Assam plans solar fencing at Kaziranga Park

The population of rhinos at Kaziranga has gone up in recent times and reached to 2,505 at present. File photo.

Assam government on Monday said it plans to give solar fencing in Kaziranga National Park (KNP) to protect the wildlife from poachers.

“We want to give solar fencing to protect the wildlife. We are planning to dig the land through MGNREGA scheme and then the Forest department will do the solar fencing,” Assam Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain said at an event to celebrate the wildlife week.

Mr. Hussain also said the Forest department is planning to translocate some deers from KNP to Manas National Park in the state.

“Our deer population in Kaziranga has increased up to 1,169. This is a big success. Now we want to translocate some to Manas,” he informed.

He also said the population of rhinos has gone up in recent times and reached to 2,505 at present. “Similarly, the number of tigers, which was at 70 in 2006, currently stands at 143,” Mr. Hussain said.

Talking about modernisation of the forest guards, he said the Central government has accepted the State’s request to procure AK-series rifles for the force.

Credits: thehindu

Bhel to build world’s biggest solar plant near Jaipur

On a day US president Barrack Obama announced major steps to choke use of coal for producing electricity, the UPA government on Friday unveiled its biggest green dream of building the world's biggest solar power project with a capacity of 4,000 mw.

The project will be built on 23,000 acres of land belonging to Sambhar Salts Ltd, a subsidiary of central enterprise Hindustan Salts Ltd under the department of heavy industries, some 75 km from Jaipur. State-run power gear maker Bhel would build the project's first phase of 1,000 mw in consortium with Solar Energy Corporation, Power Grid Corporation, SJVN, SSL and Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Ltd.

The first phase of the project is to be operational by 2016. Once all the phases are completed, the project would generate 6,000 million units of electricity annually. The project is expected to set a trend for mega-scale solar power development in the country in lines of ultra-mega power projects for coal-fired plants that was launched to quickly ramp up generation capacity in the country.

Credits: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com