China to ban water-polluting paper mills, oil refineries

BEIJING: China will ban water-polluting paper mills, oil refineries, pesticide producers and other industrial plants by the end of 2016, as it moves to tackle severe pollution of the country's water supply.

The long-awaited plan comes as the central government steps up its "war on pollution" after years of industrial development that have left one-third of China's major river basins and 60 percent of its underground water contaminated.

Growing public discontent over the environmental degradation has led to increasing scrutiny of industrial polluters. China's largest energy company China National Petroleum Corporation

last month agreed to pay 100 million yuan ($16 million) in compensation after it was accused of leaking benzene into the water system in Lanzhou in northwest China.

But experts say much more needs to be done to protect China's scarce water resources.

"Water is the bottleneck to China's industrial development. Coal miners and factories located in western regions are suffering from water shortage, and if their discharge of dirty waste water is not treated, the pressure will increase," said Alex Zhang, president of McWong Environmental Technology, a United States-based water technology company.

The new plan - published by the State Council, China's cabinet - aims to raise the share of good quality water, ranked at national standard three or above, to more than 70 per cent in the seven major river basins, and to more than 93 percent in the urban drinking water supply by 2020.

Impact on water will become a key consideration in future industrial expansion, said the cabinet, adding that it will restrict building of petrochemical and metal smelting factories along major river basins.

"We will fully consider the capacity of our water resources and environment, and determine city planning, project location, population and industrial output according to water reserves," it said.

China currently controls water usage by allocating volume permits to each province, and requests for additional water for new projects will be refused in regions already exceeding their allocated quotas, said the cabinet.

The government is targeting a cap on overall water consumption at 670 billion cubic metres by 2020, and wants to cut agricultural water use by more than 3.7 billion cubic metres by improving irrigation efficiency by 2018.

Tiered pricing for residential water users will be rolled out nationwide this year to encourage conservation. Non-residential users will be charged progressive fees for overshooting quotas under a plan to enter into force by 2020.

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Apple invests in China solar project, US forest conservation

PALO ALTO: Apple is expanding its environmental efforts by investing in a new Chinese solar power project and preserving 36,000 acres of "sustainable'' timberland in Maine and North Carolina.

The initiatives come as the tech giant this year met a self-imposed goal of powering all its U.S. operations with renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions _ initiatives that have won high marks from environmental groups like Greenpeace.

On Thursday, Apple announced a new focus on using paper from trees harvested under environmentally sound conditions. It's also promising to use more renewable power overseas, where Apple relies heavily on contract manufacturers _ and where a top executive acknowledged the company can do more.

"It's important to us to tackle climate change everywhere we are,'' Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president for environmental initiatives, told The Associated Press. ``When you talk about China, you're talking about manufacturing partners. We're looking to bring the same innovation there. This is the start.''

The new solar project in China has a capacity of 40 megawatts, which is smaller than some projects Apple has announced in the United States. By comparison, Apple is spending $850 million for rights to nearly half the output of a 280-megawatt solar facility planned for construction south of Apple's Cupertino, California, headquarters. That project will produce enough energy to power all of Apple's California offices, a computer center and 52 retail stores.

Still, the Chinese project will produce more than the amount of energy consumed by Apple's 19 corporate offices and 21 retail stores in China and Hong Kong, Jackson said. She added that Apple uses renewable energy for 87 percent of the power at its facilities worldwide.

That figure, however, doesn't include substantial power consumption by contract manufacturers. With the new project in China, Apple is looking to improve its own operations first.

"Before we go somewhere else and start asking and eventually requiring clean energy, you want to make sure you show folks how to do it,'' said Jackson, who was U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator during President Barack Obama's first term.

Jackson declined to say how much Apple is investing in the plant, which is being built in partnership with U.S. energy company SunPower and four Chinese firms. Although China is known for heavy reliance on coal, its government has set aggressive goals for solar, wind and hydroelectric power.

Meanwhile, Apple pledged an unspecified amount of money for a Virginia-based nonprofit, the Conservation Fund, to purchase two large tracts of timberland on the East Coast. The Conservation Fund will resell the land to commercial interests under legally binding terms that require future owners to preserve the forest and follow environmentally sound principles for cutting and replanting trees.

Larry Selzer, the group's chief executive, said that will protect the forest while keeping it in the hands of private owners who pay taxes and create jobs. Selzer said he'll use proceeds from reselling the land to buy and protect additional tracts.

Apple won't necessarily buy paper made from trees on that land, but Jackson said the investment will increase the supply of sustainable wood fiber. She said the two tracts would produce about half the non-recycled wood fiber used in Apple's product packaging last year.

That would put Apple halfway toward its goal of obtaining all its non-recycled paper products from sustainable timber. Apple wouldn't say how much paper it uses, but it says two-thirds of its paper packaging comes from recycled material. In the last three months of 2014, Apple sold more than 100 million iPhones and other gadgets, most in cardboard boxes.

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Centre appoints task-force to help build consensus on river inter-linking

NEW DELHI: The Centre has set up a task force to look into various contentious issues relating to inter-linking of rivers. Role of this panel of experts will be to forge a consensus among states that are not on the same page over the plan to link rivers across the country.

The move comes in the backdrop of recent controversy over sharing of water between Maharashtra and Gujarat through two inter-linking of river (ILR) projects and emerging differences among other states over the plan.

The task force, headed by B N Navalawala (ex-UPSC member and one of the advisers to the Gujarat chief minister), will work towards speedy implementation of the inter-linking of river projects.

"Apart from examining the existing links (30 ILRs) that are laid out as per the National Perspective Plan under both Himalayan and Peninsular components, the task force will also consider alternative plans in place of infeasible links in the present plan", said an official statement of the ministry of water resources.

The statement clearly indicates that the Centre would be ready to consider alternatives so that the states agree for transferring water from surplus zones to deficit zones. Environmentalists have also been opposed to the idea of ILR, arguing that the move will be a disaster for ecology.

The task force, comprising water experts and senior officials of different ministries, will facilitate interlinking of intra-state and intra-basin rivers. It will recommend the "time schedules" for completion of feasibility studies and detailed project reports (DPRs) of all the links and their "implementation schedule".

Various means of funding mechanisms for the inter-linking of rivers will also be examined by the panel comprising of Sriram Vedire, adviser in the ministry of water resources; Prodipto Ghosh, former environment secretary; A D Mohile, former chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC); M Gopalakrishnan, former member of the CWC and advocate Virag Gupta.

"The task force will also provide guidance on norms of appraisal of individual projects in respect of economic viability, socio-economic, environmental impacts and preparation of resettlement plans", said the statement.

As far as actual implementation of the ILR projects is concerned, only three out of 30 such projects have, so far, got the Centre's nod. The states opposed to the ILRs are mainly Odisha, Kerala, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and couple of those in the northeast. Except Punjab, the states which are opposed to the ILRs are all ruled by non-NDA parties.ILR projects is concerned, only three out of 30 such projects have, so far, got the Centre's nod. The states opposed to the ILRs are mainly Odisha, Kerala, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and couple of those in the northeast. Except Punjab, the states which are opposed to the ILRs are all ruled by non-NDA parties.

