Lack of fencing in a portion has made corporation's job very difficult

Two years back, the Corporation embarked on an ambitious project of providing scientific cover for decades-old garbage at its Vellaikkal dumping yard. It helped the Corporation from preventing environmental pollution, especially groundwater pollution. Under the project, over 10 lakh tonne of garbage scattered on the 110-acre of land, accumulated over 40 years, were heaped like a small hillock in one of the corners of the dump yard.

A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court Bench here to forbear the Public Works Department from carrying out sand quarrying operations along the stretches of rivers Cauvery, Amaravathi and Kollidam flowing through Namakkal, Karur, Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam districts.

When the case came up for hearing before a Division Bench comprising Justice R. Banumathi and Justice G.M. Akbar Ali on Monday, the judges adjourned the case to July 9 as the lawyers representing the PIL petitioner, B. Juliaan (31) of Lalgudi Taluk in Tiruchi district, were not present in the court due to a boycott call given by one of the advocates’ association.

It was accused of causing a loss of over Rs.2 crore to the exchequer

The Madras High Court Bench here has dismissed a couple of writ appeals filed by a rough stone mining company challenging two show cause notices issued to it by the Tuticorin Collector in September last year for recovery of Rs.2.42 crore being the cost of mineral quarried more than the permitted limit, seignorage fee and penalty.

A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court Bench here seeking a direction to the Kodaikanal Municipality Commissioner to preserve the 64 acre lake in the hill station from being polluted by drainage water let out by private bungalows as well as government offices located around it.

The petitioner, S.A. Mahendra Babu of Tamil Nadu Environmental Council, a non-governmental organisation, alleged that private water lorries were drawing the polluted water from the lake and supplying it to residential houses as well as Mother Teresa Women's University.

New Delhi: Poor economic conditions and volatile markets are now taking a toll on the highway sector, which had so far been an outlier in an economy where activity had slowed down considerably over

Wildlife officials have submitted a proposal to the State Government to create a new tiger reserve in the existing Grizzled Giant Squirrel sanctuary in Srivilliputhur in Virudhunagar district.

Shekhar Kumar Niraj, Conservator of Forests, Virudhunagar Circle, says that in the recent population monitoring exercises, tigers were sighted frequently in the sanctuary's middle and upper ridges. In the recently concluded census, participants sighted an adult tigress with two of her cubs in the foothills of Rajapalayam Range of the sanctuary.

The jatropha puzzle has finally been solved.

In 2005-06, most of the districts in the State were abuzz with the talk of jatropha. In press conferences, the then District Collectors, especially in those adjoining western and eastern ghats, talked of largescale jatropa plantations as the oil extracted from its seeds (blended with diesel up to 20 per cent) could be used as a substitute to petroleum diesel.

MADURAI: With the state reeling under a severe power crunch, the Madurai Corporation has started focusing on energy generation from alternate measures such as solar and bio-ethanol.

Subsidy for the scheme increased by 10 per cent

National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has enhanced its support to a Central Government scheme to promote solar power. To promote commercial marketing of solar accessories, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), had launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission with subsidy for solar lighting and small capacity photovoltaic systems, which would be routed through NABARD.

Farmers' protesting against the State Government's proposal to take over around 1,500 acres of “fertile” land for an industrial park would get a fillip when social activist Medha Patkar would join them to highlight their plight on Monday.

Along with Ms. Patkar, the national convenor of National Alliance of People's Movement, G. Nammalvar, organic scientist, would participate in a protest meeting on Monday, said the secretary of Madurai District Farmers' Welfare Association, M. Ramalingam.