Page 654 - Environment
2 Pak mortar shells defused in Kathua
Two live mortar shells fired from Pakistani side were found lying in agriculture fields in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, triggering panic in the area, police officials said today. The mortar shells were found at Maharajpur village of Hiranagar sector. A BSF bomb disposal team was called and they defused the two shells safely, they said.
Rahul condoles scientist-farmer's death, decries apathy
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday decried the nation's apathy towards the achievements of a Dalit farmer who had developed the HMT variety of paddy but died unsung and in poverty.
Ker govt to impart water conservation lessons to 10 lakh
: Kerala government, with the help of students, is set to impart lessons on water conservation to 10 lakh families. The Kerala state literacy mission unveiled a major drive'Jalasaksharatha' (water literacy) to create awareness among the public on the need to conserve water bodies in the state, known for its abundance of rivers, backwaters, waterfalls, streams and ponds. The mission is to engage 70,000 learners, who pursue class X and higher secondary-equivalent programmes, for the state-wide initiative at a time when water scarcity and pollution are cause of worry. The mission recently conducted a study which found that 26.90 per cent of water sources were completely polluted. As many as 46.10 per cent of the over 3,000 water sources, such as ponds, canals, river and backwaters and public wells, surveyed in 2,003 wards is partly polluted, the study found. A total of 1,302 ponds, 941 canals, 153 river stretches, 16 backwater stretches, 1,107 public wells and 87 others in
Telangana to buy 1,000 mw power for Kharif season: Official
: Telangana is all set to purchase 1,000 mw power for the current season for 45 days to met the power requirements, in the open market. According to Telangana State Transmission Corporation Chairman and Managing Director, D Prabhakar Rao, request for proposal (RFP) has been issued for procurement of power through national e-bidding portal. "We are currently buying 1,000 mw from Chhattisgarh for Rs 3.90 per unit. The agreement is for 12 years. Now we want to buy 1,000 mw power on short term basis to meet the energy requirements of various types including for Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation," Rao told PTI. He said they were also expecting power load to be high during day time in Kharif season and hence intend to buy power for only 45 days from July 16 to September 30. Telangana currently has around 15,300 mw installed capacity of Thermal, Hydel, solar, wind power. It includes Centre's power stations. However, currently the demand is not exceeding 7,000 mw, Rao added.
Rahul meets rice innovator's kin, apologises for nation's 'apathy' to his achievements
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi today met the kin of late Dadaji Khobragade, the rural inventor who revolutionised rice farming in Maharashtra's Chandrapur district, and apologised for the nation's "apathy" towards his achievements. Khobragade had invented the revolutionary HMT variety of paddy, but died "largely forgotten and in penury", Gandhi noted. The 78-year-old rice innovator, a native of Nanded village in Chandrapur in Vidarbha region, died earlier this month after a prolonged illness in Gadchiroli district. "Dadaji Khobragade, a Dalit farmer-scientist, invented the revolutionary HMT variety of paddy. But, he died largely forgotten and in penury. I visited his home in Nanded, Maharashtra, to condole with his family and to apologise for our apathy as a nation, to his achievements," Gandhi said on Twitter. Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot, its Maharashtra unit chief Ashok Chavan and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil accompanied Gandhi ..
Ind-Ra: India to Achieve Record Rice Production in Crop Year 2017-2018
The total stock in the central pool hit a 5-year high of 25.3 million tonnes on 1 May 2018, up 11% yoy and 2% mom. India Met Department has forecast the maximum probability of a normal monsoon at 97% (+/- 5%) of long period average for 2018.
President to launch Solar Charkha Mission on June 27
President Ram Nath Kovind will launch Solar Charkha Mission on June 27, which will entail a subsidy of Rs 550 crore in the initial two years for 50 clusters, Union Minister Giriraj Singh said today. The scheme also aims at linking five crore women across the country to the initiative, the minister said. "We are going to launch a new scheme called the Solar Charkha Mission on 27 June. The objective is to link 5 crore women to this initiative. We will also link it to self help groups," Singh said while addressing a press conference here. The mission is expected to create one lakh jobs during the first two years, MSME Secretary AK Panda told PTI. "The Solar Charkha mission has been approved by the government ... As of now the government has approved Rs 550 crore of subsidy for around 50 clusters. Every cluster will have between 400 to 2,000 artisans," Panda said. According to him, investment up to Rs 10,000 crore is expected only in the micro enterprises sector in the current fiscal ...