Sharing of water had, however, recently become controversial between two BJP-ruled states as well when Gujarat last week demanded that Maharashtra agree to share more water from the Tapi River if it wants more from the proposed Damanganga-Pinjal link which will supply water to Mumbai.

Gujarat's demand came after the Maharashtra assembly had to be adjourned after the Opposition there disrupted proceedings over the agreement of water sharing under the Damanganga-Pinjal and the Par-Tapi-Narmada link projects.

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Scientists find a 'deeply' safe way to dispose n-waste

LONDON: Scientists have suggested a new way of safely disposing high-emission nuclear waste -- burying it deep down into the earth. The concept, called deep borehole disposal, has been developed primarily in England but is likely to see its first field trials in the United States next year.

"Deep borehole disposal is particularly suitable for high level nuclear waste, such as spent fuel, where high levels of radioactivity and heat make other alternatives very difficult," said professor Fergus Gibb from University of Sheffield.

"Much of the drilling expertise and equipment to create the boreholes already exists in the oil and gas and geothermal industries," he added.

All of England's nuclear waste from spent fuel reprocessing could be disposed of in just six boreholes five km deep, fitting within a site no larger than a football pitch, scientists suggest.

If the trials are successful, the US hopes to dispose of its 'hottest' and most radioactive waste -- leftover from plutonium production and currently stored at Hanford in Washington State -- in a deep borehole.

Gibb and co-researcher Karl Travis said that around 40 per cent of the waste currently stored at the US site could be disposed of in a single borehole.

Fundamental to the success of deep borehole disposal is the ability to seal the hole completely to prevent radionuclides getting back up to the surface.

Gibb has designed a method to do this -- to melt a layer of granite over the waste, which will re-solidify to have the same properties as natural rock.

The waste within the borehole must be surrounded with specialist cements able to handle the temperatures and pressures at that depth, the researchers said.

DBD has limited environmental impact and does not require a huge site: the holes are a maximum 0.6m in diameter and can be positioned just a few tens of metres apart, the scientists said.

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Ban on old diesel vehicles may not be enough to clean up Delhi air

NEW DELHI: Banning old diesel vehicles may not be enough to address severe air pollution in Delhi. Other countries have been imposing higher taxes, excise duties and registration costs to discourage people from buying diesel vehicles. They have also introduced low-sulphur diesel to clean up vehicle emissions.

Experts say National Green Tribunal's order will get diesel vehicles that are more than 10 years old off the road but do nothing about new vehicles that flout fitness norms.

A recent analysis by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) shows diesel cars aren't allowed in Beijing. And unlike India, where diesel costs about Rs 10 per litre less than petrol, China doesn't have differential pricing for the two fuels. Sri Lanka deters use of diesel cars with several-fold higher duties on them compared with petrol cars. It also uses taxation to discourage car imports.

Don S Jayaweera, chairman of National Transport Commission in Sri Lanka, recently made a presentation in Delhi on how Sri Lanka managed to discourage diesel vehicles. It registered 4,371 hybrid cars to its fleet as against 178 diesel cars and 2,099 petrol cars in 2015. In 2014, it added 23,287 hybrid, 2,846 diesel and 12,226 petrol cars.

The French government, which is considering making Paris diesel-free by 2020, doesn't allow diesel cars to run on severe smog days. With its focus on reducing CO2 emissions, European countries promoted diesel cars for many years, but they have had to pay a price in terms of high levels of PM2.5 (fine, respirable particles) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Civil society organizations recently took United Kingdom to court for breaching safe standards for nitrogen dioxide (NO2).

In India, diesel is not subsidized anymore, yet it remains cheaper than petrol because of lower taxes. This serves as an incentive to buy diesel cars. Between 2001 and 2015, there was a seven-fold increase in diesel vehicles in Delhi. Environment Pollution Control Authority chief Bhure Lal said diesel and petrol should be priced at the same level.

Diesel vehicles emit seven times more PM 2.5 and five times more NOx than petrol vehicles. "One BS III diesel vehicle is equivalent to seven petrol vehicles in terms of pollution. I hope NGT's orders will push the government to bridge the price difference (between fuels). The annual tax on private diesel vehicles can be increased to create a clean transport fund used for superior quality fuel or public transport," said Vivek Chattopadhyay of CSE's Clean Air Programme.

SP Singh, senior fellow and coordinator of The Indian Foundation for Transport Research and Training (IFTRT), said heavy vehicles entering Delhi are not checked for pollution. A 2012 rule prohibiting goods carriers that do not meet at least Euro IV norms from moving within the NCR was never enforced. "I strongly feel that new diesel vehicles should not be registered in Delhi," said Singh. Chattopadhyay said the government should enforce superior emission norms-BS V and BS VI-to reduce the difference in emissions from diesel and petrol engines.

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Music: Will climate change give us the blues?

VIENNA: Climate change is predicted to intrude into almost every area of life -- from where we live, to what we eat and whom we war with.

Now music can be added to the list. That's the unusual idea put forward by British researchers Tuesday, who say the weather has powerfully but discreetly influenced the soundtrack to our lives.

And tastes in songs are likely to change as the climate shifts. Fancy listening to the Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun" when you are grinding out yet another long, sweaty heatwave?

"These assumptions we have about certain weather being good and certain weather being bad, like sun being good -- that might change," researcher Karen Aplin of the University of Oxford told AFP at a European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna.

In Europe, "people are like: 'Oh, yes!' when it's summer," she said. "But if it's going to be 40 degrees (Celsius, 104 degrees Fahrenheit) every summer for 10 years... that might change how people feel about the weather and the emotions they link to it."

Aplin and five other scientists combed through databases of more than 15,000 pop songs, finding statistical backing for the assumption that our moods are strongly swayed by the weather.

These emotions, in turn, are expressed in the music that artists compose and what the public likes to hear.

The team looked at some of the most popular English-language songs, mainly from the United States and Britain, from the 1950s to today -- drawing heavily from an online karaoke website.

They searched song titles, band names and lyrics for references to weather.

"We found about 800," said Aplin. Of the 500 greatest songs of all time, as listed by Rolling Stone magazine in 2011, a whole seven percent were weather-related.

Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the most prolific in this category.

The sun was referenced most often, followed closely by rain, although "pretty much all types of weather came up", said Aplin.

The seasons and wind or breeze were third and fourth most popular, while "frost" and "blizzard" were at the bottom of the list.

Love and relationships were unsurprisingly the biggest single category for weather metaphors -- "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone," crooned Bill Withers, while Billie Holiday lamented the "Stormy weather" after a breakup.

"What we found about pop music was that the lyrics can be used very clearly to link the weather to a particular emotion, and usually the sun is positive and rain is negative," said Aplin.

