The CPI-M on Monday urged the Central government to provide adequate financial help to Tamil Nadu where it said about 50 persons had died after a major cyclone.

The cyclone, Guja, had damaged public infrastructure and private properties in about 10 districts, the Communist Party of India-Marxist said in a statement.

“The cyclone also led to the shifting of about one lakh people to relief camps in Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Pudukottai, Ramanathapuram, Trichi, Dindigul and Theni districts,” it said.

“The cyclone had caused damages to hundreds of houses, felled over more than 5,000 trees and about 13,000 electric poles across the state. Life was severely hit as the supply of electricity and essentials was disrupted and transport was affected.

“The state and the Central governments should take all possible steps for rescue, relief and rehabilitation of all those who are affected. The Central government should provide adequate financial help to the state.”

IANS

 A severe cyclonic storm, Gaja, battered the Tamil Nadu coast on Friday, leaving at least 11 people dead and causing widespread destruction.

Authorities said the cyclone crossed the coast between Nagapattinam and Vedaranyam districts between 12.30 a.m. and 2.30 a.m. with wind speeds of about 110-120 kmph.

So powerful were the gales that the roof sheets of the Nagapattinam railway station were damaged.

Chief Minister K. Palaniswami said in Salem, some 350 km from here, that 11 persons had lost their lives due to the cyclone.

He said a sum of Rs 10 lakh would be paid to each family of the dead. For those severely injured, a sum of Rs 100,000 would be paid and those who suffered minor injuries would get Rs 25,000.

About 82,000 people living in low-lying areas were sent to 471 relief centres, the Chief Minister said, adding that the preventive measures helped keep the death toll low.

Relief centres were set up in Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Ramanathapuram, Thanjavur, Pudukottai and Thiruvarur on Thursday itself.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast rains till Friday evening.

R.B. Udhyakumar, Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management, said all the trees felled by the cyclone were being removed.

Road traffic was hit in Nagapattinam due to the fallen trees.

The government snapped power supply on Thursday night as precaution. The cyclone damaged some 12,000 power poles.

Several universities in Tamil Nadu have postponed their exams slated for Friday.

Similarly, schools will remain closed on Friday in Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Thanjavur, Pudukottai, Thiruvarur and several other districts in Tamil Nadu and in Puducherry including Karaikal.

Isolated rains are likely over north Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, north Kerala and interiors of south Karnataka.

Gale wind speed reaching 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph very likely in central parts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry coasts during next six hours.

Powerful winds are also likely in the remaining parts of Tamil Nadu and the Palk Strait, which divides Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.

According to the Chief Minister, the Fisheries Department will estimate the damage to the fishing boats before paying compensation to the fishermen.

IANS

 The severe cyclonic storm Gaja, which lay centred about 126 km east of Karaikal in Puducherry, is expected to cross the Tamil Nadu coast near Nagapattinam on Thursday night, Indian Meteoroligcal Department (IMD) said.

According to IMD, Gaja is expected to cross the coast south of Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu by 11 p.m. Thursday with a wind speed of 80-90 kmph gusting to 100 kmph.

The IMD officials said the outer rim of the Gaja cyclone is touching Karaikal and strong winds have already started blowing in the coastal districts.

Rains have started in Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, Thiruvarur districts.

The IMD predicted rainfall at most places with heavy to very heavy at a few places over Tamilnadu and Puducherry.

Extremely heavy rain measuring about 20 cm at isolated places is also likely over Cuddalore, Nagappattinam, Karaikal, Tiruvarur, Thanjavur, Pudukkottai, Tuticorin and Ramanathapuram districts, IMD said.

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government has set up relief centres in the districts of Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Ramanathapuram, Thanjavur and Thiruvarur.

People in living in low-lying areas have been shifted to relief centres.

Universities and colleges have postponed their exams slated for Friday.

Similarly, schools and colleges in Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Thiruvarur will be closed on Friday.

According to the AIADMK government, telecommunication companies have said they would have oil stocked for a minimum of five days in the cyclone-expected zone and for 15 days at their headquarters.

The mobile telephone companies also assured the government of moving their mobile telecom towers or cell on wheels to Nagapattinam and Cuddalore.

