Monday, July 23, 2012

HEADLINES

• Pranab Mukherjee wins presidential elections; swearing in ceremony on July 25
• Team Anna calls for indefinite fast from July 25

NATIONAL NEWS

• Supreme Court to consider the Mullaperiyar dam report today
  • The Supreme Court will consider the report of the Empowered Committee — headed by the former Chief Justice of India, A.S. Anand — which has said the 116-year-old Mullaperiyar dam (MPD) “is hydrologically, structurally and seismically safe for raising the water level from 136 feet to 142 feet after carrying out certain repairs”;
  • On May 4, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court asked the Registry to supply copies of the report to the Union government, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and directed the matter be listed for further hearing to July 23;
  • Kerala, whose demand for a new dam had been recommended by the committee only as an alternative proposal, has filed a fresh application for verification of the test reports submitted by the committee for coming to the conclusion that the dam was safe. The Bench is likely to pass an order on this application on Monday;
  • In its conclusions, the committee says , “MPD is found hydrologically safe. Both the Main and Baby dams [gravity and earth] are structurally safe. The Full Reservoir Level [152 ft.] can be restored to the pre-1979 position [when the water level was restricted to 136 ft.]. The strength and other properties of the dam material presently available indicate ample reserve against likely stresses/impacts assessed in the analysis. The suspicion about the existence of a geological fault in the Baby dam’s foundation is ruled out”;
  • It says, “Construction of a new dam, giving due margin for inflation, may cost Rs.1,000 crore. The actual construction with the decommissioning and demolition of the existing dam is likely to take eight to 10 years. The existing dam shall not be dismantled, demolished or decommissioned till a new dam construction is completed and it becomes operational. Till such time, the rights of TamilNadu to all waters in the existing MPD shall be fully honoured”;
  • As a second alternative to allay the apprehensions of Kerala, the committee has suggested the construction of a tunnel at the existing water level of 50 ft.
• Environment Ministry calls for action plan to save Great Indian Bustard
  • Gujarat’s Great Indian Bustards (GIB) and Lesser Floricans (or Likh) — large, rare birds found in grasslands — are facing “very high” to “high” levels of threats like poaching, removal or destruction of eggs and nests, habitat destruction and lack of effective grassland management, according to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF);
  • The ministry has directed the forest departments of Gujarat and other states where, the birds are found, to draw up action plans and form local conservation committees, in turn pledging to provide Central funds;
  • “Currently, not more than 300 individuals of GIB are left in the world, with no known breeding population outside India,” the ministry said in a set of guidelines issued last week, adding the species has been listed as “critically endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — the world’s foremost body of conservation naturalists;
  • GIBs gather in grassland patches to breed during mid-summer and monsoon, nesting in open areas and laying one or, at most, two eggs per year, the IUCN says, adding that it “probably makes local and possibly long distance nomadic movements” during other months;
  • Meanwhile, the Lesser Florican population “is restricted to a few pockets in western and south-central India,” the MoEF notes, estimating less than 2,500 surviving individuals. The ministry lists its existence in Gujarat at Velavadar (Bhavnagar district), Abdasa and Rampar (Kutch), Gondal (Rajkot) and Amreli district. The IUCN lists the species as ‘endangered'.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Mutiny in Madagascar
  • A group of mutinous soldiers in Madagascar took over a military camp near the Indian Ocean island’s main airport on Sunday and shot an army officer sent in to negotiate their surrender;
  • Government soldiers surrounded the base and launched an attack on the mutineers by Sunday afternoon after attempts to negotiate failed, the military said. It was not immediately clear how many mutinous soldiers were holed up inside the base.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article on India's water problems