An exception was some Country and Western songs, which "talked about rain as a positive thing: it brings crops and food," said the atmospheric physicist who also plays double bass in an orchestra.

The researchers were intrigued to find that in the 1950s, an active decade for hurricanes, more music was written about wind and storms.

This highlights the potential for a shift in musical themes if climate change brings ever-more frequent extreme weather events, as predicted.

Chirpy songs about sunshine and gentle summer breezes could get elbowed in favour of darker, more dramatic fare.

Based on present carbon emission trends, say climate scientists, worsening droughts, floods and storms as well as rising seas are waiting for us a few decades from now.

"Under climate change, the type of weather people are influenced by to write might change," said Aplin.

"You might find more songs about severe weather because that is more part of people's live, or a backdrop to their lives, than the weather we have now."

The research paper, which Aplin said had been accepted to appear in the Royal Meteorological Society publication "Weather" in May, will have an online link to the list of songs compiled so far, with an open invitation for people to add to it.

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Rajasthan's efforts for greenery commendable: Javadekar

UDAIPUR: Rajasthan would soon be turned into a "green state" with the development of more biological parks such as Sajjangarh, said the Union environment and forest minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday during inauguration of the first biological park at Sajjangarh.

He also appreciated the state government's efforts in the spheres of environment and water conservation. Rajasthan's glorious past and its people are well-known for their love towards forests and natural resources. The Bishnoi community had even laid its life for the noble cause and, therefore, the state remains ahead in the country in environment care, he added.

Revealing the Centre's plan for production of clean energy, the Union minister said that as per Modi's ambitious 1.75 lakh mega watt clean and green energy production project is proposed for Rajasthan which includes 1 lakh MW solar power generation, 60,000MW of wind energy, 10,000MW bio-energy and 5,000MW mini water energy production.

The minister lauded the state government for taking hasty steps for Lake Conservation Act and said that the move will go a long way in conservation of water resources which will play a vital role in turning the desert land into a green land.

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China to surpass US as top cause of modern global warming

OSLO: China is poised to overtake the United States as the main cause of man-made global warming since 1990, the benchmark year for U.N.-led action, in a historic shift that may raise pressure on Beijing to act.

China's cumulative greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, when governments were becoming aware of climate change, will outstrip those of the United States in 2015 or 2016, according to separate estimates by experts in Norway and the United States.

The shift, reflecting China's stellar economic growth, raises questions about historical blame for rising temperatures and more floods, desertification, heatwaves and sea level rise.

Almost 200 nations will meet in Paris in December to work out a global deal to fight climate actions beyond 2020.

"A few years ago China's per capita emissions were low, its historical responsibility was low. That's changing fast," said Glen Peters of the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, Oslo (CICERO), who says China will overtake the United States this year.

Using slightly different data, the U.S.-based World Resources Institute think-tank estimated that China's cumulative carbon dioxide emissions will total 151 billion tonnes for 1990-2016, overtaking the U.S. total of 147 billion next year.

The rise of cumulative emissions "obviously does open China up to claims of responsibility from other developing countries," said Daniel Farber, a professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley.

In a U.N. principle laid down in 1992, rich nations are meant to lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions because their wealth is based on burning coal, oil and natural gas since the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th century.

Emerging nations, meanwhile, can burn more fossil fuels to catch up and end poverty. But the rapid economic rise of China, India, Brazil and many other emerging nations is straining the traditional divide between rich and poor.

SHARED BLAME

"All countries now have responsibility. It's not just a story about China -- it's a story about the whole world," said Ottmar Edenhofer of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and co-chair of a U.N. climate report last year.

India will overtake Russia's cumulative emissions since 1990 in the 2020s to rank fourth behind China, the United States and the European Union, according to the CICERO calculations.

China surpassed the United States as the top annual emitter of carbon dioxide in around 2006 and now emits more each year than the United States and the European Union combined. Per capita emissions by its 1.3 billion people are around EU levels.

Beijing says the best yardstick for historical responsibility is per capita emissions since the 18th century, by which measure its emissions are less than a tenth those of the United States.

But stretching liability so far back is complicated.

Should heat-trapping methane gas emitted by rice paddies in Asia in the 19th century, now omitted, count alongside industrial carbon emissions by Europe? Should Britain be responsible for India's emissions before independence in 1947?

Lawyers say it is difficult to blame people living today for emissions by ancestors who had no inkling that greenhouse gases might damage the climate.

"I feel very uneasy about going back more than a generation in terms of historic responsibility," said Farber, arguing that Berlin could hardly be blamed if someone died by setting off a rusting German World War One landmine in France.

All governments are now working out plans for a climate summit in Paris in December that will set targets for 2025 or 2030. Beijing set a goal last year of peaking its rising emissions around 2030, perhaps before.

"China is acting. It has acknowledged its position as a key polluter," said Saleemel Huq, of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London.

And historical responsibility is at the heart of talks on solving the problem.

The U.N. panel of climate scientists estimated last year that humankind had emitted 1.9 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide since the late 19th century and can only emit a trillion more before rising temperatures breach a U.N. ceiling of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

Any fair formula for sharing out that trillion tonnes, or roughly 30 years of emissions at current rates, inevitably has to consider what each country has done in the past, said Myles Allen, a scientist at Oxford University.

"Until people start thinking about blame and responsibility they are not taking the problem seriously," he said.

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GTA introduces eco-friendly cars for tourists in hills

DARJEELING: Aimed at providing better infrastruture to the tourists to the hills, the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) today introduced three battery powered cars.

The eco-friendly cars, plying along the most frequented 2-km route from Darjeeling Mall to the Zoo, is aimed at projecting a tourist-friendly image of the picturesque Hills to the domestic and foreign tourists.

The battery backed vehicles that have been brought from Bangalore will provide conducted tour ride to the tourists from the Gorkha Ranga Manch Bhawan along the Mall stretch till the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park (PNHZP) also known as Darjeeling zoo.

"We have started the service from today keeping the tourists in mind. However, the locals can also take the ride if they want. Since the vehicle will be operated by batteries, it becomes environment friendly," GTA Chief Executive Bimal Gurung said.

Another vehicle has been allotted for Kalimpong where it will run in and around the Dello area. "We have given one such vehicle to Kalimpong. There it will run from Dello and its surrounding area covering a radius of 10 to 15 km," said Gurung.

Initially the idea behind inducting the cars were to provide some sort of travelling options for the aged and differently-abled persons who walk through the Mall to reach their homes and offices or for leisure.

However, now the service has been extended to the tourists who walk from Chowrastha, the Hill's popular promenade to the Darjeeling zoo and even locals can avail it.

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10 air pollution monitoring stations in city exceed national average

BENGALURU: That long wait at the Silk Board junction for the signal is not only delaying you but also slowly killing you, adding pollutants to your lungs. For, the air pollution at the junction on Hosur Road is 146% higher than the national permissible limit.

The Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM), an indicator of pollutants in the air, measured at the junction a few weeks ago was 246 g/m3 (microgram per cubic metre air).

