Environment

PMC officials said that in the last two years, particularly when roads were being developed for the Commonwealth Youth Games, widening of at least 12 major roads was taken up

A day after the Bombay high court (HC) refused permission to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to cut trees for road widening until three times the number of trees are planted, the garden department has pulled up its socks.

Department officials are taking stock of the number of trees that have been felled for major road widening works in the last few years. Reminder letters have also been sent to the road department, asking it to provide plots for the planting of saplings wherever trees have been axed.

Speaking to TOI, PMC's assistant garden superintendent Ashok Ghorpade, however, insisted that it was a routine procedure followed by the department. "In some cases, plots were not provided to the garden department to plant saplings. The plots are to be identified by the road department. It is for such cases that we issue reminder notices," Ghorpade said.

Sources in the department, however, admitted that the action had been prompted by the Bombay high court's directive. "Following the HC order on Wednesday saying that trees should be cut only after planting of three saplings in exchange, we are making sure that the rule is followed in the past cases as well so that the PMC's record on this front is clean," an official said.

Source: Times Of India Provide land to plant trees, road dept told

At the heart of the guidelines is the "one ward, one Ganapati" motto. This means that only one `sarvajanik' (public) Ganapati should be installed in each municipal ward.

The government has further asked the civic bodies to form a committee comprising representatives of Ganapati mandals, social groups and police officials to take measures to curb river pollution.

Besides, the civic authorities have been asked to create temporary ponds for the immersion of idols. The list of temporary ponds should be made public so that citizens can utilise the facility, the guidelines state. The public should also be urged to ensure that no pollution is caused due to immersion of idols or `nirmalya' (floral offerings) in the river. Separate arrangements like `nirmalya kunds' should also be provided, the guidelines add.

The municipal bodies have been further asked to collect and dispose of all items around rivers, lakes and other water bodies within 24 hours. They can take the help of social organisations and womens' self-help groups to produce organic manure from the nirmalya.

The civic chiefs have been directed to organise public awareness programmes in each ward to make citizens aware of the issue and the measures being taken by the corporation. Various programmes also have to be organised in schools and colleges to create awareness.

The government, in its guidelines, has mentioned that a public interest litigation has been filed before the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court on the river pollution caused due to immersion of idols. It has also pointed out that the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, in September 2005, had suggested a code of conduct to ensure environment - friendly immersion of idols.

"Many of these areas have reached their limits and the situation in not under control as of now," Ramesh said on Thursday after releasing the findings of a survey on pollution levels in industrial clusters.

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"I am of the view that fresh industries should be put on hold and there should be a moratorium on expansion till pollution-control actions are put in place," he said.

The survey, conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) and the Central and state pollution control boards, found 75 of 88 industrial clusters to be extremely polluted.

According to the study, titled Comprehensive Environmental Assessment of Industrial Clusters, 10 industrial clusters scored at least 80 out of 100 in a pollution index (alarmingly polluted); 33 scored between 70 and 80 (critically polluted); and another 32 scored between 60 and 70 (seriously polluted).

"The high levels of pollution and its relation with public health is a serious concern", Ramesh said.

Source: Live Mint HEAVY POLLUTION - Environment Minister Wants Halt On Industrial Clusters' Expansion

The decision, taken to prevent further degradation of environment due to plastic, will come into force once the state government gives it a final approval.

At the GB, standing committee chairman Nilesh Nikam congratulated all corporators for unanimously supporting the decision. He said the decision assumes significance as it comes a few days after the Copenhagen summit.

Use of plastic bags of all sizes and shapes will soon be banned in the city. The general body (GB) meeting of the Pune Municipal Corporation on Wednesday approved a resolution enforcing a complete ban on use of plastic bags.

The decision, taken to prevent further degradation of environment due to plastic, will come into force once the state government gives it a final approval.

Source: Times Of India Complete ban on plastic bags in Pune soon

The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) has decided to streamline the garbage collection system in the cantonment area through door-to-door waste collection.

A committee under the PCB Chief Health Superintendent has been set up to formulate a detailed plan for the same within 20 days.

The decision to appoint a committee was taken in the general body meeting attended by PCB president Brig Rajbir Singh, Chief Executive Officer DK Malik and other elected and nominated members. It will be incorporated with the `Ghanta Gadi' project for garbage collection in which special vehicles were planned to go from house to house to collect garbage every day.

"The committee will look into various aspects of waste collection and also various ways to streamline it.

The viability of the project has to be scrutinised.

The committee will determine the collection process of door-to-door degradable and biodegradable wastes and local collection points.

