India fast-tracks mines, plants approvals

Projects set alarm bells among environmentalists

PEDAVEEDU, India, June 25, (RTRS): India is fast-tracking environmental clearances for projects like power plants and coal mines in a bid to propel growth, setting off alarm bells among environmentalists and affected residents who say the decisions are being made too quickly.

In a country where state machinery typically moves slowly, the environment ministry under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has slashed the average time taken to grant clearances to 170 days from 600 days, said two government sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

“We’re standardising processes and taking decisions swiftly,” said one of the officials, who did not want to be named, citing government policy. “We know the basic issues, and merely taking more time for approvals does not mean much.”

The environment ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

The push appears to be similar to US President Donald Trump’s efforts to speed up infrastructure approvals — his administration has said it wants environmental reviews for major projects to take no longer than 21 months, instead of years.

India’s industrial sector grew at 4.3 percent last year but growth slowed from 4.6 percent a year ago. The speedier approvals come as some big-ticket infrastructure projects face

said Jeffery, 20, had shown no remorse, the Hobart Mercury reported from the Burnie Magistrates Court.

The newspaper reported that Jago took Jeffrey’s “intellectual limitation into account” when she sentenced him to community service and ordered him to pay costs of Aus$82.15 (US$61) in a ruling Birdlife Tasmania slammed as “no deterrent whatsoever”.

Jeffrey’s lawyer had earlier told the court that his client had suffered from ongoing mental health issues since childhood, delays, including the proposed $100 billion Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor and the Japan-backed $17 billion bullet train.

Any loss of jobs from slowing growth could hurt Modi as he seeks a second term in 2019.

Environmental group Greenpeace says India’s construction sector and coal-fired power plants are major contributors to rising levels of particulate matter in the air. The World Health Organisation says India is home to the world’s 14 most polluted cities.

Toxic

The PM10 index, which measures the concentration of particulate matter of 10 microns diameter or less in the air, hit 999 in the capital New Delhi last week, the highest measure on monitoring devices. This coarse particulate matter is mostly dust, which attaches to toxic material from other emissions.

A level of 500 is considered “hazardous” and people are advised to remain indoors. The government halted construction activities in the capital and nearby cities to ease the pollution and by Friday afternoon it was at 124, although that is still considered unhealthy.

“The way in which in the last ten years government has allowed power plants to come up in the periphery of Delhi and its surrounding region is a

national broadcaster ABC reported.

“This will not stop the next person going out and doing exactly the same thing at some time in the future,” said Birdlife Tasmania chief Eric Woehler, an internationallyacclaimed seabirds expert. (AFP)

Cats kill million reptiles:

Feral cats kill more than one million reptiles every day in Australia, a new study showed Monday, with the staggering slaughter threatening many species. major contributor to pollution,” said Sunil Dahiya, senior campaigner with Greenpeace.

Projects across the country cleared by the environment ministry this year include three new thermal power plants, a carbon black manufacturing facility, two cement plants and the expansion of four coal mines, according to government data.

“Faster clearances can certainly compromise the quality of evaluation,” said Srestha Banerjee, programme manager at the private Centre for Science and Environment.

“By standardising terms of references for various sectors the government has tried to reduce time in the environment clearance process.

This is not a bad step. But in order to reduce time, it has exempted public hearing for some important sectors. This is extremely problematic.” In India’s villages and smaller towns, protests are mounting against rapid industrialisation because of the environmental damage.

The Lambada, a tribe in the southern state of Telangana, is opposing a 200 megawatt coal-fired power plant near the village of Pedaveedu that the environment ministry cleared in 78 days this year. Environmentalists say it usually takes at least six months to clear such projects. The environment ministry did not respond to questions on the time taken for the approval.

Cats have wiped out entire populations of some animals in Australia since being introduced by Europeans settlers two centuries ago, with efforts to cull or sterilise them so far failing to slow their march.

The new findings are based on more than 10,000 cat dietary samples contributed by environmental scientists across the country.

In total, around 650 million lizards and snakes fall victim to feral and pet cats annually, they found.

“On average each feral cat kills 225 reptiles per year,” said lead researcher John Woinarski, from Charles Darwin University, adding that feral cats consume more reptiles in Australia than in the United States or Europe.

“Some cats eat staggering numbers of reptiles. We found many examples of single cats bingeing on lizards, with a record of 40 individual lizards in a single cat stomach.”

The study, published in the journal Wildlife Research, showed cats were killing 250 different types of reptile — including great desert skinks, bearded dragons and geckos. Of these, 11 are threatened species.

Feral cats in Australia number in the millions, and are also considered the main culprit behind the country’s high rate of mammal extinction.

Research by the same team last year showed cats were killing more than one million birds in Australia each day, including threatened species like the spotted quail thrush, the squatter pigeon, and the night parrot.

While there is an undeniable impact, Australia’s Threatened Species Commissioner Sally Box said it was hard to pinpoint exactly how badly cats were affecting reptiles. (AFP)