Page 759 - Environment

Lutyens' Delhi draws more water, doesn't deal with waste: Narain

A leading environmentalist today dubbed the Lutyens' Delhi a "parasite" urban space, alleging the bungalow zone, housing the "rich" and the influential, "draws more water" and jettisons its waste outside the prime land. In an interactive session -- 'Citification of Bharat: Emerging nightmares or exciting opportunities' at an event held here, CSE's Director General Sunita Narain also claimed that the richer the city was becoming, the "less livable" it was turning into. Speaking in the presence of Union Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri, she urged that there was a need to have a discussion on the "form of urban governance" the city required. "I know the garbage figure and the pollution figure (for Delhi). The livability index of the city is going down. The richer the city, the less livable it is becoming, in terms of health indicators, and livability, which you would define as a quality of life in a city," she said. Narain also claimed that the clean and green space of the Lutyens' ...

Fuzzy crab, shiny-eyed shrimp discovered on Java expedition

A hermit crab, a shiny-eyed shrimp and a crab with fuzzy spines are among over a dozen new species discovered in a deep-sea expedition off the Indonesian island of Java, scientists said. The team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) carried out the expedition for 14 days between March and early April. The area covered included a long stretch of the Indian Ocean off Java's southern coast as well as the Sunda Strait that separates the island from Sumatra. "This is a part of the Indian Ocean that has been never been sampled for deep-sea animals so we really didn't know what to find," said Peter Ng, a crab expert and head of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at NUS. "We were very surprised by the findings," he told AFP on Thursday, adding that the team had expected to discover creatures from the Indian Ocean and the surrounding areas already known to scientists. But the discovery of species entirely new to science "tells ..

Reliance Industries update on development of deep-water gas fields in east coast of India

BP and Reliance sanction second phase of integrated KG D6 development

Delhi residents appeal to SDMC to resolve civic woes

The Residents Welfare Association (RWA) of Defence Colony here has urged the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) to look into the matter of aggravated mosquito breeding as well as security hazards.Residents have complained about a lack of CCTV coverage in the area."It's been long and matters are not getting resolved. None of the concerned authorities are ready to help us. Among many other issues, the colony is also facing problems of overflowing sewage, unauthorized hawkers, pot holes, lack of speed breakers on roads, dumping of junk cars and lack of modern garbage collection services," RWA President, Major Ranjit Singh (retired) told ANI.Singh further said that it is getting extremely difficult for them to manage what is a very difficult scenario.The RWA recently invited local MLA, Madan Lal and Municipal Councilor Seema Malik to appraise them of the deteriorating civic conditions. Malik was represented by her husband Bhopender Malik.Following the discussion on Wednesday, it was

Wheat procurement in Haryana crosses 50 lakh tonnes

With heavy arrivals in the past 4-5 days, government procuring agencies and traders have purchased over 50.34 lakh tonnes of wheat from farmers in Haryana, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

RIL-BP sanction satellite gas field development in KG-D6

Reliance Industries and its partner BP plc today announced sanctioning of a second project to develop satellite gas fields in the KG-D6 block to help reverse the flagging output at the Bay of Bengal block. The RIL-BP combine would develop a cluster of four gas discoveries in the Krishna Godavari basin block by 2020-22, the two firms said in a joint statement. Previously, the two had made a final investment decision (FID) to develop the R-Series gas field by 2019-20. "The 'Satellite cluster' is the second of three projects in the Block KG D6 integrated development. The first of the projects, development of the 'R-Series' deep-water gas fields, was sanctioned in June 2017," the statement said. "Together the three projects will develop a total of about 3 trillion cubic feet of discovered gas resources with a total investment of Rs 40,000 crore. They are expected to bring a total 30-35 million cubic metres a day (mmscmd) new domestic gas production onstream, phased over 2020-2022," it ...

Ministry calls for time-bound execution of clean air plan

Amid green organisations voicing concern over the absence of pollution reduction targets, the Union Environment Ministry on Thursday called for time-bound implementation of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

Tiger cub found dead in MP

A two-month old tiger cub was found dead in Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR) in the district, an official said today. A tourist alerted the forest authorities that he had spotted the dead cub in Gay Dhar beat area yesterday, KTR veterinarian Dr Sandeep Agrawal said. "A search was launched to locate the dead cub and the carcass was found after some time yesterday," he added. An investigation has been launched to find the reason behind the cub's death, Agrawal said. The carcass was disposed of after the post-mortem was conducted as per the guidelines of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), he added.

RIL, BP sanction Phase-2 in deep-sea gas project

Reliance Industries (RIL) and British oil major BP on Thursday jointly announced the sanction of development work on the "Satellite cluster" deep-water gas fields in their Krishna Godavari (KG) D6 block on the eastern offshore.

Tiger slaughtered in Pilibhit Reserve

Human-wildlife conflict turned ugly in Uttar Pradesh's Pilibhit Tiger Reserve after villagers beat a tiger to death and slit its throat, officials said on Thursday.

