Mercury hovered around 40 degrees Celsius in large parts of the country on Monday as the Indian meteorological department predicted heat wave conditions in parts of east India over the next four days and the northwest region over the next two days.
The impact of the explosion "was so massive" that the factory, which was being run from a residential building, collapsed, the police said.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests is setting up a network for national-level monitoring and reporting of noise pollution. Based on the pattern of existing air and water networks, the setting up of the National Ambient Noise Monitoring Network and development of infrastructure for noise mapping in the country are expected to be in place within five years.
The companies will have to secure a minimum of 400 points out of 1,000 to be able to participate in the rating system.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala passed the order after hearing an application of Uttar Pradesh government seeking more time to install and operationalise 100 per cent STP coverage in the state.
A bench, headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, set up a five-member Committee to probe Thursday's gas leak incident in the chemical factory, in which 11 people were killed and 1,000 exposed, and submit a report before May 18.
A bench of the NGT, headed by its chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, directed that the order will also apply to all cities and towns in the country where the average of ambient air quality during November (as per available data of last year) falls under 'poor' or worse category.
Acentral panel directed authorities to ban the plying of 4-wheeled diesel LMVs in Delhi and adjoining NCR districts and the entry of trucks into the capital.
Health expert termed the problems caused due to the rise in pollution as a "medical emergency".
The Central Pollution Control Board has asked Tata Steel to submit the closure schedule of the battery at the earliest, minister of state for Steel A Sai Prathap said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. Coke oven battery is a plant where coking coal is converted into coke.
As the nearly 100-metre-tall Supertech twin towers were razed to the ground on Sunday, doctors said people living nearby, especially those suffering from respiratory diseases, should take extra care and avoid the area for a few days if possible.
The India Meteorological Department on Wednesday issued an orange alert for Delhi, predicting 'heavy' to 'very heavy' rainfall in parts of the capital with winds gusting up to 60 kilometers per hour.
The government asserted that the Central Pollution Control Board will inspect the ship
Violation of the ban will invite punitive action, including a fine or a jail term or both, detailed under Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act (EPA) and under bylaws of respective municipal corporations, they said. For effective enforcement of the ban, national and state-level control rooms have been set up and special enforcement teams formed to check illegal manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of banned SUP items, officials in the ministry said.
While Emerald Court would take one more day to be cleaned, the work at ATS Village could extend up to seven days due to more rubble and dust on the premises, according to officials.
The air quality in the national capital remained poor for the sixth consecutive day on Monday with stubble burning accounting for seven per cent of the capital's PM2.5 pollution.
The Kerala State Pollution Control Board has ordered closure of soft drinks major Coca Cola's plant at Plachimada in Palakkad district.
According to Central Pollution Control Board's (CPCB) Sameer app, the city's air quality index (AQI) stood at 449 in the severe category at 8 am on Saturday. It was 462 on Friday.
The ban on certain single-use plastic (SUP) items kicks in from Friday, with state governments initiating an enforcement campaign to identify and close down units engaging in production, distribution, stocking and sale of such items, officials said. Though several manufacturers have said they are not prepared to implement the ban due to a lack of alternatives, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav had on Tuesday said the government had given enough time to the industry and the general public to prepare for the ban on SUP items and it hopes for everyone's cooperation in implementing it from July 1. Violation of the ban will invite punitive action, including a fine or a jail term or both, detailed under Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act (EPA) and under bylaws of respective municipal corporations, officials in the Union environment ministry said.
India captain Rohit Sharma assured BCCI boss Sourav Ganguly that his team is ready to play Sunday's opening T20 International against Bangladesh despite growing concerns about severe air pollution.
The Madras high court on Tuesday rejected a plea from mining giant Vedanta to order reopening of its Sterlite copper unit at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu.
DLF's upcoming project Mall of India in Noida, projected to be one of the largest in the country, has been served a notice to stop all construction activities till a clearance from the National Board for Wildlife is obtained.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that primary schools will be closed from Saturday in view of spike in pollution levels in the national capital.
According to forecasting agencies, the city is set to record its best air quality for the day after Diwali since 2015 on Tuesday.
This comes at a time when the group's copper plant in Tamil Nadu remains shut for nearly three years, causing a Rs 5 crore loss every day.
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According to the Central Pollution Control Board's mobile application SAMEER, the city recorded an air quality index of 168, which falls in the 'moderate' category, much better than Monday's AQI of 221, which falls in the 'poor' category.
A government release also urged people of the state to burst crackers with low decibel and pollution levels.
The eight areas that recorded 'severe' air quality Saturday are Anand Vihar, Dwarka Sector 8, Narela, Punjabi Bagh, Bawana, Mundaka, Vivek Vihar and Rohini.
Water is drawn for agriculture, industry and cities, but only waste is returned to the river.
The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has scheduled the hearing on January 15.
In India, air pollution is most severe in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (northern India), where topography and meteorology concentrate pollution from energy, mobility, industry, agriculture, and other activities, the researchers said.
Housing Minister M T B Nagaraj and K Sudhakar handed over their resignations at the Speaker's chamber in Vidhana Soudha.
The survey was conducted in 88 major industrial clusters in the country.
The Goa government has constituted several teams to inspect and quantify the iron ore stacked at various points in the state before allowing it to be exported, a senior official said on Wednesday.
Residents of south Delhi's Okhla area were delighted to see what they thought was the season's first snowfall. But they were enraged after realising that it was toxic ash from a large waste-to-energy plant operated by Jindal Ecopolis in the neighbourhood.
Delhi will become the first such city in India to have such a scheme and the only one after Beijing in Asia.
Smelter produces more than 300,000 tonnes a year to supply half of India's domestic copper needs.
The eight critically polluted areas are Ludhiana (Punjab), Varanasi-Mirzapur (Uttar Pradesh), Agra (Uttar Pradesh), Bhavnagar (Gujarat), Cuddalore (Tamil Nadu), Dombivalli (Maharashtra), Aurangabad (Maharashtra) and Navi-Mumbai (Maharashtra).
