1,300 Tonnes Cattle Waste From Delhi Enters Yamuna Everyday: MCD Report
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Around 1,300 tonnes of unprocessed cattle waste goes into Yamuna everyday, according to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the HT reported.The MCD has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Dairy Development Board to develop processing plants across Delhi to stop the waste from polluting the river.
About 1,500 tonnes of cattle dung is generated daily of which just 200 tonnes is currently processed at the compressed biogas plant in southwest Delhi’s Nangli dairy -- the only operational facility in the city, the outlet said.
The remaining 1,300 tonnes of unprocessed cattle waste is estimated to enter drains, and eventually Yamuna. There are a total of 123,164 cattle in authorised and legal dairies and shelters in Delhi. The MCD said around 500 unauthorised dairies operate in the city. Research published in Nature warns that as climate change reduces river volumes, rivers lose their natural ability to dilute and self-clean organic waste. This multiplies the toxicity of the cattle waste already entering the system.
No Construction During Winter? Delhi Builders Push Back Against New Pollution Plan
Delhi’s construction industry is lobbying against a new winter pollution plan that could halt or restrict construction work regardless of daily Air Quality Index (AQI) levels, stating that it could hit workers’ livelihoods and disrupt supply chains, according to Indian Express.
The newspaper said Delhi government’s ambitious action plan makes measures such as construction curbs and vehicle restrictions mandatory during the winter months, a departure from the existing system where restrictions are linked to pollution levels.
The move prompted the National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to raise concerns with Industries Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa and the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in separate meetings,
Private developers have urged the Delhi government to reconsider the curbs it had issued on construction activities during winter to check pollution, saying the blanket restrictions lack scientific backing and could hurt the real estate sector as well as contractors and workers.
Amazon’s Data Centre in Texas To Be One of The Largest Polluters in The U.S.
Amazon aims to set a record for the most air pollution emitted by a single power plant. The New York Times reported that the company is building a new natural-gas-burning power plant in Pecos County, Texas, for a huge AI data centre project. The plant would emit approximately 33 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, making it among the largest emitters in the United States.
The outlet explained that the rapid growth of AI is forcing tech companies to solve a problem that has little to do with software - where to get enough electricity to run AI services. Amazon is tackling that challenge with a major power project in West Texas. The company is developing a natural-gas plant called GW Ranch alongside a large data centre. The project has drawn attention because of the amount of pollution it could potentially produce, the report said.
GW Ranch is said to have 35 natural-gas turbines with a combined capacity of about 7.65 gigawatts. Amazon has purchased the property and plans to buy electricity generated by the facility. Much of that power is expected to go directly toward running Amazon's data centre rather than being supplied to homes and businesses through the wider electricity grid.
According to Cleanview, a tracker that monitors data centres, GW Ranch has a Texas permit allowing it to emit up to 33 million tons of carbon dioxide. The permitted amount is higher than the emissions limit for the largest coal-fired power plant in the US.
Actual emissions would depend on how heavily the facility operates. Even so, the size of the allowance illustrates the environmental impact that could come with supplying power to a single AI-focused data centre, the newspaper said.
Only 1% of Total Transport Energy Mix in The Country is Electric, 48% of it Consumed by E Rickshaws
Electricity’s share of transport energy rose from 0.3 petajoules in 2016-17 to 33 petajoules in 2025-26, a roughly 110-fold increase, faster than petrol, diesel or CNG on a ratio basis. And yet, after a decade of subsidy, electricity is still a little under 1 per cent of total transport energy, reported DTE, citing official data.
The outlet noted that while Delhi stood out for reducing diesel use through court orders, economic disincentives and targeted policy, most other states used electricity to replace petrol and CNG more than diesel.
The article also points out that since 2016 to 2026 real transition happened in the E-rickshaw segment which was not pushed by state subsidies under FAME I and FAME II, but through “informal financing and cheap imported lead-acid battery packs, sitting outside most state EV policies entirely.”
The report said that e-rickshaws, mostly untouched by the EV policy, account for 48% of all electricity consumed by transport in 2025-26. Two-wheelers, three-wheeler passenger autos and buses each take roughly 12%, cars 10%, cabs account for just 3%.