Page 933 - Environment
Egypt building huge water treatment plant amid supply concerns
Egypt is building a major water treatment and desalination plant, the president said today, as the Nile-dependent nation plans for any fallout from an upstream dam being built by Ethiopia. The North African country is constructing "the largest wastewater treatment and desalination plant", President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said live on state television. "We are only doing what we need to do so we can solve a potential problem," he added, speaking during the inauguration of infrastructure and housing projects. While Sisi did not elaborate, Egypt fears its water supply will be affected by Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam being built on the Blue Nile. Egypt relies almost totally on the Nile for irrigation and drinking water, and says it has "historic rights" to the river, guaranteed by treaties from 1929 and 1959. Cairo argues that the treaties grant it 87 per cent of the Nile's flow, as well as the power to veto upstream projects. The Blue and the White Nile tributaries ...
4 arrested for smuggling red panda hides in Nepal
Nepal police have arrested four people from capital Kathmandu for their suspected involvement in smuggling hides of red panda, the endangered species found primarily in Eastern Himalayas. Acting on a tip-off, the police detained the accused from Tokha Municipality yesterday and recovered the rare species' hides from them, an official statement said. The suspects were arrested and sent to District Forest Office, Hattisar, Kathmandu for further investigation and action today, the Himalayan Times reported, quoting officials of Nepal's Metropolitan Crime Division. According to the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1973, the red panda, also known as Ailurus, is classified as highly endangered species in Nepal. Some 220 red pandas, which are slightly larger than a domestic cat with a bear-like body and thick russet fur, were found in eastern Nepal during a census conducted in 2015.
147 Indian fishermen released by Pak cross over via Wagah
A total of 147 Indian fishermen, released by Pakistan after spending eight months in captivity in Karachi, crossed over to India through the border here today, officials said. In a goodwill gesture, Pakistani authorities had released 147 fishermen yesterday. Their release followed a December announcement by Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal that nearly 300 Indian fishermen would be freed in two phases till January 8. On December 28, Pakistan had released the first batch of 145 Indian fishermen, who were held there on similar charges. The fishermen travelled from Karachi to Lahore and then crossed through the Wagah border today, officials said. Fishermen from Pakistan and India are frequently detained for illegally fishing in each other's territorial waters since the Arabian Sea does not have a clearly defined marine border and the wooden boats lack the technology to avoid being drifting away. Owing to prolonged bureaucratic and legal procedures, the ...
AISIA opposes Safeguard Duty on import of solar panels, cells
Strongly opposing the proposed blanket Safeguard Duty on import of solar panels and cells, the All India Solar Industries Association (AISIA) has said the levy will badly impact solar manufacturers operating out of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) across the country.
New park developed by Karnataka in Ooty
A park developed by Karnataka government in a sprawling 38 acres of land at Fern Hill in this tourist town was thrown open for public today. Built at a cost of Rs 12 crore, the park would be a symbol of friendship between the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Karnataka Horticulture Minister S S Mallikarjuna said while inaugurating it. The park known as Fern Hill, is renamed as Karnataka Siri Horticulture Garden, the land for which was donated by the former Maharaja of Mysore, with an intention of helping farmers to grow potato, he said. Some of the features of the garden are a glass house for temperate plants, topiary garden, small lakes of water, attractive Pallet, Italian gardens, he said. As the present park covers only 60 per cent of the land and there was proposal to construct hanging bridge, chasing fountain, water tower, information centre and a canteen, Mallikarjuna said. Stating that Ooty (Udhagamandalam was known earlier) is a Dravidian region in line with ...
WB govt to support development of north Bengal
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said her government would provide all support to Gorkha Territorial Administration(GTA) and other development boards for the development of the Darjeeling Hills. Banerjee said she has been visiting the state's northern districts often and the region was not neglected. A new road project is being built in north Bengal connecting Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan to it. "Besides a new road connecting north and south Bengal will be constructed at a cost of Rs 3000 crore," she said after inaugurating the Uttar Banga Utsav organised by the state government here. "Our government will provide all support and cooperation to the GTA and development boards for the development of the Hills," Banerjee said The state government had in September last year announced a nine-member board of administrators to run the GTA, which was formed to look into the development works in Kalimpong and Darjeeling hills, and appointed rebel Gorkha Janmukti ..
Jaguar Land Rover to decide whether to build electric cars in UK in 2018
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover will have to decide in the next 12 months whether to build electric cars in its home market, its director of sales Andy Goss said on Monday.
