Page 80 - Environment

Delhi govt targets to plant 23 lakh trees, shrubs in 2019-20

The Delhi government has set a target of planting more than 23 lakh trees and shrubs in the financial year 2019-20, according to a statement. The number is around 10 lakh lower than the last year's target. Of the 23 lakh trees and shrubs to be planted this fiscal, 4,25,000 saplings will be distributed free, the statement said. Delhi Environment and Forests Minister Imran Hussain Wednesday held a meeting with senior officers of the forest department and horticulture wing of various greening agencies, including the three municipal corporations, Delhi Development Authority, Delhi Parks and Gardens Society, New Delhi Municipal Council, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, among others in this regard. He sought active involvement of local residents, market associations, school and college students in the exercise to enhance the city's green cover to combat air pollution. Hussain asked all greening agencies to identify locations and targets for one-day mass plantation drive scheduled in the third .

Delhi records peak power demand at 6,011 MW as mercury rises

The power demand in the summers this year peaked at 6,011 MW on Wednesday, as the maximum temperature rose to over 43 degrees Celsius, said discoms in the national capital. It is first time in the season that the power demand crossed the 6,000 MW, said a BSES spokesperson. The peak demand in the day reached 6,011 MW at 3.29 pm, State Load Dispatch Centre data showed. Delhi's peak power demand is expected to breach the 7,400 MW level this summer. Last year, the peak power demand in summers was 7016 MW. "Tata Power Delhi Distribution(TPDDL) today successfully met the peak power demand of 1690 MW without any network constraint, as Delhi touched a record high of 6011 MW, highest for this season," said a TPDDL spokesperson. "We are expecting the peak power demand to reach 2,150 MW in our area this summer. There are long-term tie-ups amounting to around 2000 MW and other arrangements up to 500 MW to ensure regular supply and attend to any contingency requirements," said Sanjay Banga, CEO ..

PM level, vehicle pollution high in Delhi; plan to fight pollution not fully successful: Env Secy

The Environment Ministry Wednesday acknowledged high level of air pollution in the national capital and said the plan to fight it was "not totally successful" and particulate matter (PM) levels were still high. Speaking at the launch of the theme song on air pollution ahead of the World Environment Day on June 5, C K Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MOEFCC) said PM 10 and PM 2.5 levels were high in Delhi despite plan to fight air pollution being put in place for the last three years. But it was a time-taking process and cannot be resolved without public's contribution, he said. "Delhi's plan (on air pollution) is in place for last three years. It is true that the plan is not totally successful. Still PM 10 and PM 2.5 levels are high, vehicular pollution is there and we have not been able to promote public transport as much as we wanted to," Mishra said. These obstacles are not inter-governmental but implementation issues, he told reporters at ...

DJB to build country's largest STP at Okhla

To improve the water quality of Yamuna river, the Delhi Jal Board on Wednesday accorded approval for the construction of India's largest sewage treatment plant at Okhla at a total cost of Rs 1,161 crore.

Delhi peak power demand crosses 6,000 MW: Tata Power

With the summer heat pushing the capital's peak power demand to this season's highest of 6,011 MW on Wednesday, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd (TPDDL) said it successfully met the demand of 1,690 MW in its jurisdiction without any network constraint.

Bangladesh security forces gun down four suspected poachers in Sundarbans

Four suspected poachers were killed in an encounter with the security forces in the southwestern Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest and home to endangered Royal Bengal tigers, officials said on Wednesday. A team of the Bangladesh's elite force, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), were patrolling the Chadpai Range of the Sundarbans last night, when they saw some armed men on a boat, a spokesman for the RAB said. "The RAB personnel challenged the suspected poachers, who opened fire on the security forces, sparking a gun-battle, in which four persons were killed," the spokesman said. Commander of the RAB's media wing, Mufti Mahmud, said they presume that those killed were the members of a gang engaged in "poaching, extortion and abductions". "During the search of their boat, the RAB personnel also found weapons and ammunition," Mahmud said. The Sundarbans is the abode to endangered famous Royal Bengal tiger and Irrawaddy dolphins and a large chunk of the forest is a UNESCO world ..

IAF ties up with ISRO for manned mission crew selection

The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Wednesday said it signed an agreement with the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday for crew selection and training for the country's prestigious maiden manned mission Gaganyaan by 2021-22.

Amitav Ghosh disappointed as Indian elections ignored discussions on climate change

Bestselling author Amitav Ghosh, increasingly a prominent voice in the climate change debate, expressed his disappointment that the issue was never really discussed during the recently-concluded Indian election campaign. The 62-year-old writer behind acclaimed books such as Sea of Poppies' and The Glass Palace', who is in London to promote his soon-to-be-released Gun Island', said that while India faces many sorts of crises, none of them really became a serious issue during the elections, which ended in the Narendra Modi led government's victory. It was one of the most disappointing things about these elections. There's no country anywhere that's facing a more dire climate situation than India and it's not just climate, it is climate plus other environmental impact. It's absolutely dire, Ghosh said in response to a query at an event organised by the South Asia Centre of the London School of Economics (LSE) on Tuesday evening. Look at the brown cloud that is hanging over India, ...