According to a statement from the state government, arrangements have been made to send bulk SMS to mobile subscribers warning about the weather issued by the emergency control centres.

The Indian Navy is also on high alert and is ready to render any assistance, a statement said.

Two Navy ships – Ranvir and Khanjar – are standing by to proceed to the most affected areas to undertake humanitarian aid, distress relief, evacuation, and logistic support, including proviging medical aid, the Navy said.

Additionally, aircraft from Naval Air Stations Dega, Rajali and Parundu and patrolling boats from naval detachments in Ramnathapuram, Nagapattinam have been warning the fishing vessels about the approaching storm, the Navy said.

Naval aircraft are also standing by to undertake reconnaissance, rescue, casualty, evacuation and air drop of relif material to the stranded.

IANS

 While New Delhi and other Indian cities choke amid worsening air conditions and half-hearted government measures, neighbouring China — the world’s largest polluter — is slowly winning its war against pollution.

Over a dozen Indian cities today are where their Chinese counterparts used to be some five years ago.

Until 2009, 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities were in China. This year, the first 14, including New Delhi, are in India, and only the last four — minus Beijing — are in China.

China is notorious for pollution and it’s not just an offshoot of four decades of furious industrialisation. The problem stretches back centuries when dynastic leaders ignored the environmental costs of development.

China had no environmental institution until 1972, six years after which the country went into an almost four-decade-long economic frenzy that saw smoke-billowing factories sprout across its landscape.

The government woke up to the problem only in late 2013 when a severe smog descended on Beijing — dubbed “airpocalypse” — and an eight-year-old girl in Jiangsu province was diagnosed with lung cancer attributed to air pollution, making her the youngest cancer patient in the country.

This triggered a huge public outcry and, surprisingly, the state-owned media joined the chorus.

“That was a watershed moment. People were angry. It was then that the government decided to monitor PM (particulate matter) 2.5 in 74 cities and make the data public,” Ma Jun, Director at the Institute of Public Environmental Affairs, a Chinese NGO, told IANS.

The stability-obsessed Chinese government also realised that merely disseminating data was not enough and announced an ambitious plan to wage a “war on pollution”.

Green activists say although China has a long way to go to curb pollution, its efforts have begun to pay off.

The Chinese Environment Ministry said in September that over half of some 650 cities saw air quality improve year-on-year. Now the skies over Beijing are blue — and on some days exceptionally clean.

“Political will and ambitious targets set by the government in 2013 have delivered very impressive gains, but the level of determination going forward needs to be reaffirmed,” Lauri Myllyvirta, senior global campaigner, coal and air pollution, Greenpeace, told IANS.

“Of course, things could still change this year if the first month or two of the winter period show negative progress,” he added.

China is the world’s largest coal producer and burns half of it itself, causing severe air pollution. But over the years, China has shut many coal-fired power plants and shifted to natural gas heating. This leaves many homes outside Beijing and other provinces extremely cold in winter but reduces smog.

In a bolder decision this October, the Chinese government said it will switch another 1.18 million residential households in the country to natural gas heating this winter.

“If you look at Beijing, the capital’s coal consumption has dropped from 22 million tonnes in 2012 to five million tonnes this year,” said Ma. “Beijing’s 2.5 PM has dropped from 90 to 58 in 2018.”

The Chinese standard for PM 2.5 is 35.

China has also cracked down heavily on polluting factories, shutting tens of thousands of them. It has a “green police” which has the power to send its inspection teams to any part of the country, a privilege enjoyed only by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

In 2017, 18,000 companies for were punished for pollution and fines worth $125 million were levied.

The green police also has the power to sack officials for being lax in controlling pollution. Last year, 12,000 officials were disciplined.

Setting off crackers is completely banned in 444 cities, including Beijing.

The glut of cars in Beijing is responsible for 30 percent of the city’s air pollution. And to tackle this, the government has placed a limit on license plates of cars. Car rationing is implemented with ease when pollution shoots up.

In another major decision last month, the Chinese market regulator decided to set up a system to recall vehicles that violate the country’s pollution and emissions standards. Besides, China has the most number of electric vehicles in the world and it subsidises their manufacture.

