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India's sinking hill town, a casualty of the warming Himalayas

On the slopes of the Himalayas, nearly 2,000 metres above sea level, the hill town of Joshimath is sinking. Experts fear it's one of many settlements in the ecologically fragile region in danger of being wiped out because of subsidence worsened by large-scale construction and climate change. Satellite images of Joshimath, in the northern state of Uttarakhand, show that the town sank by more than five centimetres in just 12 days earlier this month, according to a preliminary report by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The images, released by ISRO's National Remote Sensing Centre, indicate rapid subsidence of 5.4 centimetres between 27 December last year and 8 January. It comes after the town, located at an altitude of 1,875 metres, sank by 8.9 centimetres over the seven months between April and November 2022, said the report. Residents evacuated Over 280 buildings in Joshimath, including a local temple, have developed cracks since the first week of January due to land subsidence, according to government data. The total number of buildings affected is now 849, the figures show. The damage led authorities to begin evacuating hundreds of Joshimath's roughly 25,000 residents earlier this month. “Cracks have developed on our walls of our courtyard and now the administration has shifted us temporarily to a primary school,” Pradeep Lal, a shopkeeper told RFI. “We might be safe, but we worry for our cattle after the cowshed was also affected.” The Uttarakhand government has also promised compensation for the families affected. Extreme weather Residents fear further damage as the meteorological department predicts rain and snowfall in the region. Joshimath's location, on steep slopes in a seismic zone, makes it naturally vulnerable to erosion and landslides. But experts say that climate change is aggravating the situation. Himalayan snows set for massive melt by 2100 Climate-vulnerable India struck by natural disasters 'almost daily' “The added factor of climate change is bringing more volatility because of unseasonal and extreme rain events,” Sunita Narain, director of the Centre for Science and Environment think tank, told RFI. “The bottom line is that this region is different – it is not the plains of India which are situated on alluvial soil; it is not the Indian peninsular region where there is hard rock; it is not even the slopes of the Alps, where mountains have aged,” said Narain. Various studies have found that glaciers in the Himalayas are melting dramatically, potentially increasing the risks of floods and landslides. Unchecked development Experts say that rampant development is making the fragile Himalayan ecosystem even more vulnerable to the changing climate, warning that Joshimath may be just one of many towns affected. Years of unbridled construction, hydropower projects and the lack of a proper drainage system have all contributed to the current situation. The Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, an activist group agitating for the welfare of the town's residents, has accused the state government of ignoring its warnings for months. “The crisis has endangered the very existence of a historic town, but the relief and rescue operations being carried out by the state government are devoid of any urgency,” it said in an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was only in late December, when hundreds of houses were affected, that the state authorities began evacuation measures and deployed scientists to evaluate the effects of subsidence. Activists point out that experts have been warning of subsidence in the area since at least 1976.

W Ghats spring a surprise again

A few months back, the Supreme Court had rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the study report of the renowned Madhav Gadgil Committee and K Kasturirangan Committee, on the Western Ghats that run through six states; which have demarcated an area of about 57,000 sq kms as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), where no development can take place. The acknowledgment of the Western Ghats as our environment’s precious treasure was reinstated recently, with the discovery of 76 plant species and a new rock formation that has appeared about 150 kms from Pune in Manjare village. The details of this exciting development were published in the December 2022 edition of the National Academy Science Letters. As per a news report in Down to Earth magazine, researcher Aboli Kulkarni and her team “have discovered a low-level basalt plateau, an isolated flat-topped steep hill, in the Western Ghats in Maharashtra. The researchers have registered a floristic inventory which they claim to be important from the conservation point of view, considering the rampant urbanisation.” The report further states that the biodiversity hotspot of the Western Ghats is known for certain kinds of outcrops, which, in layman’s terms, mean ‘large rock or group of rocks that sticks out of the ground.’ The researchers have found a low altitude basalt outcrop. Such outcrops emerge when the surface soil and other matter present there wear off, and expose the hidden rock surface. Besides the outcrops, the researchers also recorded plant species, mainly from Poaceae, Leguminosae and Cyperaceae ranges. This goes to show that the natural treasure that is still hidden in the Western Ghats. Interestingly, this is the first time that these plant species were found on floral biodiversity. And they have thrived, despite harsh surroundings. The locals, with whom the researchers interacted, mentioned that they are similar to the flora on Kas Plateau, which is a UNESCO world natural heritage site in Maharashtra and hosts many endemic wild flowering plants. In fact, it is tourists’ delight post monsoons, and the authorities were compelled to bring in certain restrictions so that the fragile plateau with a myriad of blossoming flowers is not threatened due to human interference. No wonder, the Madhav Gadgil Report of Western Ghats Ecology has stated that, “the Western Ghats are second only to the Eastern Himalayas as a treasure trove of biological diversity in India. Originally recognised to be among the several global ‘hotspots of biodiversity, the Western Ghats, along with the geographical extension in the wet zone of Sri Lanka, are now also considered to be one of the eight ‘hottest hot spots of biodiversity’ (Myers et al. 2000). At the same time, the high human population density and major transformation of the landscape since the mid-18th century also emphasises the urgency of conservation of the Ghats, and sustainable use of its resources.’’

