Reply filed by the Director, Environment-cum-Special Secretary, Forest, Environment and Climate Change Department, Odisha and Member Secretary, Odisha Coastal Zone Management Authority, May 1, 2025. NGT, had registered suo motu in response to the news item in the Hindu, May 4, 2024 titled "Swell waves likely to strike coastal areas …
after two commercial banks agreed to extend credit to consumers and guarantee loans for import of equipment, Uganda has started installing solar units for its long awaited solar rural electrification programme. The technical aspect of the pilot project will last three years. It is expected to cost us $1.7 million. …
in an attempt to combat air pollution Shanghai will provide natural gas to 2.4 million households. The whole exercise will cost the government us $48 million. The project will be first implemented in the Pudong development zone, where around 100,000 houses will switch from converted from traditional coal gas to …
The concept paper describes the problems of the city of Agra and the anxeityy of the Hon'ble Supreme Court articulated in the various orders passed in connection with the Writ Petition (Civil) No. 13381/84-M.C. Mehta Vs. Union of India & Others. The paper also goes on to describe the various …
the energy crisis that raised its fearsome head in the 1970s is not really over yet. Threatening to bring the industrial world to a grinding halt, it finds new guises to sustain itself. The two billion people across the globe for whom clean, safe and cheap fuel remains inaccessible can …
A prototype fuel cell that can turn every household into a mini power station has recently been developed at Keele University in Staffordshire, UK. Chemist Kevin Kendall and his colleagues have incorporated a ceramic battery into a conventional gas-powered water heater. Free electrons produced by the combustion of natural gas …
CAN YOU imagine a self-sufficient village that meets it energy, fertiliser, pesticide and food requirements on its own? And all these from cow dung? The answer may be yes, if cow dung is used to its full potential. Its utility ranges from powering a bulb to repelling pests. It is …
Fuel cells have been around for decades. Now, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto, California, USA, has developed new fuel cells of the size of a gas furnace, which look like a main-frame computer. According to the EPRI, the cells will supply electricity to homes for !ess …
An improved smokeless stove has been found to cause less health complications than the traditional three-stone stove. The Stoves and Household Energy Programme of the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) in Kenya has launched a campaign to promote this stove. A study conducted in rural Kenya has shown that acute …
ever thought of living in a house that might be smarter than you are? Well, get ready because soon enough, your room could be giving you a few tips on better living. Aficionados of science fiction will recall how, years ago, authors such as Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury had …
The firewood crisis has not resulted in a forest crisis. For years, energy experts and foresters have believed that the poor will eat away the forests of the developing world like locusts in order to meet their ever-growing firewood demand. But how much do we really know about the poor …
Given this background, the results of the latest survey on firewood consumption pattern in India's rural areas published by Natarajan in 1995 are quite stunning. This survey generated data for the year 1992-93 whereas the last comprehensive energy consumption survey conducted by the ncaer had presented data for 1978-79. No …
The question today, therefore, is: Is the rosy picture presented by the ncaer survey of 1992-93 equally applicable to these areas? The 1991 census also shows that states with large tracts of hills and mountains like the Northeastern states and those with dry regions like Rajasthan are still heavily dependent …
One factor that no study has been able to analyse is to what extent the farmers of India have reacted to the firewood crisis and started to grow trees on their farmlands and private fallow lands or protect their forests. Surely, one would expect a rational economic response from farmers …
Pacific Solar of Australia plans to develop a novel concept in solar technology that could allow solar panels to be plugged directly into the standard 240 volts (V) wiring system of a house
british researchers have developed a solid-fuel stove that produces the same amount of smoke as generated after burning costly "smokeless' fuels. The stove can burn wood, peat and coal. It could be of immense use for those who are forced to depend on solid fuel and those who want to …
GADOLINIUM is one of the more obscure rare-earth elements. But it has a strange property that could prove useful: when put into a magnetic field, it heats up; when demagnetised, it cools down. Researchers at the Iowa State University in the us are using this effect to create a new …
Now people can have the comfort of a fireplace in their homes without having to worry about air pollution, Superior Fireplace Co of California, US, has designed a natural-gas fireplace which gives natural bright yellow flames of a traditional wood fire, unlike other such units which burn with a blue …
Rural households in India usually rely on lanterns for lighting. But the quality of a commonly used hurricane lantern is abysmal. It produces light equivalent to about one-tenth of that produced by a 60 watt (W) electric bulb. Another type of lantern in use
To study the association between ambient air pollutants (AAP) and respiratory symptoms complex (RSC) in preschool children, a cohort of 664 children between the ages of 1 month to 4.5 yr were randomly selected from 28 slums (anganwadi centres) of Lucknow, north India. They were followed up fortnightly for six …