NGT directs changes in central monitoring committee to tackle forest fire incidents

The National Green Tribunal has directed that the Central Monitoring Committee be expanded to develop a robust institutional mechanism for implementation of action plan to control increasing incidents of forest fire, including a national database for burnt area assessment on yearly basis. The Central Monitoring Committee on forest fire will now be headed by the Secretary of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) with seven members, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said. The committee may comprise representatives of the MoEF, CPCB, Wildlife Institute of India, National Disaster Management Authority, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, Forest Survey of India and the National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad and the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests of states/UTs. "MoEF Secretary will be free to co-opt any other member or experts, apart from special invitees, if any. The Central Monitoring Committee may meet preferably once in three ...

India's largest sewage treatment plant to come up at Okhla: DJB

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Wednesday approved setting up of a new sewage treatment plant (STP) at Okhla which, it claimed, will be the largest such plant in India. The plant will be able to treat 124 million gallons of waste water per day and will come up at a cost of Rs 1,161 crore in three years, the DJB's vice-chairman Dinesh Mohaniya said. "It will be largest treatment plant in India and one of the largest in the world," the DJB said in a statement. The new STP will be set up under the Yamuna Action Plan - III scheme. The plant will treat the waste water that goes into the Yamuna directly. It's a major step towards cleaning the river, Mohaniya said. The STP will remove 41,200 kg per day organic pollutant load and 61,600 kg per day solid load on the Yamuna. It will cater to around 40 lakh residents of Chandni Chowk, Kashmere Gate, Daryaganj, NDMC areas, Lodhi Colony, Nizamuddin, Okhla, Badarpur, Kalkaji, Malviya Nagar, Katwaria Sarai, Lajpat Nagar, Greater Kailash and South Delhi ..

Thousands of cows' lives will be transformed as dairies commit to higher welfare

An estimated 125,400 dairy cows will live better lives, following World Animal Protection's call on Arvind Dairy and Happy Milk to move to higher welfare farming.Arvind Dairy, has a significant presence and a growing market share in North India, sourcing its milk from over 25,000 rural farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh region. 'Happy Milk' runs its own organic farm in Tumkur, near Bengaluru, which is currently home to over 400 cows and has partnered with a German tech partner, GEA, as well as with Israeli consultants so as to enhance the quality of their milk and the health of their cows.The companies have committed to:* Not sourcing from urban and peri-urban dairies* Implementing basic minimum welfare i.e. the five freedoms in their supply chain by 2025, as well as adopting an animal welfare policy* Providing information on this collaboration on their website and Annual Reports charting their progress in implementing these commitments.India is home to over 299 million cattle, the ...

NGT allows UP govt to renovate guest house near Radha Kund at Mathura

The National Green Tribunal Wednesday allowed the Uttar Pradesh government to renovate an old guest house near Radha Kund at Mathura but restrained it from erecting any new structure in the area. A bench headed by Justice Raghuvendra S Rathore, however, directed that visitors or any other person who visit the government guest house shall not bring any vehicles. "The respondent-state shall renovate the old guest house located in Radha Kund by repairing or reenforcing old foundation and while doing so no new structure shall be raised. "The pilgrims/public/visitors or any other person who visits the said guest house shall not bring any vehicles. The vehicles would be parked at the point where the parking has been built for people coming to Radha Kund. The pilgrims may use rickshaw for the purpose of covering the distance between the parking place and the old guest house," the tribunal. It also directed that an open area around the guest house should be developed into a green area by ...

Two forest staff injured in assault by "encroachers" in T'gana

Two forest personnel were injured Wednesday after they were allegedly assaulted by a group of villagers in Kamareddy district during an anti-encroachment operation in a reserve forest area, officials said. The incident happened in Banswada division, when some villagers of Yacharam attacked the forest staff resulting in injuries to them, they said. A team of forest personnel acting on reliable information on encroachment of forest area from Yacharam village rushed to the spot and found three tractors. When the staff chased them, they were attacked with stones, the officials said. A complaint was lodged with the police in connection with the incident.

