CB BureauWhile students
are pledging to do their bit towards conserving the environment by giving up
crackers on Diwali, the government has been busy justifying their move to sell
conserved green land that acts as the national capital’s lungs. And yes, there
was another research report that said Delhi had the highest amount of air
pollution.
Here’s a
roundup of news that moved around the environment (which means yet another
month gone).
Okhla Bird Sanctuarylooks like a desert
The Hindustan Times reported that theOkhla
Bird Sanctuarynow looked
like a desert with a cracked waterbed and few birds of prey flying around. The
Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to release all water from theOkhla barragehas not just driven away birds but it
may also be impacting otherwetlandflora
and fauna. TheUP irrigation departmentclaims
water has been released to carry out maintenance. The forest department says it
was not consulted before releasing the water.
Birders who visit the sanctuary regularly say it
is a bad idea to release water in October, when migratory birds start arriving.
‘Earlier, maintenance work was carried out between April and May. Why release
water at a time when birds from Central Asia and Europe come to the sanctuary?
A lot of local birds must also have flown away,’ said Anand Arya, photographer
and birder. He added that rampant encroachment around the sanctuary had
degraded the eco-system. ‘The Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary in Haryana managed to
notify its eco-sensitive zone (ESZ), unlike the UP government,’ Arya told the
newspaper.
The National Green Tribunal recently ordered all
illegal construction work within a 10 km radius of the sanctuary to be stopped.
Real estate projects had started construction activity within the sanctuary’s
potential eco-sensitive zone, in violation of the norms.
It is to be noted here that of
over 320 bird species
recorded in the sanctuary, about 10
species were of threatened birds including critically endangered.
Housing project and hospital
on Delhi ridge; National Green Tribunal seeks probe
The National Green Tribunal has sought the response of
the centre and the Delhi government on a plea against the use of 250 acres of
forest land in Ghitorni in southwest Delhi and the adjoining Ridge area for a
residential project having about 10,000 housing units.
The bench has issued a notice to ministry of environment
and forests, central public works department (CPWD), National Building
Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCCL), Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and ministry
of urban development, seeking their responses on the project by October 28.
The court was hearing an application
filed by senior advocate Raj Panjwani, who is assisting the tribunal as amicus
curiae in cases related to non-forest activities in the Aravali range.
The National Green Tribunal, in
September, had asked Panjwani to file a petition against Delhi government’s
failure to protect the Ridge forest.
On hospital
The Hindustan Times in September had
reported that the government was planing a 225-bed hospital on a 7.1-acre ridge
patch at Chattarpur and had sent the proposal to the Ridge Management Board
(RMB) for clearance.
In a strange argument, defending the
project, the Delhi government had said in the court that construction of a
hospital on the ridge at Chattarpur in South Delhi, adjacent to a water body, would
make the project look ‘serene’.
While the DDA has failed to confirm who
owns the project land or the water body, the site has been fenced and two
private guards have been hired to guard it.
The project involves widening a dirt
track to a 100-foot approach road to the hospital. The government has admitted
that the proposed road runs through the ridge. A water body located close to
the project site is also at risk.
WHO report underlines Delhi as air
pollution hotspot
Even as World
Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) declares
air pollutionas
a major cause of cancer, we have air quality data of the Indian
government’s pollution watchdog, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), for
2010″ the last one in the
series of such reports on air quality across the country – which shows that
Kolkata and Delhi are among the worst affected cities in terms of air
pollution.
A Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)
report pointed to a forecast of the National Cancer Control Programme which
said more than 1.4 million people would suffer from some form of cancer in
India by 2026. It also said that out of a total number of cases reported during
2009″11 in Kolkata for 20 types of cancers, lung cancer had the highest share
of 12 per cent.
Rain and flash floods have pushed back
development works in Uttarakhand
Rain and flash
floods have pushed back development works in Uttarakhand by decades and the
challenge at the moment is to build smarter projects without impacting the
fragile environment of the hilly region, said World Bank’s country director Onno Ruhl.
‘In Uttarakhand, the challenge is to build
smarter, so that they do not undermine the fragility of the environment,’ Ruhl told PTI after the approval of a $250-million
credit for the rehabilitation work in the state by the World Bank’s board in
Washington.
He said the project would focus on both
reconstruction and disaster preparedness in the state, which was hit hard in
June by rain and landslides that killed more than 580 people.
‘This project will incorporate lessons from
previous national and global post-disaster recovery projects to ensure that
recovery is targeted, effective and more resilient to future disasters,’ Ruhl
said.He said the assistance would
help the government of Uttarakhand with immediate relief efforts by building
houses and public infrastructure, including small roads and bridges.
India had sought assistance from multilateral
agencies like World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) for undertaking
rehabilitation work in Uttarakhand. ADB, too, is expected to finalize its
assistance package.
Differentiating cloudburst from a cyclone, Ruhl
said preparedness was critical in an Uttarakhand-like situation. He stressed that ‘In a mountain area,
given the less chances of predictability, it has to be even faster than in the
case of a cyclone. I think that’s a clear target for us to focus on … That’s
difficult but not impossible. Other countries have learned how to do this.’