Track record: Stories from 20 years of the Delhi Metro

The Delhi Metro is more than a system of public transport: it represents refuge, privacy, freedom and a slow change in the city’s cultural fabric Namita Narula Gandhi lives by the clock. Every workday, she wakes up at 6.30am, gets ready, packs the breakfast and lunch she has prepped the night before, feeds her one-year-old child, and is in her car at 7am. Within 30 minutes, she is on the Delhi Metro’s Yellow Line, travelling from the Haiderpur station to Huda City Centre in Gurugram. An hour and 50 minutes later, she is hailing an auto for the 10-minute ride to her office, a private hospital, where she works as the head of corporate communications. That’s two-and-a-half hours of travel every morning. It’s the same on the way back. Gandhi doesn’t mind those five hours on the move, for the Metro allows her to be independent. Also Read: Back on track with the Metro? “I moved to Sonipat in 2017 after getting married,” explains the 35-year-old, who was born and brought up in Delhi. “The Metro is the reason I can still hold my job. Imagine how much it would cost me in petrol to drive all the way.” She estimates that it would be over ₹10,000 a month; using the Metro cuts it down to ₹1,500. Travelling in a bus feels unsafe to her. Shifting to Delhi is not an option since her husband works in Sonipat. Plus, there’s family to take care of her baby at home when she’s at work. The Metro means different things to different people, whether you are in New Delhi, New York, London or Paris. It can just be another mode of public transport that takes you from point A to B. It can be a place where you indulge in some innocent people-watching. You can enjoy the air-conditioning while the sun blazes outside, try not to overhear an argument, discuss existential questions with friends, meet your sweetheart, read that book that has long been sitting in your bag, talk yourself into writing that complicated article. Or just watch the city through the glass windows. You can do pretty much anything and everything while on the move. There’s another reason Gandhi prefers the Metro. It offers her “bliss time”: 50 minutes of patchy internet between stations in north and south Delhi, when calls drop every second or messages don’t get delivered on time. That’s when she tunes out from the outside world to listen to music. “In the morning, it’s a bhajan (either Gayatri Mantra or something on Sai Baba). In the evening, trending music; these days, it’s Koka (by Diljit Dosanjh and Sargi Maan). I know, I need to update my list,” she laughs. On days she doesn’t feel like plugging in her earphones, she likes to see what people are wearing. “We all do that, no?” she says. “With the baby, family and work, I hardly ever get time to read up what’s in fashion. During those two hours inside the train, I learn all about the trendy stuff.” Small beginnings It was on 24 December 2002 that the then prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, inaugurated the first Metro corridor, an 8.2km stretch spanning six stations on the Shahdara-Tis Hazari corridor of the Red Line. A mass rapid transit plan, first conceived in the 1960s and formally sanctioned in 1996, had finally come to life six years later following a political push. Vajpayee said it would eventually create a safer, less congested and less polluted Delhi (on a good air index day, Delhi’s reading continues to be poor). The next day, about 100,000 people used the Metro, while several non-users dismissed it as another government project built to tank. But there was no denying the fact that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had built an engineering marvel to navigate a high-density metropolis. Other public transport lifelines at the time—buses and autos—didn’t offer as much safety or the luxury of air-conditioning at a cost of ₹10 (for 2km or less). For 5-12km, it was ₹30. And the trains ran on time. Travelling by the Metro meant you didn’t have to haggle with auto drivers, suffer harassment in packed buses, or get stuck in a traffic jam in sweltering weather. Areas in the vicinity flourished. In the early years, one restaurateur in Connaught Place said it had revived business, particularly on weekends, as crowds from relatively distant areas poured in. It has also enabled easier access to heritage areas like Chandni Chowk. Twenty years later, the Delhi Metro is an integral part of life in the city, with close to 400km of tracks shooting out in every direction, connecting 286 stations across the city and neighbouring states—a network no other Metro in India has built till now. Each day, it ferries close to six million people in the world’s second most populated city of 31 million. So impressed are other states by the DMRC’s efforts that they have roped them in as consultants to build Metro projects in Mumbai and Patna, and Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka. “We are also bidding for consultancy of international Metro projects such as Tel Aviv (Israel), Alexandria (Egypt), Mauritius, Bahrain and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam),” says Anuj Dayal, principal executive director and official spokesperson of Delhi Metro.\ He believes the success of the Delhi Metro can be attributed to “various factors ranging from planning, execution, efficient workforce and technological advancement. Our Metro lines connect almost all the important residential areas, major markets, other modes of transport systems such as railways and inter-state bus services, educational and healthcare hubs, and IT corridors in entire Delhi-National Capital Region. We are further expanding the network under Phase 4 project to connect the uncovered areas in Delhi to improve mobility.” While recovering from the loss of over ₹3,800 crore in March 2022, owing to reduced ridership during the pandemic-induced lockdowns, the 15,000-workforce at DMRC is working to add three more corridors in and around the city, stretching the network another 65km with an extra 45 stations. Advertisement Niggling issues Despite this massive web, it’s not all hunky-dory. Land acquisition issues have dogged it on occasion. Dayal merely says they were able to acquire land as per the law. By the time work began, Delhi had changed completely; the alignment had to adjust to what was possible underground or overground. Last-mile connectivity remains a big issue, pushing up commuting costs and posing a security challenge for people returning late at night. Fare increases over the years have pushed out lower-income passengers. Many stations don’t have parking facilities, discouraging people who would prefer to use the Metro. Long walks and stairs within stations are not easy to navigate, especially for the elderly and the disabled. On some lines, rush hour is an unbearable crush. Advertisement Any city needs good public transport, says public mobility expert Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy) at the Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). “A lot of people have to use cars, cabs or autos to reach a Metro station in Delhi. That discourages them from using the Metro. Last-mile connectivity is one of the most crucial aspects we need to focus on. We need to give people the right options. Nobody likes to waste time in a jam with bad air.” The capital city of one of the world’s biggest economies is also among the most polluted. At the time of writing this article, the city’s AQI was swinging between “severe” and “very severe”, a familiar trend over three years that leads to temporary shutdowns of schools every year. Advertisement A November study by the CSE found that vehicles, including private