Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated a "super site" and a mobile van which will collect pollution data in realtime and tell its constituents.
Delhi became the first city in the country to get a realtime source segmentation of air pollution that will help in identifying factors responsible for increase in air pollution at any place in Delhi.
The super site facility is located at Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya premises near ITO. The project was initiated by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) in collaboration with IIT Kanpur, IIT Delhi, and TERI.
Based on the data, this super site will also assist in forecasting air pollution levels enabling the government to deploy its resources to combat pollution.
Jan 29, 2023
South Africa in Deal to Send Dozens of Cheetahs to India
In an attempt to increase the population of Cheetahs, India struck a deal with South Africa wherein the latter will send dozens of African cheetahs to India over the next decade.
Notably, the first batch of eight Cheetahs was brought in from Namibia in September 2022 and were released at Kuno National Park by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was the first time wild cheetahs were moved across continents to be released.
These cheetahs came back to India after the species was declared extinct in the country in 1952.
As per reports, an initial batch of 12 cheetahs is scheduled to be flown from South Africa to India in February 2023. The plan is to translocate a further 12 annually for the next eight to 10 years.
Vertex Hydrogen, a part of the Essar Group, signed a "heads of terms" offtake agreement for over 200 megawatts of low-carbon hydrogen with Tata Chemicals Europe (TCE).
In June 2022, Tata opened the UK's first industrial scale carbon capture and usage plant. The £20 million investment captures 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year—the equivalent of taking over 20,000 cars off the road.
Under the new offtake agreement, Vertex will supply TCE with hydrogen as the manufacturer continues to decarbonise its operations in the UK with a target of achieving "net zero" manufacturing by 2030.
Jan 25, 2023
Bihar Inks MoU with FSI for TOF Field Survey to Promote Agroforestry
To encourage tree plantation on farmland along with crops to help farmers get additional income, Bihar government in association with FSI decided to conduct 'Trees Outside Forest' (TOF) field survey to identify the dominant tree species that are growing outside the recorded forest areas (RFA) in the state.
As per the Forest Survey of India (FSI) India state of Forest Report, 2021, Bihar registered an increase of 3.79 per cent in growing stock in RFA and 0.58 per cent in TOF respectively.
The overall tree cover also increased in the state from 2,003 sq km in 2019 to 2,341 sq km in 2021. The FSI survey was conducted by using remote sensing based forest cover mapping of all patches of more than one hectare within and outside the RFA.
The TOF field survey, for which a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the FSI is expected to start from April.
"The survey, which will be completed in two months, will cover all 38 districts.
Jan 24, 2023
Chandigarh Gets North India's Largest Floating Solar Power Project
Chandigarh UT Administrator Banwari Lal Purohit inaugurated northern India's largest floating solar power project of 2000kWp worth Rs. 11.70 crore at waterworks, Sector 39.
The inauguration was held in the presence of MP Kirron Kher. He also inaugurated a 500kWp floating solar project with fountains at Dhanas Lake. Adviser Dharam Pal, director (environment) Debendra Dalai and Mayor Anoop Gupta were present on the occasion.
These projects were designed and executed by CREST (Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science & Technology Promotion Society) and will generate a minimum of 35 lakh units (kWh) of solar energy per year with 20% module efficiency.