Page 969 - Environment

HC nod to Delhi govt's integrated transit corridor project

The Delhi High Court today refused to stay the work on an ongoing integrated transit corridor project in and around Pragati Maidan here. The court dismissed a plea by the National Sports Club of India (NSCI) seeking a stay on the project work as it proposes to take over a portion of the club's land for development of 'integrated transit corridor development and street network/ connectivity plan'. Justice Vibhu Bakhru said the "project will go on" and issued notice to the Delhi government, Ministry of Urban Development, New Delhi Municipal Council and infrastructure major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Ltd. on the plea of NSCI contending that its land was being taken away without its consent. The court sought the response of the authorities on the petition and listed the matter for May 17 next year. The Delhi government's Public Works Department (PWD) is developing the integrated transit corridor along Delhi-Mathura Road and Purana Qila Road, alongside the NSCI boundary ...

60-million-year-old meteorite strike discovered in Scotland

Geologists exploring volcanic rocks on Scotland's Isle of Skye have found ejecta from a previously unknown, 60 million-year-old meteorite impact. The discovery, the first meteorite impact described within the British Paleogene Igneous Province (BPIP), raises questions about the impact and its possible connection to Paleogene volcanic activity across the North Atlantic. Simon Drake, an associate lecturer in geology at Birkbeck University of London, zeroed in on a meter-thick layer at the base of a 60.0 million-year-old lava flow. "We thought it was an ignimbrite (a volcanic flow deposit)," said Drake. However, when researchers analysed the rock using an electron microprobe, they discovered that it contained rare minerals straight from outer space: vanadium-rich and niobium-rich osbornite. These mineral forms have never been reported on Earth. They have, however, been collected by NASA's Stardust Comet Sample Return Mission as space dust in the wake of the Wild 2 comet, ...

Ensure timely completion of projects: Nitish tells officers

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today told District Magistrates to ensure that projects were completed within time and warned that any delay will be taken serious note of. Addressing a public meeting at Gayghat block of Muzaffarpur district, as part of his state-wide "Vikas Samiksha Yatra", Kumar cautioned the officers that he was used to touring the state to take feed back on delivery of schemes on the ground and he must not get any complaint in this regard. "I am delighted to have inaugurated 125 projects and laid down foundation stones for another 222. But I ought to tell the District Magistrates that once foundation stone for a project is laid down in their respective area of jurisdiction, it becomes their responsibility to ensure that the same is completed within time", the Chief Minister said. "It is well-known that I keep touring the state to get a first-hand account of problems faced in various areas and take stock of progress made in schemes and projects. So

AP contemplates Rs 80,000 crore Godavari-Pennar river link

: The Andhra Pradesh government is contemplating to take up the interlinking of Godavari and Pennar rivers. The project has an estimated cost of Rs 80,000 crore and will enable storage of about 1500 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water. WAPCOS, earlier known as Water and Power Consultancy Services Limited, has prepared a detailed project report and submitted it to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu here today. A communiqu from the chief minister's office said Naidu would make a presentation on the Godavari-Pennar inter-linking project to Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari when the latter visits the state on December 23. "The Godavari-Pennar integration project will facilitate supply of drinking water to the four parched Rayalaseema districts as well as Prakasam and SPS Nellore districts besides ensuring water for irrigation and industrial needs," the communiqu said. It added that in all 320 tmcft of Godavari surplus water could be diverted to Pennar ...

PM to open Tuirial hydro project in Mizoram tomorrow

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate the Tuirial Hydroelectric Power Project in Mizoram to the nation tomorrow, the power ministry said today. Mizoram Governor Nirbhay Sharma, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla and several ministers as well as officials will be present on the occasion, the Power Ministry said in a statement. The 60 MW Tuirial Hydro Electric Power Project (HEPP) has been constructed as a Central Sector Project and implemented by North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO), under the administrative control of the Union power ministry. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) cleared the project for implementation in July 1998 with commissioning scheduled in July 2006. After the completion of about 30 per cent of the project activities, the work was totally suspended from June 2004 due to local agitation. The work resumed in January 2011. The remotely located project faced various hindrances ranging from inadequate communication infrastructure,

Amendment in Parl to take bamboo out of purview of "tree": Min

Union minister Harsh Vardhan has said that the NDA government will bring an amendment in the ongoing winter session of Parliament to boost the bamboo industry. "An amendment to take bamboo out of the purview of "tree" will be brought in the winter session of Parliament," Union Forests, Environment and Climate Change Minister Vardhan said. He was inaugurating an international herbal fair here last night. The minister informed that a law made in 1927 had defined bamboo in the category of "tree" making it hard for people to use bamboo for furniture and other items as felling of trees is not easy. "Recently our government had brought an ordinance to separate bamboo from the category of trees. Now we are bringing an amendment in parliament," he added. "It was a 90-year long wait for India to see (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi take bamboo out of the definition of tree," he said. The amendment will remove the hurdles coming in the way of the people engaged in bamboo business, .

Over 26% land acquired for Samruddhi Corridor so far: Mah govt

The Maharashtra government has so far acquired 26.64 per cent land, of total 9,330.04 hectares required for the proposed Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, called the Samruddhi Corridor. Maharashtra PWD Minister (public undertakings), Eknath Shinde, informed this in a written reply in the state Legislative Assembly here today. He also said that Rs 46,000 crore is the total cost of the project, of which Rs 10,000 crore is required for land acquisition alone. Shinde was responding to a question raised by Congress MLA Amin Patel in the state Legislative Assembly. "The state government has acquired 26.64 per cent land out of the total 9,330.04 hectares required for the project. Rs 1,631.82 crore have been spent so far on the land acquisition," he said. According to the minister, the state-owned agencies, such as MIDC, CIDCO, SRA, MHADA and MMRDA have made a provision of Rs 2,400 crore loan to MSRDC, which is implementing the Samruddhi Corridor project. The minister also said that ...

