Page 737 - Environment
Desai says he has initiated de-notification of land
Maharashtra Industries Minister Subhash Desai today said he had started the process of denotifying the land acquired for the mega oil refinery at Nanar in Ratnagiri district, contrary to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's assertion last week that the minister had no authority to do so. The project has become a bone of contention between ruling allies BJP and Shiv Sena, with the latter opposing it tooth and nail. Speaking to reporters at his office in Mantralaya, Desai, a senior Sena leader, said he had directed the Industries Department secretary to submit a report about de-notification. Being the industries minister, he was empowered to denotify the land acquisition process, Desai said. "As per the official procedure, the industries secretary will seek report from the Ratnagiri district collector who oversees the acquisition process," he said. Citing the land acquisition act, Desai said it was the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) which had issued ..
Punjab, Haryana wheat procurement crosses 200 lakh tonnes
Food grain states Punjab and Haryana have procured over 200 lakh tonnes of wheat this season, food and supplies officials in both states said on Thursday.
Farmer attempts suicide in front of collector's office in Odisha
A farmer today tried to commit suicide by consuming pesticide in front of Bargarh district collector's office here while taking part in a protest, officials said. The 55-year-old farmer had taken a loan of Rs 30,000 and his standing crop was damaged in a hailstorm on April 30, villagers said. Akrura Bishi of Kanbar village in Barpali block came here to take part in a dharna of farmers who were demanding compensation for crop loss due to the unseasonal rain and hailstorm, officials said. After Akrura drank pesticide, other farmers present there took him to the district headquarters hospital here. Akrura was later shifted to the Veer Sunrendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR) at Burla in neighbouring Sambalpur district, officials said. District Collector Indramani Tripathy said, "The suicide attempt took place before I went to meet them. It is an unfortunate incident." Appealing to farmers to refrain from taking such steps, he said the state government was ...
AIR to broadcast dawn chorus of birds on Sunday
The All India Radio (AIR) will broadcast a dawn chorus of birds from West Bengal's Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary to mark the International Dawn Chorus Day on May 6, an official statement said today. For the second consecutive year, the AIR, through its external services division, has joined hands with Ireland's RTE Radio 1, the European Broadcasting Union and the Bird Life International to bring live the vibrant dawn chorus of birds singing from West Bengal's sanctuary along with those from Europe and Australia, the AIR said in a release. AIR Director General F Sheheryar said the programme would go a long way in sensitising people specially the younger generation towards conservation of the ecosystem, particularly different species of birds. International Dawn Chorus Day is celebrated worldwide on first Sunday of May every year to appreciate the primordial symphony of nature. The dawn chorus is the collective sound of birds singing at the start of a new day. AIR Director (External ...
Vanu India-HFCL bag Rs 579-cr project from BSNL in northeast region
Telecom gear firm Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited (HFCL) and Vanu India have jointly bagged a telecom network rollout project worth Rs 579 crore in the northeast region from state-run firm BSNL. "The contract to HFCL covers products and services worth Rs 579 crore. The scope of the project includes surveying, planning, supply, installation, testing, commissioning, and maintenance for five years of radio access network," HFCL and Vanu India said in a joint statement. The network deployment will include installation of 924 solar powered base transceiver station (BTS) sites manufactured by HFCL using Vanu India's technology in rural parts of northeast region.
Union minister distributes gas connections to BPL families in Amritsar
Union Urban Development Minister Hardeep Puri today distributed free gas connections to nearly 123 Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in Mudhal village here. Puri interacted with the villagers who apprised him about the issues being faced due to the absence of street lights He assured them that roads would be built, and LED and solar street lights installed in the village in the next two months. Puri said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had instructed all Members of Parliament to address problems faced by BPL families living in under-developed areas. He said Navjot Singh Sidhu did nothing for the region when he was MP from Amritsar. Puri assured the residents that their problems with regard to development would be sorted out soon.
Gas leak kills three workers in Gujarat
A gas leak at a waste recycling unit in the Panoli industrial area near here left three workers dead today, police said. Two other workers were affected by the leakage of the toxic gas at the unit located in Ankleshwar taluka of Bharuch district, they said. They are being treated at a nearby hospital, they added. The gas leak took place when five workers were unloading chemical waste inside the recycling unit at Panoli GIDC, said Ankleshwar-Rural police inspector B L Vadukar. All the five workers inhaled the poisonous gas emanating from the unit and were rushed to a hospital in Ankleshwar town, he said. "Three of them died shortly after being admitted in the hospital, while two are still under treatment," said Vadukar, adding a case of Accidental Death(AD) has been registered. The deceased were identified as Dinesh Kushwaha (20), Mahesh Kushwaha (20), both from Uttar Pradesh, and Bhaskar Nakum (30), a resident of Jamnagar.
