All that was discussed in the house through the day
Around 3.46 million tonnes per annum (TPA) of plastic wastes were generated during 2019-20, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, minister of state in the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, told the Lok Sabha.
Approximately 1.58 million TPA of the plastic waste was recycled and 0.16 million TPA was co-processed in cement kilns, he added.
The minister was referring to the annual report by the central pollution control board for 2019-20.
The plastic litter collected from beaches varies from 40 per cent to 96 per cent, he said after referring to another study by National Center for Coastal Research.
Incidences of human-wildlife conflicts were reported from different parts of the country, Choubey told the Lok Sabha. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttarakhand reported deaths due to tiger attacks.
Odisha reported the highest number of death due to elephant attacks, followed by Assam, Jharkhand and West Bengal. In Odisha, there were 93 deaths due to the elephant attack in 2020-21.
Some Rs 2,784.38 crore was sanctioned under the centrally sponsored scheme, Project Elephant in 2021-22, Choubey said. Only Rs 1,851.78 crore was utilised in 2021-22, he added.
The government of Assam has proposed a sewage cum faecal sludge treatment plant to ensure the treatment of wastewater in the Tinsukia urban local body of the state, Kaushal Kishore, minister of state in the ministry of housing and urban affairs, told the Rajya Sabha.
The plant ensures the treatment of wastewater in urban areas, including slums, he added.
Around 97 per cent of Tinsukia's wastewater is disposed of untreated, a study by the Centre for Science and Environment, a non-profit, had noted.
The annual ground Water extraction is around 398 billion cubic metres, Bishweswar Tudu, minister of state for Jal Shakti (water), told the Rajya Sabha.
He referred to the annual extractable groundwater resource assessment, 2020. The overall groundwater in the country during 2020 has reduced to 61.6 per cent from 63.33 per cent in 2017.
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