Monsoon effect: Villagers forced to travel via boat in Chhattisgarh
Monsoon this year has had an adverse effect on Chhattisgarh's Timed village as locals, are being forced to travel via boats while putting their lives at risk.The locals said the situation would not have worsen if the bridge in the vicinity was constructed on time.As an alternative, the villagers were provided with a temporary culvert to accommodate, however, that too collapsed following the incessant rains.Now with no other options left, the locals of the village are forced to cross the Indravati river on small boats."We are left with zero connectivity now. We don't even have mobile network due to heavy rains. The construction of bridge started four years ago. However, it's still in initial stages and I don't think it will be ready anytime soon," a local told ANI.To add on, the water level of Indravati River has increased due to rainfall making it more dangerous for villagers to commute through boats."The state government needs to come up with a solution soon. Also, they should ...
Ban construction temporarily in Delhi, air quality beyond 'severe': Environmentalist
Environmentalist Vimlendu Jha on Wednesday urged the Delhi government to ban construction activities in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) for a brief while.Explaining the reason for the sudden spike in pollution levels, Jha told ANI, "The government should understand the severity of the situation. The factors such as wind coming from other places, coupled with dust from construction activities and the heat, which has caused such a serious crisis. When the air quality index (AQI) is over 600, the government should shut down all construction activities temporarily."He further said that cutting trees for construction was leading to a "public health crisis".Jha asserted that the Delhi government and the Centre were not taking any steps to deal with the foul air quality of the national capital and its adjoining areas."We all talk about air pollution. The Delhi government and the central government do the same. But, I see that nothing has been done in terms of policy or action. ...
Climbing high peaks becoming very dangerous due to climate change: Mountaineer Arjun Vajpai
Mountaineers are at the forefront of facing the brunt of climate change and it is getting more difficult and dangerous to scale peaks above 8,000 metres because the weather window is shifting, says mountaineer Arjun Vajpai.
Kochi: Garbage removed after sub-judge's on-the-spot protest
Around 25-30 loads of garbage was cleared from Kochi's Ernakulam market after a sub-judge and secretary of the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) A.M. Basheer staged a rare protest at the spot.Basheer said he was visiting the market as part of DLSA's 'Clean Ernakulam city' project when he saw the huge garbage dump there.On enquiry, the traders and workers told Basheer that waste had not been collected from the market for several days."I received a lot of complaints regarding the garbage piled up in the market. When I came here for inspection, it was unfortunate to see that all people are dumping the waste here without knowing the adverse effect it can have on us," Basheer told ANI.Thereafter, the officer held a stand that he would return only after the whole garbage was removed. Basheer at the spot began a sit-in, which ended a couple of hours later when the last of the garbage trucks left the place.Also, to ensure that garbage cleaning at the market takes place regularly and ...
PM to visit Chhattisgarh tomorrow
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Chhattisgarh tomorrow and dedicate the modernised and expanded Bhilai steel plant to the nation. He will also lay the foundation stone of a permanent IIT-Bhilai campus and unveil a plaque to mark the launch of the phase-2 of BharatNet, a project which envisages to connect gram panchayats with underground optical fibre network. The modernisation of the Bhilai plant includes installation of cutting-edge technologies for improvement in productivity, yield, quality, cost competitiveness, energy efficiency and environmental protection, an official statement said. The prime minister will inaugurate air services between Jagdalpur and Raipur. He will distribute laptop computers, certificates and cheques to beneficiaries under various schemes and address a public meeting. Before reaching Bhilai, Modi will visit Naya Raipur smart city, where he will inaugurate the integrated command and control centre for the city.
Rising CO2 may increase dangerous weather extremes: Study
Meeting the global warming target of 1.5 degrees Celsius may not be enough to limit the damage caused by extreme weather, a study has found. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, demonstrates that higher atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations directly increase temperature and rainfall extremes, meaning there could be dangerous changes in these extremes even if the global mean temperature rise remains within 1.5 degrees Celsius. The study by researchers at the Oxford University and the University of Bristol in the UK highlights the need for climate policy to complement temperature goals with explicit limits on CO2 concentrations. "Future work is needed to confirm exactly why we see this direct CO2 effect, but current research points to a combination of circulation and cloud cover changes, and an increase in the amount of direct radiation on the Earth's surface due to simply having more CO2 in the atmosphere," said Hugh Baker, a DPhil student at Oxford ...
Delhi air quality beyond 'severe' due to dust storm in western India
The air quality in Delhi today 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 (particles with diameter less than 10mm) level was beyond "severe" at 778 in Delhi-NCR area and 824 in Delhi particularly, leading to hazy conditions and limiting visibility. Gufran Beig, a scientist at the Centre-run System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research institute, said the dust storm deteriorated the air quality in Delhi-NCR. "There was a ground-level dust storm in the western part of the country that increased drastically coarser particles in the air, causing a spike in pollution levels in Delhi," he said. But the air quality should improve later today, he said. "Such dust storms accompanied by high-speed winds (30-40 kmph) do not last too long due to which the air quality will return to normal by this evening,"
NASA's Ikhana drone debuts solo in commercial airspace
In a first, NASA released its unmanned Ikhana aircraft into the commercial airspace under the debut mission without an accompanying chase plane.The idea behind flying the scientific drone was to test out the possibilities of leveraging unmanned aircraft to monitor forest fires or conduct emergency search and rescue operations, Fast Company reported.The Ikhana aircraft took flight from Edwards Air Force Base and reached 20,000 feet in class A airspace. It was also the first autonomous aircraft to use airborne detect-and-avoid technology.The Ikhana is a canonical military drone that NASA acquired in 2006.
