Bindu Shajan Perappadan
NEW DELHI: “We are looking at setting up eight more reserves as part of the tiger conservation efforts,” Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh said here on Friday. “The new reserves would include one in the Satyamangalam forests in Tamil Nadu, besides Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.”
The national tiger census report should also be available in within the next 15 days, he said speaking at a function held at WWF-India here, ahead of the International Tiger Forum, which is being hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at St. Petersburg from November 21 to 24.
The Minister introduced India's Youth Tiger Ambassadors who will represent the country at the International Youth Summit being held alongside the high-level government meeting on tiger conservation. The Forum will commit conservation and rehabilitation of tigers to global action.The Youth Summit will take place from November 19 to 24 at Vladivostok, home to the Amur Tiger. The involvement of youth at this important meeting is aimed at drawing attention to the importance of tiger conservation. WWF-India has selected students Anusha Shankar and Devanshu Sood to represent India at the summit.
They will be part of a delegation comprising representatives from all tiger ranges countries. The youth ambassadors will visit Siberian tiger trails and get a first-hand account of the state of wild tiger populations in Russia and measures being taken for their conservation. They will also develop a youth declaration on conservation, which will be presented to the Tiger Forum via videoconference between Vladivostok and St. Petersburg. Before embarking on their journey to Russia, both tiger ambassadors signed a pledge, in the presence of Mr. Ramesh, of support to the cause of conservation. Anusha Shankar, a student of M.Sc Ecology and Environmental Science at Pondicherry University, said: “The natural world has always fascinated me. I decided long ago to pursue this passion professionally. The Youth Tiger Summit is a great opportunity for me to contribute to tiger conservation.”
© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu
गुरुवार, 18 नवंबर 2010
Haryana bans manufacture, sale of plastic bags (The Hindu-14 Nov 2010)
Special Correspondent
CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Government has prohibited manufacture, sale, distribution and use of virgin and recycled plastic carry bags and recycled plastic containers.
Stating this on Saturday, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that littering of plastic articles such as plates, cups, tumblers, spoons, forks and straw at public places such as parks, playgrounds, recreational places, tourist centres and religious places would not be permitted.
He said in areas having a special historical, religious and ecological significance, use of all types of plastic articles has been banned. Such places include Thanesar, Kurukshetra and Pehowa towns, precincts of Mansa Devi Temple, Panchkula and Sheetla Mata Temple, Gurgaon; public parks; wild life sanctuaries and national parks and Gram Panchayat, Morni.
The Haryana State Pollution Control Board would be the prescribed authority for enforcement of the provisions of these directions relating to manufacture and recycling of plastics.
The Municipal Commissioner or Chief Executive Officer of the concerned Municipal Corporation or Municipality would be the prescribed authority for enforcement of the provisions.
© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu
CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Government has prohibited manufacture, sale, distribution and use of virgin and recycled plastic carry bags and recycled plastic containers.
Stating this on Saturday, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that littering of plastic articles such as plates, cups, tumblers, spoons, forks and straw at public places such as parks, playgrounds, recreational places, tourist centres and religious places would not be permitted.
He said in areas having a special historical, religious and ecological significance, use of all types of plastic articles has been banned. Such places include Thanesar, Kurukshetra and Pehowa towns, precincts of Mansa Devi Temple, Panchkula and Sheetla Mata Temple, Gurgaon; public parks; wild life sanctuaries and national parks and Gram Panchayat, Morni.
The Haryana State Pollution Control Board would be the prescribed authority for enforcement of the provisions of these directions relating to manufacture and recycling of plastics.
The Municipal Commissioner or Chief Executive Officer of the concerned Municipal Corporation or Municipality would be the prescribed authority for enforcement of the provisions.
© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu
बुधवार, 17 नवंबर 2010
China begins damming Brahmaputra river for hydropower project ( The Hindu- November 16, 2010)
Ananth Krishnan
Special Arrangement The hanging bridge on the Siang, as the Brahmaputra is called in Arunachal, is between Jidu and Tuting, about 35 km from the border with China.
Indian government has raised concerns about possible downstream impact of project
China has started damming the middle reaches of the Brahmaputra river, or the Yarlung Tsangpo as it is known in Tibet, to begin construction on a 510 MW hydropower project that has raised concerns in India.
The government for the first time revealed that it has, since November 8, begun damming the Tsangpo's flow to allow work to begin on the hydropower project at Zangmu. This is the first major dam on the Brahmaputra and has been billed by the Chinese government as a landmark hydropower generation project for Tibet's development.
A news report on Monday said the “closure of the Yarlung Zangbo river on November 12 marked the beginning of construction.” Work is expected to continue beyond 2014, when the first set of generators will be put into operation. The total investment in the project is 7.9 billion yuan ($1.2 billion).
The Indian government has raised concerns about the possible downstream impact of this project during talks with China earlier this year. Chinese officials have assured their Indian counterparts that the project would be “run of the river,” having little impact downstream.
