Environment

Allahabad, Feb 10 (PTI) An exhibition by the Ministry of Environment, which among other things displays a double coconut palm seed weighing a whopping 30 kg, is attracting eyeballs at the Kumbh Mela, the largest congregation in the world.

A Botanical Survey of India (BSI) scientist has claimed that the seed is the world's largest.

08 Feb 2019; AFP: Hundreds of thousands of cattle weakened from a severe drought are feared to have died in record-breaking floods in northeastern Australia, authorities said Friday, as they stepped up efforts to feed surviving livestock.

Incessant rains over an almost two-week period have flooded swathes of Queensland state, with the full scale of the devastation on drought-hit cattle stations becoming clearer as floodwaters recede.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A gas explosion in San Francisco shot a tower of flames into the sky and burned five buildings including one of the city’s popular restaurants before firefighters brought the blaze under control. There were no injuries.

Wednesday’s explosion and fire sent panicked residents and workers in the city’s Inner Richmond neighborhood fleeing into the streets as flames shot above the rooftops of nearby three-story buildings.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the collapse of a tailings dam in Brumadinho in Brazil's southeastern state of Minas Gerais climbed to 150 on Wednesday, the national civil defense agency said.

Another 182 people have been reportedly missing since the tailings dam owned by mining giant Vale collapsed on Jan. 25, burying entire neighborhoods in the town under meters of toxic mud.

A total of 192 people were rescued alive, said Flavio Godinho, spokesman for the Minas Gerais state civil defense agency.

06 Feb 2019; AFP: A 12-year-old judicial battle pitting a cereal farmer against Monsanto, the biotech giant, goes to a fourth round Wednesday before the French courts.

Farmer Paul Francois won his initial case in 2012, and its appeal by Monsanto in 2015, after suing the US firm for poisoning him through inhalation of its Lasso weedkiller.

New Delhi, Feb 5 (PTI) Dumping of sewage in water bodies is an offence, the National Green Tribunal said Tuesday while slapping a penalty of Rs 25 lakh on the Uttar Pradesh government for its failure to stop discharge of dirty water into Upper Ganga canal.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said adequate steps have not been taken for proper waste management and its treatment.

New Delhi, Feb 5 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Tuesday asked Haryana to remove the bunds that, according to the Delhi government, were blocking flow of clean water into the Yamuna and was leading to an increase in pollution levels in the national capital's water supply.

The direction by a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao came after the Haryana government stated in an affidavit that it will remove the bunds.

New Delhi, Feb 5 (PTI) The government's push to provide clean cooking fuel to every household has turned India into the world's second largest LPG consumer whose demand is projected to rise 34 per cent by 2025, Oil Secretary M M Kutty said Tuesday.

Speaking at the Asia LPG Summit here, he said active LPG consumers have grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent - from 14.8 crore in 2014-15 to 22.4 crore in 2017-18.

04 Feb 2019; AFP: The toll from a dam collapse at a mine in southeast Brazil has risen to 134 deaths after more than a week of searches, with 199 missing, authorities said Monday.

The count showed the gradual recovery operation of bodies more than a week after the January 25 disaster at the dam, owned by Brazilian mining giant Vale, near the town of Brumadinho.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The color of the sea will become darker by the end of this century due to the climate change, according to a study published on Monday in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that by the year 2100, over half of the world's oceans will shift in color, as the algae population change.

The study has shown that blue regions such as the subtropics will become even more blue, reflecting less phytoplankton and life in general in those waters.