INDIA
The Municipal Corporation of Indore, Madhya Pradesh, has been awarded the green city award by the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO), a public sector company. The award was given to the civic body for its efforts to initiate people to plant trees, harvest rainwater and keep the city clean.
The Beas is one of the most polluted rivers in the western Himalayas according to a study by environmental experts. The civic bodies of Manali, Kulu and Bhuntar contribute to more than 80 per cent of the pollution, allege the experts.
A special legislation for the Chilka lake in Orissa will soon take effect to make this largest brackish water lagoon of Asia free from encroachments and illegal prawn fishing.
The Andhra Pradesh government has prepared an action plan for the cultivation of medicinal plants on an area of 1.6 million hectares. Officials of the state forest department and the vana samrakshana samitis (forest protection committees) will be involved in the task.
Sunderlal Bahuguna, leader of the Tehri Bandh Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti, and 50 villagers were recently arrested. Bahuguna and the villagers had been agitating against the Tehri dam because of which the dam's construction work had come to a halt. He was later released on May 3, 2001, with an assurance that the rehabilitation issue pertaining to the dam would be resolved within three months.
The authorities have recently recovered 25 skins of leopards and tigers from poachers in separate raids at Kanpur and Lucknow.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has set up a task force to take care of garbage and unhygenic conditions in all its 12 zones.
The Union ministry of environment and forests recently passed a directive banning further construction of the Nathpa-Jhakri power project in Himachal Pradesh. The ministry's officials allege that the Nathpa Jhakri Power Corporation Limited ( njpc ), which is executing the project, has overlooked important issues related to the Forests and Environment Acts.