Forest fires

The report identifies weather, climate change-induced extremities, topography and people as the main causes of forest fires. The dryness of soil and heat too are important triggers.

Dry and moist deciduous forests in the borderlands of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Telangana are affected by fires every year, says the report. Parts of the western Himalayas, such as Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh that experienced severe forest fires in 2016, account for a smaller share of burnt area in comparison with central India.

Vardhan said only an “aggressive strategy” can control forest fires that cause an annual loss of about ₹1,101 crore.

District-level analyses for data from 2003 to 2016 also show that the monsoon can give an early warning of severity of the next year’s fire. A district that experiences slightly higher rainfall than its long-term average during the monsoon is likely to experience fewer fires the following year. Forest officers in 11 states, interviewed by the authors of the report, agree that humans cause the most number of forest fires, with negligence and the collection of non-timber forest products (NTFPS) in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Telangana being the catalysts.

But Tushar Dash, of the Community Forest Rights-learning and Advocacy group, says, “Forest dwellers who collect NTFPS cannot be blamed for forest fires. Most tribal communities have their own rules and regulations and a well established system of fire management.”

“However it is more than a welcome move because northeast, especially the east of the region, shuts down at 5pm or 6pm when people in Mumbai for instance are travelling home. A separate time zone will therefore increase man hours and productivity,” Hazarika added

To implement and generate IST-II, NPL will have to establish a Primary Time Scale (PTS), which is an ensemble of five caesium clocks and one hydrogen maser, in one of the north-eastern states similar to PTS for IST-I, which is located in Delhi. A caesium clock measures time on the basis of the resonance (or change of energy state of an isotope of caesium) and a hydrogen maser, which measures time on the basis of the resonance of hydrogen across energy states.

The paper on “necessity of ‘two time zones: IST-I (UTC +5:30 h) and IST-II (UTC +6:30 h)’ in India and its implementation” has been published in the journal Current Science by the Indian Academy of Sciences.

The National Physical Laboratory uses five cesium atomic clocks and a hydrogen master (a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves) to maintain Indian Standard Time.

During British rule, India was divided into the Bombay and Calcutta time zones. Indian Standard Time was established on September 1, 1947, and corresponds to the time near Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, with states located to the west of this longitude having more daylight hours compared to those in the east.

In 2014, Assam decided to follow chaibagaan or bagaan time (tea estate time) unofficially, which is a daylight schedule set one hour ahead of the IST, and which was used by the British for tea estates, collieries and the oil industry. Last year, the Gauhati high court dismissed a public interest litigation that sought a separate time zone for the northeast, but in June 2017, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu reiterated the demand for a separate time zone to increase productivity. investigating complaints against the company.

SC on September 12 appointed Ravi Bhatia and Pawan Kumar Agarwal as forensic auditors. On Tuesday, the two informed the court that they received details of only two companies and they were incomplete. The information given was only in piecemeal form, they said. “There was no satisfactory response” from the directors, the two said.

The judges turned to advocate Gaurav Bhatia, representing the three directors. “You are in great difficulty if you are not complying with this order…you are again telling a lie to this court. This nonsense will not be tolerated even for one hour. We will send them to jail from here. You must hand over whatever documents they (auditors) want with folded hands. They carry the dignity of the court. You are playing hide and seek with the court,” Justice Misra said.

Justice Lalit pointed out that the group’s accounts were finalized till 2015. “Now nobody knows where the money (collected from homebuyers) has gone. Money trail can be found only if the account books are there. Your intention is clear. You are playing hide and seek. Your intent is to defeat the object of law and interfere with the administration of justice. Your design is very clear. You are trying to buy time and in the process do something which again will be interfering in the administration of justice. You are doing it deliberately.”

Lawyer Gaurav Bhatia’s plea for another chance to comply with the order was rejected. The bench got even more angry when the homebuyers’ counsel, ML Lahoty, said the Debt Recovery Tribunal’s order on handing over some of the documents of the Group has not been complied with. The bench ordered the directors to hand over the documents to the police.

The bench also directed release of ₹ 20 lakh each to the forensic auditors from Amrapali Hospitality Services Private Limited.