Experts have pointed out the need to set up an environmental surveillance centre for Vembanad lake with statutory powers to check the increasing pollution in the lake.

AGRA: Agra district authorities have ordered the closure of an engineering college near a bird sanctuary for violating environmental laws, an official said on Thursday.

District magistrate Zuher-Bin-Sagir asked the wildlife department to seal Anand Engineering College, on the periphery of eco-sensitive Soor Sarovar Bird Sanctuary on the Delhi-Agra highway, 20 km from here, an official said.

The Autonomous Authority Will Regulate All Activities Affecting Vital Water Bodies

Gandhinagar: Waking up to the need for conserving the state’s wetlands and lakes, the Gujarat government has decided to constitute a first-of-its-kind Wetlands and Lakes Regulatory and Development Authority. An official associated with the formation of the new authority said, “Wetlands and lakes, both have great ecological and socio-economic importance but as of now they are encroached, damaged or heavily polluted. Hence there is a great need to protect these crucial water bodies.”

There is a ray of hope for hundreds of urban waterbodies, victims of urbanisation and industrial pollution. A combination of bio-ozolyte treatment process and bio-remediation adopted by the State government to save the Ooty Lake, can be used to recover these polluted water bodies.

According to officials, phosphorus and nitrogen are responsible for the rapid growth of water hyacinth, that has invaded many water bodies. The bio-processes will increase the dissolved oxygen (DO), by bringing down the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD). DO improves quality of water and replenishes life in water bodies.

Hyderabad: There has been a spurt in real estate activity in several villages covered under the GO 111 which restricts development in the 10-kilometre radius of twin water bodies of Osmansagar and Himayatsagar.

Besides increase in transactions by 10-15 per cent, the local registration and revenue offices are flooded with enquiries by realtors about relaxation of stringent norms of construction in 84 villages covered under the GO.

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.

Bangalore University’s Department of Environmental Science has claimed that it has developed a “green” method to clean up nearly 90 per cent of all pollutants in the City’s lakes.

Scientists at the department explained that their project, titled the ‘Green and eco-friendly technology for treating waste water entering into wet lands of urban Bangalore,’ aims at resuscitating all polluted lakes and water bodies in the City. They added that their system was superior to the existing method used by the government, which boasts of only 50 per cent efficiency.

A large area of the freshwater lake has turned grassland threatening the Ramsar site

The State’s largest freshwater lake and one of the 26 Ramsar sites in the country, Sasthamcotta Lake in the district is fast becoming a grassland.
While there are frequent government announcements of substantial fund allocations for conservation measures, nothing seems to be done for the lake which has been drying up fast since the last one decade

CHENNAI: Chetpet lake, the only surviving water body in the heart of the city, has been an eyesore for years, with dense vegetation, garbage from nearby slum tenements and free flow of sewage from