However, if you thought other areas are safer you would be disappointed. At least 10 out of the 13 areas in the city, where the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) monitors the ambient air quality, have exceeded the national limit for RSPM, which is 100.0 g/M3. This includes the ever busy Mysuru Road, Whitefield and Peenya Industrial area.

Vamana Acharya, chairman of KSPCB, told STOI that the Silk Board junction is a clear example of how slow vehicular movement can cause pollution. "Vehicle engines continuing to burn fuel are a big worry for us on such stretches. Same is the case with Mysuru Road and Whitefiled. In fact, 40 per cent of air pollution in the city is because of vehicular emissions followed by road dust (12 %), industries (12 %), diesel and other generators (8 %) and remaining from burning of garbage like materials etc," he said.

According to him, though the RSPM level at the Silk Board junction is not the highest in the country, the fact that it exceeds the national permissible limit is damaging enough. "We measure the pollutants emanating from vehicles as PM 2.5 (fine particular matter) and these pollutants are so minute that they enter the lungs of human beings and cause health problems easily. It's high time we brought in strong regulations to tackle the menace," he added.

KSPCB monitors the ambient air quality of Bengaluru city at 13 locations under the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Programme (NAMP) covering industrial areas, mixed urban areas and sensitive areas. Monitoring is done twice a week 24 hourly at uniform intervals for RSPM, SO2 and NO2. The levels of SO2 and NO2 are within the national limit thankfully.

Where do we go?

Ten locations in city have exceeded national limit for RSPM, which is 100 g/m3

Silk Board junction: 246

Victoria Hospital: 244

AMCO Batteries Point on Mysuru Road: 228

Graphite India locality in Whitefield: 220

Yeshwanthpura Police Station: 218

KHB Industrial Area in Yelahanka: 177

RO at Peenya Industrial Area: 164

DTDC House on Victoria Road: 192

Gymkhana in Peenya Industrial Area: 123

Indira Gandhi Children Care Institute near Nimhans: 122

*All figures in g/m3

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Mass beaching fuels 'unscientific' Japan quake fears

TOKYO: The mass beaching of more than 150 melon-headed whales on Japan's shores has fuelled fears of a repeat of a seemingly unrelated event in the country — the devastating 2011 undersea earthquake that killed around 19,000 people.

Despite a lack of scientific evidence linking the two events, a flurry of online commentators have pointed to the appearance of around 50 melon-headed whales — a species that is a member of the dolphin family — on Japan's beaches six days prior to the monster quake, which unleashed a towering tsunami and triggered a nuclear disaster.

Scientists were on Saturday dissecting the bodies of the whales, 156 of which were found on two beaches on Japan's Pacific coast a day earlier, but could not say what caused the beachings.

"We don't see any immediate signs of diseases on their bodies, such as cancer. We want to figure out what killed these animals," Tadasu Yamada, a senior researcher at National Museum of Nature and Science, told public broadcaster NHK.

Despite the lack of any clear link between the beachings and earthquakes — and comments from local officials downplaying such a connection — many took to social media to point to the link.

"Is the next one coming? Be ready for a quake," wrote Twitter user maoeos40d.

Another Twitter user wrote simply: "We might have a big one on the 12th (of April)."

The 2011 Japan earthquake is not the only instance of beached whales closely preceding a massive tremor.

More than 100 pilot whales died in a mass stranding on a remote New Zealand beach on February 20, 2011, two days before a large quake struck the country's second-largest city Christchurch.

Japanese officials have nevertheless tried to calm fears, and have insisted there is no scientific data to prove the link.

Scientists are meanwhile unclear as to why the marine animals strand themselves in large groups, with some speculating healthy whales beach themselves while trying to help sick or disorientated family members that are stranded.

Others believe the topography of certain places somehow scrambles the whales' sonar navigation, causing them to beach.

Once stranded, the whales are vulnerable to dehydration and sunburn until rescuers can use the high tide to move their massive weight back into deeper water.

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Is too much exposure to outdoors bad?

MELBOURNE: Several studies have linked exposure to nature with improved human health and well-being. But how much of the nature's dose do we really need?

Researchers are trying to find a precise "nature dose" that can trigger positive effects on health.

"Urban green spaces provide settings for a remarkable range of physical and mental health benefits, and pioneering health policy is recognising nature as a cost-effective tool for planning healthy cities," said study leader Danielle F. Shanahan from the Fuller Lab, Australia.

The findings are of growing importance given that in the near future, 70 percent of the world's population will live in cities, where they will face a rising tide of lifestyle-related disease.

Despite this, limited information is available on how specific elements of nature deliver health outcomes.

There is an absence of clear evidence about which elements of nature deliver which health outcomes.

For example, three separate studies led by ecologists reported different effects of the number of bird and plant species in an area on self-reported well-being.

"They variously found a positive effect, an effect that was dependent on perceived species richness, and no effect," the researchers noted.

The authors hope "to understand how urban nature can be manipulated to enhance human health" through "dose-response" modelling.

Nature exposure can occur in a variety of ways, from rural forest excursions to greenery viewed from an office window, and the differential effects of exposures require careful study.

The authors describe several possible dose-response curves and find that plateaus in health responses are to be expected.

Surprisingly, increased crowding and complexity of greenery in cities could even "decrease a person's feeling of safety and increase stress", according to the researchers.

"We need cost-effective and tailored solutions that could enhance population health and reduce health inequalities," Shanahan said.

The study is scheduled to be published in BioScience.

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Lessons for cops on wildlife crime

CUTTACK: Police officers were imparted lessons on latest techniques and tools to effectively deal with wildlife-related crimes, especially poaching, at a daylong workshop organized by the Crime Branch here on Thursday.

"With almost one-third of Odisha covered by forest, there is a need to ensure proper implementation of wildlife laws to conserve the precious biodiversity," said DGP Sanjeev Marik, inaugurating the workshop on 'Strengthening Wildlife Law Enforcement and Conservation in India'.

Over 55 officers deployed in police stations near sanctuaries, wildlife parks and areas prone to poaching participated.

Experts from across the country gave an overview of the organized global wildlife crime. Shekhar Kumar Niraj, head of TRAFFIC India, a wildlife trade monitoring network, and director of Police Radio Training School, Indore, Varun Kapoor elaborated on the legal process for better enforcement of laws.

"Wildlife crime is a serious issue and has turned into an international menace. Odisha is not untouched by the problem. To deal with this organized crime, police should be well-versed with latest tools and techniques," said Niraj.

Wildlife Institute of India scientist S P Goyal told policemen about wildlife DNA forensic and its application in identifying species. Senior IFS officer C Behera educated the personnel on intelligence collection.

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Toxic carbide waste: Centre red-flags UNEP study offer

BHOPAL: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) offer for a comprehensive assessment of depth and spread of contaminants in and around Union Carbide factory has been red-flagged by Union government.