RSP clocks highest-ever single day Hot Metal production
A Blast Furnace of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has registered highest-ever single day Hot Metal production of 2,787 tonnes on January 4 and also recorded the best-ever productivity of 1.92 tonne per cubic metre per day, the company has said. It had earlier held a record of 2,775 tonnes set on September 13, 2008, the RSP said in a release today. The steel plant, a unit of Maharatna company SAIL, has been striving to increase production besides reducing its cost through improved techno-economics. Coal Dust Injection (CDI) was instrumental in achieving the feat. It is worth mentioning here that the designed productivity of Blast Furnace - 4 is 1.50 tonne per cubic metre per day, it said.
Fishermen to be trained in setting up cage farming ventures
Fisherfolk in all coastal states will be equipped to set up cage farming ventures in the open sea, the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) said today. The CMFRI, under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has decided to popularise sea cage farming in Indian waters in the near future with participation of fishermen across the country, it said in a release here. In a step prior to developing sea cage farming in the country systematically, the institute will train fisherfolks in all coastal States, it said. The move assumes significance in the wake of increasing crisis in capture fishery for the few past years. The training is funded by the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), headquartered in Hyderabad. The CMFRI will hand present certificates to the fishermen on completion of the training. "Itis expected that the sea cage farming will get a major boost once the National Mariculture Policy is notified and comes into force at the ...
Saudi prince arrives in Balochistan to hunt houbara bustard
The governor of Tabuk province of Saudi Arabia Prince Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud had reportedly arrived in the Dalbandin area of Balochistan's Chaghi district in Pakistan for hunting an endangered bird specie.The Tabuk governor, who is also a part of the ruling Al Saud royal family, reportedly arrived on Sunday in his special flight at the Dalbandin airport. He was received by the Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Admiral Nawaf Ahmad Al-Maliki, tribal elder Haji Ali Muhammad Notezai, Chagai district Council's Chairman Dawood Khan Notezai, Deputy Commissioner Shihak Baloch and other senior officials, amid tight security arrangements.Pakistani Defence Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan and Adviser to the Balochistan chief minister on forest and wildlife Obaidullah Babit were also scheduled to receive the Saudi prince, but did not come to the airport, reported the Pakistan Today.However, according to local reports, the Saudi prince met Dastagir Khan and other senior officials at a hotel, where ..
Bangladesh lifts ban on hilsa exports
Bangladesh today lifted a 2012 ban on the export of its national fish hilsa, whose key markets include India, to check its smuggling and tap into the growing global demand for the popular but scarce food species. The country's new fisheries and livestock minister, Narayon Chandra Chanda, announced the decision here, just a day after he assumed charge. Bangladesh's Ministry of Commerce had banned the export of hilsa on August 1, 2012 due to its low availability. Chanda said the ban appeared "largely futile" and so "we will export hilsa in official channel to stop its smuggling". "Our hilsa production has (also) increased and there is demand in the international market so we want to move towards exports," Chanda told journalists. Bangladesh had launched a frantic campaign to protect hilsa, its most precious but dwindling aqua resource, several years ago. It had eventually imposed the ban for an indefinite period in 2012, even risking its ties with neighbouring India and ...
Wheat output may touch all time high of 100MT this yr:Agri Sec
The country's wheat production is expected to touch an all-time of over 100 million tonnes in the current 2017-18 crop year (July-June) due to likely increase in acreage and yields, Agriculture Secretary S K Pattanayak said today. In the 2016-17 crop year, wheat production had reached a record 98.36 million tonnes. The previous high was 95.85 million tonnes in 2013-14. The government has kept a target of 97.50 million tonnes wheat output for the current year. Sowing of wheat, the main rabi (winter) crop, begins from October and harvesting from March. "Rabi sowing is progressing well. We are hoping wheat production to touch over 100 million tonnes this year," Pattanayak told PTI. Wheat acreage is lower so far, but the area will be covered up. Sowing got delayed as fields were not free for planting of the wheat crop, he said. The Secretary said the wheat acreage is lower largely in Uttar Pradesh. However, the sowing window is till January-end, so it will be covered. "The .
IIT Kharagpur sensitising farmers on judicious fertiliser use
An IIT Kharagpur research team has created a repository of some 1,700 soil samples from across the country to assess their properties and advise farmers on judicious use of fertilisers. IIT-KGP's Agricultural and Food Engineering Department Professor Bhabani S Das said today he, along with a team of students, used Soil Spectroscopy technique for analysing the soil samples of about 137 million land holdings across different states. "We thought if we were to analyse multiple soil samples, we need new technology. Soil Spectroscopy was a possibility for us," Das said adding soil scientists around the world are using the new technology. Apart from determining the health of the soil, the Soil Spectroscopy technique measured the grain size of the soil, the soil moisture level and the weathering index on how the soil was formed. "Imagine a light green colour of leaf that turns deep green if you apply nitrogenous fertilisers to an agricultural field from where that leaf came ...
New catalyst can clean toxic nitrates from drinking water
Scientists have developed a new catalyst that cleans toxic nitrates from drinking water, by converting them into air and water. "Nitrates come mainly from agricultural runoff, which affects farming communities all over the world," said Michael Wong, from Rice University in the US. "Nitrates are both an environmental problem and health problem because they're toxic," said Wong, lead scientist on the study in the journal ACS Ctalysis. "There are ion-exchange filters that can remove them from water, but these need to be flushed every few months to reuse them, and when that happens, the flushed water just returns a concentrated dose of nitrates right back into the water supply," said Wong. The researchers had earlier shown that tiny gold spheres dotted with specks of palladium could break apart nitrites, the more toxic chemical cousins of nitrates. "Nitrates are molecules that have one nitrogen atom and three oxygen atoms," Wong said. "Nitrates turn into nitrites if they lose
Greaves Cotton launches Bahubali power tiller
Engineering major Greaves Cotton today launched its new power tiller Bahubali priced between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1.6 lakh. The company's first locally manufactured power tiller is powered by a 14 horse power engine and is suitable for heavy duty performance, Greaves Cotton said in a statement. Greaves Cotton Ltd MD and CEO Nagesh Basavanhalli said, "With the Indian economy rapidly evolving, there is a need to make efficient use of farm machinery to improve land productivity." The company said there is a significant headroom to grow farm productivity in India and it aims to boost mechanisation and reduce dependency on human labour in farming. It currently sells pump sets, power tillers and light agri equipment such as mini combine harvester, rice transplanter and power weeder under its Greaves Agri division.
'NASA satellite to scan border of Earth and space'
NASA is set to launch a satellite that will examine the Earth's upper atmosphere to see how the boundary between our planet and space changes over time, the US space agency said. The new mission, called Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD), will launch from Kourou, French Guiana, on January 25. The mission will focus on the temperature and makeup of Earth's highest atmospheric layers. Along with another upcoming satellite, called ICON, GOLD will examine how weather on Earth - and space weather caused by the Sun - affects those uppermost layers. "For years, we have been studying the Earth's upper atmosphere - thermosphere and ionosphere - and we have been looking at those (layers) in detail from the ground and from low-Earth orbit missions," Richard Eastes from the University of Central Florida was quoted as saying by 'Space.com'. "We wanted to be able to back off (to a higher orbit) and get the big picture, get a whole hemisphere at once. That lets us ...
NGT directs Haryana to submit action plan on waste management
The National Green Tribunal has directed the Haryana government and civic bodies in Palwal district to submit a time-bound action plan with regard to collection, segregation and disposal of solid waste generated in the city. A bench headed by acting Chairperson Justice U D Salvi directed the Palwal Municipal Council to submit details including quantum of solid waste generated in the area. "Action plan submitted by authorities fails to give clear cut timelines for achieving the goal stepwise. We, therefore, direct Haryana and Palwal Municipal Council to place before us the time bound action plan regarding collection, segregation, processing and disposal of solid waste generated within limits of Palwal Municipal Council in accordance with Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016," the bench said. The tribunal also sought time-bound action plan with regard to scientific disposal of existing waste lying at the site. The NGT was hearing a plea filed by Palwal-based SND Public ...
Waste to wealth: Hunt for bioenergy in Loktak's invasive plants
Scientists in Manipur -- which dominates the media discourse on insurgency -- are on an aggressive hunt for bioenergy sourced from alien plant invaders of the iconic Loktak lake, aiming to showcase the "Jewel of India" as a top bio-entrepreneurship destination.
India to launch 31 satellites on January 12
India will launch 31 satellites, including earth observation spacecraft Cartosat, on January 12 instead of its earlier tentative schedule on January 10, a space official said on Monday.
Govt assures sugar cos to hike duty on cheap Pak imports: ISMA
The government has assured that it would consider hiking import duty on sugar from the current 50 per cent to check any cheaper shipments from neighbouring Pakistan, the Indian Sugar Mills Association said today. In view of steep fall in global prices, Pakistan has not been able to export its surplus sugar and is mulling a subsidy to make outward shipments viable. "If Pakistan imports do become viable, or if any contracts start taking place for importing sugar into India from Pakistan, especially if the state of Sindh notifies any subsidy, the Government of India is willing to increase the import duty adequately to check any such imports," ISMA said in a statement. This along with other issues related to the sector were discussed last week in a meeting with the Food Ministry officials. Officials from the ISMA and the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) were also in the meeting. On sugar exports from India, the ISMA said it was discussed that there