The country is, in fact, spending heavily on clean energy — more than twice the amount invested by the US.

“More actions are needed. The coal consumption has stagnated but we need to reduce it further,” Ma said.

“There are many cities in China’s coal-belly, Shanxi, which still cannot meet the modest air quality standards. Things have improved, but we have a long way to go.”

The World Health Organisation has acknowledged China’s efforts in curbing pollution and reckons that India can take a cue from it.

IANS

Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) on Monday witnessed “severe” air quality with the minimum temperature recorded at 13.4 degrees Celsius, the season’s average, the Met office said.

“The sky will be clear with mist in the early part of the day,” an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official said.

The air-quality across the NCR remained “severe”, according to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR).

The humidity at 8.30 a.m. was 90 per cent. The maximum temperature was likely to hover around 31 degrees Celsius.

Sunday’s maximum temperature settled at 31.4 degrees Celsius, three notches above the season’s average while the minimum temperature was recorded at 12.4 degrees Celsius, two notches below the season’s average.

IANS

India has declared that nuclear energy is vital for meeting the challenge of climate change and suggested supporting efforts to promote its public acceptance amid growing opposition to nuclear power and plans by some countries to phase out their atomic generation plants.

“Nuclear power remains an important option to meet the challenges of increased energy demand, address concerns about climate change, redress volatile fossil fuel prices and ensure security of the energy supply,” Sandeep Kumar Bayyapu, a first secretary in India’s UN Mission told the General Assembly on Friday.

Therefore, he said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should support efforts by countries to build public acceptance of nuclear energy and continue to help them start or expand nuclear energy programmes.

Nuclear reactors do not produce greenhouse gases like power plants using coal and, therefore, can increase electricity generation without contributing to climate change.

They can provide a steady supply of electricity because unlike solar and wind power sources, nuclear plants can operate when there is no sun or wind and are not affected by fluctuations in water availability like hydroelectric plants.

To meet one of the points of opposition to nuclear power plants, Bayyapu advocated building advanced fission reactors, including fast reactors, that use nuclear fuel more efficiently and reduce radioactive waste.

While speaking during the debate on the IAEA’s annual report, he presented thorium-based technologies as solutions to other objections to nuclear plants.

Bayyapu said that thorium-based fuel cycles and technologies are inherently less susceptible to be used for weapons production and can also provide enhanced passive safety features.

According to the Department of Atomic Energy, India is planning to more than treble its nuclear electricity generation from the current 6,780 megawatts to 22,480 megawatts by 2031.

Of the nine reactors under construction, one is an advanced fast breeder reactor with 500 megawatt capcity being built at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu.

The fast breeder reactor uses thorium to create uranium 233 for power generation.

A test reactor of the fast breeder type is already operating in Kalpakkam.

Thorium is more abundantly found in India compared to uranium, for which the country has to rely on imports.

India has seen opposition to nuclear power plants, especially the one at Kudankulam in southern Tamil Nadu.

Many countries in Europe are moving away from nuclear energy citing its risks.

Germany is committed to phasing out all nuclear power plants by 2022 and Belgium, Italy and Switzerland also plan to shut theirs down.

IANS

 Ahead of the fresh spell of rain and snow forecast next week, minimum temperatures across Jammu and Kashmir improved on Friday.

Srinagar and Jammu recorded 1.0 and 12.5 degrees Celsius as the night’s lowest temperatures, respectively, improving from Thursday’s minus 0.4 and 11.5, Met said.

“The lowest temperature was recorded in Kargil on Friday at minus 7.4, followed by Leh at minus 5.1 which was better than Thursday’s at minus 8.6 and minus 6.5, a Met official said.

The minimum temperature was 12 in Katra, 6.7 in Batote and 4.0 in both Bannihal and Bhaderwah towns.

Pahalgam and Gulmarg in the valley recorded minus 1.0 and minus 3.5, respectively.

From November 12 to November 14 rains and snow have been predicted for the state, with maximum activity on Tuesday.

IANS

The Garhwal-Kumaon segment of the northwest (NW) Himalayas is seismically the “most vulnerable section” of the region with a potential to generate great earthquakes, warns a new study by researchers from multiple institutions in India.

