New Delhi: Despite the Supreme Court allowing limited use of green firecrackers during Diwali, over 200 people were treated for burns across major hospitals. No deaths were reported, but many patients reported moderate to severe burns, among them several children.On Oct 15, the Supreme Court relaxed the blanket ban on firecrackers in Delhi-NCR and permitted…
Nashik/Pune: The struggle among farming families in rural Maharashtra in finding brides, and falling prey to conmen, is real and damaging and cuts both ways.A 17-and-half-year-old girl from Jalgaon in north Maharashtra agreed when a matchmaking group approached her and offered to pay for the wedding. A few weeks later, she realised that she was…
MUMBAI: Sound pollution norms were blatantly disregarded by Diwali revellers on the intervening night of Monday-Tuesday Oct 20-21. Loud firecrackers reverberated across Mumbai and its outskirts as late as 2.00 am, with no police intervention to reduce their intensity or duration.Hapless citizens may be unable to measure decibel levels — but the involuntary startle, thump…
NEW DELHI: Two days after Diwali, Delhi on Wednesday was blanketed by a dense layer of smog, as air pollution levels in the capital rose sharply. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 345, categorised as ‘very poor’.Some areas experienced even worse conditions. Early morning readings at 6.15 am…
Pune: Bronze Age traders crossing Gujarat stopped at well-organised roadside facilities that offered shelter, food, security, and stables for their pack animals. A new multidisciplinary study by Pune-based Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), New Delhi, published in L’Anthropologie (Elsevier, 2025), has identified a…
Vasai: The Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC) has launched an ambitious initiative to beautify the city through public participation and private collaboration. The civic body has decided to lease out garden-reserved plots and road dividers to private players — including banks, industries, developers, and NGOs — under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. Miyawaki forests…
New Delhi: In just an hour of firecracker frenzy — between 9pm and 10pm on Diwali — the PM2.5 concentration at Nehru Nagar in Lajpat Nagar surged from 679 micrograms per cubic metre to a staggering 1,763µg/m³. This made the southeast Delhi location the most polluted area in the city on Monday night.The peak level…
Pune: High on confidence after upsetting former US Open champion Sloane Stephens in a WTA125 event in Mexico last week, Sahaja Yamalapalli says she “has got my game back” and feeling “excited for what’s to come”.The 24-year-old Indian knocked out former world No. 3 Stephens, who claimed her only Major at the Flushing Meadows in…
Mumbai: Observing that the retraction was made under emotional pressure and familial influence, especially given her admission of fear and mental distress, a special Pocso court recently convicted and sentenced a 53-year-old man to imprisonment until the remainder of his natural life for repeatedly sexually assaulting and impregnating his 15-year-old daughter between 2018 and 2020….
New Delhi: The city was noisier this Diwali than in the past two years as more areas recorded noise levels higher than set standards. The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has categorised all areas of the city into four zones for noise levels — silent, residential, commercial, and industrial zones. The standards vary for the…
