than before
The melting of Antarctica is accelerating at an alarming rate, with about 3 trillion tons of ice disappearing since 1992, an international team of ice experts said in a new study. In the last quarter century, the southern-most continent's ice sheet a key indicator of climate change melted into enough water to cover Texas to a depth of nearly 13 feet (4 metres), scientists calculated. All that water made global oceans rise about three-tenths of an inch (7.6 millimetres). From 1992 to 2011, Antarctica lost nearly 84 billion tons of ice a year (76 billion metric tons). From 2012 to 2017, the melt rate increased to more than 241 billion tons a year (219 billion metric tons), according to the study Wednesday in the journal Nature . "I think we should be worried. That doesn't mean we should be desperate," said University of California Irvine's Isabella Velicogna, one of 88 co-authors. "Things are happening. They are happening faster than we expected." Part of West Antarctica, where most ..
Migratory bird's beak gets trapped in plastic ring, rescued
An Australian black necked stork, which had got its beak trapped in a plastic ring, was rescued by officials Bombay History Society (BHS) and Gurgaon Wildlife Department here. The plastic ring had shut the migratory bird's beak and it was unable for eat for a week, Shyam Sundar Kaushik, DFO Wildlife Gurgaon range, said. The bird was spotted in Gurgaon a week ago by some bird photographers who spent long hours in the wetlands of Gurgaon to click picture of the migratory birds. They alerted the agencies about it and the bird was rescued from Najafgarh drain. "The bird is under observation of veterinary doctors and will be release in the next two days, if found health," Kaushik said.
Antarctic ice loss triples, boosting sea levels
Antarctica has lost a staggering three trillion tonnes of ice since 1992, according to a landmark study published today that suggests the frozen continent could redraw Earth's coastlines if global warming continues unchecked. Two-fifths of that ice loss occurred in the last five years, a three-fold increase in the pace at which Antarctica is shedding its kilometres-thick casing, a consortium of 84 scientists reported in the journal Nature. The findings should dispel any lingering doubts that the continent's ice mass is shrinking, the authors said. They also highlight the existential threat facing low-lying coastal cities and communities home to hundreds of millions of people. "We now have an unequivocal picture of what's happening in Antarctica," said co-lead author Eric Rignot, a scientist at NASA's Jet propulsion Laboratory who has been tracking Earth's ice sheets for two decades. "We view these results as another ringing alarm for action to slow the warming of our planet." Up to ...
DVAC case against 3 forest dept officials
The DVAC has registered cases against two forest department officials and a contractor for allegedly misappropriating funds meant for an afforestation project being implemented in the state with funding from Japan International cooperation agency The funds in question were allegedly misappropriated from that alloted for Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Project, a massive afforestation programme, being implemented by planting seedlings in 32 districts from 2011-19 at an outlay of 668.28 crore. Barring Chennai, seedlings were being planted in the 31 districts, both the forest areas and open places. Based on complaints about massive financial irregularities, VAC carried out a probe and found irregularities in some districts, it said in a release. Investigation revealed that retired forest ranger given responsibility of the project, along with a former Forestry Extention Officer in Namakkal district, allegedly colluded with a forest contractor and produced 12 fake bills and vouchers
Antarctic ice loss triples, boosting sea levels: study
Antarctica has lost a staggering three trillion tonnes of ice since 1992, according to a landmark study published today that suggests the frozen continent could redraw Earth's coastlines if global warming continues unchecked. Two-fifths of that ice loss occurred in the last five years, a three-fold increase in the pace at which Antarctica is shedding its kilometres-thick casing, a consortium of 84 scientists reported in the journal Nature. The findings should dispel any lingering doubts that the continent's ice mass is shrinking, and could pose an existential threat to low-lying coastal cities and communities home to hundreds of millions of people, the authors said.
Delhi's air quality 'severe' due to dust storm in western India
High pollution levels in Delhi were mainly due to dust storms from Rajasthan, the Environment Ministry said after air quality in Delhi deteriorated beyond "severe" level today and predicted that dusty conditions were likely to prevails over the next three days. The ministry has also alerted major construction agencies, municipal corporations and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to ensure water sprinkling, and asked Delhi's Chief Secretary to issue appropriate instructions in the matter to the agencies concerned. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) also convened an urgent meeting of the Task Force regarding implementation of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) today and issued necessary directions to contain local dust sources. The air quality in Delhi deteriorated beyond the "severe" level because of a ground-level dust storm in western India which increased coarser particles in the air, the Central Pollution Control Board data showed. The CPCB data showed that the PM10 .
Mathura to get city-wide integrated sewerage treatment infrastructure
The Centre's 'Namami Gange' initiative got a boost after Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan signed a concession agreement for developing India's first city-wide integrated sewerage infrastructure for Mathura."Under @cleanganganmcg project, Sewage Treatment Plants have been set up in Mathura. This is the first project under the concept of #OneCity #OneOperator & promotes the re-use of treated water for effective abatement of pollution and conservation & rejuvenation of the Holy Ganga," Pradhan tweeted.The project, which is being done through Hybrid Annuity Based Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, will be the first under the One City-One operator concept.Pradhan also said that the planning for this project has reached its final stages, and the work will commence shortly.Addressing the gathering at the event earlier in the day, Pradhan thanked the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for their participation in the project.In this regard, he also took to Twitter and said, "The ...
