Govt asks AP guv to use powers in Scheduled Areas to cancel bauxite lease in Maoist area
For the first time, the Centre has urged the governor to use his special powers in Scheduled Areas to cancel bauxite mining leases given in Andhra Pradesh’s Vishakhapatnam district.

The city’s water problem is turning acute as a large number of borewells have dried up, with experts attributing the worsening situation to the absence of rainwater harvesting (RWH) structures. Hyderabad’s residents primarily depend on groundwater for all purposes barring drinking and cooking. With the groundwater table depleting fast, experts said the main villains are the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and the Water Board, the two civic agencies that failed to implement the RWH pits scheme.

The project, which will cost about $225 million, will be set up in about 18 months Welspun Group, the country's largest solar power developer, has won a 125 MW solar photovoltaic project in Madhya Pradesh, a top company official said today.

"We bid Rs 8.05 per unit to bag the 125 megawatts (MW) out of 200 MW that was auctioned by the Madhya Pradesh government," Welspun Energy Ltd Managing Director Vineet Mittal said here.

“The wild tiger continues to remain endangered the world over”

As many as 32 tigers have died this year, even as latest official data showed an increase in the population estimates of the big cats. Of these, 18 were natural deaths, Environment and Forests Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said. Expressing concern over the endangered status of the tiger the world over, Ms. Natarajan on Tuesday said the Ministry was looking into the reasons for the deaths.

A three-day National Elephant Census will begin on May 22 in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa, simultaneously.

The synchronised census, taken up once in five years, will be conducted throughout the country, following a directive issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Unlike the Elephant Reserve Census, where enumeration is restricted to counting of pachyderms in reserve forests, the synchronised census will be conducted in forest, non-forest, reserve and non-reserve forest areas (landscape-wise), said Ajay Mishra, Chief Conservator of Forests, Project Elephant, Karnataka.

With the mercury on a steady upward drive, officials of the forest department are back to solving the poser thrown up at them every summer: How to provide water to the animals and birds in the state’s forest areas and, more importantly, protect them from poachers and hunters. With 22 wildlife sanctuaries and four national parks covering 12,579.205 sq km, or 4.57 per cent of the state’s area, the work is not exactly child’s play.

The tigers are roaring in different parts of the state, their numbers being significantly up, according to preliminary reports from the ongoing census of the big cats. The reports, based on camera traps and pugmarks, are coming in from different tiger reserves, sanctuaries and national parks to the state’s wildlife wing. Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR) alone has so far reported the presence of at least 78 tigers, including cubs. Wildlife officials at Atchampet division reported the presence of 17 tigers, a record of sorts.

The construction industry in Andhra Pradesh has come to a grinding halt following imposition of ban on sand mining by the high court to protect the riverbeds from indiscriminate exploitation of the natural resource. While the court stuck to its directive in the interest of the environment, there is a growing sense of restlessness in the construction industry over the adverse impact of the non-availability of sand on the projects in real estate, irrigation, housing and other sectors.

Around 30 per cent of the groundwater resource in the state is unfit for both drinking and agriculture, a fact that has sparked concern in the groundwater department authorities since water sources in the state are receding at an alarming rate. Salinity and fluoride contamination are the main reasons for the water becoming unsuitable for irrigation and drinking. Dr K. Venugopal, joint director, groundwater department, said that there are as many as 36 saline mandals and a huge area with high flourine content in water, posing health hazards due to fluorosis.

Hyderabadis are victims of perpetual noise pollution according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board. Data pertaining to ambient noise level from continuous monitoring stations set up by the CPCB concludes that the city residents are subjected to high noise levels at all times.

These stations set up at five different locations show that irrespective of the location, whether residential, commercial, or sensitive zones, and irrespective of the timing, i.e, day or night, readings are way above the safety standard and can thus have dangerous impacts on people’s health. In April, the average noise level in Jubilee Hills,