22 APRIL 2016

Ø  The threat to the future of a vulnerable bird species has halted the Rs. 6,400-crore hydro power project in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has suspended the Union Environment Ministry’s clearance for the project granted in 2012. The clearance, the court noted, didn’t consider the impact of the hydro project — promoted by Noida-based textile-to-steel conglomerate, LNJ Bhilwara Group — on the habitat of the black-necked crane, a species that breeds on the Tibetan plateau and migrates to Tawang for the winter. The bird, most commonly found in China, is legally protected in Bhutan and India and is considered sacred to certain Buddhist traditions. Other species that are found in the region include the red panda, the snow leopard and the Arunachal macaque Macaca munzala, a recently-described primate species in the area, according to court documents viewed by The Hindu. The project is planned on the Nyamjang Chhu river and is the largest of 13 hydro power projects to be built in the Tawang basin.

Ø  The Gujarat government has said all 203 small, medium and large dams in the state, including the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river, are now having 3,503.87 million cubic metres of water, which is just 21.74 per cent of their actual storage capacity. Looking at the acute water crisis prevalent in various parts of the State due to deficient rainfall last year, the Gujarat government has announced that water remaining in 56 dams would be reserved for providing drinking water to people. Till now, the State government has declared 994 villages of the parched Saurashtra and Kutch region as ‘partially scarcity-hit’. Earlier on Thursday, the committee held a meeting at Gandhinagar to assess the water crisis. After the meeting, the government said as many as 317 villages in 14 districts had been given water through tankers at present. As the water crisis was expected to worsen in the coming days, another 468 villages would be get tanker supply, it added. At present, 1,100 million litres per day water is being distributed through the Narmada canal network. Now, additional 900 MLD of water will be given.

Ø  Pakistan’s Army chief Raheel Sharif on Thursday sacked 12 serving Army officers, including a Lieutenant-General, for corruption-related offences. The sacking comes at a time when the chorus for an inquiry into the offshore assets of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s children, as revealed by the Panama Papers, is growing in Pakistan. Two sons and a daughter of Mr. Sharif, according to the Panama Papers, had formed four offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands.