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Article: Madras HC orders closure of Sterlite's copper smelting unit: report

India Infoline News Service / 10:22 AM - 29-Sep-2010

Source: http://www.iiflcap.com/FrontPage/NewsInner.aspx?NId=4451573

The court in its order also directed the Tuticorin District Collector to take necessary steps for re-employment of the workforce in some other companies so as to protect their livelihood

The Madras high court here directed Sterlite Industries, to close its copper smelting facility at Tuticorin (Thoothukudi), 580 km from here in southeast Tamil Nadu.

The order follows a petition, filed in 1998, challenging the environmental clearance given to the unit. The petitioners included the National Trust for Clean Environment and the MDMK, CPI(M) and CPI political parties. They demanded to know how such a unit could be established within 25 km of the environmentally fragile zone of the Gulf of Mannar. The mandatory public hearing wasn't conducted, said G Ramapriya, advocate for the Trust, and later pollution control instructions weren't heeded.

A Division Bench of Justices Elipe Dharmaro and N Paul Vasanthakumar held that the plant was within 25 km of an ecologically fragile area and the company has failed to develop a green belt of 250 metre width around the plant.

The court in its order also directed the Tuticorin District Collector to take necessary steps for re-employment of the workforce in some other companies so as to protect their livelihood, to the extent possible, keeping in view their educational and technical qualifications and experience.

The order came a month after the Vedanta Group's Rs70bn bauxite mining project at Niyamgiri hills in Orissa was denied environmental clearance. The company was also issued a show cause notice by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for allegedly flouting green norms.

2% annual milk production loss due to global warming: research

Press Trust of India / New Delhi September 26, 2010, 12:55 IST

Source: http://www.ptinews.com/news/983486_-2--annual-milk-prod-loss-due-to-global-warming--

India is currently losing nearly two per cent of the total milk production, amounting to a whopping over Rs 2,661 crore due to rise in heat stress among cattle and buffaloes because of the global warming.

"The estimated annual loss at present due to heat stress among cattle and buffaloes at the all-India level is 1.8 million tonnes, that is nearly two per cent of the total milk production in the country," said RC Upadhaya, Principal Scientist, Animal Physiology at National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI).

India produced about 110 million tonnes of milk last year. In monetary terms, the loss amounts to a whopping Rs 2,661.62 crore a year, Upadhaya said.

Animal stress level is calculated on the basis of fluctuation in temperature and humidity and is measured using Temperature Humidity Index (THI).

The mounting temperature negatively impacts growth and time to attain puberty of livestock species, he said, adding reproductive efficiency of livestock was also negatively influenced by the high ambient temperature.

While high THI index had UP, the largest producer of milk in the country, lose 25.4 million tonnes a year, Tamil Nadu was losing 23.8 million tonnes followed by Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana, he said.

Similar research works on the subject in the USA, Brazil, Germany, France, UK and Australia have also pointed to similar results, the NDRI scientist said.

The findings are a part of the two ongoing research projects, funded by the Union government, he said.

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