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.

From being a much sought-after delicacy found in abundance in the Godavari and Krishna rivers, to figuring in the global IUCN Red List of threatened species, the fringed-lipped carp (Labeo fimbriatus) has been hunted almost to extinction, thanks to unscientific overharvesting.

A serious effort is hence being made by the Andhra Pradesh Biodiversity Board to revive the once-popular fish species by introducing fingerlings this monsoon, to start with, in the Godavari river system in Adilabad district.

All eyes in the Nashik forest department are on the man-versus-beast conflict playing out in the district. The two recent attacks by leopards in the village of Shivare, near Niphad(about 35km from Nashik), just 25 days apart, have not come as a surprise to many.

According to the 2010 Wildlife Institute census, the state had 72 tigers and this excluded an estimated 15 tiger cubs. The state, on the other hand, boasted of a much larger figure — 105 tigers just a decade ago.

Speaking to media persons here on Thursday, the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), Mr Hitesh Malhotra, said that the tiger population is reducing in the Godavari region due to widespread destruction of their habitat.

Citizens of the peripheral areas in Hyderabad will continue to suffer drinking water shortage for at least two more years due to a delay in the implementation of the Krishna Phase-III, as the state government has sanctioned a meagre Rs 30 crore for execution of the Rs 1,670 crore project.

The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board has little money to take up works on the Krishna Phase-III, and the Water Board is already mortgaging its properties to raise loans for the execution of the Godavari drinking water project for Hyderabad city.

Water experts warn that India’s major rivers, including Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada, Krishna, Godavari and Chambal, could soon dry up due to blatant sand and gravel mining being spearheaded by the mining mafia.

So blatant are their activities that the water experts warn entire river systems are being destroyed by their illegal activities.Sand is vital for the health of the river system because it acts like a sponge helping to recharge the water table. Its progressive depletion results in plunging water tables and increased velocity of river flow.

Once phase-I of Godavari project is commissioned, the water will first reach Hitec City, Sainikpuri, Cantonment, Kapra, Alwal, Malkajgiri, Qutbullapur, Kukatpally, Rajendernagar and Serilingampally areas. In other words, the residential colonies of surrounding municipalities, which are reeling under severe water scarcity, will be the first among the beneficiaries to receive Godavari water. To put the internal distribution system in place for the supply of Godavari water in the city alone will cost nearly Rs 500 crore.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has pulled up the Gujarat government-run Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) for financial irregularities and undue favour to select companies such as Reliance Industries Ltd and Adani Enterprises Ltd. According to its report for the year ended March 2010-11, GSPC incurred losses of a little more than Rs 5,000 crore during 2006-2011 for exploration activities at its oil and gas block in the Krishna-Godavari (K-G) basin.