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INDIA

Thanks to mismanagement, inefficiency and corruption of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation, residents of many areas in the city are facing a water crisis despite more than adequate rains and sufficient storage of water in reservoirs.

Good rainfall in the first week of October saved 12 talukas under the Rajkot district of Gujarat from drought-like conditions. Efforts to ascertain the precise volume of rainfall in the region and level of water stored in dams have begun.

The Faridabad Municipal Corporation has privatised the collection and disposal of solid waste. The garbage will be converted to dry, high-scale compost. The Delhi-based Martel group will execute the project.

Industry, power and the domestic sector are major contributors to pollution, says a study conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board. The study adds that the power and domestic sector contribute 90 per cent of all suspended particle matter in Delhi.

There has been an alarming drop in groundwater levels in several parts of Calcutta. This was confirmed by a survey conducted by the Central Ground Water Authority. Scientists, who conducted the survey, say that the drop in ground water levels might lead to a subsidence of surface soil.

Delhi will face a massive shortage of 900 mw in the next three years, a high-powered environment committee has warned in a strategy paper submitted to the Supreme Court. By 2002, it is estimated that the city's peak power demand will increase to about 3500 mw but the total availability will not exceed 2600 mw.

The largest number of sarus cranes in a protected area has been recorded in the Parrate Agra Bird Sanctuary in Gonda district, Uttar Pradesh. Districts that have a significant population of the bird specie are Etawah, Mathura, Etah and Aligarh.

Lion numbers in the Gir National Park have gone down during the past four years, say wildlife officials. The forest officers are stuck at the figure of 304, counted during the 1995 lion census, and there is no definite record of the number of births.

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