China has said that its projects were only for hydropower generation, and were neither storage projects nor designed to divert the water.
Officials at India's Ministry of External Affairs have, however, voiced frustration over China's general lack of willingness to share information regarding the Zangmu project, meaning they had little means to verify claims on the specific construction plans and impact on flows.
According to Ramaswamy R. Iyer, former Water Resources Secretary of the Government of India, for India “the point to examine would be the quantum of possible diversion and the impact it would have on the flows to India.”
Usually, to ensure that the flow downstream remains unaffected during the period of construction of a dam, the water is diverted through streams around the construction site and returned to the river.
“Since the flow of the water cannot be stopped, the water will be diverted so there will be no reduction of flow in this stage,” Mr. Iyer, who is an authority on dams and transboundary water issues, told The Hindu on Monday, speaking from New Delhi.
He stressed that he was speaking in general terms regarding any dam construction, and did not have specific details regarding how China was carrying out this particular project.
There is still some uncertainty on what China intends for the project, and whether or not a storage reservoir, which could affect downstream flows, will be built beyond the minimal “pondage” required to operate the turbines.
Chinese media reports indicated that the Zangmu project is unlikely to be the last on the Brahmaputra. A news report on the widely read portal Tencent said the Zangmu dam was “a landmark project” for Tibet's development, being the first major dam in Tibet, and “a project of priority in the Eleventh Five Year Plan.”
The report said that such projects would “greatly relieve the energy stress in the middle regions of Tibet” and upgrade power capacity from 100 MW to over 500 MW.
‘No treaty'
Mr. Iyer said a larger concern for India was the absence of a water-sharing treaty with China, which does not allow India to either qualify or address Chinese claims regarding specific projects.
“Between India and Pakistan, we have a treaty which specifies what we should do,” he said. “We're not supposed to retain a drop, and [even] during a stated period of construction, inflow is equal to outflow.”
“But with China,” he added, “we have no treaty. So what they will do, we have no idea.”
Special Arrangement The hanging bridge on the Siang, as the Brahmaputra is called in Arunachal, is between Jidu and Tuting, about 35 km from the border with China.
Indian government has raised concerns about possible downstream impact of project
China has started damming the middle reaches of the Brahmaputra river, or the Yarlung Tsangpo as it is known in Tibet, to begin construction on a 510 MW hydropower project that has raised concerns in India.
The government for the first time revealed that it has, since November 8, begun damming the Tsangpo's flow to allow work to begin on the hydropower project at Zangmu. This is the first major dam on the Brahmaputra and has been billed by the Chinese government as a landmark hydropower generation project for Tibet's development.
A news report on Monday said the “closure of the Yarlung Zangbo river on November 12 marked the beginning of construction.” Work is expected to continue beyond 2014, when the first set of generators will be put into operation. The total investment in the project is 7.9 billion yuan ($1.2 billion).
The Indian government has raised concerns about the possible downstream impact of this project during talks with China earlier this year. Chinese officials have assured their Indian counterparts that the project would be “run of the river,” having little impact downstream.
China has said that its projects were only for hydropower generation, and were neither storage projects nor designed to divert the water.
Officials at India's Ministry of External Affairs have, however, voiced frustration over China's general lack of willingness to share information regarding the Zangmu project, meaning they had little means to verify claims on the specific construction plans and impact on flows.
According to Ramaswamy R. Iyer, former Water Resources Secretary of the Government of India, for India “the point to examine would be the quantum of possible diversion and the impact it would have on the flows to India.”
Usually, to ensure that the flow downstream remains unaffected during the period of construction of a dam, the water is diverted through streams around the construction site and returned to the river.
“Since the flow of the water cannot be stopped, the water will be diverted so there will be no reduction of flow in this stage,” Mr. Iyer, who is an authority on dams and transboundary water issues, told The Hindu on Monday, speaking from New Delhi.
He stressed that he was speaking in general terms regarding any dam construction, and did not have specific details regarding how China was carrying out this particular project.
There is still some uncertainty on what China intends for the project, and whether or not a storage reservoir, which could affect downstream flows, will be built beyond the minimal “pondage” required to operate the turbines.
Chinese media reports indicated that the Zangmu project is unlikely to be the last on the Brahmaputra. A news report on the widely read portal Tencent said the Zangmu dam was “a landmark project” for Tibet's development, being the first major dam in Tibet, and “a project of priority in the Eleventh Five Year Plan.”
The report said that such projects would “greatly relieve the energy stress in the middle regions of Tibet” and upgrade power capacity from 100 MW to over 500 MW.
‘No treaty'
Mr. Iyer said a larger concern for India was the absence of a water-sharing treaty with China, which does not allow India to either qualify or address Chinese claims regarding specific projects.
“Between India and Pakistan, we have a treaty which specifies what we should do,” he said. “We're not supposed to retain a drop, and [even] during a stated period of construction, inflow is equal to outflow.”
“But with China,” he added, “we have no treaty. So what they will do, we have no idea.”
सदस्यता लें
संदेश (Atom)
