Sanjana Bhalerao

If the defaulters still did not pay up, the BMC had proposed to seize moveable properties, except stree dhan (gold gifted to a woman at her wedding).

The Bandra Kurla Complex was the most polluted at 317 AQI, followed by Mazgaon at 304 and Malad at 303.

The report assesses the status of 867 Indian birds using a massive database of information contributed by at least 15,500 birdwatchers from across the country.

According to IMD, the temperature will gradually go down from Wednesday and the city could get some relief from Thursday. The IMD said temperature spikes can be expected during as winter transitions to summer.

The first such “vulture restaurant” had come up in 2015 at Phansad Wildlife Sanctuary in Raigad district in response to videos of white-rumped vulture chicks starving to death in the western ghats.

During a night patrol on February 5, range forest officers (RFOs) had reportedly spotted a 10,000-litre capacity tanker dumping muck, debris and construction wastewater into a creek in Kanjurmarg.

The birds will be tagged with GSM-based (Global System for Mobile Communications) and GPS-based (Global Positioning System) tracking devices that will map details such as altitude, location, trajectory and speed.

Local activists and fishermen’s forum had earlier complained to the committee against hacking of mangroves for the expansion of JNPT’s 4th Container Terminal. Last week, fishermen in Navi Mumbai had also filed a petition before the Bombay High Court opposing the environmental clearances given to JNPT to expand its container facilities.

The department, in its notice issued on January 31, has also sought to know why action should not be initiated under the Environment Protection Act 1986 against it. The developer has been given 15 days to reply, failing which, legal action would be initiated and construction activity stopped.

Currently, BMC’s trade and market vendor licences need to be renewed every two years.

Other plans to boost tourism include introducing eco-tourism activities around water supply reservoirs like Tansa, Vaitarna and Modak Sagar dam and up-gradation of guesthouses.

The 2019-20 budget estimate for capital expenditure was Rs 11,480.42 crore, brought down to Rs 10,785.08 crore in the revised estimates, of which BMC has spent Rs 6836.79 crore until January 2020.

The reasons for this sharp drop, said officials, are one, the amended 2017 Wetland rules that do not incorporate wetlands in CRZ and de-recognised salt pans as wetlands; two, wrong mapping in 2010 which did not stand up to the scrutiny of “ground proofing”; and three, encroachments that have swallowed some wetlands.

According to the forecast by the weather bureau, the maximum temperature for the next 48 hours will hover around 30 degree Celsius, while night temperature can rise up to 20 degrees.

Kalinje Ecotourism is a part of a community-based conservation initiative by Maharashtra’s Forest Department.

According to the MPCB, 40 CAAQMS will be installed in the first phase, followed by next 40 in the second phase by the end of 2020. The MPCB is also planning to increase manual monitoring stations to 126.

The state wetland and mangrove committee was appointed within a month of the Bombay HC ordering a blanket ban on mangrove destruction in the state on September 18, 2018.

Between 2015 and 2018, 88 beaching incidents have been reported, with 32 recorded in 2018 alone.

While approving the bullet train project last year, the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) had asked the state government to prepare a detailed plan providing a passage for animals.