Bangalore: Toyota Kirloskar Motor, in pursuance of its strong commitment towards ensuring balance in environment, organized a reforestation drive at the Bannerghatta National Park. Toyota gives top priority to environment management and is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at all stages of vehicle life cycle, including development, design, production, logistics and sales as well as in all business areas.

The event witnessed participation from 600 TKM employees with their family, along with 150 students from Delhi Public School, Bangalore South, and 100 members from the Karnataka Forest Department. About 500 saplings were planted by the members who participated in the noble cause to spread awareness on conservation of native ecosystem and contribute towards reducing the carbon footprint. A fully grown tree can roughly sequester 20kg of CO2 per year and generates about 118 kgs of oxygen per year. Human being  uses about 550 litres of pure oxygen per day. A single mature tree can release enough oxygen to support 2 human beings.  Planting trees and restoring the green is one of the most effective means to reduce carbon emissions. Dr Sunil Panwar, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Karnataka Forest Department, Bannerghatta National Park, Mr.Raju B Ketkale, Senior Vice President, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Mrs. Manju Sharma, Principal Delhi Public School, Bangalore South, were the dignitaries present at the afforestation drive.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor initiated a large scale afforestation drive in the year 2009 by planting 36000 saplings in a single day involving all its stakeholders to develop a greenbelt within its boundaries. TKM has planted around 2,65,000 saplings involving team members with the unique Japanese Miyawaki method. The plant at Bidadi has been designed in line with the Eco factory concept at Toyota.  The company has undertaken unique environment friendly initiatives in the manufacturing facility like water based painting to reduce VOC emissions, low CO2 footprint technologies like Servo machines, vermi-composting for waste minimization, biogas plant to reduce LPG usage and rain water harvesting to reduce fresh water consumption.  The water recycling & rainwater harvesting efforts at TKM manufacturing unit ensure least dependence on Freshwater/River water ensuring sustainable community.  The rain water harvesting structure with a storage capacity of 25000 m3 was constructed, which has helped in saving consumption of 60000 m3 of freshwater last year.  Moreover, through consistent efforts TKM has achieved a reduction of 8000 tons of CO2 compared to last year.

Toyota has decided to challenge itself to reduce vehicle CO₂ emissions to ZERO in comparison with 2010 levels, by 2050. From fuel efficient vehicle to developing ground breaking technology, TKM focuses on environmentally sustainable solutions in every business operation and every vehicle that is manufactured. Toyota also works towards increasing Hybrid vehicles in India. Hybrid technology is one of the finest examples of green future which minimizes the usage of existing exhaustible resources. The company boasts of a rich lineage of over 15 years in hybrid with over 8 million hybrid cars across the globe

According to a recent analysis done by the Centre for Ecological Studies at the Indian Institute of Science, in the last 40 years Bangalore has seen a phenomenal increase of 625% in built up area and the vegetation of the city has seen a decline of an alarming 78%.  The rapid urbanization has led to the alarming depletion of green cover in the city which as has resulted in human-wildlife conflict and dangerous levels of toxic matter in the atmosphere.

Mr. Raju B Ketkale, Senior Vice President, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said “Environment Conservation is inherent in the Toyota culture. We have been constantly investing our efforts to establish a society where human and nature coexist in harmony. With the rise in global warming and the impending environmental pollution increasing day by day, it is not just imperative to create necessary awareness, at the same time, one needs to action out measures like these, along with the involvement of the community. He also went on to stress the importance of conservation of biodiversity stating that “during the evolution of earth, species like plants, insects, animals inhabited the earth much before the humans did. We humans have only evolved at a much later stage however, we have been responsible for destruction of most of the life forms for our selfish needs.” In addition to creating awareness, we also involve our employees physically in afforestation drives, environment month promotion and other Eco CSR activities with an intent to bring a sense of ownership towards the environment”

Speaking on the occasion Dr Sunil Panwar, Deputy Conservator of Forests, stressed on the importance of reforestation to avoid human animal conflicts which is prevalent currently around the sprawling Bannerghatta forest reserve. He went on to say “As human populations expand and natural habitats shrink, people and animals are increasingly coming into conflict over living space and food”. Further he said “People lose their crops, livestock, property, and sometimes their lives. The animals, many of which are already threatened or endangered, are often killed in retaliation or to ‘prevent’ future conflicts”. He emphasized that public must join hands with the forest department to save & preserve the biodiversity that we are left with”

New Delhi; Around 89 per cent of the country has received normal to excess rainfall, owing to a good amount of monsoon in several parts.

Overall, the country has recorded 254 mm of rainfall from

June 1 to July 10, as against 251 mm, which is one per cent more.

Met Department said 26 per cent of the country has received excess rainfall, while the 63 per cent witnessed normal rainfall.

Only 11 per cent has received deficient rainfall.

Regions like Marathwada and Vidarbha, which were affected by severe drought, have received good amount of rainfall.

East and West Madhya Pradesh too have been witnessing some good rains with the region recording 78 and 66 per cent of more rainfall than its normal limit.

Met Department said conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into remaining parts of Kutch and West Rajasthan during next 48 hours.

Weatherman has predicted heavy rain in parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Maharashtra, Goa, Coastal Karnataka, Kerala, Uttarakhand, West Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,

Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.

Hyderabad : CREDAI, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India, country’s apex body of private real estate developers, as a part of their CSR initiative organized a “Tree plantation drive” in Association with Govt. of Telangana and planted 1,00,000 saplings at Hyderabad central University campus. CREDAI has also pledged to maintain all these trees at the Hyderabad Central University Campus for the next 3 years.  Chief Guest -Prof. P. Appa Rao & Dr. B. Janardhan Reddy, IAS, Commisioner, GHMC in presence of Shri S. Ram Reddy, Dr. M S Ananda Rao, Shri. G Anand Reddy, Shri. Aditya Gowra, Shri. Murali Krishna Reddy, Shri. Ramakrishna Rao, Shri. C G Murali Mohan, Shri. V Rajsekhar Reddy, Shri. Kacham Rajeshwar, Shri. K Anil Kumar Reddy, Shri. M Narsaiah, Shri. S Narendar Reddy, Shri. P Mahender Reddy,  Shri. B Pandu Ranga Reddy Shri. N Chandra Sekhar,Shri. Kothapalli Rambabu, Shri. K Raghunatha Reddy, Shri. Aditya Venigalla, Shri. S Sunil Kumar Reddy, the other members of the CREDAI along with their staff and families and the NSS volunteers participated in the tree plantation program with great enthusiasm.

As the time available was short, this massive plantation required meticulous planning and project management skills and mobilization of special purpose machinery for clearing the bushy growth, for deep ploughing and for drilling one lakh pits, transporting the saplings from distant two nurseries, as at one nursery sufficient saplings were not available. CREDAI divided the allocated land into a number of sectors. Each sector is further divided into sub-sectors, and each such sub-sector was allocated one supervisor and volunteers from amongst the staff of CREDAI members to ensure preparation and planting of saplings. The saplings of different varieties of trees suitable for the environment in Hyderabad were sourced from Tellapur HMDA nursery and Shamshabad Nursery. One sapling was placed next to the pit to ensure smooth execution of the mega plantation drive

Speaking on the occasion Shri. S. Ram Reddy President, CREDAI Hyderabad said, “We have planted 1 Lakh saplings in the allocated land at Hyderabad Central University Campus and we believe we are the single largest private body to plant 1 Lakh saplings today. The teams of CREDAI volunteers have planned the exercise to perfection and closely monitored  the progress to ensure a seamless execution today and we are pleased to have successfully achieved the plantation objective. We have not only planted these trees, we are also going to maintain these trees for the next 3 years till they are self sustaining. We are proud to be associated with Telanganaku Haritha Haram and overwhelmed by the success of the programme today.”

Adding to this Mr.P. Ramakrishna Rao, General Secretary, CREDAI Hyderabad, said, “Telangana Ku Haritha Haram” is a noble initiative by the Government of Telangana State and we fully support the Government in this massive drive to plant 25 Lakh trees on a single day. We got the land for the plantation on 15th June 2016. Since then CREDAI projects team worked round the clock to ensure the necessary preparations were done. Today we havesuccessfully planted 1 lakh saplings at Hyderabad Central University Campus. Our members have mobilized their staff, engineers, workers from their project sites to be part of this mega drive and helped make it successful. We would also like to thank the NSS Volunteers and the Hyderabad Central University Dean and staff for the help and support extended facilitating the seamless execution of the plantation drive.”

Adding to this Mr. G Ram Reddy, President, CREDAI, Telangana said, “Telangana Ku Haritha Haram” is a mega initiative to build a green cover in Hyderabad and its neighboring areas. This will significantly improve the environment and have a long lasting impact on the city. We appreciate the government for their vision to organize Telanganaku Haritha Haram, this will further improve the environment and quality of life at Hyderabad.”

Mumbai: More than 10,000 school children, teachers, civilians, civil servants and eco warriors participated in an initiative organized by Kokuyo Camlin and the 130 BN Eco Task Force and also the forest department of Uttarakhand to plant 10 lakh saplings in a single day to make the Kumoan Hills green once again.  The 130 BN Eco Task Force have been assigned by the Government of India to fight deforestation in the hills of Uttarakhand.

The plantation activity was taken up by three companies of the 130 BN Eco Task Force in Pithoragarh region and one company from the Almoda Region.

Saumitra Prasad, Chief Marketing Officer, Kokuyo Camlin Ltd, said, “We have been highlighting the need to save trees. We have successfully planted 10 lakh saplings today along with the efficient 130 BN Eco Task Force. We have an excellent association with  130 BN Eco Task Force since we had initiated a similar activity of planting saplings wherein we planted over one  lakh saplings in Pithoragarh last year  and received tremendous response to it. This is our small attempt to fight deforestation which has been a major cause for landslide, soil erosion and thinning of stream. Kokuyo Camlin emphasis on the use of Mechanical Pencils which does not use wood in its production and also provides a great writing experience. We are also creating awareness about these initiatives through our social media platform and hope that this will inspire children to be conscious and responsible to the environment.”

The school children along with all the other participants were quite excited and animated while planting the tree with great enthusiasm. The trees that were planted have come out of the nurseries of 130 ETF and these trees will bear and provide fruit, fodder and timber. It is noteworthy that last year 130 Eco Task Force in association with Kokuyo Camlin had created a record by planting 103096 sapling with the help of 6000 + school students and civilians lead by the Chief Secretary of the state.

The forest department of Uttarakhand also supported the Eco Task Force in this important operation. The District Forest Officer Dr. I. P. Singh and his team joined the plantation activity and appreciated the efforts put in by the volunteers. Commanding Officer of 130 Eco Task Force Col. Nandukumar B. who was leading the event thanked all the participants and supporters including the schools, district administration, police and forest department.

Hyderabad: All city roads converged to Pragati Resorts on Monday with hundreds of school children, government officials, members of volunteer organizations and trade bodies flocking the venue for participating in Pragati’s Haritha Haaram Progarmme. Pragati Group has taken up the programme to plant 1, 17,000 saplings at Pragati Biodiversity Knowledge Park spread over Proddutur and 12 other villages in line with the state government’s ‘Telanganaku Haritha Haaram’ to create green cover in Telangana state. Pragati’s plantation drive has turned into a public movement with the massive participation of the public from various walks of life and sections of the community.

Mr. Lyngdoh the chief guest for the programme applauding the efforts of Pragati led by Dr GBK Rao in the area of environment protection said, “Dr GBK Rao’s unflinching, determined efforts to create one it’s kind Pragati Resort needs to be appreciated. Pragati has emerged as a role model institution and an inspiration to be emulated by many across the country. Developing a green canopy is the need of the hour to save the planet. And Pragati’s tree plantation drive to plant more than a lac trees in line with the state government’s ideal Haritha Haaram programme is commendable.” As a part of the programme the state government has undertaken a mass plantation programme of Planting 25 lakh saplings on Monday..

Speaking on the occasion Dr. GBK lauded the government’s initiative to take up the Haritha Haaram Programme to create green cover across the state in phased manner. He said, “Pragati has been playing a key role in this Programme. And as a part of this initiative today Pragati is planting 1,17,000 saplings. Plants have been an integral part of the Indian Vedic culture and play a vital role for healthy living. I appeal to all of you to go in for mass plantation in your respective areas and be an inspiration to the future generations. As this generation is responsible for polluting the mother earth and creating a situation where we are living on the edge confronted with the manifestations of environmental destruction in the forms of Ozone layer depletion  and global warming. Urgent, important words are gone; we need to go on a plantation drive on a war footing to save the planet from major catastrophes.”

Earlier the programme was kicked off by recitation of Ganesh Stuti to Lord Ganesha by Dr. G.B.K. Rao, CMD Pragati Group in the presence of Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Lyngdoh, former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Mr. S. Suresh Rao Joint Commissioner, GHMC, Mr. G. Ajay Chandra, Joint Managing Director Pragati Group and other dignitaries. Inaugurating the mega tree plantation programme at Pragati Resort’s main entrance in the presence of hundreds of school children from HPS, Aurobindo, Swami Narayan Gurukul, St. Joseph’s, other leading schools, GHMC officials, members of TREDA, CII, WWF,  Brahmakumaris, many city laughing clubs and Pragati staff.

Pragati, as a Green Visionary, has been in the forefront of creating awareness and propagation of plantation for more than last two decades in and around Hyderabad and has emerged as a global role model for conservation of Biodiversity.

New Delhi; The monsoon has covered the entire nation. Southwest monsoon covered the country two days before its normal date. The country has received four per cent above normal rainfall since 1st of June so far.
IMD Director General, L S Rathore told AIR that country recorded 24 per cent above normal rainfall in July.

He said, next week monsoon will intensify in the Himalayan region, eastern and northeastern parts of country.

Met department has forecast heavy to very heavy rain today at isolated places over Himachal Pradesh.

Heavy rain is also likely at isolated places over Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, and North East region.

Coral Gables, Fla :  For the second year in a row, Bacardi, Million Trees Miami and American Forests joined forces to plant trees in Miami-Dade County at as part of American Forests’ Community ReLeaf program to help beautify and restore urban neighborhoods.

As part of its annual Corporate Responsibility Month initiative to engage employees in community activities, the Bacardi team of volunteers came out with their sleeves rolled up, ready to plant 20 mahogany and oak trees at Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah, Florida.

“Giving back to the community is a part of Bacardi’s DNA. This is something we’ve always done going back to our founding in Cuba in 1862 and we continue this legacy with what we do out in the communities where we live and work,” says Ed Knutel, commercial planning and activation manager, for Bacardi in the United States.

Since beginning this environmental sustainability initiative with American Forests, Bacardi has planted more than 75,000 trees throughout the United States, and will continue to have an impact as part of its “Good Spirited” environmental sustainability efforts.

“What we are doing here with Bacardi is not just about pretty aesthetics, it’s about community well-being, environmental justice and human and ecological health,” said Ian Leahy, director of Urban Forest Programs, with American Forests. “There is a lot of science that shows the positive health impacts from planting trees in local communities.”

“What Bacardi employees are doing in South Florida is an example of how a few people can make a huge difference in a community,” adds Patrice Gillespie Smith, manager, Million Trees Miami. “Miami-Dade’s trees remove nearly 5,500 tons of carbon from the air each year, improving air quality. Trees can also add up to 15% to the value of your home by making neighborhoods more attractive, quieter and cooler.”