Bullet train land row: Rlys says farmers to get higher compensation
Farmers giving away land for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train will get an additional 25 per cent of the market value of the land over and above the compensation they were entitled to, the Railways said today, a day after Congress MP Ahmed Patel wrote to the Prime Minister expressing concern over the process of land acquisition for the ambitious project. In the statement, a spokesperson for the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHRCL), which is implementing the high speed train corridor project, said due care had been taken to cause the least inconvenience to farmers and farm labourers and simultaneously protect their rights. In the letter to the PM, Patel had alleged that farmers' representatives had complained that rules and procedures under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, were not being adhered to while land was being acquired for the project. He claimed meetings were being conducted barely .
Chad gets 6 rhinos nearly 50 years after losing the species
Six critically endangered black rhinos are being transported from South Africa to Chad, restoring the species to the country in north-central Africa nearly half a century after it was wiped out there. African Parks, a Johannesburg-based conservation group, said today that the rhinos will travel by air to Zakouma National Park, a reserve in Chad that it manages with the government. The group says the goal is to help the long-term survival of black rhinos and to restore biodiversity in Chad. It says there are fewer than 25,000 rhinos in the African wild, of which about 20 per cent are black rhinos and the rest white rhinos. Most of the rhinos are in South Africa, though the population has been hit hard by poachers supplying horns to an illegal Asian market.
NASA's newest Mars lander to study quakes on Red Planet
NASA is poised to launch its first lander to Mars since 2012, an unmanned spacecraft called InSight that aims to listen for quakes and unravel the mystery of how rocky planets like Earth form. It is scheduled to launch on Saturday at 7:05 am Eastern time from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, and if all goes as planned, it should land on the Red Planet November 26. Since the Earth and Mars likely formed by similar processes 4.5 billion years ago, the US space agency hopes the lander -- officially known as Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) -- will shed light on what made them so different. "How we get from a ball of featureless rock into a planet that may or may not support life is a key question in planetary science," said Bruce Banerdt, InSight principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "We'd like to be able to understand what happened." On Earth, these processes have been obscured ..
Stray leopard creates panic in Siliguri town
A stray leopard, spotted near a downtown shopping mall along Sevoke Road, created panic in North Bengal's Siliguri town, forest officials said. The incident was reported late yesterday evening and efforts to catch the animal even today bore no fruit. As people raised an alarm, forest officials reached the spot yesterday with net and tranquilizers, but failed to nab the frightened animal which took shelter on a tin roof of a godown located opposite the shopping mall and remained perched there overnight. At the break of dawn today, the leopard climbed down an adjacent tree and escaped. Umarani, Divisional Forest Officer of Baikunthapur said a net has been cast wide in the area to ensure safety of residents. Announcements over public address systems are also being made to ward off any possible attacks from the leopard. "We are trying to get hold of the leopard," the DFO said. Recently, leopards ran amok at a tea estate in Bagdogra near here. A leopard also entered a house in
Rahul grades Modi 'F' for performance in Karnataka's agri sector
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of letting down farmers in Karnataka and gave him 'F' Grade in a report card, saying there was no contribution from the Centre to the state's farm loan waiver.
No farmer will be left to suffer: Pb Minister
Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu today assured farmers that they would not be left to suffer due to vagaries of nature. In the wake of untimely rains in several parts of the northern region, the minister said the state government stood firmly by the side of the farmers. "The government is committed to lift the last grain in the market and all the stakeholders involved, be it the farmers or the labourers, may rest assured that the government will not leave them in lurch," Ashu said. He said the Mandi Board has been directed to take concrete steps to upgrade the arrangements in mandis and ensure safety of food grains from the rain. The managing directors of procurement agencies have been asked to personally visit the markets in rain affected districts and hold detailed meetings with the administration and other stakeholders to resolve issues, if any, he said. Till May 2, 118 lakh metric tonne of wheat has been procured as against 112 lakh metric tonne ...
