TS, AP fare poorly in green rankings

Environment within the state is not exactly in the pink of health, discloses a report compiled by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

The report says that there are four states in the country that are below average on environment governance rankings. They are both the Telugu-speaking states — Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, apart from Goa and Delhi.

“The overall score for Telangana is 4.9, which is below India’s average. This explains why it is a poor performing state on the environment index,” Kiran Pandey, author of the report told Deccan Chronicle.

From Page 1 Ms Pandey said the index mainly looks at two parameters, which are the availability of state action plan on climate change and change in forest cover. She said the source years for forest cover are 2015 and 2017. “The environment index looks at how much is the forest cover and how distant it is from the ideal 33 per cent forest cover of total geographical area,” she said. Ranking also encompasses other elements like environmental protection, sustainable development of natural resources and promotion of renewable energy. Officials of the Telangana State Renewable Energy Development Company maintain that they are working on tapping the energy of the sun. “The amount of solar energy we can produce is 5.5 kilowatts per hour. As of now, roughly 30 per cent of government buildings within the capital city have roof-top solar panels. There are plans of expanding the same to all government buildings in future,” said an official of the department.