Four die, 20
injured in
explosion at
firecracker unit
Four people were killed and 20 injured in an explosion at a firecrackers manufacturing unit in Sivakasi in southern Virudhunagar district last week.
Among the dead was an 11-year-old boy which sparked public suspicion of child labour.
The victims had been filling chemicals into cork shells when the accident happened. The fire razed down four sheds, some two-wheelers. It took two hours to put out the fire.
In a second incident, a 32-year-old woman died under similar circumstances at a firecrackers making unit at Konakkarai village in Tiruchy district.
Shanti died while locking up the shed where the firecrackers were stored. An old man grazing cattle nearby was injured.
Firecracker units are established in fields inside sheds with open doors often with little safety equipment or first aid.
In a third incident, three people including an old woman were injured when some chemicals dumped in a municipal garbage bin exploded at Bethaniyapuram in Madurai district. The explosion destroyed the bin, shook nearby houses and its tremor was felt through the street. Police found a plastic container with some chemicals inside the bin.
Animals suffer
due to severe
water shortage
The current stifling heat and water scarcity in Tamil Nadu left cows, horses, stray dogs, cats and wild animals thirsting and straying into human habitat in the past month.
Though villages often have tanks to store water for starved animals, towns and cities have no such facilities except among some animal welfare associations. Often starved animals drink from water stored outside houses and leaky public taps. Many have died in the intense heat.
Even wild animals like elephants, foxes and bison have begun straying into human habitations as rivers and streams in forest areas dry up in Udhagamandalam, Mettupalayam, Theni and Bodi districts.
On May 18, a herd of elephants from Bhavanisagar forests strayed into villages in Erode district uprooting banana and sugarcane crops.
In Chennai, a farmer at suburban Nerkundram was shocked to find a live crocodile in a dried up lake where he had taken his four cows to graze. This crocodile was handed over to the crocodile park on East Coast Road.
Old houses
shifted for space
A Haryana-based construction company has devised a novel method to save on construction costs for house owners planning to expand their existing buildings in Tamil Nadu.
The TDBD Company shifts old buildings with the help of rollers and jacks about 40-50ft without disturbing their plumbing, wiring, woodwork or walls. This process creates space for a new building and costs the owners half the fresh construction. The company has so far shifted ten such buildings in Punjab, Haryana and other states.
They calculate the weight of the building and dig a fresh concrete foundation in the same compound into which the house is shifted gradually and cemented.
This company has also taken up three projects in Udhagamandalam hill resort where the houses have tilted due to storms.
Wind energy
boosts power
Strong winds increased power production in Tamil Nadu providing a major relief to the electricity-strapped state last week.
Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) that had been rationing out electricity generated from thermal, hydro and solar plants reported that windmills had produced 2500 megawatts of electricity daily for the past week. This had reduced power cuts of nearly 16 hours to four hours daily.