Sula Vineyards likely to hit new record sales this year

Domestic wine maker Sula Vineyards Wednesday said sales are expected to cross 1 million cases this year, surpassing the 2018 record, on account of higher crushing of grapes. The Nashik-based company has crushed over 9,000 tonnes of wine grapes in the current year, 50 per cent higher than the previous year's level, it said. "This was possible due to a decent monsoon and following conducive weather conditions for cultivating wine grapes. These figures are expected to help Sula cross its own record-breaking 2018 sales, over 1 million cases world-wide," the company said in a statement. It has crushed 55 per cent of red variety grapes and rest white grapes. Most of the grapes are crushed and processed in Nashik and southern parts of Maharashtra, although some harvesting and crushing are also done in Karnataka, the company's senior vice president and chief winemaker Karan Vasani said. Grape growing conditions were positive in 2019, however, its harvest was slightly delayed. It started from .

Forest fires spread in Uttarakhand jungles

As temperature rises in the hills of Uttarakhand, forest fires have engulfed 1,960 hectare of jungles, an official report said on Wednesday.

Ocean acidification threatens world's coral reefs: Study

The world's coral reefs are under threat from ocean acidification with many corals unable to adapt to the conditions, according to a study. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, determined the capacity of coral reefs to acclimatise to ocean acidification by investigating the chemistry in the corals' calcifying fluid. The researchers at University of Western Australia (UWA) and colleagues examined four species of coral and two types of calcifying algae in a year-long test. "We found that corals and coralline algae weren't able to acclimatise to ocean acidification," said Professor Malcolm McCulloch from UWA. "The effects of ocean acidification on the calcifying fluid were rapid and persisted after one year in the experimental conditions," McCulloch said. Researchers found that two coral species that were resistant to ocean acidification were resistant from the start while the two sensitive ones were affected from the start and were not able to acclimatise. "The two

IIT-Hyd launches 'M2Smart' Testbed to develop low carbon

TheIndian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Hyderabad Wednesday announced the launch of 'M2Smart Project' Testbed to develop low-carbon models for Indian transportation. The project testbed, which was launched Tuesday, would generate a practical 'handbook' on low carbon urban transportation for developing countries based on big data of Indian transportation and create traffic flow models from the data analysis, a press release from IIT Hyderabad said. The field testbed system has been deployed at IIT-H campus and along a 30 km stretch of NH-65. There are many key components of traffic management system such as real-time traffic flow monitoring using cameras and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi sensors, speed detection safety system, conflict warning system using traffic signal lights and remote environment gas sensing in IIT-H campus as well as NH 65, it said. The traffic monitoring is done here and in Ahmedabad, where IIT Hyderabad researchers have installed traffic monitoring cameras .

Sindh: Pangolins on verge of extinction owing to surging Chinese demand

The rising demand for Pangolin meat among Chinese nationals living in Karachi, consolidated by illegal trade flourishing along new routes to China, have brought this endangered species on the verge of extinction in Pakistan's Sindh province.Pangolins are often referred to as the world's most trafficked mammal. Recent interviews conducted with over 140 hunters by researchers from World Animal Protection and the University of Oxford revealed that pangolins were largely targeted for their scales that are sold for a premium, with hunters earning the equivalent of their four months' salary for a single pangolin.The hunters from these communities were clearly unaware of the part they were playing in international trafficking. Yet, the traders that sell the animal products across the borders in black markets go on to make huge profits, according to an article published in The Third Pole.Pangolin scales are made of keratin - the material found in human fingernails and hair - and they have no .

India heading towards becoming water-scarce country: minister

India is already water-stressed and is heading towards becoming a water-scarce country with depleting per capita availability of water, Madhya Pradesh Public Health Minister Sukhdev Panse has said. He was speaking at a summit organized by his department and the Piramal Foundation on 'implementation of effective solutions to enable sustainability of water resources' Tuesday. "A country is classified as water-stressed and water- scarce if per capita water availability goes below 1,700 cubic meters and 1,000 cubic meters, respectively," the minister said. "With 1,544 cubic meters per capita availability, India is already a water-stressed country and is moving towards becoming water-scarce," Panse said. "Apart from promotion of water conservation efforts for water resources availability and groundwater recharge, there should be an effective water management system linked with the performance of local level water institutions," he said. Anuj Sharma, CEO of Piramal Sarvajal, .

Bumper harvest of mussels for flood-hit farmers in Ker village

Farmers, mostly women, of a Kerala village hit by last year's devastating floods have started re-building their lives by adopting scientific farming of mussels. Officials said farmers in Moothakunnam in Ernakulam district have had a bumper harvest of mussels under the guidance of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI)-- an institute under the Union Agriculture Ministry. Mussels are small, edible sea animals that has a dark shell with two parts that close tightly together. Moothakunnam, a village near Aluva, was one of the worst hit villages in the Kerala floods in August last year. Five self-help groups in the region have reaped a total yield of 6.5 tonnes of mussels in as many as five farming units, CMFRI officials said. The farmers, whose oyster units were destroyed in the deluge, turned to mussel farming in January this year as an additional livelihood option. The farming that lasted five months was carried out under the guidance of the Molluscan Fisheries