Maharashtra is one of the highest users of tobacco in the country with 43 per cent adult males and 19 per cent adult females addicted to it.

The findings were published in the Global Adult Tobacco Survey in Maharashtra released here on Friday. According to the survey, the average age of daily initiation to tobacco is17.9 years in adult males and 21 years in adult females.

Mumbai Tata Power has put on hold all new imported-coal-based projects, its chief financial officer said, warning that it would be a challenge for the company to meet its target of a five fold increase in generating capacity by 2017.

The country’s power generators have been slow to add much-needed capacity due to fuel shortages, delayed regulatory clearances and debt-crippled distribution utilities buying less power.

The Mumbai Police has written a strongly worded letter to the state government, complaining that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been dragging its feet on allowing the police to prosecute those booked for illegal construction under the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning (MRTP) Act.

Sources said with over 200 MRTP Act cases registered over the past year-and-a-half still pending with the Mumbai Police, they have demanded that the BMC be directed to promptly take a decision on approvals for prosecution.

The Navi Mumbai international airport project seems to be running into one obstacle after the other, this time with the clearance from the forest department hitting a roadblock just when it was on the verge of approval.

The department, which was supposed to receive 250 hectares land in compensation of the same amount of land it has given for the project has pointed out that 56 hectares, is forest land itself, which therefore cannot be accepted. Moreover, the alternative land it has suggested has run into opposition from the villagers.

In the extreme north-eastern end of Mumbai limits, mangroves close to the vast expanse of slums in Mankhurd’s Cheetah Camp area are being destroyed at an alarming rate even as repeated complaints by residents have fallen on deaf ears. Nearly 400 new shanties have been built illegally by reclaiming mudflats and cutting mangroves spread over an area of at least 55 acres in the past two years.

Residents believe that ‘slumlords’ are able to do this with the connivance of the local police and BMC officials while the forest department and the collector’s office turn a blind eye.

Maharashtra government is contemplating a ban on gutka and pan masala products, Deputy Chief Minister and senior NCP leader Ajit Pawar said here today.

"It does not matter even if we face a loss of Rs 100 crore in tax from gutka and pan masala. Compromising with the lives of the youth is unacceptable. We will soon bring in a legislation in this regard," Pawar said.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to quantify the environmental damage caused by the sinking of the Panama-owned vessel MV Rak, which sank off the coast of Mumbai last year.

Not only did the sinking of MV Rak result in a massive oil spill but 60,000 metric tonnes of coal was dumped into the ocean following the sinking.The NGT has also issued notices to Mumbai Maritime Board, the Maharashtra state government and the ship’s owner Delta Shipping Maritime Services with the latter being asked to pay for the damages caused to the marine ecology due to the oil spill.

To reclaim tree cover lost to encroachment, the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) will plant 15,000 trees of various species this year, including the state flower Jarul.

The park has set a target of planting 15,000 trees of native species such as Bamboo, Sembal (Cotton tree), Karanj (Indian Beech), Jarul, Banyan and Teak by the year-end. “It is part of habitat improvement and maintaining the forest cover by plantation in the areas freed by removing encroachments. It is basically reclamation of degraded land, what we call reboisement plantation,” said Sunil Limaye, chief conservator of forests (CCF) and director, SGNP.

With work on the Middle Vaitarna Dam nearing completion, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) should ideally start work on its next dam project in the near future.

However, confusion over whether the civic body will be taking up the Pinjal project or the Gargai project first has caused long delays. The BMC will finally begin work on the Gargai project in 2014. A primary feasibility report on the project is yet to be submitted, almost two years after a consultant was appointed.

Coral - Rekindling Venus by Australian filmmaker Lynette Wallworth, released at the Nehru Planetarium here on Wednesday, throws light on the coral ecosystem and its role in combating global warming.

The film was released in full dome planetariums worldwide, including Mumbai, to mark the Transit of Venus and World Environment Day. It depicts the life cycle of a coral through vivid footage of fluorescent coral reefs as well as bioluminiscent sea creatures and other rare marine life most threatened by climate change due to warming sea temperatures.