The route and timing of collection also has to be finalised," said Brig Rajbir Singh, president, PCB.

He suggested in the meeting that there should be a public stake in the project so that people would be more responsible and have a serious outlook towards the project. "The board can charge the nominal monthly amount from each house for the collection of waste. The Pune Municipal Corporation is already following this method," he said.

Source: The Indian Express PCB mulls door-to-door waste collection in cantonment area

The `clean development mechanism' is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol, allowing industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries.

"The whole process of getting carbon credits is confusing and complicated. One has to know the methodology," Valsa R Nair Singh, state secretary (environment), told TOI.

SAVING THE EARTH

• India contributes 378 clean development mechanism projects (CDM), of which Maharashtra's contribution is 41. Out of this 41 projects, 34 are from `energy industries' sector and the rest are from energy demand, energy distribution, fugitive emission from fuels and manufacturing industries.
  
• Sellers of carbon credit: Companies and countries with a demonstrable emission reduction potential that is relatively cheap compared with other companies or countries.
  
• The CDM allows global greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced at a much lower global cost by financing emission reduction projects in developing countries, where costs are lower than in industrialised countries.
  
• Buyers of carbon credit: Companies and countries that may become subject to emission reduction commitments and have relatively high costs to reduce emissions domestically
  
• The CDM is supervised by the CDM executive board and is under the guidance of the conference of the parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board was providing the professional help, she said. "After the ongoing Copenhagen summit on climate change, we hope to get many more projects."

The MPCB proposes to set up 20 new air quality monitoring stations and 150 water quality monitoring stations. If the plan materialises, the state will have 80 air quality monitoring stations from the existing 60 and 400 water quality monitoring stations from existing 250, said Valsa Singh Nair, principal secretary for Environment Department.

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The government currently measures air pollution levels in 120 cities across the country. The new monitoring stations will be set up in three months time, added Nair. Though the norms for pollutants already measured have been tightened and made uniform across residential and industrial areas, as is done in most countries, at present there is no mechanism to take action against the wrongdoers, added Nair.

Closer home, environmental experts say that Pune is one of the most polluted cities in the country.

P K Mirashe, regional officer of MPCB, said the MPCB monitors surface water and ground water locations through its 250 stations. The monitoring network covers rivers, creeks etc. In Pune and Chichwad areas, the MPCB has 5 air quality monitoring stations and 11 stations for monitoring water quality.

The garden department noticed rampant felling of trees in and around the Pashan lake on Friday. Speaking to TOI, garden superintendent Ashok Ghorpade said, "I went there on Friday and took pictures of the trees that have been felled, a notice will be sent to them in a couple of days."

"I believe that the ARDE is building a compound wall in the area and a JCB excavator was used to remove the trees. About 20 to 22 trees have been felled. The ARDE should have taken permission before removing the trees. A panchanama has been prepared in the matter."

When contacted, an ARDE official said that the establishment was not aware about any such damage being done to the trees. "We have no information on the damage being done to the trees near Pashan lake. Many times, our works are done through sub-contractors, but nobody has brought to our notice such damages," Kashinath Deodhar, divisional head, Futuristic Technology, and a spokesperson of the ARDE, told TOI. "However, we have informed the officers concerned to look into the matter," he added.

Source: Times Of India Trees cut: PMC to send notice to ARDE

The atlas explains, among other things, the reasons for air, water and noise pollution in the district, particularly in the urban settlements. The objective is to facilitate better planning and steps to protect the environment, MPCB officials say. Most of the information is based on statistics collected by various official sources till 2004.

The major urban settlements in the district, including the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal areas, eleven municipal councils and the Pune, Khadki and Dehu Road cantonment boards, are the main contributors of domestic sewage pollution.

Discharge of sewage in the Mula-Mutha river from settlements in and around Pune has resulted in localised degradation of river water quality. River water quality downstream from these settlements has also been affected.

Source: Times Of India Pune district gets environmental atlas

Under a new “ scientific” renumbering of highways worked out by the ministry of road transport and highways, the Srinagar- Uri highway will now be known as the NH- 1.

Similarly, the existing NH1 Delhi- Wagah will be divided into two highways. The road from Delhi to Jalandhar, which is a part of the North- South Corridor, will be NH- 44. The Jalandhar- Attari road will be part of the NH- 3.

Keeping in view the new system, no separate numbers have been proposed for Golden Quadrilateral, North- South and East- West corridors. Numbering of these routes will be based on the new system. The Delhi- Mumbai- Chennai route that has over 10 different numbers along the route will be NH- 48. Chennai- Kolkata road which had stretches such as NH- 60, 6, and 5 will be NH- 16, while Kolkata- Delhi will change from NH- 2 to NH- 19.

