A tremor of light intensity was experienced in parts of Tamil Nadu, but there were no reports of any casualty or damage, Met officials said today.

Air quality too, to be monitored at five spots, during Deepavali

It’s a busy time of year for officials of Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB). A week head of Deepavali, they have begun measuring levels of noise and ambient air quality at five places in the city. Monitoring stations have been established in thickly-populated areas like Besant Nagar, T. Nagar, Sowcarpet, Nungambakkam and Triplicane to collect dust samples before, during and after the festival. According to an official, noise levels will be recorded for six hours every evening and pollution levels, every 24 hours from 6 a.m.

Says immersion of Vinayaka idols has polluted the Mookeneri Lake

Taking moral responsibility that he was not able to save the picturesque Mookeneri Lake, here, from a bunch of polluters, who immersed idols of Lord Vinayaka, made of plaster of Paris and toxic dyes in it, a Salem-based environmentalist V. Piyush Sethia, Convener, Salem Citizens’ Forum, which resurrected the lake into a throbbing water spread that was once a PWD’s cesspool, ‘surrendered’ before a Salem judicial court here on Monday.

A total of 192 star tortoises that were seized while being smuggled out of the country have found a new home in the Sathyamangalam forests.

A total of 497 tortoises were confiscated in different incidents and handed over to Arignar Anna Zoological Park at Vandalur near Chennai for rehabilitation. The Forest Department, in association with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), carried out the rehabilitation process at the zoological park for a few months.