Activists allege contamination from abandoned factory, after world's worst industrial disaster in 1984, continues to affect people's health and environment.

Bhopal Group of Information and Action (BGIA) local NGO representative Rachna Dhingra said they received a response from Union ministry for environment, forests and climate change joint secretary Biswajit Sinha on April 8. "A four line message just stated our request for inviting UNEP for a study has been examined and they did not find a necessity for the study at present," she said.

"We are distraught with this information because Sinha doesn't even bother to share reasons for rejecting this offer," she added.

Earlier, Bhopal Group of Information and Action (BGIA) and its global supporters had roped in UNEP to undertake evaluation on spread of toxic waste.

"We were thrilled by UNEP proposal as it brought experience, expertise and UNEP being a third party will carry more credibility in Indian and in the US courts. It would strengthen government's case against Dow Chemicals," said Dhingra.

On February 19, when NGO representatives met Union minister Prakash Javadekar over the UNEP proposal he had asked for 15 days to deliberate on the offer. It called for UNEP assessment of 3.5 km area around the factory that continues to affect inhabitants in some 22 colonies.

"Minister's refusal to take UNEP assistance is only helping Dow Chemicals and delay in clean-up continues to adversely affect population," she added.

Experts agree that such clean-up can only begin after a comprehensive scientific assessment of the depth, spread and nature of contaminants is completed, she said.

Holding Dow Chemical liable for environmental damage in Bhopal, Union government filed an application in 2010 in Madhya Pradesh high court for Rs 350 crore as an advance for clean-up, but there has been no movement on this in last five years.

In 2001, Dow Chemical took over Union Carbide's global assets.

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Economic study pegs value for Sundarbans and other tiger reserves

KOLKATA: Tiger reserves may not be solely about conservation. They also have tremendous economic value, the first ever Economic Valuation of Tiger Reserves in India, published by the Centre for Ecological Services Management (CESM) and Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, a couple of months ago has revealed. Of the six reserves studied, Sundarbans Tiger Reserve (STR) sequestrates the highest volume of carbon. This was valued at Rs 46.2 crore per year. The service provided by STR in moderating cyclones is also worth Rs 27.5 crore per year.

"The current study on 'Economic Valuation of Tiger Reserves in India: A VALUE+ Approach' with support from the National Tiger Conservation Authority is a first-of-its-kind study in the world. The study attempts to provide an assessment of economic benefits from tiger reserves across a range of tiger landscapes in India. While a large proportion of benefits that these tiger reserves provide are difficult to estimate, the study provides quantitative and qualitative estimates of those benefits which manifest their important but unaccounted national and global contribution. These findings provide adequate justification for enhanced investment in such areas which is critical to ensure continued flow of vital life-supporting ecological, economic, social and cultural services from these genetic repositories," Prakash Javadekar, Union minister of state (independent charge) for environments, forests and climate change wrote about the report.

According to the report, the total forest cover in the Indian Sundarbans is 2,585 square km. Declared a biosphere reserve in 1989, STR has at least 1,586 species of Protozoa and Animalia apart from 69 floral species belonging to 29 families. Nearly 270,000 people live in the 46 fringe villages around STR. The report notes that STR is a source of regular employment for the local communities living in the vicinity. In 2013-14, a total of 157,600 man-days were generated by the tiger reserve for various management activities in which local communities were involved. "Conservatively using the wage rate for unskilled labour of Rs 206 per man-day prevalent in the area, the economic value of employment generated by STR is estimated to be Rs 3.25 crore per annum," the report states.

"The economic value of fish caught from STR is approximately equal to Rs 160 crore per year. It may be noted that this estimate is still conservative. It does not account for quantity of crabs and prawns caught from STR which are sold at premium to fish. It doesn't include the quantity of fish caught for self-consumption or the inputs that shrimp farms receive from STR as seeds. Considering that fish is the main source of protein for the underprivileged communities living around Sundarbans, the economic value of STR for fishing is very significant — economically and culturally," it adds.

The study has also estimated that STR has nearly 31.43 million cubic metres of standing stock of timber. The market price of this has been estimated at Rs 62,870 crore. This is significantly higher than Corbett, Ranthambore, Periyar, Kaziranga and Kanha, the other five tiger reserves included in this study. It has also been estimated that STR has carbon stock of more than 22.38 million tonnes. "Based on a recent study by Yale University that has estimated the social cost of carbon for India the total economic value of carbon stored in STR is estimated to be Rs 2,410 crore," it has been noted.

The net biosphere-atmosphere exchange of carbon in the Sundarbans has been estimated at 2.79 tonnes per hectare per annum. Assuming this rate of carbon sequestration across the entire forest area (1,538 square km) of STR, the annual quantity of carbon sequestered in STR is nearly equal to 0.43 million tonnes. Using the social cost of carbon for India the total economic value of carbon sequestered in STR is estimated to be RS 46.21 crore per annum.

Another important value that has been estimated is the cost that needs to be considered for providing waste assimilation service to Kolkata. The city doesn't have a sewage treatment plant and the Sundarbans provide this service. Taking the population of Kolkata at 4.5 million, it has been estimated that the city would require a sewage treatment plant of 250 million litres a day. Considering the costs involved in operating such a plant, the economic value of waste assimilation services attributable to STR for Kolkata city alone is nearly Rs 150 crore per year, the report states.

Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve director Pradip Vyas believes that this study is a move in the right direction. "Eco-system services are going to be really big in the future. Such studies will help people realize the importance of the mangroves. Maybe, some day, people living in Kolkata will be ready to pay for protection of the mangroves. A study in Odisha after the Super Cyclone revealed that loss of life was nil in places where mangroves existed. Where mangroves had been destroyed, loss to life and property was colossal. If the mangroves in the Sundarbans are lost, the fish catch will also go down by 60-70%. Take the case of Catskills' catchments that have been supplying clean drinking water to New York city for ages. New York has now started sharing a portion of what it saves to farmers in the Catskills to keep the catchment area clean," he says.

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Delhi air pollution: A hara-kiri in waiting!

Air pollution level of Delhi has been in news for some time now. Over the year New York Times published two reports about Delhi being Wolds's most polluted city. Recently an Indian newspaper published an article in which leading doctors of Delhi are advising their patients suffering from respiratory diseases to leave the city since the number of such patients has been increasing at alarming rate for the last few years.

What is more baffling is that along with being most polluted city in the world, Delhi is also one of the greenest cities. How does one explain these two contradictory features of an open expanding city like Delhi?

There are three reasons for the air pollution in Delhi and the general mess in India when it comes to urban transport planning and management. First is the number of vehicles along with the fuel and the emission standards. Second is the administrative shortcomings and behaviour of the motorists and third is the philosophical one.

If we compare Delhi City with Mumbai, London and New York City (NYC) we can understand why Delhi holds a unique place. Also Delhi is a land locked city and lacks the advantage of coastal cities like Mumbai, London and NYC when it comes to dispersion of pollutants. The sea wind help disperse the pollution when the warm air over the land moves up and cold wind over the sea surface moves in.

Let us first compare the number of registered vehicle, population, and the area of Delhi city with Mumbai, London, and NYC. The figures are startling in every way. Delhi fares worst among all four cities when it comes to the number of registered vehicles. Delhi's 11 million people living in 1,484sqkm area have 8.43 million registered vehicles while Mumbai has only 23.3 million vehicles among its 12.5 million populations living in mere 603sqkm area. Delhi has almost four times vehicles despite having 1.7 million less population and double area!

When we compare the Indian cities to the western cities it becomes clear why our cities are more polluted. London and NYC with roughly the same population — 8.3 and 8.5 million respectively, (approximately 30% than Mumbai and Delhi) have just 2.6 and 2.1 million registered vehicles respectively. This is just 10% compared to Mumbai and merely 0.25 per cent compared to Delhi. Also the areas of these two cities are nearly same as Delhi with 1,572sqkm of London and 1,214sqkm of New York City. Even Beijing City (16,801sqkm area) to which Delhi is often compared has only 5 million registered vehicles among its 11.5 million residents.

The reason for such less number of vehicles in London and NYC is not only the deeper reach of their public transport in use for long time but also because of the reasons like congestion charges during peak hours, strong implementation of traffic regulations, and high parking cost.

The number of vehicles has compound effect on air pollution when we take the usage of kind of fuel and emission standards in to account. Due to subsidy on diesel there has been increase in use of diesel vehicle in India that emits soot along with NOX, SO2, and CO2 that petrol vehicles emit. India follows Euro 3 and 4 (Bharat 3 and 4) standards which are very lenient compared to the US standards, especially towards diesel vehicles. Euro 3 allows diesels to emit 16 times as much NOx as the US EPA does.

Second reason for this level of air pollution is something we are so inured to that it is overlooked by public and the civic agencies alike. In places like London and NYC or even Chandigarh the traffic on the road is only because of more numbers of cars on the road; while it is not the same in India. Traffic in India is caused by poor traffic management and zero civic sense of the drivers. Why Delhi does have massive traffic congestion despite having largest ratio of road to the built up area in addition to signal free intersections and flyovers? The reason is that the moment one passes through habitable area like markets one finds that the shop owners have taken the footpath and people walk on road, bus takes half the road when it stops because bus stands are taken over by auto-rickshaw. All these minor inconsistencies forces vehicles to run at slow speed at which the emission is at peak. Almost 20 -30% of the time all the vehicles on the road run at less than 30 kilometres per hours or are idling for as much time. Also, all kind of vehicles run amok in all lanes of all the roads. Duration and length of traffic jam increases because rather than staying in their lane people move to the opposite lane. And many such behavioural exacerbate the problem.

Third reason is rather philosophical one. Indians learn big ideas like democracy, finance, freedom and even transportation as one acquires a skill. Just as a layman acquires driving skill without knowing anything about automobile, we learn big ideas superficially, copying what is practiced seriously in the West. We make road and put the signal and that's it. At the periphery of the road there is nothing — no pavement, no demarcation. Suddenly a world of bazaar will pop up beside the road affecting the traffic. While every inch of an urban area is continuously monitored and is fully in control of the civic agencies in the West, our civic agencies have a very cavalier approach to their domain and responsibilities. In America traffic cop is the most feared person on the road because of the tough traffic penalties.

Delhi needs to promote private parking businesses. It also needs to charge premium even for parking outside ones house if it is a metalled municipality road.

Many other aspects of urban transport planning are required to not only reduce the air pollution but also to reduce the distress of motorists and other stakeholders involved.

*All data are current and taken from government sources.

(Bholenath Vishwakarma is a Ford Foundation International Fellow and Columbia University graduate in environmental policy studies.)

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Make diesel clean and check its sale: Activists

NEW DELHI: The decision to ban diesel vehicles that are over 10 years old from Delhi has been welcomed by environmentalists though they have voiced their concern about how the order will be implemented and its fallout.

Former Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) member-secretary Dr B Sengupta pointed out, supply of food items, i.e vegetables etc, especially from other states, is dependent on trucks that run on diesel. The government should have a concrete plan in place to ensure that supplies are not affected if these trucks are stopped form entering Delhi, he said. "It is a fabulous order for the environment. Around 50,000 or so trucks enter Delhi at night and cause massive pollution. We have been asking for the trucks to be fitted with diesel particulate filters for a long time. However, I can only wonder how they will implement it. How will grain, vegetables etc come into the city now," he said.

Anumita Roychowdhury, associate director of Centre for Science and Environment, said the order was implementable. What she is concerned about is the rapid dieselization of vehicles. "A diesel vehicle emits three times more NOx and seven times more particulate matter than a petrol vehicle. This means that removing one diesel car is equivalent to removing three to seven petrol cars. However, to bring totality to this order, the huge sales in diesel cars must be discouraged. The action taken by banning older vehicles will be negated by rapid dieselization. The quality of diesel available in India is as it is 10 years behind the technology being used in Europe. It is imperative to make clean diesel available in India," she said.

The demand for a strong policy and a better regulatory mechanism was echoed by Greenpeace's Aishwarya Madineni. Welcoming the court order, she said the government simultaneously needs to strengthen its regulatory mechanism, like manufacturing and diesel quality. "Diesel vehicles have been identified as one of the primary sources of vehicular emission, but I cannot say how long the government will be able to sustain the court orders. What will help will be measures like stringent emission standards and improvement in quality of diesel," she said.

Roychowdhury added that the government needs to also look at additional measures like waste management if such an order is to be implemented. "We should not remove one form of pollution, only to shift it elsewhere.When these vehicles are phased out from Delhi, one needs to figure out how they are to be disposed of. We need a very strong scrap management system along with a recycling policy. In fact, manufacturers should be forced to make vehicles that are largely recyclable," she said.

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Anaesthetic gases raising Earth's temperature too

LONDON: Anaesthetic gases may help doctors to cause temporary loss of sensation in patients and carry out surgery smoothly, but by accumulating in the Earth's atmosphere, they also contribute to climate change, says a new study.

Over the past decade, concentrations of the anaesthetics desflurane, isoflurane and sevoflurane have been rising globally and the study has detected the compounds as far a field as Antarctica.

Like the well-known climate warmer carbon dioxide, anaesthesia gases allow the atmosphere to store more energy from the Sun, the researchers noted.

But unlike carbon dioxide, the medical gases are extra potent in their greenhouse-gas effects.

"One kilogram of desflurane, for instance, is equivalent to 2,500 kilograms of carbon dioxide in terms of the amount of greenhouse warming potential," said lead researcher Martin Vollmer, atmospheric chemist at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology in Dubendorf, Switzerland.

"On a kilogram-per-kilogram basis, it is so much more potent" than carbon dioxide, he said.

The researchers reported the 2014 atmospheric concentration of desflurane as 0.30 parts per trillion (ppt).

