Category: Environment

Environment

Absence of firing range in Kashmir impacting security : Army

Editor

Responds to green tribunal notice over proposed range in Budgam The non-availability of suitable firing ranges has compelled the Army to train its men outside the state, “adversely” impacting the working of the force in Kashmir. This has been disclosed by the Army in an affidavit to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), New Delhi, in response to the notices issued by the tribunal over the proposal for allowing the Army to set up an artillery firing range in a forest area of Bajpathri in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. The NGT…

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BARC planning to construct staff quarters in Gulmarg

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Baba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is planning to construct staff quarters near one of its premier laboratories located in tourist destination Gulmarg. Reports on Friday said that it has invited bids for it. However, there is a court ban on any type of construction in and around the ecologically fragile ski resort of Jammu and Kashmir. BARC had early this week published an e-tender notice inviting “techno-commercial and financial bids” for the “construction of staff quarters at HARL (High Altitude Research Laboratory) in Gulmarg”. Any sort of construction would be…

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Dachigam bans vehicles & grazers to save hanguls

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The region’s Wildlife Department has shut the doors of the Dachigam National Park to vehicles and grazers as a part of an effort to protect the last habitat of hanguls, a critically endangered species of stag found only in the park. The measures are aimed to stop disturbances to hanguls’ habitat inside the 144 sq km Dachigam National Park, located on outskirts of the city here. Hanguls, whose number has dwindled from several thousand in early 1900s to 200-odd in the latest surveys, is the state animal of Jammu and…

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Weeds take sheen off Dal lake vital basin

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Unbridled growth of weeds particularly in vital Hazrat bal basin of Dal lake is taking heavy toll on the fragile ecosystem of the water body. Dal receives waters into its Hazratbal basin from Marsar, a glacial oligotrophic alpine lake through two main sub-watersheds namely DharaDanihama and Dachigam. Before reaching the lake, the waters pass through denuded mountains carrying tons of silt and nutrients with it— propelling growth of weeds. In absence of sustained de-weeding by Lakes and Waterways Development Authority (LAWDA), a large expanse of Hazratbal basin overlooking the Foreshore…

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Construction work goes on in Pahalgam

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Even as the locals continue to struggle to get permission for minor repairs of their houses, the rich and influential continue with major renovations of their commercial structures in this South Kashmir tourist resort. The authorities, however, have been maintaining that only those structures are been given permission, which have prior court orders. Officials, on the other hand contest their claims revealing that most of the structures that are getting renovated had come up in violation of building permission norms set by Building and Operation Control Authority (BOCA). “One of…

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BJP minister gets HC notice for forest land grab

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Jammu DC directed to help Vigilance demarcate land in 10 days In a significant order, a division Bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, comprising Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice BS Walia, today issued a notice to BJP minister Abdul Gani Kohli to clear his position regarding the allegation of forestland grab against him. The Division Bench directed the Jammu Deputy Commissioner to cooperate with the Forest Department and execute demarcation of the encroached land within 10 days. This significant order has political ramifications because opposition parties have…

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Hospitals litter deadly waste in the open

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50% hospitals fail to comply with Bio-Medical Waste Management & Handling rules State Pollution Control Board (PCB) has exposed the grave negligence of health department while dealing with the bio-medical waste in hospitals. According to an official report untreated and neglected medical waste is posing a serious threat to people of contracting deadly diseases in the absence of proper management. However, health authorities plead helplessness, saying shortage of funds hampered cleaning of the bio-medical waste. Health institutions are littered with used syringes, needles, plastic items, surgical bandages, unused medicine and…

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Committee set up to preserve Dal Lake

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The state government today constituted a high-level monitoring committee for the preservation and protection of the Dal Lake in Srinagar. The committee has been assigned the task to devise a permanent mechanism for preserving and protecting the lake. It would monitor and oversee the implementation of this mechanism. The 11-member committee comprises Chief Secretary, J&K, as its chairman, Financial Commissioner, Planning and Development Department, Director General of Police (DGP), J&K, Principal Secretary, Forest Department, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, commissioner/secretaries of housing and urban development, finance and law, justice and parliamentary affairs…

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Unscientific disposal of solid waste continues unabated

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At a time when the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) has started highlighting its achievements under the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, its policies on dumping solid waste will create an environmental disaster for 15 lakh inhabitants of the winter capital. Everyday, half a dozen bulldozers dig trenches along the banks of the Tawi to dispose tonnes of waste, including toxic substances, generated in the city. The river banks at Bhagwati nagar have traditionally been used as dumping sites for solid waste, but in the past few years, waste is being scattered along…

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BRO vandalizes forests under garb of road widening in Bandipora

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Border Roads Organization (BRO) has been vandalising forest areas in North Kashmir’s Bandipora district for past several months under the pretext of road widening, with forest department in deep slumber. BRO is undertaking the road widening of 84 kilometre Bandipora-Gurez road through the forest areas of Bandipora and Gurez range rich with forest habitation including prized Deodar, Kail and Fir trees. Locals and eyewitnesses said that BRO was felling trees from the forest area that too a regenerative forest area in broad day light as forest department has failed to…

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