Today is International Tiger Day. The day is held annually on 29th July to give worldwide attention to the reservation of tigers. It was founded in 2010 at the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit, with the aim to double the big cat population by 2022.

The world has lost 97 per cent of all wild tigers in a little over 100 years. According to the World Wildlife Fund and the Global Tiger Forum, the number of wild tigers has gone up to 3,890 from the earlier 2010 estimate of 3200.

The number of tigers was 1 lakh in 1915. Some species of tigers have already been extinct. According to reports of United Nations Environment Programme and Interpol, the environmental crime industry, which includes illegal trade in wildlife, is worth 258 billion dollars.

India leads tiger population countries with an estimated population of 2,226. Despite countries such as India, Nepal, Russia and Bhutan registering a rise in tiger population, the status of the animal remains endangered.

Poaching has been the biggest threat to tigers in India. 81 tigers were victims to poachers in 2014, 25 in 2015 and by April this year it was 28.

Ahmedabad:A tree plantation drive to pledge support to the green cause and motivate the youth to take proactive steps and preserve the environment was initiated by the Strategic Youth Group (www.businessactivist.in) today. Christened “Tree for Life” led by Deependra Jaisalmeri, similar drives are scheduled to be replicated across 25 states. To mark the day, an exclusive song ”Main” dedicated to Mother Nature was released, supported by Hhara Charitable trust.

Present on the occasion was Shri Sanjay Agarwal, Green Man and President of Akhil Bharatiya Vyapar Mahasabha who has taken an oath at Global Warming Summit, Delhi to plant 20 crore trees across India, out of which they are planning to plant 1 crore trees in Gujarat.

The Strategic Youth Group also contributed to the effort and an aggressive plantation drive will now cover the whole of Gujarat beginning from Ahmedabad on August 6, 2016.

Shri Sham Sundar Jaju, the National Vice President of BJP and Ahmedabad Mayor Shri Gautam Shah graced the event among 500 other dignitaries.

Commitment letters from all the participants and business groups were signed to take forward the activity. Among the leading corporate entities who have come forth include Hhara Charitable Trust, The Grand Bhagwati (TGB), Young Indian (CII), Rotary Supreme, Super Bread, Shree Balaji Group, NCB Healthy Campus, Hidden Brains, Seneca Media, Chitra Publicity,Asian Bariatrics and many more.

Scientists are planning to bring the extinct great auk back from the dead, almost 200 years after the penguin-sized, flightless birds disappeared.

A team of researchers met at the International Centre for Life in Newcastle to discuss reintroducing the flightless marine birds onto the Farne islands off the north-east coast of England.

Until the species’ final extinction in the middle of the 19th century, great auks ranged across the Atlantic from Northern Europe to Iceland, Canada and the US.

The size of a medium penguin, it lived in the open ocean except for when it waddled ashore for breeding.

Flightlessness made the birds vulnerable to human hunting and exploitation for its meat and feathers that reached industrial scale. Attempts to regulate the hunting as early as the 16th Century were fruitless.

More than 300 wild reindeer have been killed by lighting in central Norway in what wildlife officials are calling an unusually large natural disaster.

The Norwegian Environment Agency has released eerie images showing a jumble of reindeer carcasses scattered across a small area on the Hardangervidda mountain plateau.

The agency says 323 animals were killed, including 70 calves, in the lightning storm Friday. Agency spokesman said reindeer tend to stay very close to each other in bad weather, which could explain how so many were killed at once.

Sixty per cent of the groundwater in a river basin supporting more than 750 million people in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh is not drinkable or usable for irrigation, researchers said.

The biggest threat to groundwater in the Indo-Gangetic Basin, named after the Indus and Ganges rivers, is not depletion but contamination, they reported in the journal Nature Geoscience.