cars, are one of the biggest contributors to particulate matter (PM10) in Delhi. Towards late October, vehicular emissions accounted for 51% of the concentration of PM 2.5, inhalable microscopic materials less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter. What makes this data more concerning is that only a small number of families in the city own cars—19.4%, according to the latest data from the National Family Health Survey. Shreya Johri has travelled by the Metro since she was in class XI because it’s right outside her east Delhi house. As her grandparents grew too old to drop her, and pick her up, from school, they encouraged her to use a “safer” mode of public transport. Soon, it became her ride to a nearby Noida market, where, along with friends, she would drink banta. “It was all like ₹25, coming, going and drinking,” recalls Johri, 27. “We talked on the way, in the market, and saved money—it was just so easy.” It was where she had her college “Metro romance”. For one-and-a-half years of the three years she studied in Delhi university’s north campus, she used to take the Blue Line from her home in Mayur Vihar to Rajiv Chowk station to meet her crush-turned-friend-turned-boyfriend. Together, they would board the Yellow Line, not for college, but to the Huda City Centre. They would get something to eat at a street food joint and return to the Metro platform to continue chatting, about their dreams, their friends , their lives, and their next date. By evening, they would ride same the route back home. Even after they broke up towards the end of college, they continued travelling in the Metro together as friends to go to college. “We used to forget checking our phones, sometimes we even missed stations. It was such an easy way of sitting in a clean, air-conditioned place, and nobody disturbed you,” she recalls. “Those Metro rides gave us the confidence to be free, to be like proper adults who could take their own decisions. It might sound like an exaggeration but it really did teach me how to be independent—and more than anything, it was safe.” Gandhi doesn’t agree entirely, though she is a devoted Metro user. She has been robbed twice. The first time, the thief slashed her mother’s purse and took out ₹15,000 they were carrying to go shopping in west Delhi. Since then, her mother, who had used the Metro for 15 years, has stopped travelling on it. A few months earlier, when Gandhi was returning from work, someone took her iPod—her first luxury purchase—from her pocket. Cases of crime and theft are common on the Metro. A December 2021 Times Of India report states that till 7 November, of the 2,174 crimes that were reported in the year, 80% were of theft. The police said 1,380 were solved and 564 people were arrested. The previous year, the report states, “2,113 cases were reported, 1,170 solved and 204 people arrested”. As of December 2022, each station has at least over 10 theft cases, shows the Delhi Metro site. The super-crowded Kashmere Gate has the most, at 132, followed by Rajiv Chowk, 44, and Netaji Subhash Place, 42. Okhla Vihar has the lowest, at 10. Dayal says: “The security and law and order in Metro premises is handled by CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) and the Metro units of local police in Delhi-NCR. These forces have adequate presence of their personnel in Metro premises and have been doing excellent work.” Aditya Sharma differs and says one has to be cautious while travelling in the Metro. One December morning last year, when the west Delhi resident was taking the Metro from Uttam Nagar to feed stray dogs in areas near the next two stations—something he had been doing daily for a year after losing Pluto, his first pet dog—a thief stole the only ₹500 note in his pocket. “I informed the authorities but nothing happened,” he says., though he still considers the Metro the most convenient and fastest mode of transport. “I can walk to the station from my house, carrying the food for the dogs I feed,” says the 65-year-old. It’s this convenience that makes the Metro everyone’s darling. According to an estimate by The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri), the Metro will help passengers save an annual 572.5 million hours in 2031. For Sharma or Johri, the nearest station is less than a minute from home. This is exactly why Suvina Rai, a north Delhi resident, used to prefer the train to reach her office in Gurugram, south of south Delhi. Every Monday-Friday, she would find a quiet corner and immerse herself in the world of P.G. Wodehouse or Harry Potter. “Those 60 minutes felt like meditation,” recalls Rai, now based in Bengaluru. “Whenever I am in Delhi, I prefer the Metro.” Challenges remain One of the big challenges to last-mile connectivity is the Capital’s population. “Delhi is a challenging city because of its huge population. Secondly, economic growth is so high that it encourages owning private cars,” says Roychowdhry, who, too, ends up using her private vehicle to travel from her house on the outskirts of Delhi to her office in the city’s southern parts. “The Metro station is far from my house. It will take me more time to reach office if I use it,” she says. That’s why Mohd Shamim Ansari uses a motorcycle to reach his office in Okhla from Jamia Nagar. When he first arrived in Delhi in 2017 and was working further away in Gurugram, the train was his go-to. Those two hours in the train were like a peek into Delhi life. Ansari couldn’t help but overhear stories of someone’s house help not showing up for work, or a boyfriend checking whether their significant other had had breakfast before leaving for work. On the same train, colleagues became his best friends. On weekends, he would take the train to Lodhi Gardens or Qutab Minar, familiarising himself with the city on his own. Nowadays, his wife, Tahseen Shaikh, accompanies him. “I would have continued using the Metro for work but the station is too far from the office,” he says. “Just doesn’t make any sense wasting time.” A train station should ideally be within a 200m radius to compel residents to use it over personal vehicles or commercial personal vehicles such as cabs, says Roychowdhry. “Public transport is all about convenience. It’s a nightmare getting cabs, autos, or even walking if the station is far. Let’s not forget that our Delhi roads are made for cars, not for pedestrians,” says Roychowdhry. “Public transport has to come to people.” She cites the example of Kolkata. “You just need to get out of the house and there’s something available for you to navigate the city, whether it’s a bus or an auto. Kolkata’s public transport system is one of the country’s oldest networks Delhi can learn from,” explains Roychowdhry. “We also need to realise that just offering world-class transport is not enough. There need to be systems in place to ensure there are no traffic jams because of the extra buses, rickshaws, autos on the road.” That’s part of the Delhi government’s plan. As the fourth phase of Delhi Metro commences, the aim is to expand other modes, including buses and autos, to reach the last mile within the city at least. “If Delhi wants to be the clean national capital of the country, we need to clean up the pollution and give more people the option to use the Metro,” says Roychowdhry. “Otherwise, it won’t be liveable in the next 10-20 years.” Namita Narula Gandhi would like the Metro to be closer to her house. It would mean more me- and-we-time for herself, her child and family. “I don’t know life beyond work and family right now. Metro is my refuge, where I get time to be with myself,” she says. “And 30 minutes more of that would be more than welcome.”

Who Is Gautam Adani, The Indian Billionaire That Short Seller Hindenburg Says Is Running A ‘Corporate Con’?

Asia’s richest man amassed billions thanks in part to his longstanding ties to Prime Minister Modi. Now his fortune is falling amid allegations of widespread corruption and stock manipulation. Indian billionaire Gautam Adani lost $6.5 billion on Wednesday, January 25 after activist investment firm Hindenburg Research published a scathing 100 page report on Adani and his group, alleging massive fraud and stock manipulation. Hindenburg, which disclosed a short position against Adani Group companies, accused Adani of “pulling the largest con in corporate history.” Adani Group responded with a statement from Chief Financial Officer Jugeshinder Singh that denied the allegations, saying they are “a malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations that have been tested and rejected by India’s highest courts” and that Adani Group had not been contacted by Hindenburg. A college dropout who spurned his father's textile shop to set up a commodities export firm in 1988, Adani, age 60, has been a longtime ally of India’s Prime Minister Narenda Modi. As Modi has solidified his power, so too has Adani, who now controls key parts of India’s economy, including Mundra Port, India’s largest. He is also the country’s biggest airport operator and, through his seven publicly traded companies, has interests in power generation, cement and green energy. Last year, when many fortunes around the globe fell as a result of tumbling stock markets, Adani’s fortune soared by $55 billion, making him 2022’s biggest billionaire gainer. Even after his recent tumble, at the end of Wednesday he was worth $119.1 billion, $112 billion more than he was worth in 2014, when Forbes first dug into his ties with Modi, then the chief minister of Adani’s home state of Gujarat. Here is Forbes Asia’s’ 2014 story on Gautam Adani, “Doing Big Business In Modi’s Gujarat,” republished in full. When his son was married in the coastal state of Goa last year, Indian billionaire Gautam Adani's guest list included the richest man in the country and many a chief executive and top banker and bureaucrat. Most, however, just stopped by the night before to bless the happy couple and skipped the actual wedding. But one prominent friend stayed through all the ceremonies over a couple of days, genial and relaxed like a favorite uncle. It was Narendra Modi, chief minister of Adani's home state of Gujarat. Ranked No. 609 in the world with an estimated worth of $2.8 billion, Adani runs India's largest port, a power company and a commodities trading business. A large chunk of his business is located in Gujarat, and the government under Modi, who has been running the state since 2001 and now is the favored prime ministerial candidate in the national elections this spring, has been more generous to Adani than to any other industrialist there. Adani has, over the years, leased 7,350 hectares—much of which he got from 2005 onward—from the government in an area called Mundra in the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat. FORBES ASIA has copies of the agreements that show he got the 30-year, renewable leases for as little as one U.S. cent a square meter (the rate maxed out at 45 cents a square meter). He in turn has sublet this land to other companies, including state-owned Indian Oil Co., for as much as $11 a square meter. Between 2005 and 2007 at least 1,200 hectares of grazing land was taken away from villagers. Under Indian law land meant for grazing cattle can be used for something else only if it's in excess. There's a formula applied to calculate. Even then the village chief has to give permission to take the land. Villagers in Adani's SEZ say their grazing land was signed away by earlier village chiefs without their knowledge. They have filed multiple cases in the Gujarat High Court to contest the government's actions, going back to 2005 and even earlier. Several cases are still pending. On that cheap land Adani has built his cash cow—the country's largest private port by volume—as well as a 4,620-megawatt coal-fired power plant. Anand Yagnik, a lawyer representing some of the Mundra villagers, says, "The basic philosophy of a liberal economy is to allow market forces to play its role. Then why do you have to allocate scarce resources to industrial houses at throwaway prices when they have sufficient capital to pay market rates?" Modi, it should be noted, is posed as the candidate of Indian economic revival in the national race on the basis of his Gujarat record. In February he gave a speech touting the benefits of more open business competition in India. On the surface the busy Adani port exemplifies such commerce. On an earlier February day two tugboats were guiding a loaded ship toward the jetty even as another ship was being loaded with containers. In one section of docks, new Maruti Suzuki cars were being cleaned for shipment. In another, commodities excavated from the region—bauxite, bentonite, iron ore—lay in individual piles, waiting to be loaded for export. In the most recent available data, Gujarat's GDP shows a compounded average growth of 13.4% during Modi's tenure, outstripping the national rate of 7.8% for the period. Thanks to Modi's policies it has attracted investment in sectors like auto manufacturing and solar power. It has made advances in rainwater harvesting and irrigation, and offers a near 24-hour electricity supply statewide. (In contrast, the country has averaged a power deficit of up to 9% for the past three years, though that has improved much of late.) Miles of smooth roads, occasionally lined with pink, orange and white bougainvillea and kept clean by sweeping machines, let you zip around the massive city within a city that is Adani's special economic zone. The idea is to have export-focused companies set up their factories in the SEZ, close to the Adani port. As additional incentives the billionaire has built a 40-mile railway line, linking the port to the national railway network, as well as a 1.1-mile-long private airstrip that SEZ tenants can use for their chartered flights. So far 23 companies have signed up. Thus Gujarat has gained some output and employment, but Adani has captured the rents. The Adani Group was established in 1988 and became publicly traded in 1994. But its real rise happened under Modi's reign in Gujarat. From 2002 to last March the group's revenue rose from $765 million to $8.8 billion while net profits climbed even faster. During this period it constructed its SEZ, bought mines in Indonesia and Australia to ensure it had a steady supply of coal for its thermal power plants in India and launched Asia's largest coal import terminal in Mundra. In 2011 it further expanded in Australia, buying for $2 billion Abbot Point, a coal terminal in Queensland. It also tacked on a hefty amount of debt—$13 billion—more than doubling since 2011. While none of the other companies in Kutch, or the rest of Gujarat for that matter, have received the kind of largesse on land rates as Adani, they, too, have benefitted from the Modi government's bent. It is one that, whatever Modi may now be saying on the campaign trail against crony capitalism and on behalf of the downtrodden, is even less mindful of environmental damage and villager prerogatives than are Indian land-use practices in general. At a political rally in distant Lucknow in early March, Modi said farmers were his friends and he would stand by them. He also said he would "not allow anyone to loot the exchequer." But spend time around the villages of Kutch and a vastly different picture appears. This region was famous for its crops of sapodilla, a brown, fleshy fruit slightly smaller than a tennis ball, as well as dates, coconuts and castor. Area farmers say that that's no longer the case. (Official stats seem to end in 2006.) Fly ash and saline water from Adani Power and a nearby Tata Power Co. Ltd. plant are spoiling the crops and making the soil less fertile, they say. For miles at a stretch the chimneys of the two power plants are visible against the horizon. Gajendra Sinh Jadeja, the 28-year-old head of Navinal village, says the Gujarat government took some 930,770 square meters of his village's grazing land for Adani's SEZ. Adani got it for 19 cents a square meter. Traversing a couple of nearby barren fields, Jadeja says he had been growing alternately cotton, millet and castor there. Now patches of white salt are easily visible across stretches of the fields and have become a common sight across farms. "The saline water ruined the soil, and the poor production now is just not worth it," he says. On another field there is a scraggly growth of castor, no comparison to the tall, lush green field that he remembers. The village of Zarapara with its 15,000 residents is one of the largest in the area. When the government allotted a thousand acres of its grazing land to the Adani SEZ, at roughly 19 cents a square meter, the villagers filed a case that reached India's highest court, the Supreme Court. Before judgment there, an out-of court settlement was reached under which Adani Group was to offer villagers 400 acres of grazing land. The company says it has offered the land while the villagers say they haven't received any so far. Zarapara was once famous for its sapodillas. "In season five trucks filled with [sapodillas] would go every day to the market from this village," says Zarapara resident Naran Ghadavi, whose farm is 3 miles from the Adani power plant. "Now we only produce enough to fill one small van." Ghadavi, 30, blames the decrease in output on the saline water and the fly ash from the Adani power plant that has polluted the groundwater tables and broken the pollination process. Pointing to his white shirt, the small, wiry man says, "Earlier our clothes used to turn yellow [from the pollen]. Now when the morning dew drips from the tree leaves, the ground turns black from the fly ash." The villagers' lawyer Yagnik argues that Modi, by giving away land so cheaply, is depriving the state treasury of funds. "This kind of subsidization of scarce resources eats away at the public exchequer, and that has a direct impact on distributive justice because then the state doesn't have enough resources to deal with this inequality," he says. After years of receiving complaints of environmental abuse, the federal environment ministry finally, in 2012, named a panel—known as the Sunita Narain Committee after the woman chairing the process—to look into them. In a report last April Narain's group confirmed the villagers' complaints—and fears. It said the Adani SEZ had violated multiple green rules at different points of its mammoth project—destroying mangroves, filling creeks and causing land and water degradation by dumping fly ash. At the power plant thousands of gallons of water sucked in from the sea through one channel are let out through a pipeline. Once sucked in it's kept in a reservoir from where it's pumped into the turbines to generate electricity and eventually is pumped back out. The panel found that the reservoir didn't have any lining to protect the groundwater. "The examination by the committee shows that the soil in the area is permeable and without safeguards it will lead to contamination. This is a clear violation of the environmental clearance condition," its report said. The committee recommended that Adani create a fund that was either 1% of the entire project cost or $37 million, whichever was higher. It also said the company should reconstruct both the channels that are used to take in and send back the water, as well as repair or construct anew the reservoir with impervious lining at the bottom and sides. But almost a year after the recommendations were made the company appears to have done nothing. Meantime, it has plans to expand its 7,350-hectare SEZ to 18,000 hectares. In an e-mailed response to questions, a spokeswoman for Adani Group said it had been allotted government land after following all established processes and used valuations applicable at the time, ahead of subsequent improvements. "It will be completely misleading if we compare the price of the land before development and after development as an entrepreneur takes risk of investing a large amount to develop this land, and if the commercial venture fails, the consequences are only to the developer," the company said. Adani Group said salinity ingress was a local phenomenon and that its power plant used technology to ensure that there was no stray fly ash. It also refuted the observations of the Sunita Narain committee and said while any large development would affect the environment, it was certain that its net impact was positive. Also, all government requirements were followed in setting up its various projects. The Modi administration did not reply to repeated interview requests. In today's India and elsewhere, it is not unusual for governments to offer benefits to powerful private interests, especially to attract investment in remote areas. And as noted, Adani is not the sole beneficiary of Modi's blessings. "But what is unusual—and where the problem arises—is when you set something up on this scale without competitive bidding," says Aakar Patel, a columnist at Indian newspaper Mint and a longtime Gujarat observer. The social dynamics are much the same at the 4,000-megawatt power plant of Tata's wholly owned subsidiary Coastal Gujarat Power, a few miles down the coastline from the Adani plant. It opened in March 2012 under a different arrangement, this one a federal initiative to spur big energy plants. Several of them have been announced, but this one from Tata is the first to go live. Under the deals, the federal government provides the operators with the land and all clearances. However, land is a state subject, so it is the state government—Modi's in this case—that had identified and allocated the land. In Kutch fishermen and their families set up camp on the beach. Tagadi fishing village is one such camp on the banks of what is now the Tata plant's outflow channel. Dawood Umar Jaam, 43, has been fishing in the area for the past five years. He has seen a 60% drop in his catch in the last few months and blames it on the plant. As the plant takes in seawater, it also sucks up fish that are still small, killing them instantly, says a fishermen's trade union known as MASS, active in the area. The plant releases hot water back into the sea, raising temperatures in the immediate vicinity, killing more fish and changing migratory patterns. Jaam, who has a family of six in Tagadi, takes a loan of maybe $2,000 prior to the fishing season to repair his nets and otherwise get ready. He would earn enough to pay off the loan and save up to about $750 each year, he says. Not anymore. He doubts he'll be able to repay more than $350. Just before he sets off to fish, he points to the boundary fence of his makeshift house, constructed on three sides using bamboo sticks. Those sticks used to be covered with fish put out to dry. Now, only a quarter of the sticks are covered. The Tata unit says the outfall channel is specially lined with stones to extend the surface while the water is being discharged so it can cool. "The outfall channel, which is [4.5 miles] long, ensures that the temperature of hot water at the discharge point meets the environmental stipulations," the company said in an e-mailed statement. In addition, it says, it's teaching Tagadi fishermen better practices and is distributing nets to enhance the catch and providing clean drinking water. Back in his adjoining SEZ, things have gotten legally dicier for Adani of late. Residents of Navinal Village, including the head Jadeja, filed in 2011 a petition in the Gujarat High Court after they lost their grazing land to the SEZ. In January the court declared the SEZ illegal and ordered the companies that had set up factories in there to stop all work. Reason: The SEZ had been built without getting an environmental clearance. Under Indian law a project the size of the SEZ would need one from the federal environment ministry before it can lay a brick. (This judgment is pertinent only to the SEZ and not to the port or the Adani Power plant. The company had applied for—and received—separate environmental clearances for those, and that lets them operate legally.) The Supreme Court, India's highest, has refused to stay the lower court's decision, although it said existing tenants in its SEZ could keep operating. With hundreds of millions of dollars already invested—albeit in a project now in legal limbo—the question now is if Adani's effort has become too big to shut down. The Gujarat High Court passed the ball on that decision to the federal government, asking if the project could be granted a belated environmental clearance. New Delhi in turn asked for a couple of months to ponder that decision. Now that India's election has been set to begin Apr. 7, the federal government is effectively blocked from taking this decision. As a result the fate of this project will likely be decided by whoever comes into power next, and that could easily be a government led by Modi. This story has been revised to correct a statement concerning the proceedings brought by the villagers.

CSE lays out strategy to manage water quality in Tanzania

One of the largest lakes in the world, Lake Victoria, has been suffering from a variety of unsustainable human activities over the last five decades. Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment and National Environment Management Council (NEMC), Tanzania have jointly released a report on managing its water quality. The report Lake Victoria: Roadmap for Management of Water Quality in Mwanza City-Tanzania was released on January 25, 2023 by the Permanent Secretary, Vice President’s Office, Mary N Maganga. The report is the final outcome of an earlier discussion paper — Development of an Environmental Management Strategy for Lake Victoria — that was released in July 2022. Lake Victoria and its flora and fauna support the livelihoods of about 45 million people. The ecologically unique water body is shared by three countries — Tanzania (51 per cent), Uganda (44 per cent) and Kenya (5 per cent). A research team from CSE, headed by its Executive Director Anumita Roychowdhary, is in Tanzania to conduct and coordinate the release meeting in association with the Director General of NEMC, Samuel G Mafwenga. The discussion paper released in July 2022 identified Mwanza city as a hotspot, contributing a substantial pollution load in the form of industrial effluents, domestic sewage and dumping of solid waste. It also recognised two rivers — the Mirongo and the Nyashishi — as the major water bodies carrying domestic and industrial pollution loads, respectively. A team of CSE and NEMC conducted a sampling exercise in November 2022 to gauge the pollution situation in these rivers. The results showed substantial pollutant load in the rivers, which may be getting discharged in the lake. The water from the Nyashishi is extensively used for agricultural purposes before it meets the lake. “The focus on the Nyashishi should now be doubled as any pollutant in the river, along with affecting the water quality of Lake Victoria, may also adversely impact crops and human health,” said Nivit Kumar Yadav, programme director, industrial pollution in CSE. Roychowdhury added: The approach to improve Lake Victoria’s water quality, in addition to treating pollution sources, should include aspects such as management of existing wetlands, development of waste management practices and pollution control systems, along with continuous monitoring of water bodies entering the lake. Only 3 per cent of households are connected to sewer lines managed by the Mwanza Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Authority (MWAUWASA), while 93 per cent — especially those living on the hills — are dependent on onsite sanitation (pit latrine and septic tanks), the report highlighted. The city’s waste management practices have 70-80 per cent waste collection efficiency and there is no segregation of the garbage. MWAUWASA has initiated the process of connecting these households to the main sewer lines through a simplified sewerage system, but this could be a challenge considering the area’s landscape, CSE found. CSE and NEMC are also working towards strengthening the environmental impact assessment regime in Tanzania — a ‘Terms of Reference’ (ToR) for mining and industrial development projects was released during the meeting. “The purpose of these ToRs is to enable the project proponent, with environmental experts’ support, to plan and design an EIA properly. A ToR is designed to provide a format and structure for the EIA report, especially on the data required, to ascertain the impacts of the project on people and the environment,” Mafwenga said.

