Commercial borewells in residential areas are guzzling precious ground water. As a result, the domestic borewells in surrounding houses and apartments are going dry, causing utter inconvenience to citizens. As per the Water Air Land and Trees (WALTA) Act, commercialisation of borewell water is not allowed in residential areas or city limits.

Citizens claim that despite lodging complaints, officials are not taking action against tanker operators who are selling precious groundwater. One such “commercial bore” in the midst of a residential locality near a private dairy farm in Dabeerpura in the old city,

Biotech industry’s propaganda is false

The only transgenic crop grown in India is Bt cotton developed by injecting a toxin from a soil bacterium called Bacillus Thuringiensis [Bt] into a cotton seed through a highly sophisticated process. When planted the seed produces a highly toxic cotton plant. Its roots, stem, leaves and boll continuously secrete Bt toxin.

Community gains from genetic engineering
Genetic modification / Genetic Engineering (GM/ GE / GMO) is a technology. The entire basis for evolution is constant genetic modification by nature. With conventional breeding techniques, several hundreds of genes move from one plant / animal to another and the beneficial outcomes are selected.

New technology helps insert a single or a set of genes, which is beneficial and can be done in a much shorter time. Drug and crop developers have used this technology to come up with new drugs,

In just a week’s time, between May 7 and May 13, citizens have lodged 145 complaints of water pollution with the customer care centre of the Water Board. Delayed and scarce supply of water during summer is a common complaint. The complaints have come from even the upmarket Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Himayatnagar, Khairatabad and Punjagutta.

The city’s water problem is turning acute as a large number of borewells have dried up, with experts attributing the worsening situation to the absence of rainwater harvesting (RWH) structures. Hyderabad’s residents primarily depend on groundwater for all purposes barring drinking and cooking. With the groundwater table depleting fast, experts said the main villains are the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and the Water Board, the two civic agencies that failed to implement the RWH pits scheme.

With the mercury on a steady upward drive, officials of the forest department are back to solving the poser thrown up at them every summer: How to provide water to the animals and birds in the state’s forest areas and, more importantly, protect them from poachers and hunters. With 22 wildlife sanctuaries and four national parks covering 12,579.205 sq km, or 4.57 per cent of the state’s area, the work is not exactly child’s play.

The tigers are roaring in different parts of the state, their numbers being significantly up, according to preliminary reports from the ongoing census of the big cats. The reports, based on camera traps and pugmarks, are coming in from different tiger reserves, sanctuaries and national parks to the state’s wildlife wing. Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR) alone has so far reported the presence of at least 78 tigers, including cubs. Wildlife officials at Atchampet division reported the presence of 17 tigers, a record of sorts.

Around 30 per cent of the groundwater resource in the state is unfit for both drinking and agriculture, a fact that has sparked concern in the groundwater department authorities since water sources in the state are receding at an alarming rate. Salinity and fluoride contamination are the main reasons for the water becoming unsuitable for irrigation and drinking. Dr K. Venugopal, joint director, groundwater department, said that there are as many as 36 saline mandals and a huge area with high flourine content in water, posing health hazards due to fluorosis.

Coastal towns of Machilipatnam, Surya Lanka, Kavali and Gudur in Andhra Pradesh are sensitive regions with high return levels of sea surge in case of cyclones or tidal waves in the Bay of Bengal. Sea scientists from the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, conducted studies to estimate the return periods of extreme sea level events along the East coast of India for as many as 26 coastal cities and towns. The research concentrated on five-year and 50-year return levels, which will help design marine structures for the protection of coastal areas.

Hyderabadis are victims of perpetual noise pollution according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board. Data pertaining to ambient noise level from continuous monitoring stations set up by the CPCB concludes that the city residents are subjected to high noise levels at all times.

These stations set up at five different locations show that irrespective of the location, whether residential, commercial, or sensitive zones, and irrespective of the timing, i.e, day or night, readings are way above the safety standard and can thus have dangerous impacts on people’s health. In April, the average noise level in Jubilee Hills,