Poor air quality
The festival of lights may have lit up the city but it left behind a deadly trail of pollution with the air quality dropping massively. The Air Quality Index — the measure of particulate matter of various sizes in the air — has remained at ‘very poor’ since the festival. Residents seem to have flouted the Supreme Court’s orders on timings for letting off firecrackers on a large scale, much like the residents of the national capital of Delhi where the AQI dipped down to ‘severe plus emergency’ levels on the night of Diwali.
Satellite ‘eye’ on Lucknow city
The Lucknow Municipal Corporation will soon start using satellite mapping to keep track of encroachments in the city. Under the Centre’s ‘Smart City’ programme, the LMC would use the latest technology to protect its parks, drains, nullahs, street lights, water lines and sewer network all of which, are highly susceptible to encroachment and vandalism. By studying images taken over time, authorities would be able to pinpoint any encorachment or vandalism and would then be able to take corrective and preventive measures accordingly. The superimposition of any two digital maps of different times would tell the exact situation of their land, said officials familiar with developments.
Zoo officials’ meet
Lucknow hosted the first ever four-day annual conference of zoological parks on Monday. Directors of 30 zoological parks from across the country are participating in the event, organised by the Central Zoo Authority of India. Apart from discussing problems faced by zoos in the country, directors have huddled to discuss innovative measures taken to improve the functioning of these parks.Ten resource partners are also participating to add inputs. Delegates will visit the Nawabganj Bird Sanctuary and the Kanpur Zoological park for a study tour during the conference.
‘Raahgiri’ event a success
The first event of the Lucknow Development Authority’s initiative to drive awareness towards cutting down on pollution, traffic congestion — named Raahgiri — was an immediate success and saw a large number of people from all walks of life turning up at the popular 1090 crossing of the city as early as 6:30 on Sunday morning. Several activities like cycling, skating, yoga, street play, self-defence training, walkathon, net cricket and street dance kept the people engaged. The entire crossing and its adjoining roads turned into a big playground of sorts for morning walkers. The event focussed on road safety and promoted a ‘No-car Day’ to check pollution .The Raahgiri event will take place every two months on the second and fourth Sundays of the month.
Namita Bajpai
Our correspondent in Uttar Pradesh
namita.bajpai@newindianexpress