Page 736 - Environment

Elephant found electrocuted in TN

A male elephant was electrocuted after coming into contact with an illegal high voltage electrified fence put up around a farm in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) in this district, Forest officials said today. The pachyderm, believed to be 11 years old, was found dead yesterday in Neithalapuram village near Thalawady and a veterinarian declared it had died of electrocution, officials said. A case had been registered against the farm owner, Karuppana Gounder, who is reportedly absconding, they said. Some farmers in forest fringes put up such fences, which are illegal, to prevent wild animals from damaging crops. Though rules permit energising fences with low voltage to give a mild shock to animals to prevent them from entering farms, often the farmers resort to installing 230 volt fencing, which result in fatalities. There have been several incidents in Tamil Nadu in the past of elephants and other animals being electrocuted after coming into contact with such ...

WHO report on polluted cities not correct: Hry govt

The Haryana Pollution Control Board has turned aside the recent report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in which Faridabad is among the top three polluted cities in the world. The latest WHO ranking of cities based on ambient air quality released on May 2 lists eight Indian cities as the top most polluted cities in the world. Haryana Environment and Climate Change Minister Vipul Goel today said the source of the data on which the report was based was not clear. "The Haryana Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) has been monitoring the data since 2010 through continuous air ambient quality monitoring station in Faridabad and Gurugram. "As per the details available with the board, the PM 2.5 value of both the cities are being monitored regularly since 2013," he said. These values increase above 170 only during a brief season, that is during a few days around Diwali, crop harvesting season during which residue burning is reported and peak winter, when the temperature is low and ...

BSES installs first grid-connected rooftop solar plant

Delhi electricity distribution company (discom) BSES-Rajdhani on Friday announced it has installed the first grid-connected 100KW solar rooftop plant in a residential housing society in Dwarka locality of the city as part of its Solar City Initiative to "solarise" the area.

DR Congo planning to allow oil exploration in national parks: NGO

Democratic Republic of Congo's government is seeking to reclassify swathes of two UNESCO-listed parks so that oil exploration can be carried out there, an investigative group said. The London-based NGO Global Witness said it had seen documents about a scheme to "redraw the boundaries" of the fabled Salonga and Virunga national parks, home to many of the planet's endangered species. The move would remove protected status from areas for which oil licences have been awarded, thus enabling exploration there to go ahead, it said yesterday. A special commission of ministers and DRC civil servants met on April 27 to push through the plan, it said. The group said documents signed by DRC's oil minister, Aime Ngoi Muken, set out the legal framework for changing the areas' status. "The proposals ride roughshod over Congo's UNESCO commitments and are incompatible with the parks' World Heritage Status," Global Witness said. More than a fifth of the Virunga National Park, the oldest wildlife ...

Gadkari to lay foundation stone of highway projects in Telangana

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will lay foundation stone of four national highway projects costing Rs 1,523 crore in Telangana tomorrow, an official statement said today. The ceremony to be held in Hyderabad will be attended by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, among others, the statement from the ministry of highways said. The total cost of the projects is Rs 1,523 crore, it said. The projects include six laning of Aramgarh-Shamsabad section of NH 44 between Hyderabad and Bangalore; rehabilitation and upgradation of NH 765D ; construction of four-lane flyover at Amberpet-X Roads, and construction of six-lane elevated corridor from Uppal to Narapally on NH 163, the statement said.

PCBL to set up plant in Tamil Nadu for Rs 600 crore

Phillips Carbon Black Ltd (PCBL) will set up a greenfield carbon black plant in Tamil Nadu and undertake brownfield expansion in two of the existing plants at a combined capex of Rs 900 crore over the next two years, a top official of the company today claimed. The new initiatives would raise the country's largest carbon black maker's capacity by another 50 per cent to 7 lakh tonnes. PCBL is also planning to raise equity capital by another Rs 400-500 crore by 2018, chairman Sanjiv Goenka said here today. "We are setting up a 1.5 lakh tonne capacity carbon black greenfield plant at Ennore in Tamil Nadu at an expenditure of Rs 600 crore. Along with it, we will go for de-bottlenecking of Dahej and Palej plants at a cost of Rs 300 crore," Goenka said. The total capacity will jump by 50 per cent to seven lakh tonne in the next two years by when all the projects will be completed. Brownfield expansion by way of de-bottlenecking in the two plants will add capacity by 80,000 ...