Isoflurane, sevoflurane and halothane came in at 0.097 ppt, 0.13 ppt and 0.0092 ppt, respectively.

The team did not include the common anaesthesia nitrous oxide in the study because it has many sources other than anaesthetics.

Anaesthesia gas abundance is growing and should not be overlooked, said Yale University School of Medicine anaesthesiologist Jodi Sherman, a reviewer of the study.

"There is nothing unique about desflurane that we can not do with other drugs," Sherman noted.

She argued that it is possible to live without Desflurane.

The study appeared online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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Mangaluru's Pilikula to get hippos, Asiatic lions

MANGALURU: The Pilikula Nisargadhama is all set to welcome new guests to its sprawling zoo.

As part of the mutual exchange programme with the zoo authorities of Thiruvanathapuram, Chennai and Gujarat, the Pilikula Biological Park of Dr Shivarama Karantha Pilikula Nisarghadhama will bring three hippos, two Asiatic lions, white peacocks and a few more birds. The fauna will arrive at Pilikula in a week or two.

H Jayaprakash Bhandary, director of the park, said, while Asiatic lions will be brought from Gujarat, hippopotamuses will arrive from Thiruvananthapuram and the park will get a pair of white peacocks from Chennai. Since there are no caretakers to look after Asiatic lions and hippos, the park will make arrangements to hire trained personnel, he said.

"The Pilikula Biological Park, which is spread in an area of 82 hectares, has a unique captive breeding centre for king cobra. In addition to this, the park also has several facilities for breeding of mouse deer and barking deer. To procure Asiatic lions, hippos, white peacock and other rare species from other zoos across India, we offer them king cobras, mouse deer, barking deer and other rare species. The process of exchange of animals and birds through Central Zoo Authority of India is on. We are waiting for the authorities' approval in this regard," Bhandary said, adding that there are plans to introduce more birds and also to construct more enclosures for birds in its aviary.

Over six lakh people visited Pilikula zoo in 2014. The park, which used to collect an average of Rs 60 lakh through gate fee in earlier, collected Rs 1.5 crore in 2014 till March 2015.

The park charges Rs 20 for students and Rs 50 for adults. "Special discounts are given to school students," he said.

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Over 1 crore renewable energy certificates unsold at IEX

NEW DELHI: Showing continued sluggishness in the renewable energy certificates market, more than one crore such certificates remain unsold at the power bourse IEX, even as the government aims to boost green energy generation in the country.

Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are aimed at providing an easier avenue for various entities, including power distribution companies, to meet their green-energy obligations.

One REC is equivalent to 1 MWh of electricity generated from renewable sources.

However, the trading of these certificates on Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) has remained sluggish. The exchange accounts for over 90 per cent of the domestic electricity trading market.

IEX Director (Business Development) Rajesh K Mediratta said the inventory of RECs has been ever growing since the inception of the market as demand for them is fairly low.

"As on date there is an inventory of 1.22 crore unsold RECs, therefore all stakeholders including renewable generators are losing out due to the unsold quantum of RECs in the market," he told PTI.

In the last fiscal (2014-15), just about 30.6 lakh RECs were traded on the exchange whereas 96 lakh such certificates were available. Out of the total certificates available, 2.5 lakh were retained by the renewable energy generators for their own use.

Out of the total RECs traded, there were 1.6 lakh solar certificates and 82 lakh non-solar ones during the period.

According to Mediratta, the main reason for lower demand is the lack of interest shown by obligated entities in meeting their RPO (Renewable Purchase Obligation).

"The future of REC market is directly dependent on how effectively State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) enforce compliance of RPO by the obligated entities," he said.

In recent times, the exchange has been seeing interest from few voluntary buyers of RECs.

"Under increased focus on renewable energy with target of 170 GW (1,70,000 MW) by 2022, it is more important to ensure RPO compliances. Therefore, despite its weak markets, it makes sense to strengthen by ensuring compliance of RPO through RECs," he said.

Interestingly, the government aims to add 1,00,000 MW solar power capacity by 2022.

Under REC mechanism, an entity can generate electricity through renewable resources in any part of the country. The generator receives the cost equivalent of electricity produced from any source while the environment attribute is sold through the exchanges at market-determined price.

At present, there are two power exchanges in the country — IEX and Power Exchange India (PXIL).

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Eco-friendly cremations gaining acceptance in China

BEIJING: Cremation of the deceased instead of traditional practice of burials is gaining increasing acceptance in China with nearly 50 per cent of the dead being cremated last year to promote environmentalism and save land.

Of the 9.77 million Chinese who died last year, 4.46 million, or 45.6 per cent, were cremated, the ministry of civil affairs (MCA) said today ahead of the traditional tomb sweeping holiday during which Chinese pay respect to dead family members.

The world's most populous nation is promoting eco-friendly burial and funeral practices ahead of the traditional Qingming holiday, when Chinese pay respect to deceased family members.

April 5 is observed as the tomb sweeping day in China for which the government declared a holiday.

Burials are popular in China due to the traditional belief that bodies have to be kept intact.

The ministry is encouraging people to choose land-saving and eco-friendly burials, including scattering ashes around trees and flowers or into the ocean, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The ministry has also said it will regulate burial service fees.

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Koramangala lake to be restored by May

BENGALURU: Vigilant citizens successfully ensured that a water body is not allowed to die by design so the tank bed is not usurped by land sharks. Mestripalya lake in Koramangala, which was all but lost to encroachment, on Friday stood testimony to citizen activism as elected representatives took stock of the situation.

Bengaluru in-charge minister R Ramalinga Reddy and MP Rajeev Chandrashekar were accompanied by members of the Koramangala resident welfare associations. The residents pressured the elected representatives to complete the work by April-end.

Reddy promised to ensure the government allots an additional Rs 8 crore for beautification, and that cleaning and rejuvenation work is completed by the end of this month.

Rajeev said, "At a time when lakes in the city are being encroached by land sharks, this is a perfect example of how citizen, government and MP partnership ensured Mestripalya Lake does not meet the same fate. The lake bed was almost given away to land encroachers, but is now being reclaimed.."

Looking into the past

The lake is spread over 17 acres, and 300 acres around it was acquired by the government in the 1980s to develop Koramangala layout. A dispute arose over the lake land when the BDA attempted to obtain 6.2 acres to form a layout and allot sites to six legislators.

In 2005, residents filed a petition in the high court against the BDA's move to form a layout. In December 2006, the high court passed an order directing the BDA and the government not to allot the disputed land to any person until further orders. The apex court took over the issue and declared the BDA as owner of the lake in 2010. The Authority took up a rejuvenation project in 2013

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Himalayan vulture makes a comeback in the Aravalis

NEW DELHI: The Himalayan griffon vulture, a threatened species was recently spotted in the Aravalis along Gurgaon-Faridabad highway, near Mangar Bani sacred grove. While the Griffon may have been spotted in the 1990s in NCR by some birders, its sighting is nevertheless very exciting, they said.

