Environment

New Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) Delhi's air quality turned severe again on Tuesday due to low wind speed and high moisture levels, India Meteorological Department officials said.

The city's 24-hour average air quality index (AQI) was 404 on Tuesday. It was 372 on Monday and 347 the previous day.

Before that, Delhi's air quality remained in the severe zone for three consecutive days.

An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe".

Kolkata, Jan 16 (PTI) To make solar energy viable for households in Bengal, WBERC has relaxed rooftop solar regulations by allowing net metering starting from capacity of 1 KW against 5 KW capacity criteria required earlier and that too for restricted categories of consumers, an official said.

Earlier no individual or housing complexes except co- operatives, were permitted the benefit of net metering a key driver for rooftop solar adoption. Without net metering rooftop solar projects are not very economically feasible, the official said.

Mumbai, Jan 8 (PTI) Mumbai on Friday once again recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 317 which was worse than that of Delhi, an official of the India Meteorological Department said.

On Thursday too, the city's AQI was worse than that of the national capital.

The quality of air was worst in Colaba in south Mumbai on Friday as per the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR-India).

With AQI of 352, the air quality in the area fell in the "very poor" category.

New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) The government has cleared eight hydropower projects of 144 MW on the Indus river and its tributaries in Ladakh, the highest so far, sources in the Jal Shakti Ministry said on Thursday.

At present, there are several small projects, with a collective capacity of 113 MW on Indus in Ladakh, and the new projects will have much more capacity than those constructed so far, a senior official added.

New Delhi, Dec 30 (PTI) The Delhi government has notified the Tree Transplantation Policy under which agencies will have to transplant a minimum of 80 per cent of the trees affected by their development works.

The Delhi Cabinet had approved the policy on October 9.

LONDON (AP) — Hurricane-force winds reaching up to 106 mph (170 kph) and heavy rainstorms battered parts of Britain on Sunday, disrupting train services and stranding drivers in floodwaters.

The Isle of Wight saw Storm Bella’s strongest gusts hit 106 mph, while parts of the south coast of England and north Wales also saw gusts of around 80 mph (129 kph). Flooding on the tracks caused train cancellations and delays in southern England, and a main train line into London was blocked by a fallen tree.

New Delhi, Dec 28 (PTI) A cold wave is likely to grip parts of Delhi over the next four days as frosty winds from the Himalayas have started blowing towards the plains, weather department officials said on Monday.

The minimum temperature in the national capital settled at 5.6 degrees Celsius as against 6 degrees Celsius on Sunday.

Hyderabad, Dec 20 (PTI): Expressing solidarity with the farmers protesting at Delhi borders against the Centre's new farm laws, members of different organisations including farmers organisations and Left parties held a dharna here on Sunday.

Diverse citizen groups from various walks of life joined the dharna and declared that they stand with farmers and support their demands for repeal of the three new farm laws, a release from the AIKSCC (All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee) said.

Washington, Dec 18 (PTI) US President-elect Joe Biden has announced his climate and energy team, which the transition said is ready on day one to advance his agenda and lead the world to confront the undeniable, accelerating and punishing reality of climate change.

The nominees are Congresswoman Deb Haaland as Secretary of Interior, Jennifer Granholm as Energy Secretary, Michael Regan as administrator for Environmental Protection Agency and Brenda Mallory as Chair of the Council of the Council on Environmental Quality.

Paris, Dec 15 (AP-PTI) French President Emmanuel Macron announced a referendum to add the fight against climate change and the need to preserve the environment into the French Constitution.

Speaking on Monday to a citizen's group in charge of making proposals on climate-related issues, Macron proposed a change in the constitution that requires a parliamentary vote, and then a referendum.