Pune Bachao Samiti - a citizens' group has decided to approach the national green tribunal to raise issues pertaining to the development plan (DP) for the old city areas.
"The committee has several objections regarding details given in the development plan about the existing land use and proposed land use. Our objections are related to infrastructure such as roads and water bodies, which are going to impact the environment. So the committee have decided to raise these issues before the national green tribunal," said the members of the committee, while speaking to reporters.
Pune: The drought-hit Kamkhera village in Beed taluka is all set to try rainwater harvesting, hoping it would end the dry spell. Half the wells in this village have dried up and villagers here have now invited Pune-based Paranjya to help set up two rainwater harvesting plants.
Paranjya, that has introduced several residential societies in Pune to rainwater harvesting as an effective technique to conserve water, will travel to Beed on May 13 to educate villagers on its benefits.
PUNE: The rising temperature and shrinking water stocks in Marathwada region has forced the authorities to increase water supply by tankers.
As many as 1,875 tankers are supplying drinking water to 1,646 villages and 749 hamlets in Marathwada. A week back, 1,413 villages and 743 hamlets were receiving drinking water from 1,733 tankers. Now 142 additional tankers have been deployed for supplying drinking water to 1,646 villages and 749 hamlets, stated the report of the Marathwada divisional commissionerate.
Survey Part Of Countrywide Study At Tiger Reserves For Exact Count Of The Cats
Pune: The state forest department has captured images of more than 141 fully grown tigers in Maharashtra’s four tiger reserves and their surrounding areas. The ‘camera-trapping survey’ that is going on across protected areas in the country to estimate the number of tigers is now its fourth phase and officials in the state said they have carried it out in the tiger reserves of Tadoba- Andhari, Melghat, Sahyadri and Pench.
Pune: City-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology officially launched its second ‘System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) - Pune’ for Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad on Wednesday. Other facilities such as ‘air quality and weather assessment and data on hitech-digital India’ (AWADHI) — a one stop-shop for metro air quality information was also launched.
In addition to it, an ‘interactive voice response (IVR) service’ was also introduced, where citizens of Pune can get the current and 24-hour advance forecast information on air quality and weather of Pune and Delhi just by dialing a toll free number.
PUNE: As many as 3,184 villages and 7,650 hamlets are facing severe water shortage in the state, according to the latest report generated by the state government.
About 3,793 tankers are currently supplying drinking water to these villages and hamlets periodically. Most of these villages and hamlets are from eastern part of western Maharashtra and Marathwada.
PUNE: Water expert Rajendra Singh on Tuesday said that the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad civic administrations need to draft a policy to restore rivers passing through city areas.
He also stressed on the need to restrict encroachments on river beds which hamper flow of water and said that many rivers in Maharashtra were in a pathetic condition and the government needs to take steps to restore them.
Over 2,000 Fires Reported, Many Were Deliberate, Says State Forest Department
As many as 2,420 fires spread through 24,000 hectares of the state’s forest area in 2012-13, resulting in an estimated loss of Rs 19 lakh, the latest statistics available with the state forest department showed. In the previous year, they consumed 72,247 hectares. On an average over 42,000 hectares caught fire annually between 2005 and 2013, and the burning, in many cases, was intentional, officials said.
Pune: The reaudited report of the National Bank for Rural and Agricultural Development (Nabard) on the Rs 52,000-crore agriculturaldebt waiver and debt relief scheme (2008), shows that loan amounts of about 3,000 farmers from Kolhapur, who owed Rs 2 lakh each, were waived when the ceiling was set at Rs 1 lakh per farmer. The cumulative amount of such non-eligible farmers stood at Rs 58 crore.
The infection rate of swine flu continues to hover around 10%, scientists at the National Institute of Virology (NIV) here said on Thursday. This means, of the total suspected H1N1 patients, 10-15% are testing positive.
Since January, 76 of the 345 swine flu patients in the state have succumbed to the infection, making for a mortality rate of 22%. Pune city has reported 172 cases and 22 deaths so far this year — a mortality rate of 12%. Among the 76 casualties, the highest, 59, have occurred in March and April alone.
