Finding it difficult to dispose of the biomedical waste generated in your home? The Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) offers you a solution.

It has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) for collecting biomedical waste from apartment complexes in the city and to treat it at the Indian Medical Association’s Goes Eco-friendly (IMAGE) plant.

First State to form BMCs

The government has formally declared the constitution of Biodiversity Management Committees in all the 978 grama panchayats, 60 municipalities, and the five Corporations in Kerala, signalling the shift to a broad-based system for the conservation of biological resources.

Addressing the media after a Cabinet meeting here on Wednesday, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said Kerala had become the first State to have completed the formation of BMCs in all local-self government institutions

The Rs.20,000-crore Muthoot Pappachan Group, which has a minor wing doing business in alternate energy, is keen on investing in a big way in the wind energy sector in Kerala, especially over the Ramakkalmedu ridges on the Western Ghats in Idukki district, the group’s chairman and managing director Thomas John Muthoot has said.

Talking to presspersons here on Thursday, he said the group had invested more than Rs.150 crore in wind energy so far, generating 25 MW in Tamil Nadu. According to his group’s assessment, Kerala had a wind energy potential of nearly 2,000 MW. The places most ideal for wind energy stations are Ramakkalmedu in Idukki district and Kanjikode and Attappadi in Palakkad district.

First 30-MW project to come up in Palakkad in six months

The State Cabinet on Wednesday gave the green signal for setting up solar projects in various parts of the State with a combined generation capacity of 330 MW. Addressing a press conference soon after the weekly Cabinet meeting here, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the solar project would be established by the Korean company Hanjong Energy and Technology Pvt. Ltd. The company had promised to provide power at Rs.3.25 a unit or in accordance with the power tariff fixed by the Kerala State Electricity Regulatory Commission, whichever was less.

Complaints of overexploitation of groundwater

The Assembly Committee on Environment, which visited the bottling plant of PepsiCo at Kanjikode on Tuesday, directed the Groundwater Department to monitor and restrict strictly the use of groundwater by the company. The committee, on complaints from various organisations that the soft-drink giant was overexploiting groundwater, asked the department to examine if the company was tapping groundwater in excess of the permitted quantity. The complaints said the overexploitation was lowering the water table, affecting the drinking water sources of the local people.

Elaborate arrangements have been made to monitor restaurants, hotels and other food businesses within the State and also the inflow of food items from outside the State during the festival season, Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar has said.

Special surveillance squads had already been deployed for the purpose in all districts. Checking had been made more stringent in the border check-posts of Amaravila in Thiruvananthapuram district, Aryankavu in Kollam district and Meenakshipuram and Walayar check-posts in Palakkad district, the Minister said on Sunday.

The Southern Ispat steel re-rolling company was closed down on Friday following an order of the State Pollution Control Board (PCB) for not complying with rules on pollution control.

The company’s licence had expired on June 30, PCB officials said. The company was served notice earlier after local people complained it was letting out polluted water into paddy fields. They also complained of air pollution.

The Forest Department on Friday submitted before the Kerala High Court that the Cherunelli estate in the Nelliampathy forest region has been notified as reserve forests.

According to the state, 296 acres are notified as reserve forest. The state further submitted that in an order dated January 20, 2006, the state had made it clear that any transfer of lease land by way of assignment lease or gift attracts the Forest Conservation Act, and hence lessees cannot have any absolute right to transfer the forest land to strangers.

The area around forests has had several human-animal conflicts

Solar fences will henceforth secure human settlements and farmlands in the three forest divisions of Wayanad from wild animal raids that have lead to several man-animal conflicts in recent years. Solar fences will be installed along a length of 300 km in the forest divisions of Wayanad North and South and the wildlife division, says K.J. Varghese, Managing Director, Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC).

Solar fences will henceforth secure human settlements and farmlands in the three forest divisions of Wayanad from wild animal raids that have lead to several man-animal conflicts in recent years.

Solar fences will be installed along a length of 300 km in the forest divisions of Wayanad North and South and the wildlife division, says K.J. Varghese, Managing Director, Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC).