Tuesday, January 27, 2026
Home Blog Page 1378

Delhi: Rare animal’s presence causes flutter in school

Representational Iimage of Asian Palm Civet

New Delhi (NVI): An Asian Palm Civet created flutter after it was found trapped inside ladies toilet at Kendriya Vidyalaya school in South Delhi’s Katwaria Sarai area. The rare animal was safely rescued by the Wildlife SOS and later released its natural habitat.

The staff at the school called the Wildlife SOS at its 24*7 helpline number, following which a team of two rescuers arrived at the spot. The animal was spotted stuck behind the toilet pod by one of the students who went to the washroom after the morning session.

The rescuers found the overwrought animal trapped behind the commode, struggling to free itself. The narrow confines of the restroom also turned the operation into a challenge. Following the rescue operation, which lasted almost 30 minutes, the civet was released back into its natural habitat.

Rakesh Dhyani, the Kendriya Vidyalaya staff who called the wildlife NGO said, “We had to take immediate action as the civet’s presence was stirring excitement in the school and we did not want any mishaps to occur. The forest department guided us to Wildlife SOS and mentioned that they are experts when it comes to dealing with urban wildlife. Their team handled the rescue quite skillfully.”

Wasim Akram, Deputy Director – Special Projects, Wildlife SOS, said the rescue team had to work quickly and efficiently to ensure that the animal was safe and sound. “Since this was a school, there were a lot of enthusiastic children they were dealing with, so crowd control was a bit of an issue. The team had to employ quite some dexterity to ensure that it did not hurt itself during the rescue.”

The Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) also called a toddy cat, is a small member of the family Viverridae native to South and Southeast Asia. Civet cats play an important role in the ecosystem by controlling the rodent population and are prime contributors to the dispersal of seeds as they often feed on feed on fruits, berries, coffee beans, insects and small mammals. This species is protected under Schedule II of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Winter chill back to Delhi, temperatures plunge

New Delhi (NVI): Delhi woke up to a cold day today with the morning temperatures settling close to 6.2 degrees Celsius. The northerly winds blowing over the region from the snow-clad Himalayas has added to the winter chill.

Dry weather conditions are prevailing over Delhi-NCR during the last couple of days. While the day temperatures are below normal by two to four degrees, night temperatures remain close to normal, according to Skymet Weather.

Today the maximum temperatures are likely to settle at about 16 to 17 degrees while night temperatures will remain above 6 to 7 degrees.

From January 20 onward, another Western Disturbance will be affecting Western Himalayas. Due to the approach of this system, night temperatures would be increasing gradually till January 23. Following this, yet again the temperatures will decrease.

CISF to take over security of Srinagar, Jammu airports

File

Jammu (NVI): Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has been entrusted with protection of sensitive Srinagar and Jammu airports, days after DySP of Jammu and Kashmir Police posted in anti-hijacking unit was arrested for links with terrorists.

CISF, which guards major airports of the country, will take over from Jammu and Kashmir Police from January 31, according to an official announcement.

“Acting upon the inspection of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), and to bring the UT of J&K at par with the rest of the country, process has been initiated for the CISF to take over the security-related duties being performed by the JKP at Srinagar and Jammu Airports by 31st January,” an official release said.

The CRPF will continue to provide security as per the existing mechanism.

“Suitable arrangements are, accordingly, underway for deployment of CISF personnel at the two airports,” the release said.

The decision comes days after DySP of J&K Police Davinder Singh was arrested while ferrying two terrorists.

Singh was posted in anti-hijacking unit of J&K Police deployed at Srinagar airport.

Use of energy efficiency tools a must: Javadekar

Greater Noida (NVI): Use of energy efficiency tools is a must for tackling the adverse impact of climate change, Union Minister for Environment and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar said here today.

Inaugurating the ELECRAMA 2020, the flagship showcase of the Indian electrical industry at India Expo Mart here, Javadekar said the annual growth of energy should be 10 per cent for many years to come even if the country’s economy grows at the rate of 6 per cent annually.

Referring to demand for more relief by the industry, he said the industry’s cause must translate into societal cause for the benefit of society as well as the industry.

“Electricity for a poor household is not only a facility but also an empowerment and main source of inspiration,” he said.

“3.5 crore households were given power connections under SAUBHAGYA(PradhanMantriSahajBijliHarGharYojana) scheme within a time frame of 1000 days,” he added.

The minister also asked the electrical industry to focus on quality of electrical equipment, stating that main cause of fire incidents in many cases is poor quality of equipment and faulty wiring.

He urged the power industry to become part of product chain and not just supplier of spare parts.

Emphasising on the quality of electrical goods, he said there can be no compromise on quality. People want ease of living and new facilities for which electricity is an asset.

“People will need more electricity and more electrical equipment and therefore demands of power as well as electrical goods are bound to go up,” he added.

He further added that the per capita consumption of energy is very low in India as compared to developed countries.

Speaking on the occasion, Power Minister R.K. Singh said the electricity sector has been transformed in the last few years and the whole country has been connected with one grid and one frequency. Now India has become power surplus country and is exporting power.

He said that per capita consumption need to be tripled to reach the global average of 3600 units.

The Minister also spoke about the need of reform in the power distribution system.

“The government is coming out with a new trajectory of loss reduction and distribution companies will have to follow this trajectory if they want to get further grants from the central government or if they want to access loans from the power finance corporation,” he added.

ELECRAMA is a platform to connect the world with Indian industry in respect of technology, new trends and innovation for future energy transition.

Greenland losing 25 bn tons of ice sheet every year: Study

New Delhi (NVI): Greenland ice sheet is losing 25 billion tons of ice per year, according to a study, with researchers warning that if this rate continues, the global sea level will rise approximately 3 to 5 inches by 2100.

Greenland lost a whopping 3.8 trillion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2018, leading to a rise in global sea levels by 10.6 millimeters, according to the study, during which 89 polar scientists from 50 scientific institutions assessed the current rate of ice loss by combining 26 satellite data sets from 1992 through 2018.

The study to track global warming’s effects on Greenland also measured changes in the Greenland ice sheet’s volume, flow and gravitational potential.

This means that Greenland’s current rate of ice loss has accelerated from 25 billion to 234 billion tons per year, a whopping nine times increase in faster melt rate.

Warmer air at the surface of the ice sheet is responsible for about half of the ice that Greenland is losing each year.

Warmer ocean temperatures around Greenland’s coastline, icebergs calving into the ocean and the ice sheet shedding ice into the ocean more quickly accounts for the other half of the ice loss.

For perspective, 3.8 trillion tons of ice melting off of Greenland and into the ocean between 1992 and 2018 is the same as adding the water from 120 million Olympic-size swimming pools to the ocean every year, for 26 years.

This extra water is enough to cause at least 0.4 inches of sea level rise just from Greenland alone.

Even a small bit of sea level rise exacerbates the impacts of flooding during storm surges, high tides and hurricanes and exposes more and more people around the globe to increased flooding.

The findings in this study are consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s worst-case climate warming projections.

Is global warming responsible for chinstrap penguin decline?

New Delhi (NVI): Climate change is a major threat to global biodiversity. Antarctic ecosystems are no exception. A population of chinstrap penguins is feeling the heat, with more than one-third of a breeding colony lost in the past 20 years, new research finds.

The last decade was the hottest ever recorded on Earth, and 2019 was the second hottest year ever measured. The data has raised new concerns, and one of the places most seriously affected is Antarctica, at the bottom of the planet.

A warming planet, which is causing sea ice in Antarctica (and elsewhere) to melt, may ultimately be to blame for the plummeting penguin population, the researchers said. That’s because the chinstraps’ main food, shrimplike creatures called krill, depend on algae that attach to that ice.

Chinstrap penguins in Antarctica has seen a 36 per cent decline since 1991, in what researchers say is a consequence of declining krill populations. There has been a decline of around 150,000 chinstraps since the last major survey 50 years ago.

Scientists and researchers from Stony Brook, Northeastern Universities and Greenpeace have counted each member of the chaotic colony on foot from island to island across the Antarctic Peninsula, comparing different penguin populations to see how the animals are adapting to climate change. While it looks frigid, it is one of the fastest-warming areas on Earth.

“Sea ice is really what brings all of the ocean life here together. If there is less sea ice, there’s less krill, which means less food for the chinstrap penguins,” says a researcher.

Penguins are a lot like people – they need food and a good environment to thrive. The researchers say that if the world continues to warm, other species – even human beings – will be affected.

In addition, to protect the organisms that call the Antarctic home, we need to reduce human impact by reducing overfishing, tourism and even research activity.

Visakhapatnam to host international naval event ‘MILAN’ 2020

New Delhi (NVI): After successfully hosting the International Fleet Review (IFR) in February 2016, Visakhapatnam is gearing up to host another International Naval event ‘MILAN’ in March 2020.

MILAN 2020 is a multilateral naval exercise aimed to enhance professional interaction between friendly foreign navies and learn from each other’s strengths and best practices in the maritime domain.

The exercise with the theme ‘Synergy Across the Seas’ would provide an excellent opportunity for Operational Commanders of friendly foreign navies to interact with each other in areas of mutual interest.

MILAN series of biennial, which commenced in 1995, was conducted at Andaman and Nicobar Command until 2018, is being conducted for the first time on the mainland at Eastern Naval Command.

