Dear Naiduji,There are three steps which you can adopt for stopping this company from operating:

1. First, complain to the Pollution Control Board (PCB). If you are in an industrial town, there would be a Regional Pollution Control Board. The PCB has a complaint book where you file your complaint. Also write a letter to the Regional Officer at the office

and copy it to the Chairman/ Member Secretary of that State Pollution Control Board.

In case you live in a state capital, you can file your complaint directly at the head office of the Pollution Control Board. You can also send a copy of this complaint to this industry to draw their attention to your problems.

2. You need to get media attention to this company, so please forward the copy of your complaints (to PCB), and write to the local media. If they feature your complaint and do some articles, it will bring attention to your cause. You can also write to national media (newspaper) as well as to magazines like DTE to do feature stories on this company.

3. Finally you can file a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) against the company in the court. Waste from electroplating industry is hazardous and if the company is not treating it, it is a major concern. You can gather information to support your claim that the industry is causing damage to public health. In case you can get support from any local NGO or some other individual, it will also help your cause.

Why is that biogas cannot be filled inside a cylinder like LPG and CNG and distributed to homes? What is the technical difficulty in doing so?
sujimurali@hotmail.com

Dear Muraliji,

Technology for storing biogas for later use is available but there are some difficulties. To be used as a domestic fuel in a cylinder, it needs to be compressed first. Today it’s a costly affair and gobar gas through pipelines work out much cheaper.

The methane – carbon dioxide ratio favours compression in case of LPG and CNG. The higher the methane percentage the better. Biogas contains about 50 to 55 per cent methane while the percentage is as high as 80 in case of CNG. LPG has higher percentages of propane and butane, the properties of which resemble that of methane.

I am doing a report on sharks and the measures countries are taking to reduce shark attacks. Can you send me any good sites that I could look into?
Julie R
via email

Some sites that you could check into are:
http://www.mote.org/~rhueter/sharks/attacks.phtml
http://www.sharksurvivor.com/tips.html
http://www.npca.org/marine_and_coastal/marine_wildlife/avoid_attack.asp

Are there any Indian standards for marine diesel emissions in naval ships?
Capt. R K Rana, Indian Navy

There are no Indian standards for diesel emissions from ships. The US has some regulations, check it out at US EPA website www.epa.gov