Vultures in Indian cities and towns showed a steep decline since the 1990s possibly due to Diclofenac poisoning from cattle carcasses they fed on. Some birders say they are making a quiet comeback even while studies claim that juvenile vultures that migrate from central Asia, Mongolia, China and others pass through India. Even during their short stay here, they are affected by Diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.

The use of Diclofenac in cattle is now banned, but birders say people continue to use it on the sly. Studies by the Bombay Natural History Society in the 1990s found that vultures were possibly dying of kidney failure triggered by Diclofenac. Asad R Rahmani, director of BNHS, said it's a welcome sighting. "They do migrate to plains and are spotted on and off" but what is shocking is that Rahmani's team has spotted a trend in these sightings. Only juvenile vultures are spotted often in India, not adults.

"The new generation or juveniles are coming here and dying in the wintering areas. The adults stay back and survive because Diclofenac is not used in their country of origin," he said. Rahmani said the loss of juveniles can be very detrimental to the population of vultures as a whole. "The only solution is to effect stringent implementation of the Diclofenac ban," he said.

Faiyaz A Khudsar, scientist in-charge at Yamuna Biodiversity Park, said there are many reports of juveniles being spotted in India, and occasionally in northern India now. "The Himalayan griffon, the white-rumped vulture and the long-billed vulture are worst affected by Diclofenac. While some may be affected by poisoning, these birds are now being seen as they come down from the hills. Even though these are migrant species, it is important that they have been spotted in the Aravalis," Khudsar said. Recently, a Himalayan griffon vulture was also spotted near Lansdowne forest division.

Jitender Dhir, a birder who spotted the species earlier last month, said these sightings call for protection of the scrub forests near Mangar. "Egyptian vultures are also dependent on this region due to availability of naturally available wild carcasses as well as human-dumped cattle carcasses. The nesting of Egyptians has been confirmed in the area. Presence of scavengers like the vulture signifies the importance of the area as a healthy ecosystem. The Griffon is being spotted the first time after 1991, according to members from the Delhi bird group," Dhir said.

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Tourists allowed to enter core area of tiger reserve at night

UDHAGAMANDALAM: Wildlife activists are up in arms after a group of tourists entered the core area of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in the Nilgiris and took out a night safari with the help of forest officials on Wednesday. They continued their stay in the reserve, taking shelter in an anti-poaching camp near Wombetta lake in Kargudi range. Activists demanded to know how the visitors gained entry into the core area of a tiger reserve during night hours when forest officials themselves are not allowed inside.

The visitors, from Theni and Coimbatore, are relatives of a few friends of one of the MTR officials, sources said. Entering the core area of a tiger reserve without proper permission and purpose and staying overnight amounts to an offence under the Wildlife Act 1972, official sources confirmed. Recently, the Tamil Nadu forest minister was denied entry into MTR during night hours as per norms of the tiger reserve.

"When such is the case, an eight-member group was allowed deep inside forest area for night rides. The group stayed overnight at a shed meant for anti-poaching watchers located at Wombetta Lake in Kargudi range in the reserve," said a wildlife activist, seeking anonymity. "Without the connivance of officials, the visitors could not have gained entry," he said. Wildlife in the forest core area cannot be disturbed with human activity and the act is highly condemnable, said the activist.

When contacted, field director of MTR and Mukurthi National Park, Srinivas R Reddy, who is camping at MTR, told TOI, "No visitors are allowed inside the core area of the reserve. Strict systems are in place and forest officials in the MTR are aware of the norms". With an area of about 312 sq km, the MTR, one of the oldest tiger reserves in the country, houses four to five guesthouses located in fringe areas for the benefit tourists as well wildlife enthusiasts. Besides, daily vehicle safaris and elephant rides are also organised.

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Some ants have more taste for human food than others

NEW YORK: It's not just people who love the food in New York City. So do certain ants.

The most common species of ant found on the pavements of New York City and in cities around the world has a taste for human food; more than other ant species found primarily in parks and other green spaces, a study says.

"The ants that live alongside us in our cities also seem to be those same species that can eat the same food that we do, and do so the most,'' said Clint Penick, a post-doctoral fellow at North Carolina State University and lead researcher of the study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The researchers gathered up samples of more than 20 species of ants from the sidewalks, medians and parks of Manhattan, and tested them to see how much of a particular carbon isotope was in their bodies. That isotope is linked to corn and sugar cane found in much of what people eat, from meat to junk food. Researchers determined that ants eating more human food would have higher isotope levels.

The ant with the highest levels was the pavement ant, Tetramorium species e, which researchers said is the predominant ant on city sidewalks and medians. Among the samples, ants that were from park areas had lower isotope levels than ants that were taken from street medians.

Eating human food could be an advantage for the pavement ants, allowing them to thrive in areas where their natural diet of dead insects and things might not be so prevalent, Penick said.

"Humans bring a ton of general resources,'' he said. ``The species that can take advantage of these resources the best, sort of wins.''

Penick said further research would look into whether the ants have a preference for human food even if their natural food sources are available.

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Mice sing like songbirds to woo mates

WASHINGTON: Male mice sing surprisingly complex songs to seduce females, similar to songbirds, according to a new study.

For more than 50 years, it has been known that mice sing. They emit what is called 'ultrasonic vocalisations' or USVs, sounds so high-pitched that people can not hear them.

These vocalisations are known to occur in the wild when a mouse pup calls for its mother. And USVs grow more complex as mice reach adulthood.

But researchers are still trying to decode the songs and determine how they vary across different social situations.

The new results add to evidence suggesting that although mice have a more limited ability to modify their songs than songbirds, they may be useful in research to understand some features of vocal communication and communication disorders, said co-corresponding author Erich Jarvis, an associate professor of neurobiology at Duke University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Duke postdoctoral fellow Jonathan Chabout exposed adult male mice to different social contexts, and developed a new computational approach for analysing mouse songs.

Informed by their analyses of male songbirds' courtship songs, the team studied the dynamics between the various syllables in a given mouse song, defined as a series of utterances or syllables strung together, sometimes with a tempo.

The team found that males sing more complex songs - and louder - when they smell a female's urine but don't see her. By comparison, the songs are longer and simpler when the males sing directly to the female in her presence.

"We think this has something to do with the complex song being like a calling song, and then when he sees the female, he switches to a simpler song in order to save energy to chase and try to court her at the same time," said Jarvis.

"It was surprising to me how much change occurs to these songs in different social contexts, when the songs are thought to be innate," Jarvis added.

"It is clear that the mouse's ability to vocalise is a lot more limited than a songbird's or human's, and yet it's remarkable that we can find these differences in song complexity," said Jarvis.

Within a given song, the mice produce specific patterns rather than random strings of syllables, Chabout said.

Most female mice prefer spending time by speakers playing the complex tunes. The fact that the females reacted differently to the different songs further strengthens the group's conclusion that these various calls carry meaning, Chabout said.

The study appears in the journal Frontiers of Behavioural Neuroscience.

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