All that was discussed in the House through the day
As many as 397 lions, including 182 cubs of 0-1 year, have died in Gujarat from 2019-21, as informed by the state, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Union minister of state for environment, forest and climate change told the Rajya Sabha.
As reported by the state, 10.53 per cent lions including 3.82 per cent cubs have died due to unnatural reasons out of total deaths of lions in the last five years in Gujarat State, Choubey added.
A total of 605 human casualties due to elephant attack were reported in 2022-23, Choubey told the Rajya Sabha. There were 103 deaths due to tiger attack in 2022, he added.
As many as 33 scientists of the Central Pollution Control Board were deployed from November 10, 2023 onwards as flying squads for intensifying monitoring and enforcement actions towards the prevention of paddy stubble burning incidents in 22 districts of Punjab and 11 districts of Haryana.
The flying squads are coordinating with the state government / nodal officers / officers from respective pollution control boards towards prevention and control of stubble burning in their respective districts and sending their daily reports to the Commission, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Union minister of state for environment, forest and climate change told the Rajya Sabha.
Owing to concerted efforts by all stakeholders and constant monitoring and reviews by the central government, cases of paddy stubble burning reduced by about 27 per cent, to 39,186 in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan for the period from September 15-November 30, 2023 from 53,792 for the corresponding period in 2022.
As reported by the Geological Survey of India (GSI), the Union Ministry of Mines, which is the nodal agency on landslide studies, the available data on occurrence of landslides in hilly areas shows a mixed trend, with periodic ups and downs in the number of occurrences.
As many as 3,665 landslides have been studied by GSI in the field, based on the updated national landslide inventory available with GSI from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2022.
Further, the Central Water Commission (CWC), Union Ministry of Jal Shakti (water resources), is the nodal organisation entrusted with the task of flood forecasting and early flood warnings in the country.
As reported by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, the occurrence of landslides, flash floods and others have increased over the hilly region, due to the increased frequency of localised heavy rainfall, Ashwini Kumar Choubey.
Air Quality Index is monitored in 265 cities / towns in the country, noted Choubey. Under National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), an amount of Rs 19,711 crores have been earmarked to 131 cities during the period FY 2019-20 till FY 2025-26, out of which 49 Million Plus Cities / Urban Agglomerations are funded under XVth Finance Commission air quality grant, the minister added.
So far, an amount of Rs 9,635 crore was released to 131 cities to implement City Action Plans in their respective cities, Choubey informed the Rajya Sabha.
A total of 450 projects under the Namami Gange programme have been taken up at an estimated cost of Rs 38,022.37 crore, out of which 270 projects have been completed and made operational, Bishweswar Tudu, Union minister of state for Jal Shakti (water resources) told the Lok Sabha.
Majority of the projects pertain to creation of sewage infrastructure as the untreated domestic / industrial wastewater is the main source of pollution in the river, he said. Around 195 sewerage infrastructure projects have been taken up at a cost of Rs 31,344.13 crore for creation & and rehabilitation of 6,173.12 million litres per day (MLD) of Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) capacity and laying of around 5,253.64 km sewerage network.
Among these, 109 sewerage projects have been completed, resulting in creation and rehabilitation of 2,664.05 MLD of STP capacity and laying of 4,465.54 km sewerage network, TUdu added.
‘PM-eBusSewa Scheme’ has been launched recently by the Government of India under which ‘Green Urban Mobility Initiatives’ (GUMI) provides for proposals of urban mobility infrastructure and services like bus priority infrastructure, multimodal interchange facilities, Intelligent Transit Management System, National Common Mobility Card-based Automated Fare Collection System and charging infrastructure including projects demonstrating reduction in Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.
181 Indian cities with over 300,000 population, as per Census 2011, including 12 cities of Tamil Nadu, are eligible to participate in this segment of the Scheme, Kaushal Kishore, Union minister of state for housing and urban affairs told the Lok Sabha.
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