Mumbai: The state forest department wants to take over all vacant private forest land for which no building proposal has been sanctioned.

Principal secretary (revenue and forests) Praveen Pardeshi said the department had made the demand before the Supreme Court, which is currently hearing various matters on the private forest land issue. The Hillside Residents’ Welfare Association (HIRWA), which is seeking regularization of over one lakh flats in the Mumbai-Thane belt on private forest land, has filed a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution that pertains to right to shelter as a fundamental right. A three-judge bench has been constituted to hear these matters. The next hearing is on July 9.

More than 10 years after it was made mandatory, BMC has failed to ensure rainwater harvesting in most new buildings.

A study by Observer Research Foundation, a think tank on public policy, has revealed most new buildings do not have rainwater harvesting facilities.
It said even if half the developed area in the city was roofed for rainwater harvesting, about 590 million litres — almost a sixth of the 3,000 million litres BMC supplies — could be generated every day. The study, to be released by mayor Sunil Prabhu Saturday, also revealed the city wastes over 900 million litres daily, much more than the about 650 million litres supplied in Pune.

The water levels in reservoirs of dams in the state are depleting at an alarming rate with the summer season making its presence felt.

This financial year has begun on a promising note for the authorities of the Nathpa Jhakri hydroelectric project with generation surpassing the target for April.

There had been a sharp decline in production during 2012-13. The project owned and operated by the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) has generated 449 million units in April against a target of 410 million units. It was after a gap of more than a year that the project exceeded the monthly target thanks to favourable weather conditions which brought abundant snow in the mid-hills during winter leading to an early upsurge in the Sutlej.

Land acquisition for the 1,483 km-long Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) has run into severe opposition from farmers' groups who have taken to the streets to save their land.

The most vociferous protest against land acquisition for the project is coming from Maharashtra's Raigad district where the government plans to acquire 62,440 hectares in 78 villages. Protesting farmers from the region have now come to Mumbai where they are camping at the Azad Maidan in South Mumbai.

Pune: City-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology officially launched its second ‘System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) - Pune’ for Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad on Wednesday. Other facilities such as ‘air quality and weather assessment and data on hitech-digital India’ (AWADHI) — a one stop-shop for metro air quality information was also launched.

In addition to it, an ‘interactive voice response (IVR) service’ was also introduced, where citizens of Pune can get the current and 24-hour advance forecast information on air quality and weather of Pune and Delhi just by dialing a toll free number.

As many as 99 large and medium scale industries with an investment of Rs 3.07 lakh crore are slated to come up in Chandrapur.

The government has opened 90 new water testing labs in the state, in addition to the 30 that operate at the district level.

Nagpur Municipal Corporation ( NMC) and Orange City Water (OCW) have jointly started changing of pipelines in Ayodhya Nagar prabhag under Sakkardara ESR command area for implementation of ambitious

After the state government approved funds for the Gargai-Pinjal dam project, BMC has proposed a biodiversity study of the area along which the dam will be constructed.