Industries Switch to Biomass After New Delhi Bans Coal

India’s enforced ban on coal burning around New Delhi to fight worsening air pollution has forced local industries to shift to biomass. Approximately half of the small industries surrounding the Indian capital now use biomass, up from 15% in 2020, regulators said. “You can tell the fuel being used by the colour of the steam and the smell in the air,” said a manager at a small unit in the global cloth recycling hub of Panipat, about 100 km (62 miles) from New Delhi, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The air has improved since we shifted to biomass.” But in Panipat, for example, the 2020 study, by think tank the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), estimated a fall of 70% to 80% in sulphur oxide emissions, and a drop of 40% to 60% in nitrogen oxides, if all coal-based industries switched. Textile recyclers, dyers and food processors in the city in the northern state of Haryana, along with those in neighbouring Sonipat and Faridabad, have quickly switched away from coal, the previous fuel of choice. The change to biomass, which usually consists of pellets or briquettes of farm residue, promises to slash emissions and spur farmers to sell such residue instead of burning it, say industry officials and regulators. ‘King’ coal The switch could also bring lower costs, since biomass is 14% cheaper than coal, a 2021 study sponsored by the British government showed. Coal was “king” of fuels in India’s National Capital Region (NCR) after the South Asian nation banned petcoke – a polluting, energy-intensive alternative – in 2017, the CSE report showed. It was the primary fuel for about a quarter of all industries in Haryana’s three major clusters near New Delhi. Now coal is losing out to biomass. “Many petcoke traders became coal traders after a ban on petcoke in 2017,” said Kamaljeet Singh, a senior pollution control official in Panipat. “Now hundreds of coal traders have become biomass traders.” “It has been easier for small industries to convert to biomass instead of converting to natural gas because of lower prices,” Monish Ahuja, chairman of the Confederation of Biomass Energy Industry of India, said. About 81% of the 398 industrial units operating in Panipat alone have converted to biomass, Singh added, devouring coal’s share of 56% in 2020. Rising Prices But biomass traders and consumers are voicing concern about rising prices after the coal ban and seasonal fluctuations in the supply of crop residue, citing these as factors limiting wider national use of the fuel. Average prices of biomass briquettes rose 36% to 7,711 rupees ($94.80) a kilo by the end of 2022, versus 5,677 rupees at the end of 2021, on online marketplace BiofuelCircle, based in the western city of Pune. But owners of industrial units in Panipat said the local nature of New Delhi’s coal ban confers a cost advantage on similar industries elsewhere in India, as they can continue using coal. “Because of these restrictions, Panipat industries are finding it extremely difficult to compete,” said Bhim Rana, president of a dyers’ association in the city. Higher costs fuelled by taxes and a ban on exports of biomass briquettes were among factors attributable to policy that limit supply, the British study said. The study recommended developing a biomass trading platform, better storage, concessional loans and lower interest rates for investors in manufacturing.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm to Address CERAWeek by S&P Global in Houston, March 6-10

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm will address delegates at the 41st annual CERAWeek by S&P Global, March 6-10 in Houston. Secretary Granholm will join the world's energy industry leaders, experts, government officials and policymakers, as well as leaders from the technology, financial and industrial communities addressing this year's conference. "We are pleased again to welcome Secretary Granholm to CERAWeek," said Daniel Yergin, conference chair and Vice Chairman of S&P Global. "At a time of great turbulence in energy, her perspective will be an important and timely contribution to the critical dialogue about energy and policy. Her central role on the implementation and direction of major U.S. legislation—such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—will be a source of great interest. Since delivering her inaugural energy address as U.S. Secretary of Energy at CERAWeek 2021, her participation has been a significant contribution to CERAWeek and has great impact." CERAWeek 2023: Navigating a Turbulent World: Energy, Climate and Security will examine how a new era of global uncertainty and change is reshaping challenges and opportunities for the energy transition. The conference will explore strategies and solutions for reducing emissions while meeting growing energy demand—all as the world grapples with shifting geopolitics, economic uncertainty and the upheaval of war. The CERAWeek 2023 conference program will explore key themes related to: The Energy Trilemma: Balancing security, transition and affordability Geopolitics and Geoeconomics: An era of volatility Competitive Landscape, Technology and Innovation Financing the Energy Future: The capital transition Supply Chains, Commodity Markets and Energy Transition Future Workforce: Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and next-generation skills The week-long event will also include the CERAWeek Innovation Agora, serving as the center of technology and innovation programming at the conference. Featuring a community of thought leaders, technologists, start-ups, investors, academics, energy companies and government officials, the Innovation Agora will showcase transformational technology platforms in the energy space ranging from digitalization, AI, cybersecurity, analytics and connectivity, robotics, blockchain, additive manufacturing, mobility and decarbonization technologies. The 2023 program will also feature expanded "Agora Hubs"—dedicated areas focused on hydrogen, carbon management and climate. CERAWeek 2023 speakers will include (partial list): John Podesta – Senior Advisor for Clean Energy and Implementation and Chair of the National Climate Task Force, The White House Bernard Looney – CEO, bp Pedro Pizarro – President and CEO, Edison International Patrick Pouyanné – Chairman of the Board and CEO, TotalEnergies Vicki Hollub – CEO, Occidental Petroleum Ryan Lance – Chairman and CEO, ConocoPhillips Mike Wirth – Chairman of the Board and CEO, Chevron Anders Opedal – President and CEO, Equinor Wael Sawan – CEO, Shell Douglas Peterson – President and CEO, S&P Global David M. Rubenstein – Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, The Carlyle Group H.E. Haitham Al Ghais – Secretary General, OPEC H.E. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber – Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology; Special Envoy for Climate Change, United Arab Emirates; Group CEO and managing Director, ADNOC Meg O'Neil – CEO and Managing Director, Woodside Energy Dr. Fatih Birol – Executive Director, International Energy Agency Claudio Descalzi – CEO, Eni Josu Jon Imaz – CEO, Repsol Meg Gentle – Executive Director, HIF Global Ernie Thrasher – Founder and CEO, Xcoal Energy and Resources John Ketchum – Chairman, President and CEO, NextEra Energy Jean-Pascal Tricoire – Chairman and CEO, Schneider Electric Miguel Stilwell de Andrade – Chairman of the Executive Board of Directors, EDP Zoe Yujnovich – Upstream Director, Shell Barbara Burger – Senior Advisor, Lazard Christian Bruch – President and CEO, Siemens Energy Richard Adkerson – Chairman of the Board and CEO, Freeport-McMoRan Olivier Le Peuch – CEO, Schlumberger Michael Smith – Chairman, CEO and Founder, Freeport LNG Sunita Narain – Director General, Center for Science and Environment Charif Souki – Executive Chairman of the Board, Tellurian Amos Hochstein – Special Presidential Coordinator, U.S. Department of State Dan Brouillette – President, Sempra Infrastructure Daniel Poneman – President and CEO, Centrus Energy Ernest Moniz – Founder and CEO, Energy Futures Initiative Felipe Bayón – CEO, Ecopetrol S.A. Walter Isaacson – Leonard Lauder Professor of American History and Values, Tulane University