Cows have individual voices, study finds

New Delhi (NVI): Cows can ‘talk’ to each other about how they feel, through their moos, according to a new study.

The animals have individual vocal characteristics and change their pitch depending on their emotions, according to research by the University of Sydney. The study was done by a PhD student from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Alexandra Green.

Alexandra Green, the study’s lead author, said, “Cows are gregarious, social animals. In one sense it isn’t surprising they assert their individual identity throughout their life.”

The study recorded 333 samples of cow grunts and moos and analysed them using acoustic analysis programs with assistance from colleagues in France and Italy.

It found that cows use individual voices to keep in contact with the herd and express emotions like excitement and distress.

Cows ‘talk’ to one another and retain individual identity through their lowing.

The study was done on a herd of 18 Holstein-Friesian heifers over five months.

Talking about the animals she studied, Green also said, “They have all got very distinct voices. Even without looking at them in the herd, I can tell which one is making a noise just based on her voice.”

It was known previously that mother cows and their calves communicate, but this is the first time that a study has suggested the cows keep these individual voices throughout their life.

It also found the animals studied would speak to each other during their sexually active period, while waiting for or denied food and when kept separate from the group.

The research concludes that farmers should integrate the knowledge of individual cow voices into their daily farming practices.

S.Africa planning e-visa for Indians

New Delhi (NVI): Aiming to tap more tourists from India, South Africa is going to launch online visa application facility next week for Indian travellers and if the pilot project succeeds, a full rollout will take place from April 1, 2020.

While stating this, South African Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said talks are also underway with India for granting a multiple-entry visa to her country.

“We have a positive outlook for the India market,” the minister said.

“South Africa has taken several measures to provide ease of access to Indian tourists including bringing changes in the visa regime,” the minister said.

“The online visa application system pilot testing will happen from next week and if the pilot project goes without any glitch, a full rollout will take place from 1st April 2020,” she said.

In 2019, South Africa piloted a new e-visa system in New Zealand. On successful completion, there is an intention to begin rolling-out e-visas in other countries, with India being amongst top priority markets.

With the aim to further stimulate travel and tourism from India, the Minister indicated that the piloting of e-visas for the market was under serious consideration and would be initiated shortly.

This comes close on the heels of an initiative launched in 2018 pre-vetted visas for top tour operators to fast-track visa processing.

The newly-appointed Minister, along with the COO charted out South African Tourism Board’s India-specific growth strategy for the new year.

As South African Tourism sets its sights on doubling international tourist arrivals from 10.5 million to 21 million by 2030, India is expected to play a significant role in achieving this long-term goal.

From January to October 2019, the destination welcomed 81,316 Indian visitors to South Africa – a 5.48% year-on-year increase.

The average length of stay saw an 8% year-on-year increase in the first half of 2019 from 25 nights to 27 nights.

Total Indian traveller spends in the first half of 2019 were at a 4-year high with South African Tourism achieving 64% of its annual spends target within this period.

In November 2019, the South African Minister of Home Affairs announced that the country was doing away – with immediate effect – the need for unabridged birth certificates previously required by minors visiting from international countries.

Bengaluru has potential of becoming the aviation capital of India: Aviation secy

Bengaluru (NVI): Bengaluru has the potential of becoming the aviation capital of India, Civil Aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said today.

Addressing the industry meet ahead of “Wings India 2020” here, Kharola said over the last decade, India has witnessed a robust civil aviation market.

“Through this event, we aim to provide a congenial forum that will cater to the rapidly changing dynamics of the sector, focusing on new business acquisition, investments, policy formation and regional connectivity,” he said.

“Bengaluru, being the IT capital of India, has the potential of becoming the aviation capital of India,” he added.

Asia’s largest civil aviation event “Wings India 2020” is a flagship event of the Indian Civil Aviation industry will be held at Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad from March 12-15, 2020.

‘Wings India 2020’- a four-day event themed: “Flying for All’’ is an international platform focused on the new business acquisition, investments, policy formation and regional connectivity in the civil aviation industry.

Civil Aviation Joint Secretary Usha Padhee said the summit aims to bring all players, facilitators, and regulators of aviation fraternity under one roof to explore opportunities together.

“It’s a platform for all civil aviation sector stakeholders to achieve greater synergies; learn from best practices of each other,” she added.

‘Wings India 2020’ is also Asia’s largest and most popular gathering in the industry which is organized by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, AAI and FICCI the event is expected to attract top leaders, special invitees in foreign ministers for civil aviation and global CEOs, suppliers, strategic partners, organizations and the media.

1...1,3771,3781,379...1,514Page 1,378 of 1,514

MUST READ