“The two main concerns are salinity and arsenic,” the authors of the study wrote. Up to a depth of 650 feet, some 23 per cent of the groundwater stored in the basin is too salty, and about 37 per cent “is affected by arsenic at toxic concentrations,” they said.

The Indo-Gangetic basin accounts for about a quarter of the global extraction of groundwater — freshwater which is stored underground in crevices and spaces in soil or rock, fed by rivers and rainfall.

Fifteen-to-twenty million wells extract water from the basin every year amid growing concerns about depletion. The new study — based on local records of groundwater levels and quality from 2000 to 2012 — found that the water table was in fact stable or rising across about 70 percent of the aquifer.

It was found to be falling in the other 30 per cent, mainly near highly populated areas. Groundwater can become salty through natural and manmade causes, including inefficient farmland irrigation and poor drainage.

Arsenic, too, is naturally present, but levels are exacerbated by use of fertilisers and mining. Arsenic poisoning of drinking water is a major problem in the region.

In Assam, the state government’s rhino horn verification committee on Tuesday claimed to have found “one of the world’s largest one-horned rhino horns” in the Nagaon treasury.

The 36cm-long horn weighs 3.051kg.

It belonged to a rhino from the Bagori range of Kaziranga National Park. The committee said the horn was found in August 1982.

The outer curvature length of the horn is 45cm, inner curvature is 38cm while the base circumference is 60cm.

“The only recorded horn bigger than this can be found in the British Museum in London where a 60cm horn from Assam, found in 1909, is kept. However, there is no mention of the weight of that horn,” a statement issued by the committee said.

Most of the Earth’s life-giving carbon may have come from a collision about 4.4 billion years ago between our planet and an embryonic planet similar to Mercury, scientists, including one of Indian origin, have found.

Rajdeep Dasgupta from Rice University in the US and his colleagues studied how carbon-based life developed on Earth, given that most of the planet’s carbon should have either boiled away in the planet’s earliest days or become locked in Earth’s core.

“The challenge is to explain the origin of the volatile elements like carbon that remain outside the core in the mantle portion of our planet,” said Dasgupta.

“We had published several studies that showed that even if carbon did not vapourise into space when the planet was largely molten, it would end up in the metallic core of our planet, because the iron-rich alloys there have a strong affinity for carbon,” Dasgupta said.

“One popular idea has been that volatile elements like carbon, sulphur, nitrogen and hydrogen were added after Earth’s core finished forming,” said Yuan Li, who was a postdoctoral researcher at Rice at the time of the study.

“Any of those elements that fell to Earth in meteorites and comets more than about 100 million years after the solar system formed could have avoided the intense heat of the magma ocean that covered Earth up to that point,” said Li, who is now at Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“The problem with that idea is that while it can account for the abundance of many of these elements, there are no known meteorites that would produce the ratio of volatile elements in the silicate portion of our planet,” Li said.

In late 2013, Dasgupta’s team decided to conduct experiments to gauge how sulphur or silicon might alter the affinity of iron for carbon.

“We began exploring very sulphur-rich and silicon-rich alloys, in part because the core of Mars is thought to be sulphur-rich and the core of Mercury is thought to be relatively silicon-rich,” Dasgupta said.

Experiments showed that carbon could be excluded from the core – and relegated to the silicate mantle – if the iron alloys in the core were rich in either silicon or sulphur.

The team mapped out the relative concentrations of carbon that would arise under various levels of sulphur and silicon enrichment, and the researchers compared those concentrations to the known volatiles in Earth’s silicate mantle.

“One scenario that explains the carbon-to-sulphur ratio and carbon abundance is that an embryonic planet like Mercury, which had already formed a silicon-rich core, collided with and was absorbed by Earth,” Dasgupta said.

“Because it’s a massive body, the dynamics could work in a way that the core of that planet would go directly to the core of our planet, and the carbon-rich mantle would mix with Earth’s mantle,” he said.

