One of the water bodies in the city that is used as a transit point in the city’s water supply system, Porur Lake, is crying for attention and could do with a good dose of cleaning.

Located beside the Mount-Poonamallee Road and with a flyover dividing it, the lake, spread over an area of around 200 acres, surprisingly makes for a picturesque view when viewed at a distance. Move closer and the harsh reality reveals itself.

The National Biodiversity Authority and the Division of Nature Management, Norway have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish the first ever Centre for Biodiversity Policy and Law

The National Green Tribunal (NGT), Southern Bench, on Monday refused to entertain a plea from the Pallavaram Municipality to allow it to dump garbage in the Pallavaram ‘Periya Eri’ till the establishment of a solid waste management facility at an alternative site is completed.

The bench ordered the filing of a status report on the alternative arrangements being made by the authority to consider any action in the issue.
When the matter came up for hearing before the bench of judicial member Justice M Chockalingam and expert member Prof R Nagendran, N R Chandran, senior counsel representing the municipality, said that consent had been obtained to establish a solid waste management facility at a site in Venkatamangalam.

To achieve its goal of ensuring water security in the city, the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) is planning to conduct a detailed audit of the rainwater harvesting system across Chennai. This comes in the wake of Metro Water preparing a contingency plan to ensure uninterrupted water supply to the city as water levels in reservoirs are slowly dipping.

The development regulations of the CMDA states that rainwater harvesting is mandatory on all premises. The rainwater harvesting structures installed during the AIADMK regime in 2003 helped increase the ground water level in the city, as per a Metro Water monitoring report in 2011.

Recalling that the IAMWARM Scheme was being implemented since 2005 with financial assistance from the World Bank, the CM said, the corrected estimate of the scheme was Rs 2,816 crore.

Vellore MP Abdul Rahman has urged the Union Minister for Environment and Forest Jayanthi Natarajan to devise a plan to reverse the damage to the ecology of the Palar river basin using the proven bi

The government has announced its intention to promote roof-top vegetable gardens across the State. This is to be achieved through the provision of do-it-yourself kits and technical support.

What you toss out as organic waste from your homes may feed gardens! In a novel effort, a youngster in Chennai has created an equipment that converts organic waste into manure in 21 days.

Abdul Kani, son of railway employee, D Khaleel, finished his MBA at 2005 from Indian School of Management. He got a job at a leading private bank for the monthly salary of Rs 30,000. Like every youth, Kani also enjoyed a corporate lifestyle. However, after three years of working in a routine job, he decided that he wanted to do something to do different — and quit, to take up a social cause.

Tamil Nadu is facing an acute power crisis today and this is an opportunity for rural people to turn to solar energy to tide over the crisis, said Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Chairperson, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Addressing an award function organised by the Rotary Club of Madras East (R I District 3230) here on Wednesday, he said, “When global warming is a major concern these days, it is important to shift our views on renewable energy resources.”

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India had standards regulating 350 food commodities and plans were afoot to bring in more commodities under the purview of the regulating body, according to chairman of FSSAI K Chandramouli.

Speaking during the launch programme of ‘Food Safety for all’, a mass contact education programme on food safety, standards and unsafe food, Chandramouli said that FSSAI was planning to increase the list of food commodities so that it corresponded to international level.