The West Bengal environment department has taken action against 85 industrial units in the State for disposing the sewage coming out of these units into the rivers, including the Hooghly.

Man-elephant conflict in seven forest divisions in three districts of south Bengal resulting in the loss of human lives and pachyderms is emerging as a major challenge for foresters and the distric

A census of rhinoceros will begin at the Gorumara National Park in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district from Wednesday.

Security arrangements have been stepped up and a strong vigil on the bursting of crackers beyond the permissible limit is being kept for Diwali.

Kali Puja was observed in various parts of the State at temples and at community pujas. Marquees were put up to celebrate the festival in the city and its vicinity. Serpentine queues of devotees were seen since morning outside the famous Kalighat temple as well as the Dakhineshwar temple on the outskirts of the city, along the banks of the Hooghly river.

West Bengal’s first wildlife safari displaying the mega fauna of north Bengal is proposed near Siliguri in Darjeeling district, senior officials of the West Bengal Zoo Authority said on Monday.

The West Bengal Human Rights Commission directed the State’s Pollution Control Board here on Thursday to inquire into complaints by residents of a multi-storey building in the city’s Park Street area claiming they are facing health hazards due to installation of mobile phone towers on the roof of the building.

Residents of Karnani Mansion on Park Street had registered a complaint with the Commission this past week. “We have directed the Pollution Control Board to conduct an inquiry by a competent authority and submit a report to us within three weeks,” West Bengal Human Rights Commission joint secretary Sujay Kumar Haldar told The Hindu .

The first of the (2x600-MW) thermal power plants of the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) at Raghunathpur in the State’s Purulia district, which was delayed by over 18 months due to land acquisition problems, will be commissioned by March 2013, senior officials of the company said here on Sunday. The second unit will be commissioned six months later.

The project has been delayed mainly because of the non-availability of land for the construction of water pipeline for the project from Panchet Dam about 10-km from the project site.

The Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, that has been struck down by the Calcutta High Court as “unconstitutional and void” was described by Governor M. K. Narayanan here on Monday as one of the “most progressive items of legislations” passed by the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

Mr Narayanan was speaking at an event to mark the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of the Assembly where he referred to the Singur Act as well as the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, Act, 2011 moved by the Trinamool Congress-led government and passed in the House as the most important legislations.

While hospitals and medical colleges in West Bengal are grappling with frequent cases of infant deaths, the State Health department has issued a directive to all State-run hospitals to conduct an in-house inquiry in the event of three or more infant deaths on a single day.

Minister of State for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya told The Hindu on Wednesday that the directive was issued to make sure that there was no negligence by hospital authorities in providing treatment to newborns.

The spectre of infant deaths continued to haunt government hospitals in West Bengal, with 19 cases reported in Malda and Bankura over the past two days. While nine infants died in the Malda Medical College and Hospital, 10 children were reported dead in the Bankura Sammilani Medical College and Hospital.

The babies who died in the Bankura hospital were “suffering from pneumonia and birth asphyxia, while some had low birth weight,” superintendent Panchanan Kundu said.