As untimely rain wreaks misery, Punjab assures farmers
With tens of thousands of tonnes of wheat grain being exposed to rain in the past 24 hours in grain markets across Punjab due to inadequate measures for proper storage and lifting of wheat, the Punjab government on Thursday assured farmers that they (farmers) will not have to suffer losses due to the damage.
Cyclonic circulation over Haryana was trigger for dust storm: experts
A cyclonic circulation over Haryana was the trigger for the deadly dust storm that swept parts of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, weather experts said today, estimating that the wind speed during the storm may have gone up to 100 kilometres per hour. The winds were so violent that a number of houses collapsed and electricity poles and trees got uprooted, as the severe dust storm swept parts of these states. The phenomenon was restricted to these two states, largely because of external and domestic reasons, experts said. There were primarily four reasons that lead to the thunderstorm -- excessive heating, availability of moisture, instability in atmosphere and a trigger for the storm, India Meteorological Department (IMD) Additional Director General Mritunjay Mohapatra said. "The north Indian plains have been witnessing temperatures of over 40 degree Celsius. There were two sources of moisture --a western disturbance over north Pakistan and adjoining Jammu and Kashmir and easterly winds .
NGT asks Delhi, northern states to respond to WHO report on most-polluted cities
The National Green Tribunal today asked the Delhi, four northern states and Bihar to respond to a recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report on 20 most-polluted cities in the world. According to the WHO global air pollution database, 14 out of the 15 most- polluted cities in the world in terms of PM 2.5 concentrations are in India -- the worst being Kanpur with a Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 concentration of 173 micrograms per cubic metre, followed by Faridabad, Varanasi and Gaya. A bench headed by acting NGT Chairperson Jawad Rahim allowed lawyer Sanjay Upadhyay, appearing for Vardhaman Kaushik who has filed a petition against worsening air quality in Delhi-NCR, to place on record the WHO report seeking response from the Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Bihar governments. The states have been asked to clarify their stand by May 21, the next date of hearing. Delhi and Varanasi are among the 14 Indian cities that figured in a WHO list of 20 most-polluted cities ..
Additional ADB loan for Himachal tourism projects
Himachal Pradesh will soon get another tranche of a multimillion-dollar loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to develop tourism infrastructure, it was announced on Thursday.
Authorities begin drive to rid villages of dog menace in UP's Sitapur
Days after three children were mauled to death by packs of stray dogs in villages of Khairabad area, the district administration has called upon a dog catching team from Mathura to deal with the menace. The four member team from Mathura along with forest officials arrived here yesterday and started an operation with the help of the police and locals this morning, during which 16 dogs were tranquillised while two died, officials said. The tranquillised dogs will be set free in remote forest areas later, they said. Meanwhile, people in different villages under Khairabad are living in constant fear since the mauling incidents that took place two days ago and have sought help the administration. Authorities have advised them to carry sticks or blunt weapons when venturing out alone, officials said. While unconfirmed reports said villagers resorted to killing strays in some areas, no official agreed to comment on them. On Tuesday, packs of stray dogs attacked and killed three children in .
AP govt proposes generation of 2560 MW power by 2022: Min
The Andhra Pradesh government today said it planned to generate an additional 2,560 MW of power by the financial year 2022 to meet the anticipated load growth, though it has a surplus as of now. Addressing reporters after a high-level sector review meeting here, Energy Minister Kimidi Kala Venkata Rao said the state's installed power generation capacity was 17,520 MW at the end of the financial year 2017-18. "We have increased the generation capacity by 84 per cent from 9,529 MW in the FY 2014-15. We had a power deficit of 22 million units when the state was bifurcated (in June 2014) but now we are power surplus," Rao pointed out. "The main reason for this power surplus state is capacity building on the generation side, the most recent addition being the 600 MW stage-4 of Rayalaseema Thermal Power Project, which started commercial production on March 28," he elaborated. The new plants coming up over the next four years include the 800 MW stage-5 of Narla Tata Rao Thermal
Tiger mauls 60-year-old man
Tiger attacked a man near village Hivra (Barsa) under the Pandharkawda Forest Range in the district yesterday, locals claimed. Damu Bapurao Attram (60), a member of a tribal community, was heading for Pandharkawda town with a group of ten persons for a religious function yesterday. The tiger attacked him from behind and he sustained deep gashes on his back and head, he told reporters. The animal ran away when his companions came to Damu's help, he said. He was taken to a government hospital where he is undergoing treatment. Forest officials were not available for comments.
