Public see at first hand how virtual solar fencing alerts about wildlife
Smart Virtual Fencing System is a solar-powered device that uses infrared sensors to detect the intrusion of any animal and send alerts to staff who will reach the area and divert.
On Thursday, officials of the Gudalur forest division took a group of people in and around Gudalur-Valparai stretch in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) to study the progress of its rollout.
Fifteen people, including various party functionaries from the Sri Madurai and the Devarsholai panchayats, along with five other staff of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department reached Valparai and monitored the progress of the project.
Naadukani Forest Range Officer R Ravi led the visitors.
The aforementioned panchayats are prone to threat from wild elephants from the nearby Mudumalai Tiger Reserve.
Valparai and Manomboly forest range staff explained to the visitors that 1,300 solar fences — 700 in Valparai and 600 in Manomboly — have been set up at a cost of Rs 2.99 crore under the Tamil Nadu Innovation Initiatives (TANII).
Those set up near labour residential quarters have been successful in mitigating adverse human-elephant interactions last year.
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Indian Express
28 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Study reveals how partial flood defences in Surat shifted risk toward vulnerable communities
Do partial flood defences actually protect cities, or do they simply redistribute the hazard? With this question in focus, a recent study by the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) and University of Burdwan, West Bengal, has revealed how partial flood defences shift risk toward vulnerable communities, raising critical questions about urban planning and equity. The findings of the research, published in the journal Nature Cities, offer a blueprint for cities to rethink flood adaptation strategies and build a more just, resilient, and climate-ready infrastructure. 'Most flood adaptation strategies are judged by whether they reduce total damage. By that measure, Surat's partial embankment system, which was built after the catastrophic 2006 floods, was successful in protecting its dense city centre,' explained Dr Udit Bhatia, Associate Professor at IITGN's Department of Civil Engineering and the principal investigator of the study. To understand these flood adaptation strategies further, Dr Bhatia and his co-authors used advanced hydrodynamic simulations, socio-economic data, and demographic-focused analysis to model a 100-year flood event in Surat. Employing simulations to create partial embankment systems or levees systems that counter the hypothetical catastrophic event, they assessed the impact of partial embankments as a primary systemic response to flooding, and analysed how human life, infrastructure, and the economy are affected. The team noted that levees reduced flood damage in core wards of Surat by Rs 31.24 billion (US$380 million) and in suburban areas by Rs 10.34 billion (US$125 million). But those numbers did not provide the whole story. 'By simulating floods under both 'no levee' and 'partial levee' conditions using a fully coupled 1D – 2D hydrodynamic model, we observed a sharp redistribution of risk,' stated Ashish S Kumar, the lead author of the study and a Ph D scholar in IITGN's Department of Civil Engineering. When the team analysed flood impacts across Surat's 284 neighbourhoods, they found that 134 areas experienced reduced flooding, while 119 saw deeper water. The maximum flood depth reduction reached an impressive 10.13 meters in protected areas, but some unprotected neighbourhoods faced increases of up to 2.38 meters. 'While core areas remained dry longer, downstream and peripheral wards, which are often less affluent and less protected, flooded earlier and more severely,' added Kumar, who is also the recipient of the central government's prestigious Prime Minister Research Fellowship. 'We observed that flooding was delayed by up to 12 hours in protected wards near the river, a valuable lead time for evacuation or emergency response,' said Dr Bhatia in a statement issued by IITGN. In contrast, the team noted that in some downstream regions, the onset of flooding happened up to seven hours earlier than in the baseline scenario. 'This temporal resolution in flood modelling is vital for preparedness planning. Delaying a flood by even a few hours can make the difference between controlled evacuation and disaster,' he added. To better understand the social impact, the IITGN team collaborated with Prof Rajarshi Majumder, a development economist from the University of Burdwan, and Prof Vivek Kapadia, a water policy expert who served as Secretary to the Government of Gujarat and Director of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited between 2020 and 2023. Relying on Prof Majumdar's economics expertise, the researchers analysed how flood damage and exposure were distributed across neighbourhoods. They used the Gini index, a standard measure of inequality, where 0 means perfect equality and 1 indicates extreme disparity. The results were striking. The Gini index for flood damage rose from 0.55 to 0.66, and for population exposure, it rose from 0.31 to 0.39. More starkly, 91% of post-levee flood damage was concentrated in just 50% of the city's neighbourhoods, many of them poorer, with a higher proportion of marginal workers, a proxy for economic vulnerability. 'The data suggest that the residual flood risk disproportionately shifted toward communities that were already disadvantaged,' observed co-author Majumder. In Surat, as in many cities of the Global South, peripheral areas house informal settlements, agricultural workers, and artisanal communities with limited access to infrastructure or disaster support. 'It is not that levees should not be built,' noted Dr Bhatia. 'But policymakers need better tools to understand the knock-on effects, especially in cities where development is uneven and capacity is constrained.' While Surat's levees reduced overall flood losses, a common justification for such investments, the study underscored that cost-benefit analysis alone is insufficient. 