Oil companies engaged in drilling and exploration activities, power projects, coal and cement industries, besides developers of national highway in both public and private sectors have emerged as major environmental violators in the North-east. In a Question Hour discussion on Tuesday, Minister of State for Environment and Forest Jayanthi Natarajan allayed all apprehension over violation of environment norms in construction of dams in the North-east.

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Ecology Commission (GEC) in association with the World Around You (WAY) launched a new initiative called 'Study to identify good environment-friendly practices in Gujarat'- to identify, acknowledge and document practices that have proven capacity and have made significant contribution towards saving environment.

A K Verma, member secretary of GEC said, "Nowadays, we see that people care about environment. We intend to bring forward efforts that have made significant contribution towards saving environment. It will also inspire other people and organizations to join hands and adapt such practices".

The 3,000MW NTPC-Kaniha power station which consumes about 55,000 tonne of coal per day has introduced various environment friendly steps to control both water and air pollution strictly as per the norms of state pollution control board.

According to the plant authorities, this ultra modern plant is equipped with electro static precipitator having efficiency of more than 99% for controlling air pollution. The details of emission and environment related data of the plant are scrutinized by government authorities from time to time.

The LPG import terminal project of IndianOil Petronas Pvt Ltd (IPPL) near Chennai that can help in speeding up cooking gas supplies to millions of households in the South, especially Tamil Nadu, is facing delay in its commissioning for want of a clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment.

The Ennore terminal had been completed in all respects and was got ready for commissioning by March itself, say sources in Indian Oil Corporation.The wait, according to IPPL officials, is for the CRZ (coastal regulation zone) clearance from the Ministry for the pipelines connecting the jetty at the Ennore port and the terminal. A length of 675 m is falling in the CRZ zone, they add.

The green bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court has imposed a penalty of Rs 100 crore on Jaiprakash Associates Limited for setting up a mega cement plant with means the court described as deceitful, besides a captive, thermal power plant without clearance. The court has allowed the 1.75-million-tonne cement plant to stay but ordered dismantling of the 60MW power plant.

Transact method being adopted

With the recent wildlife census in the North Division of the Nilgiris Forest department having revealed that the population of most of the wild animals was healthy, a two-day census got under way in the South division on Monday.

Speaking to The Hindu, the District Forest Officer, Nilgiris South, Anurag Mishra said that it was being conducted by forest officials with the help of volunteers from the World Wide Fund (WWF) of India and the Nilgiris Wildlife and Environment Association (NWLEA).