Irate public of Podanur and Vellalore area on Monday staged a demonstration condemning the burning of garbage at the compost yard and the resultant smoke causing health hazards.

Renewable energy has become vital, says Farooq Abdullah

Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah has urged the wind energy sector to focus on research. Wind machines were essential as they did not pollute. Renewable energy had become vital. India needed to have energy from different sources, such as fossil fuel and nuclear power.

More than two crore trees were uprooted by cyclone Thane in the district and their disposal would take over six months due to various reasons including shortage of manpower, a senior Agriculture department official said on Wednesday.

The severe storm accompanied by gale force wind with speed touching 135 kmph that hit the district coast on December 30 brought down more than two crore jackfruit, mango, banana, coconut and cashew trees among others across the district, Assistant Director of Agriculture P. Hariharan said.

The 30 million litres a day (mld) Pilloor water the Corporation will get Tuesday onwards from the Pilloor Dam will be used to meet the drinking water requirements of Ganapathy, Avarampalayam, Maniakarampalayam, Singanallur, Peelamedu and Ramanathapuram.

The supply to the 4.50 lakh residents of the area will help the Corporation maintain the 135 litres per capita a day limit.

After carrying out anti-plastic bag drive in May and June last year, the Coimbatore Corporation seems to have taken it easy. Sources in the Corporation say that the officials who are supposed to have taken forward the drive have been asked to focus on waste management in added areas.

Contrast the position with May-June 2011. Corporation officials, armed with the new mandate under Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rule 2011, went after traders and retails asking them to stop use of plastic bags less than 40 microns.

To prevent the pachyderms from straying into human habitations

The Forest Department has completed the work of identification of land, demarcation and removal of exotic weeds to facilitate tilling of the lands for creating fodder resource inside the reserve forest to prevent wild elephants from straying into human habitations.

Jasmine growers near Coimbatore are now able to export them to the Gulf and the US, thanks to the packaging technology that has enhanced the shelf-life of the flowers. At Rajpipla village near Surat, a group of farmers have set up a unit to extract fibre from banana stem, considered a waste and pollutant. The unit generates about 3,000 man-days of employment annually, besides generating a modest profit and compost for the village.

Officials sources clarified here on Friday that Kerala's expression of willingness for joint control of the proposed new dam on the Mullaperiyar was about water regulation only.

The proposal placed before the Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court earlier was that the ownership, control and maintenance of the new dam would vest with Kerala. A joint water regulatory board could be in charge of water regulation.

The growing need for land for industrial and residential purposes has resulted in lands under agriculture shrinking by 10 to 15 per cent per annum in Coimbatore, Erode and Tirupur districts.

Top officials in the Agriculture Department, pointing out to the statistics discussed by the State Planning Commission at its recent meetings, say that in these districts, the total extent of land under agriculture has come down by 1.50 lakh hectares over the last three years.

Off the Ukkadam – Sundakkamuthur Road, about a km away, in the midst of banana farms lie three or four thatched roofed temporary structures.

At first sight they appear to be houses or sheds for watchmen. But they are not. They are not even mushroom cultivation farms, as a board outside one of the sheds claims. They are yarn dyeing units.