Gill, Siraj, Washington shine in GT's easy 7-wicket win over SRH
Hyderabad, Apr 6 (PTI): Gujarat Titans produced an all-round performance to defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets in an Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.
Opting to bowl, Mohammed Siraj starred with figures of 4/17 from his four overs, while Prasidh Krishna (2/25) and Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore (2/24) scalped two wickets each as GT restricted SRH to 152 for eight.
For SRH, Nitish Kumar Reddy top-scored with 31 while Henrich Klaasen made 27.
Chasing, skipper Shubman Gill led from the front with an unbeaten 61, while Washington Sundar made 49 off 29 balls.
Sherfane Rutherford too played his part with unbeaten 35 off 16 balls as GT chased down the target in 16.4 overs.
Brief Scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 152 for 8 in 20 overs (Nitish Kumar Reddy 31; Mohammed Siraj 4/17).
Gujarat Titans: 153 for 3 in 16.4 overs (Shubman Gill 61 not out; Mohammed Shami 2/18).
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Illegal sand mining has created environmental crisis in National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary: SC
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday said rampant illegal riverbed sand mining has created an "environmental crisis" and wreaked "havoc" in the National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary, causing a grave risk to the gharial (long-snouted crocodile) preservation project.
Slamming the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for their utter failure in dealing with the issue, the apex court directed them to install high-resolution Wi-Fi-enabled CCTV cameras along all routes frequently used for illegal sand mining in the area.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta directed that live feed of such surveillance cameras shall be placed under the direct control, supervision and operational oversight of the superintendent of police or the senior superintendent of police of the concerned district and the divisional forest officer.
It said these officers shall ensure continuous and effective monitoring of the CCTV feeds by designating appropriate officers.
"It can't be gainsaid that the issues involved are of great concern in as much as the rampant illegal mining activities in the river bed have created an environmental crisis and havoc in the National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary causing a grave risk to the very project of gharial preservation of which the state governments themselves were proponents and were under an obligation to foster and promote," Justice Mehta said while pronouncing the order.
The bench directed the authorities in these three states to initiate prompt and necessary action under law if any instance of illegal mining or allied activities comes to light.
It said the authorities shall ensure seizure of vehicles or machinery found involved in illegal sand mining and also initiate prosecution of persons involved in it.
The bench, which passed several other directions, posted the matter for hearing on May 11.
The top court passed the order in a suo motu case titled 'In Re: Illegal sand mining in the National Chambal Sanctuary and threat to endangered aquatic wildlife'.
The National Chambal Sanctuary, also called the National Chambal Gharial Wildlife Sanctuary, is a 5,400-sq km tri-state protected area.
Besides the endangered gharial, it is home to the red-crowned roof turtle and the endangered Ganges river Dolphin.
Located on the Chambal river near the tripoint of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the sanctuary was first declared a protected area in Madhya Pradesh in 1978 and now constitutes a long and narrow eco-reserve co-administered by the three states.
On March 13, the top court took suo motu cognisance of news reports about rampant illegal sand mining on the banks of the Chambal river.