Life is a bowl of cherries for Kashmiri growers this year
This year, Kashmir has witnessed a great harvest of the delicious cherry fruit due to the best climatic conditions that led to timely rainfall and snowfall.The suitable climate this year has yielded not only a satisfying quantity of the fruit but also a better quality harvest - not affected by any disease that ensures that the harvest is sure to be sold at a profitable rate.The farming of cherries always needs a moderate temperature and this year, with the help of good climatic conditions, the quality of the fruit, including colour and size of the cherry, has brought a sense of satisfaction and joy to the growers.Cherry is mostly grown at a higher altitude, in locations like Nishat, Harwan, Dara, and Kangan.Horticulture sector is one of the prime sectors that generate employment for thousands of people and during this harvesting period, hundreds of labourers from Rajouri, Pooch and other districts of the state move towards the Valley to earn their livelihood.Speaking to ANI, ...
UN says 6 million struggling to get food in Africa's Sahel
The UN humanitarian chief warned today that nearly 6 million people are struggling to get food in West Africa's Sahel region and severe malnutrition is threatening the lives of 1.6 million children. Mark Lowcock said in a statement that these levels haven't been seen since a crisis in 2012 "and the most critical months are still ahead." He said the rapid deterioration in recent months in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal "reveals an urgent need for more donor support." He said UN plans to respond to the crisis in the six countries are only 26 per cent funded and he urged donors for additional support. "We can still avert the worst," he said. Lowcock said the crisis was triggered by scarce and erratic rainfall in 2017, "resulting in water, crop and pasture shortages and livestock losses." In early May, three UN agencies warned that drought, conflict and high food prices would drive millions of people in the Sahel into malnutrition and further insecurity without ...
Delhi's peak electricity demand hit 'all-time' high on Jun 8: CSE
Delhi's peak electricity demand hit an "all-time high" of 6,934 MW this summer in June, which was 6.25 per cent higher than last year, a city-based green body today claimed. The peak electricity demand was recorded at 3:28 pm on June 8. The demand was 6,526 MW on June 6, 2017, according to a new analysis of Delhi's electricity demand this summer done by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), which was released today. "Delhi has crossed the 2017 record four times since June 1, and this is not the hottest day of the season so far... Delhi's peak demand has been consistently higher than that of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai taken together during this time of the year," it said. In a statement, the CSE also recommended to the Delhi government to "introduce mandatory energy audit and effective pricing for consumption-based energy billing to improve operational efficiency of all buildings". It also suggested it to make obligatory for all buildings to disclose publicly the data on ...
Govt to come up with new energy policy as per Vision 2023
The Tamil Nadu government today said it would come up with its 'New Energy Policy' in accordance with the Vision 2023 document of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Chief Minister K Palaniswami, while making a slew of announcements in the Tamil Nadu Assembly concerning the Energy sector, among others, however, did not reveal when the policy would be rolled out. "In accordance with the Vision 2023 document provided by Amma to meet the economic and social objectives, a New Energy Policy will be formulated," he said. The Vision 2023 document is an ambitious proposal made by Jayalalithaa in 2012, with an aim to ensure manifold economic growth through various sectors. Palaniswami further said the the state's 'Solar Policy 2012' would also be revised. According to the Vision 2023 document, the aim was to achieve 8884 MW of solar power. Further, state-run TANGEDCO would join hands with Solar Energy Corporation of India to establish, on the basis of feasibility, floating solar .
BHEL to foray into metro rail coaches development biz
State-run BHEL will foray into development of metro rail coaches and is also exploring the possibility of manufacturing lithium-ion batteries in India along with four foreign firms, Union Minister Anant Geete said today. Addressing a press conference here, the minister said the second phase of the FAME India scheme will be rolled out post September when the pilot phase ends. He said a provision of around Rs 9,300 crore has been proposed as budget for implementation of FAME II, including Rs 1,000 crore for charging infrastructure. He said a collaboration model is being discussed between BHEL and four foreign firms entailing a joint venture or a consortium, whereby 20 per per cent equity will be owned by BHEL and 80 per cent will be theirs. He shared that BHEL has earned a profit of over Rs 1,500 crore and has secured work orders worth Rs 1.18 lakh crore. The minister said that as there is less scope now in the thermal power sector, efforts were being made for BHEL's entry into the ...