While the North- South Corridor which runs from Srinagar to Kanyakumari will be the longest corridor running over 4,000 kilometre and will be called NH- 44, the East- West Corridor ( from Porbander to Silchar) will be NH- 27.

Source: Mail Today Highways to get new tags

"The aim is to reduce environment as well health hazards. We are discussing the matter with other governing bodies to check the legal aspects before imposing the ban. We will also approach the state government, discuss the minimum thickness of plastic permissible and decide the date of ban. The board members are also seeking guidance from environmentalists," said Brig Rajbir Singh, president of PCB.

During these interactions, the PCB will gather information regarding plastic materials that can and should be banned. "A lot of plastic material, mostly poly bags, choke sewage pipes. This is one of the causes for water-logging in PCB areas. It finally leads to problem of contaminated water and health hazards," said PCB elected member Shailendra Bidkar.

Bidkar said the pipelines in PCB areas belong to the British era. Besides they are small so even a small piece of plastic gets stuck in the pipes.

The ban will be monitored by the Nuisance Prevention squad, whose work is supervised by PCB's revenue department. "The squad will primarily spread awareness among users and encourage them to stop using poly bags. It will also keep an eye on retailers and big shopkeepers who distribute polythene bags," said Chitra Gokhale, Chief Revenue Superintendent.

The proposed 11.2-km BRT route will begin from Kalewadi phata road on Aundh-Ravet road and will terminate at Dehu-Alandi road. The PCMC plans to widen this road to 45 metres by cutting 544 trees. A 200-year-old banyan tree near Dhangarbaba temple in Kalewadi,which provides shade to temple visitors, also faces the axe.

PCMC garden department chief Suresh Salunke told TOI that, though the engineering department has sought permission to cut 544 trees, only 398 trees will be cut. "The remaining ones will be transplanted. We will also try to save the 200-yearold banyan tree."

Salunke's assurance, however, failed to pacify environmentalists and local residents.

Vikas Patil, president of the environment preservation committee, said: "There should be minimum cutting of trees. Efforts should be made to transplant all the trees.It is the duty of the PCMC to protect the trees."

Source: Times Of India Activists flay PCMC's plan to cut trees to facilitate road-widening

• The PMC ESR says the civic body can consider sourcing water from the Bhama Askhed dam, the Ravet bund and from the Mutha river. It also says around 30 MLD water can be lifted from the Ravet bund

• The Pavana dam stands on the river in Maval taluka

• Talegaon and Dehu Road cantonment, MIDC and a dozen villages depend on the dam

• The PCMC has started work on laying a water pipeline from Nigdi to the dam at a cost of around Rs 400 crore

• The PCMC lifts 340 MLD water from Pavana. It is working on Phase IV, which will result in another 100 MLD

Source: Times Of India PCMC unwilling to give water to PMC

City engineer Prashant Waghmare said, "As of now there is no concrete policy to restrict dumping of construction debris. The PMC is putting in efforts to formulate some policy so that the construction debris is not put in river beds or vacant spaces in the city."

Last month the issue of debri dumping in Sangamwadi ward office area on the banks of the Mula-Mutha river came to the fore. The municipal corporation assured action against the culprits and also appointed a committee to probe the matter. However the builders and developers who approached the PMC asked the building permission department if PMC could provide some space for debris dumping.

"We are speaking with solid waste management department officials. As of now some debris would go to Urali Devachi for land filling purpose and then we have to locate other sites. It is a big task and we are working on it," said Waghmare.

"The PMC should formulate a policy as indiscriminate dumping continues in hilly areas and river basins," said civic activist Rajendra Shende.

Meanwhile, the civic administration has cleared the debris at Mula-Mutha and municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade has asked ward offices to be vigilant to avoid repeat on such incidents. The municipal corporation has slapped notices to ward officers and zonal commissioners who were posted at Sangamwadi ward office in last few years. Once the process to reply to notice takes place the PMC will initiate further action in the case.

The states had accumulated the amount through the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), which collects compensation from firms or states whenever they convert forest land for use of non-forest work. Minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh thanked the apex court for "breaking this seven-year deadlock".

"The CAMPA money had been lying with the states for the past 7 years, but now we will finally be able to use it to renew the degraded forest cover. This money cannot be used for planting trees but only regenerate the forest cover," Ramesh said.The SC and the ministry have worked out guidelines on how to use CAMPA.

Source: dnaindia.com Rs11,200 crore to help paint India green again