'If a flood plan protects downtown but worsens conditions for outlying villages, it transcends from being just a technical issue to becoming a moral one,' said Dr Bhatia. Towards this, the study offers a much-needed model for integrated flood planning that balances structural engineering with social equity. Shedding light on the holistic approaches to urban flood adaptation that cities could undertake, Kapadia, a co-author of the study and a Professor of Practice at IITGN, suggested the deployment of multi-scalar governance, where benefits in protected zones are not assumed to justify harm in others. 'We propose redirecting tax revenue from safer zones to fund adaptation in high-risk peripheries and investing in nature-based infrastructure like wetlands or buffer zones that distribute water pressure more evenly,' Kapadia said. In the face of rising floodwaters and increasingly erratic weather, cities worldwide have turned to a seemingly straightforward solution: Build a wall. From Spain to Surat, partial embankment systems or levees have become the go-to defence against riverine and coastal flooding. The team of researchers said that often built along rivers and low-lying urban corridors, these structures are designed to hold back water during high discharge events, shielding the most economically important urban cores. But, historically, it has been observed that this protection is uneven and temporary. Floodwaters rerouted by these barriers found new paths, it was found. In safeguarding these high-value zones, flood defences often push rising waters to the edges of the city, into informal, less developed settlements that are ill-equipped to absorb the blow, the study noted. With climate change making extreme weather events more common, cities must move beyond patchwork defences, according to the study. Protecting one side of a river while flooding the other may save a few billion rupees today, but it risks compounding inequality and social unrest tomorrow, the study noted, positioning itself as a potential toolkit for city planners, policy makers, and governments.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Waste collection in Madurai goes smart with AI-powered cameras
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The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
Lodha Foundation unveils privately funded Mathematical Sciences Institute in Mumbai
Lodha Mathematical Sciences Institute (LMSI) was on Sunday (August 17, 2025) established in Mumbai to provide a collaborative and meritocratic environment for mathematics researchers from across the globe. Called 'the first ever privately funded mathematics research institute in the country, LMSI is backed by Lodha Foundation, which received about Rs 20,000 crore endowment from the Lodha family last year.' 'It's very important for us as a company to make sure that our success contributes in a wholesome manner to India's development. In that context, the family decided last year to donate about one-fifth of the ownership of the company to the Lodha Foundation,' said Abhishek Lodha, CEO and MD of Lodha Developers. 'We have realised that for any nation to become strong, we ought to have original thinking and promote innovation. This is what the Lodha Institute of Mathematical Sciences is focused on. We are undoubtedly committed to making sure that in the long term, this becomes one of the leading institutions in the world,' he said. The LMSI will encourage intellectual inquiry and mathematical research, both in its fundamental aspects as well as in its applications. The institute aims to be a global leader in mathematical research, both in its fundamental aspects as well as in its applications. 'The institute will serve as a beacon of mathematical excellence, attracting the best minds from around the world and fostering a culture of intellectual curiosity and discovery,' the Foundation said. Ashish Kumar Singh, chief mentor at Lodha Foundation said, 'The foundation of almost all technological progress today is mathematical, whether it be cryptography, cybersecurity, warfare, and definitely artificial intelligence.' 'We are aiming to get the brightest researchers to come together and pursue research in cutting-edge frontier mathematics so that the frontiers of mathematics are pushed and new knowledge is created,' he said. The LMSI will be headed by V. Kumar Murty, a mathematician, known for his contributions to number theory and arithmetic geometry. A Ph.D. from Harvard University, Dr. Murty has served as the Director of the Fields Institute and as a professor at the University of Toronto. With several international accolades to his credit, Dr Murty's research spans various areas, including analytic number theory, algebraic number theory, information security, and arithmetic algebraic geometry, the Foundation said. 'We know that in the vast history of India, there have been many great mathematicians who contributed fundamental ideas that have shaped the world that we live in today,' said Dr Murty. 'To be a part of that tradition and to take it forward to the next level, invoking not only the expertise within India, but even that which is available around the world, is truly critical and inspiring. The LMSI aims to address fundamental problems that will help India becoming a developed nation and a global leader by 2047,' he added. The LMSI is backed by a scientific advisory panel of leading researchers, who will oversee the scientific programs of the Institute and help to align them with the main international trends. This includes Dr Manjul Bhargava (Princeton University), Dr Vikraman Balaji (Chennai Mathematical Institute), Dr Sourav Chatterjee (Stanford University), Dr Ravi Vakil (Stanford University and President-Elect of AMS), Dr Yakov Eliashberg (Stanford University), Dr Alexander Lubotzky (Weizmann Institute of Science), Dr Kavita Ramanan (Brown University), Dr François Labourie (Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis), Dr Siddhartha Mishra (ETH Zurich), Dr Mahan Mj (TIFR), Dr Ngô Bảo Châu (University of Chicago), Dr Parimala Raman (Emory University). 'The Institute recognises that it can contribute significantly to solving complex challenges in areas such as infrastructure, healthcare, and economics. These challenges that can be addressed through advanced mathematical approaches, including data science, machine learning, operations research, and optimization,' the Foundation said. 'As an institute rooted in India and focused on both fundamental research and applications, it can make meaningful contributions, both in the short term as well as the long term, nationally and globally. To realise this vision, the Lodha Mathematical Sciences Institute will empower faculty with the freedom to pursue their research interests without administrative constraints,' it added.