Saudi energy minister 'optimistic' on South Korea being shortlisted for nuclear project

SEOUL (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said on Friday he was "optimistic" about South Korea being shortlisted to build nuclear power plants for the Middle Eastern kingdom.

Ashoka Buildcon executes Concession Agreement

With National Highways Authority of India

China asks U.S. to amend ZTE business ban: sources

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has asked the United States to amend a seven-year ban on American companies selling components and software to Chinese telecom equipment firm ZTE Corp, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.

'World's rarest ape on the edge of extinction'

Tapanuli Orangutan - the rarest ape species on the planet - could lose its battle for survival, unless decisive steps are taken to rescue it, scientists said today. Fewer than 800 members of the species survive, and they are under assault from mega-projects, deforestation, road building, and poaching, according to a study published in the journal Current Biology. The most imminent threat to the species discovered last year in Sumatra, Indonesia, is a planned USD 1.6 billion mega-dam project that would be constructed by a Chinese state-owned corporation, researchers said. "If it proceeds, the dam will flood crucial parts of the ape's habitat, while chopping up its remaining habitat with new roads and powerlines," said Jatna Supriatna, a professor at the University of Indonesia. "This is just the seventh species of Great Ape ever discovered, and it could go extinct right before our eyes," said Supriatna. "In forty years of research, I do not think I have ever seen anything this ...

Elephant found dead in farm land

: A male elephant was electrocuted after coming into contact with an electrified fence at a private land in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve (STR) in this district, Forest officials said today. The pachyderm, believed to be eleven years old, died yesterday after coming into contact with an electrified fence that farmers erect to prevent wild animals from entering their land, they said. The elephant had come into contact with the fence at the land in Neithalapuram near Thalawady, the officials said. On noticing the carcass, the villagers informed the Thalawady forest ranger who, along with a veterinarian, went to the spot and examined it. The veterinarian declared that the animal had died of electrocution, the officials added. A case has been registered against the land owner, Karuppana Gounder, who is reportedly absconding. There have been incidents in the recent past of elephants and other animals being electrocuted after coming into contact with electrified fences. In ..

What steps have you taken against illegal industries in Jasodharpur: NGT to MoEF

The National Green Tribunal has directed the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to inform it on the steps it has taken against industries operating without environment clearance in Jasodharpur Industrial Area in Uttarakhand's Kotdwar area. A bench headed by Justice Raghuvendra S Rathore also directed the Wildlife Institute of India to conduct a study in the area about ill effects of these industrial units and submit a report by May 30. "We direct the Environment Ministry to file an additional affidavit of the officer concerned, as to what steps have been taken with regard to action against such industries for operating without EC or whether any application for environment clearance of industries concerned is pending before them," the bench said. During the hearing, advocate Sanjay Upadhyay, appearing for the petitioner Shiv Prasad, told the green panel that many industries were operating without obtaining environment clearance and other requisite permissions. The matter is ...

China to suspend checks on U.S. scrap metal shipments, halting imports

BEIJING/MELBOURNE (Reuters) - The North American unit of a Chinese customs inspection firm said it would suspend checks on cargoes of scrap metal from the United States for a month from Friday, effectively halting all imports of U.S. scrap.

Door-to-door garbage collection facility launched in Katra

Katra, the base camp of the cave shrine of Mata Vaishnodevi, has now got a door-to-door garbage collection facility. The Municipal Committee Katra (MCK) has started the door-to-door collection of waste from household and commercial establishments and government offices, an officer of MCK said. The work of collection has been allotted to an agency which will provide services for collection of waste from houses and commercial establishments, he added. The officer said that it will improve the sanitation of the town and every household and shopkeeper is strictly directed to collect the waste in two dust bins blue and green segregated. The same shall be lifted by the agency and taken to dumping site, he said.