Olive Ridley turtles begin nesting for 2nd time at Rushikulya

Endangered Olive Ridley turtles took to the Rushikulya rookery on the Odisha coast to nest for the second time this season even as hatchlings emerging from the eggs laid in the first phase are heading towards the sea which is unusual, forest officials said. The last time this twice-a-year nesting happened was in 2011, Asish Kumar Behera, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Berhampur, said. Around 5,000 Olive Rridley turtles crawled up to the beach from Gokharakuda to Podampet and around 500 of them laid eggs yesterday. "We are expecting more turtles to lay eggs in this phase," Behera said. Olive Ridley turtles had also laid eggs for a second time in the same rookery in 2006 and 2011, he said. But in the earlier cases, the second phase of nesting had occurred when the eggs from the first phase were still in the pits dug for them, he said. This time, it has begun while hatchlings are heading towards the sea. "It is a good sign. Scientists must study this phenomenon," the ...

'Deep Italian cave provides clues to detecting life on Mars'

Scientists have identified signs of the presence of life about 1,300 feet below ground in a massive cave in Italy, an advance that may help detect life on other planets. Researchers from the Pennsylvania State University in the US explored the microbiology and geochemistry of the Frasassi Caves in central Italy. They found variations in the isotopic content of atoms in the mineral gypsum, which is a weathering product of the cave's formation. Not all gypsum is formed by microbes, but gypsum formed by microbes will have a different ratio of isotopes in the atoms, according to the study published in the journal Astrobiology. This isotopic variation, in combination with other data, indicates that life played an active role in producing the gypsum. "Using this cave environment, we provide a real-life field example of how we can detect life, past or present, on other planets," said Jenn Macalady, associate professor at Pennsylvania State University. Scientists know microbes, or ...

India focuses on Kazakhstan to boost fruit exports to Central Asia

Scouting for untapped international markets in the face of dwindling fruit exports, the government has zeroed in on Kazakhstan, which is expected to open up local markets in the Central Asian region, where tropical fruits are in demand.

NASA's planet-hunter satellite launched on SpaceX rocket

NASA's next planet-hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess) successfully launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

China bans imports of 16 more scrap, waste products from end-2018: ministry

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China will ban the imports of 16 more scrap metal and chemical waste products from the end of this year, the environment ministry said on Thursday.

NASA's new planet-hunting mission begins

The US space agency NASA's next planet-hunting spacecraft has lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida successfully.

NASA may soon identify 2,400 alien planets

NASA's planet-finder has helped to identify 2,400 alien planets orbiting faraway stars in different solar systems.As reported by the ABC News, the new discovery includes planets that are not optimum to know about the lives on the other planets as they are far too away to be easily studied by ground-based telescopes for hints of life but they will still change the entire viewpoint towards the universe."It's changed our view of planets, it's changed our view of our solar system and how common exoplanets are out there," ABC quoted Brad Tucker of the Australian National University as saying.The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was launched today from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.The satellite is said to be a discovery machine through which a large number of exoplanets are expected to be discovered.The minibus-sized craft is equipped with four wide-field cameras that can see in the near-infrared spectrum, looking for dips in light as planets pass in front of ..

Maneka, Mamata spar on killing of Royal Bengal tiger

Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on Wednesday termed West Bengal as the only place in the country where illegal killing of wild animals is "allowed and encouraged", prompting an angry reaction from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who demanded an apology from the minister for "insulting adivasis" (tribals).

J-K: Management unit to help in proper implementation of climate change plan

The Jammu and Kashmir government today constituted a project management unit to help in the effective implementation of the state plan on climate change. Sanction is hereby accorded for the constitution of project management unit for supporting State Climate Change Centre/Cell at the Department of Ecology, Environment and Remote Sensing for effective implementation of state plan on climate change, a government order said. The order issued by the General Administrative Department said the administrative secretary of the Forest, Environment and Ecology Department has been designated the ex-officio Chief Executive Officer of the project management unit (PMU). The order said the terms of reference of the PMU include supporting development of the project proposal and detailed project reports for the priority actions proposed under the state plan and support the Climate Change Cell in sourcing funding from government institutions or external funding agency.

28 goats, sheep mauled by snow leopard in HP

Twenty-eight goats and sheep were mauled to death by a snow leopard in Himachal Pradesh's Rongya village early today, a forest official said. The incident took place in the Lahaul area of the state, which borders the Leh region of Jammu and Kashmir. The snow leopard entered a shed early this morning and killed 28 goats and sheep belonging to a farmer Sonam, the official said. The big cat was spotted returning to a forest by a former panchayat member, Karma Tashi, he said Forest Guard Sunil Kumar, who visited the village, said a compensation of Rs 1,500 for each livestock killed would be given to the affected farmer and the case would be sent to the forest department. The snow leopard population is on the decline worldwide, but in the past few years, their numbers have increased in Himachal Pradesh. High-altitude tribal areas of Lahaul and Spiti and Chamba are natural habitats of the endangered animal. There are 25 to 30 leopards in the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary and the animal has ...