Beijing: China has ordered a national census on the sources of pollution, as it seeks to bring down the high pollution level affecting several of its main cities. China is the world’s top carbon emitter. Beginning from December next year, the census will target industrial, agricultural and residential establishments and review the efficiency of centralised pollution control and treatment facilities.

A working group has been established under the Ministry of Environmental Protection to oversee the census.
The census is likely to be finished by 2018 and the results released in 2019. To ensure the accuracy of the census, in addition to employing traditional methods, remote sensing satellites and drones will be used to collect data.

New Delhi: Ahead of Diwali, air quality has reached critical pollution level in Delhi. The city’s severe poor quality air yesterday had respirable pollutants up to nine times above the safe limit at certain places. Authorities have warned of a critically polluted period during Diwali.

Anand Vihar had PM 1O (suspended particulate matter) at over 962 micrograms per cubic metre at 2 PM, as against the safe limit of 100, days ahead of Diwali, which is expected to worsen the situation.The figure was recorded by Delhi Pollution Control Committee’s (DPCC) real-time air quality monitor.

Its AQI (air quality index) remained severe through the day, hitting 500 (maximum limit) at many points. Even PM 2.5, finer and deadlier pollutants, was several times above the prescribed limit. Even residential areas such as Mandir Marg and R K Puram had AQI in the severe category as per the monitoring stations of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The possible health impacts of severe AQI says that it affects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases. These respirable pollutants not only harm the respiratory system but also enter the bloodstream.

New Delhi: The Delhi government has announced a three-tier air treatment system to deal with rising air pollution in city ahead of Diwali. It includes setting up of wind purification units, mist fountains and virtual chimney at five major traffic intersections on trial basis.

State PWD Minister Satyendar Jain, who is also the head of Delhi Task Force formed to formulate policy to curb air pollution, said the government in collaboration with National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) and IIT (Bombay) set up the entire system within 45 days.

This is for the first time that the city administration has taken such steps to bring down rising air pollution in the city.

Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) data of last five years showed that air quality in the national capital has seen a gradual dip before Diwali and it continues to deteriorate till mid-December.

New Delhi: The 12 day Global Climate conference will begin today in the Moroccan city of Marrakech.

In the conference, delegates will deliberate on the details of implementing the Paris deal, such as drafting rules for how to measure and report emissions as well as the financial contributions meant to help poor countries deal with climate change.

India will push the agenda of sustainable lifestyle at the conference. The Environment Ministry said in a statement that the importance of sustainable lifestyle anchored for the first time in the climate change agreement was a big victory for India.

It said, India has always followed a path of sustainable lifestyle which is based on the principle of need-based consumption. The Ministry also said, India will push for operationalisation and meaningful outcomes from the new bodies set up under the Paris agreement which includes technology framework and Paris committee on capacity building.

Meanwhile, the talks, against the backdrop of a US election could have a major impact on America’s role in the global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have divergent views on climate change and the landmark emissions pact adopted in Paris last year.

Under the Paris deal, the Obama administration pledged to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. But US Republicans are opposed to the deal, saying it will harm the US economy.

New Delhi: Supreme Court will hear a plea today on the current pollution crisis in Delhi. The plea was filed by the Environment Pollution Control Authority which has sought proper monitoring of the worsening pollution level in the national capital and adjoining areas.

Saying that the situation is a public emergency, the plea urged the apex court for stringent action. Director General at the Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi-based organisation of environmental activists, Sunita Narain said, the Delhi government is coming up with an emergency action plan, but the court should monitor the measures. Agreeing to hear the matter today, a bench led by Chief Justice TS Thakur said yesterday that the court has already passed the orders and they need to be implemented.

New Delhi: New data released by the World Meteorological Organisation shows that the five years from 2011 to 2015 were the warmest on record. The report, published at global climate talks in Morocco strongly links human activities to rising temperatures.

It says that some studies found the the burning of fossil fuels had increased the probability of extreme heat by 10 times or more. The authors say that 2016 will likely break the record for warmest year.