Their findings, reported in the journal “Earth and Planetary Science Letters”, is based on analysis of five years (2013-2018) of continuous GPS measurements from 28 stations located in the Garhwal-Kumaon Himalayas and the adjoining Indo-Gangetic plains.

Lifted by the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate under the Eurasian Plate, the Himalayan mountain range runs in an arc, about 2,400-km long, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau.

Partly in India and partly in western Nepal, the NW Himalayas have not experienced a great earthquake since at least 1505, Vineet Gahalaut director of the National Centre for Seismology in New Delhi and corresponding author of the paper, told this correspondent.

An analysis of GPS measurements of crustal deformation suggests “strong seismic coupling” underneath Garhwal-Kumaon region, he said. Strong inter-plate coupling means the fault below Garhwal-Kumaon segment is “locked” and capable of accumulating stress. The width of the coupled region, according to the report, is estimated to be about 85 km.

This strongly-coupled region must have accumulated a “slip” of more than 7 meters since the last earthquake in 1505 “which is enough to produce a great earthquake in the region”, the researchers claim. Slip is the relative displacement of formerly adjacent points on opposite sides of a fault.

According to their report, GPS measurements found the convergence rate in this part of the Himalayas is about 18 millimeters per year which has continued for more than 500 years — making this slice of the geological fault “one of the most earthquake-vulnerable segments of the Himalayan arc.”

The network of GPS sites in the Garhwal Himalayas, the densest anywhere along the Himalayan arc, “provides the most reliable estimate of spatial variations of site velocities in the Himalayas,” the authors say.

“The derived coupling map from GPS measurements has implications for seismic hazard in the Garhwal-Kumaon region,” says the report, adding that the regions of high-coupling would be the regions of high seismic energy release during future earthquakes.

“Taking the analogy from the 2015 Gorkha earthquake and 1985 Mexico earthquake, the sediment filled valleys, such as the Dehradun valley in the Garhwal region, are expected to be the regions of potentially more damage in future events.”

This has serious implications in terms of seismic hazards, the report says, “as the population density is higher in the frontal Himalayas and its contiguous Indo-Gangetic plains, thus exposing more people to high, near-field ground shaking.”

Besides this, the unconsolidated sediments in the Indo-Gangetic plains can cause more structural damage during earthquakes and also liquefaction — wherein saturated soil behaves more like a liquid than a solid — as happened in the 1934 Nepal-Bihar earthquake, says the report.

Besides Gahalaut, the study team included scientists from Institute of Seismological Research, Gandhinagar; National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad; V.C.S.G. Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry, Pauri; Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun and G.B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment & Sustainable Development, Almora.

Chittenipattu Puthenveettil Rajendran, seismologist at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, says the study “reiterates an earlier premise that the central Himalaya is strongly coupled and is waiting to break in a great earthquake anytime sooner”.

The Garhwal-Kumaon segment of the Himalayan arc (including parts of Nepal and India) never had a great earthquake during the last 600-700 years, Rajendran told this correspondent. “That means more than 20 meters of seismic slip is accumulated over these years, which can be released only by one or more great earthquakes (Mw >8.5) in the region.”

“This poses a serious hazard for the Himalayan region and the heavily-populated adjacent Gangetic alluvial plains — not seriously considered by the government,” Rajendran noted.

IANS

 
Supreme Court’s order limiting firecracker-bursting to two hours during Diwali was partly-flouted in Bengaluru with many people burning firecrackers for a longer period, an official said on Thursday.

“People in many locations of the city had started burning firecrackers at 6 p.m., even though the time set by the state was from 8-10 p.m.,” the city’s civic authority spokesperson L. Suresh told IANS here.

However, the 10 p.m. deadline for firecrackers was largely followed across the city, he said.

The state government on November 2 notified that people can burst crackers from November 5-8 between 8-10 p.m. in compliance with the apex court’s order.

There were, however, no complaints registered with the city police for violation of the timings.

“We have not received any complaints across the city so far for bursting firecrackers beyond the prescribed timings,” an official from the city police control room told IANS.

At least 10 children have suffered eye and skin injuries in parts of the city due to firecrackers, Suresh added.

IANS