NASA scientists to survey unexplored stretch of Antarctic ice

A team led by two NASA scientists is all set to embark on a 750-kilometre expedition in one of the most barren landscapes on Earth to survey an unexplored stretch of Antarctic ice. On December 21, they will begin their two-to three-week traverse in an arc around the South Pole, the NASA said. The expedition will ultimately provide the best assessment of the accuracy of data collected from space by the Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), set to launch in 2018, according to the US space agency. They are packing extreme cold-weather gear and scientific instruments onto sleds pulled by two tank-like snow machines called PistenBullys, the NASA said. With a fast-firing laser instrument, ICESat-2 will measure the elevation of ice sheets and track change over time. Even small amounts of melt across areas as vast as Greenland or Antarctica can result in large amounts of meltwater contributing to sea level rise. To help document this, ICESat-2's height change ...

Increasing carbon level paves way for global mass extinction by 2100: Study

The last such event, known as the CretaceousTertiary extinction, occurred about 66 million years ago

Environmental toxicants could be linked to lipid metabolism

Research suggests common toxicants may alter allocation of fats, thus disrupting their maturation

India to launch mission for advanced ultra supercritical technologies

The national mission, costing about $ 238 million, will focus on cleaner coal utilisation technology

The environmental trade-offs

You begin to think how language of economic forces legitimises appropriation of natural resources

After 25 years of trying, why aren't we environmentally sustainable yet?

We reviewed 94 studies of how sustainability policies had failed across every continent

It's time to protect the world's most important natural sites

World Heritage sites designated for natural reasons are being rapidly destroyed for short-term economic goals

Going green a solution for environmental problems

Pollution, environment, green house gases, global warming and energy wastage, are some of the issues that one keeps hearing about often

Puducherry's spiritual environment an asset: Bedi

Newly-sworn in Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi today said the Union Territory's spiritual environment is an asset that should be put on the international map. "Puducherry can be a better tourist spot as it is blessed with spiritual environment. It is an asset and this should be put on international map," she said after inspecting a Guard of Honour by Puducherry Police at the Raj Nivas here. Bedi urged the NRI community from the Union Territory to come back and join hands in the project to make "a prosperous Puducherry". She stressed on the need for holding more conventions to attract larger investments and hoped there would be faster and better rail and air connectivity. Puducherry offers a good scope for becoming a smart city in the next round, the former IPS officer said, adding, "We should earn and deserve it." Referring to the meeting she had with officials yesterday, the Lt Governor said Puducherry can make greater progress. Chief Secretary Manoj Parida, who ...

AoL asked to pay Rs 4.75 cr environment compensation

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday directed the Art of Living (AOL) Foundation to pay the remaining Rs 4.75 crore as environment compensation for damage caused to the Yamuna floodplains due to the World Culture Festival (WCF) it held in March.

Metro rail projects need environmental clearance: NGT

The National Green Tribunal today held that all metro rail projects need environmental clearance after conducting proper Environment Impact Assessment. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar said Noida Metro Rail, whose construction was challenged in the plea before it, fell under Schedule 8(b) of Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006, relating to buildings, construction and development projects which are mandated to get prior environmental clearance. The green panel also directed upcoming Noida-Greater Noida metro project to obtain environmental clearance from State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). The order was passed on the plea filed by environmentalist Vikrant Tongad seeking directions to Noida Metro Rail Corporation (NMRC) to obtain environmental clearance for its project from Noida to Greater Noida after conducting proper Environment Impact Assessment of the project. "From the detailed project report (DPR), it is clear ...

Environment Day celebrations: Javadekar to release vultures

With a drastic decline in vulture population in country, the Environment Ministry has decided to kick start this year's World Environment Day celebrations with the release of vultures bred in the nation's first breeding centre at Pinjore in Haryana. Observing that his Ministry will work towards increasing the number of vultures in the coming years, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that he along with Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will release the vultures into the wild on June 3. "The theme of the World Environment Day on June 5 is 'Go Wild' which means take care of the wild and nature. Vultures was in danger. In the last ten years, when diclofenac (medicine) was introduced for livestock, they used to get cure, but after their death, vultures used to eat them and it led to their deaths. "We had 40 million vultures. Ten years down, we have now not even 4 lakh vultures left. To revive that, efforts are going on at various places. Haryana Chief Minister and I ...

World Environment Day; let's clean air we breathe to stay healthy and alert

According to new WHO figures, 16 of the world's 30 most polluted cities are in India. Further, levels are growing of ultra-fine particles of less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5s), which can penetrate deep into the lungs and can cause serious health problems for people who live in India's cities.Additionally, Blueair underlined how the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has calculated that air pollution, responsible for 10,000 to 30,000 deaths annually in Delhi alone, is the fifth leading cause of death in the country.Constant eruption of man-caused fires is making the situation worst. This includes the major Bhalswa dumpsite fire in Delhi and the Deonar dumpsite fire in Mumbai, which has seriously endangered air quality in both cities. Additionally, the entire northern part of India is still suffering from recent forest fires in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh."Air pollution increases the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and severe respiratory diseases. For a city-dweller, .