Environment / Northeast

GUWAHATI, March 28: A marked departure from the normal rainfall rate is what has made the weather seemingly warmer during this spring in the Northeastern region which is known for its soothing climate. However, the weatherman here views it as nothing abnormal. "It comes within the range of normal year to year variation," he says. According to Meteorological Office (Met) sources here, till date in the current month, rainfall activity and cloud coverage was found to be much below the normal over the Northeast. The rainfall distribution in different Met sub-divisions are - actual 32.4mm against...

GUWAHATI, March 16: "It was the master craftmen of the Northeastern region who taught us what bamboo is all about and its enormous potential as a material for future industrialisation," said MP Ranjan of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Ranjan who has been associated with research on bamboo for the last 20 years or so, was speaking at the inauguration of "Bamboo Boards and Beyond", an exhibition being organised at Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre here. He said bamboo had enormous potential as an industrial material in the Northeast region and called for a change in the mindest to...

NEW DELHI, March 4: An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted Northeastern India including Assam and neighbouring Myanmar early today causing panic among the people though there were no reports of any casualty or damage to property. The quake occurred at 4.26 am and had its epicentre on Indo-Myanmar border, Meteorological Department said here. A moderate quake, lasting a few seconds, was experienced in Mizoram, H Lallenmawia, superintending geologist of the Geology and Mining Department, said in Aizawl. An earthquake, the second in the past six days, shook Meghalaya capital...

NEW DELHI, February 17: The World Wildlife Fund international has apologised to India for wrongly depicting the forest areas of Jammu and Kashmir as disputed areas and Arunachal Pradesh as disputed territory between India and China, in its world map, reports UNI. The WWF communicated this to the Ministry of External Affairs, which had taken up this issue with it through its mission in Berne, Switzerland. The WWF informed the government that it has stopped the distribution of the map and taken steps to rectify the error. The error was brought to the MHA's notice by member of parliament Prahlad...

GUWAHATI, February 14: As part of the ongoing effort to formulate National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP), process is on to formulate State-level strategy to protect and patent bio-resources in all the States of the Northeast India, one of the two biodiversity hotspots in the country. PC Bhattacharjee of Zoology Department, Gauhati University, informed The Assam Tribune that commendable progress had been made towards formulation of State-level strategy and action plan in Assam and Meghalaya while other NE States had just got on with the job. Bhattacharjee who is one of the...

TEZPUR, February 3: The first phase of the 405 MW capacity Ranganadi hydel power project in Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh is now at the final stage and is expected to be commissioned by the middle of the year while the second and third phase of the project is expected to be commissioned by 2002. Talking to The Assam Tribune official sources said that the Northeastern Council (NEC) project which started in 1989 at the original project cost of Rs 312.78 crore was entrusted to the Northeastern Electrical Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO) and was scheduled to be commissioned in...

GUWAHATI, August 11: In line with the Government of India's special policy for the development of north eastern region, a workshop at Regional Research Laboratory, Jorhat was held recently, for preparing the strategy for assessing the environmental quality of the north eastern states including Sikkim, stated a press release. The workshop was jointly organised by the Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC) of Lucknow and RRL, Jorhat, both CSIR laboratories. Held at RRL auditorium under the name and title "Workshop on Environmental Quality related to Food, Water and Health", the workshop...

GUWAHATI, July 17: The Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Project (JMBP) in Bangladesh will ultimately lead to devastating flood and severe erosion in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, warned noted geographer Manik Kar of Nowgong College. Jamuna is the name of the Bangladesh part of the Brahmaputra. A PhD in flood hazard, Kar said in his paper Flood Hazard Mitigation is an International Riddle : A Case Study of the Brahmaputra Valley (India), represented at an international conference on disaster management organised by CARE, UNDP and Dhaka University recently, that the around billion-dollar JMBP...