Liveability in Cities: Experts Focused on Cooling Action

Rapid and unplanned urbanization of cities with heat wave , while greatly impacted the urban population , experts, environmentalists & researchers stressed upon heat action plans. Cities including Angul , Talcher , Bhubaneswar , Jharsuguda, Kendujhar , Sundargarh etc of Odisha are witnessing rising episodes of heat waves in the recent few years. These heat waves are becoming more intense in urban areas due to concretization, diminishing green space and water bodies, poor site layouts and unguided design of the buildings and increasing private motorized mobility among other factors. Heat wave is the biggest killer in Asia out of all hazards that affected public health in 2010-2020 according the sixth assessment report of the International Panel for Climate Change. Furthermore, India recorded 280 heat wave days across 16 states in the summer of 2022 according to an analysis by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) . In a conference at Bhubaneswar on Tuesday, organised by CSE & Piloo Mody College of Architecture (PMCA),participants discussed on the issue of rising heat waves and strategies needed to combat it through better urban planning and designing. “Lack of climate-responsive planning and design has caused our cities to spiral into public health concerns and poor liveability with compromised thermal comfort and deteriorating air quality.” – told Rajneesh Sareen, Programme Director,CSE . “Several experts, including Prof. Dharitri Das, Dr. Kajri Mishra, Dr. Sudha Panda, Dr Jayant Routray, Mr. Rahu Das, Prof. Raj Kunwar Nayak & Sanghamitra Rath etc participated in the conference and shared their knowledge and experience to develop a strategy combine these parameters into a strategy and draw a roadmap for its implementation. Two CSE publications titled ‘Mass Housing and Liveability: Mapping of the Ground Reality’ and ‘How Accessible are Low-income Settlements?’ were released by the experts.

Indian industry turns to biomass as capital bans coal in pollution fight

A toxic smog engulfs India's capital every winter, as particles from bonfires of crop stubble and vehicle exhausts hang in the air, but New Delhi is enforcing a ban on coal burning from this month that is forcing industry to shift to biomass. The drive has pushed about half the 1,695 units in a cluster of small industries around one of the world's most polluted capitals to use biomass, regulators told Reuters, up from fewer than 15% counted in a 2020 study. "You can tell the fuel being used by the colour of the steam and the smell in the air," said a manager at a small unit in the global cloth recycling hub of Panipat, about 100 km (62 miles) from New Delhi, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The air has improved since we shifted to biomass." The change in air quality is as yet hard to quantify. But in Panipat, for example, the 2020 study, by thinktank the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), estimated a fall of 70% to 80% in sulphur oxide emissions, and a drop of 40% to 60% in nitrogen oxides, if all coal-based industries switched. Textile recyclers, dyers and food processors in the city in the northern state of Haryana, along with those in neighbouring Sonipat and Faridabad, have quickly switched away from coal, the previous fuel of choice. The change to biomass, which usually consists of pellets or briquettes of farm residue, promises to slash emissions and spur farmers to sell such residue instead of burning it, say industry officials and regulators.

Budget 2023 | No more illogical cuts; allocate more for biodiversity conservation

Last month, India along with 195 countries agreed upon the ‘Kunming-Montreal Global biodiversity framework’ (GBF), a guide for countries to arrest and reverse biodiversity loss, and set a target to conserve 30 percent of the world’s land and oceans b... Unfortunately, in spite of ‘some kind of conservation measure’ over 90 percent of the area of the biodiversity hotspots in India has been lost and 25 species have become extinct, according to the Centre for Science and Environment’s ‘State of India’s... Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/budget-2023-no-more-illogical-cuts-allocate-more-for-biodiversity-conservation-1184067.html

After Okhla, Narela waste-to-energy plant in Delhi seeks capacity boost

The Delhi Pollution Control Committee has launched public consultations for the proposed capacity upgrade at the Narela waste-to-energy (WtE) plant from the current 24MW to 60MW, officials aware of the development said on Monday. The move comes over a month after the expansion at the plant in Okhla was approved by the expert appraisal committee (EAC) under the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC). Local residents had opposed the expansion, citing increased pollution in their area and several violations of pollution control norms by the plant. Waste to energy plants incinerate municipal solid waste to generate electricity. Experts say that such facilities cause pollution and describe them as short cuts in handling waste, circumvent procedures such as waste segregation. The Narela plant was launched in February 2017. It is run by M/s. Delhi MSW Solutions Ltd. (DMSWSL) which developed the 24 MW unit within an integrated solid waste management facility at a site notified by Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). According to a DPCC order, a copy of which HT has seen, “The expansion of the existing WtE project has been recommended by the mayor of the erstwhile north Delhi Municipal Corporation and the Delhi LG for alleviating the mammoth task of municipal solid waste in Delhi. Now, the project proponent has proposed to expand the capacity of the plant from 24MW to 60MW in the same premises. The existing facility has a processing capacity of 4000 tonnes of waste per day (TPD).” Currently. Delhi has four waste to energy plants one each at Ghazipur, Narela, Okhla and Tehkhand. While the Tehkhand plant became operational in October 2022, all three plants were fined ₹5 lakh each in August 2021, after the values of pollutants were found exceeding the permissible limits. Experts have been calling for a switch from WtE plants, highlighting how have they been exceeding permitted emission levels. They have argued that by simply tackling wet waste in Delhi, Delhi can manage half of its own waste organically. “We are creating more WtE plants and expanding the current ones, instead of finding solutions for wet waste. It is this same wet waste which ends up at landfill sites and causes build up of methane and leads to landfill fires,” said Bharati Chaturvedi, founder and director of Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group, and added that despite protests by local residents and past violations, environmental clearances were still being granted to these plants. “We are also in an environmental emergency and the first good air day last year was only in September. In such a scenario and even when the plant gets fined for causing pollution, it is allowed to continue to operate by paying a small amount and that sets the wrong precedent,” she adds. Atin Biswas, a waste management expert and programme director of the municipal solid waste sector at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said that WtE are seen as easy solutions to bypass segregation of waste at source, which was non-negotiable for sustainable waste management. “Mixed waste being used as feedstock in almost all the functional WtE plants. In a city like Delhi where the citizens are already having to breathe in a polluted air, the decision to increase capacity of another WtE plant cannot be supported,” Biswas said, and added that such plants work only when high calorific value waste is utilised.