Holistic Strategy With Equal Centre States Efforts Answer To Reduce PM Levels: PHDCCI

President PHDCCI Mr Anil Khaitan lamented that the recent measures adopted by the governments both at centre and states to counter the increasing menace of rising air pollution have been casual in approach as a result very little happened in reduction of PM Levels in India air particularly those of its large cities and metros. Therefore what is called for is a formation of holistic strategy in which Centre and States including UTs should have equitable involvement with same sense of commitment and accountability so that PL Levels are brought down with suggested a road map in place .

This Pak city broke the world record for hottest April day ever

Pakistan's Nawabshah city on Monday hit 50.2 C, marking the highest temperature recorded for the month of April, ever.This might just be the highest temperature ever reliably measured on the planet during April.Dozens of people fainted in Nawabshah and Larkana, Dawn reported, adding that the city remained deserted for the day as people avoided coming out of their houses.An expert on global weather extremes, Christopher Burt told the Washington Post that Nawabshah probably had the highest temperature "yet reliably observed on Earth in modern records."The report stated that Burt's observation cannot be confirmed as the World Meteorological Organization does not conduct official reviews of such monthly temperature extremes.

Punjab: Asthma cases on the rise among children

Incidences of asthma are rising among children in the state of Punjab.Speaking to ANI, Dr Puneet Aulakh Pooni said, "Harvesting season is here and hence the number of patients have increased three to four times."The doctor also advised wearing mask as a precaution.The northern states of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi greatly suffer from pollution and the harvesting season especially increases the health hazards following the stubble burning.On a related note, eight to ten percent children suffer from asthma in India.

West Africa's Sahel threatened with malnutrition, insecurity

Drought, conflict and high food prices will drive millions of people in West Africa's Sahel region into malnutrition and further insecurity without immediate aid, three United Nations agencies warned today. This could be one of the worst crop seasons in several years and many families may exhaust their food reserves early, according to the World Food Program, the UN children's agency and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Poor rainfall in parts of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania and Senegal has ruined livestock and harvests, leading to an early start of the hunger season. More than 1.6 million children are at risk of severe acute malnutrition this year, 50 per cent more than in the Sahel's last major crisis in 2012, the agencies said at a press conference. Insecurity in the Sahel has forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes and has led to the closure of schools and disruption of basic social services. Such vulnerabilities create an environment where ...

Two persons trample to death by wild elephants

Two persons, including an elderly woman, were trampled to death by wild elephants in East Singhbhum district, Forest Department officials said today. A 20-year-old youth identified as Dharmi Mardi was today crushed to death by elephants, when he went to the fields in Jwalbhanga village, they said. The tuskers had trampled to death the elderly woman near Baharaagora village yesterday, the officials said. The elephants had sneaked into the district from adjoining Odisha and West Bengal, they said. Divisional Forest Officer S Alam Ansari said two teams have been pressed into service to drive away the elephants.

Northeastern cultural and info centre to come up in Delhi

A Northeastern cultural and information centre, showcasing the vibrant culture of the region, will come up in Delhi soon, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said today. Singh disclosed this during a meeting on the 'Roadmap for Implementation of Cabinet Approval of Schemes for North East Council' here. The meeting reviewed the progress of various on-going projects in the Northeast region, an official statement said. Singh, Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), said the central government has been giving priority to the Northeastern region and the cultural and information centre will be a new gift to the people of the region. It is being built on 1.32 acre land in Dwarka and will act as a cultural convention and information hub of the region in Delhi, the minister said. Singh said it will have a library-cum-reading room with material on Northeastern region, an art gallery showcasing the region, an exhibition hall, a research centre, sale outlets as well guest ...