The national capital witnessed a 14.8% rise in fire-related calls between January 1 and April 28 compared to the same period of the previous year.

According to Delhi Fire Services (DFS) data accessed by The Hindu, the fire department received 6,626 calls in 2025 against 5,772 in the first four months of 2024. In 2023, the calls stood at 4,904, marking a 17.7% in 2024 and a cumulative 35.1% rise over the three years.

However, the number of fatalities in fire incidents has decreased in 2025 (see graphic).

A senior DFS official told The Hindu that while the rise in calls suggests increasing fire risks, the reduction in fatalities may indicate improved emergency response and public awareness.

With the onset of summer, Delhi has witnessed several fire incidents. Last Sunday, a massive fire ripped through a slum in north-west Delhi’s Rohini, destroying over 800 shanties across five acres and leaving two children dead and five others injured.

Two days earlier, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta visited the DFS headquarters at Barakhamba Road to assess the department’s preparedness for emergencies and announced the allocation of ₹125 crore for procuring new equipment.

Can you build a house using trash? Periyar University researchers say yes. A team at the university developed a method to convert waste materials such as plastic and agricultural residue into flash graphene, one of the strongest materials known, using short bursts of super-heated electricity.
Just a pinch of this graphene, added to concrete, can significantly boost its strength, say the researchers. The patented Pulsed Capacitive Discharge (PCD) instrument they built generates graphene from waste in milliseconds, offering a way to tackle plastic pollution and carbon emissions from cement.
Researchers say the PCD technique uses high-powered electric pulses to heat carbon-rich waste to over 3000 Kelvin, triggering a thermal shock that breaks down plastic and biomass molecules, rearranging their carbon atoms into graphene sheets. Plastic, which contains about 30% carbon, as well as wood chips (80%), agricultural and forest waste, can all be converted into graphene through this process.
“Just by adding 0.01% graphene by weight, the strength of concrete increases by 30%. This reduces cement usage, which in turn brings down CO2 emissions,” says R. Ramesh, Director of the Centre for New and Renewable Energy Studies at Periyar University.
Graphene, an ultra-thin material, was discovered by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who won the Nobel Prize for it in 2010. For a long time, the material was not used in mainstream applications due to cost and scalability issues. The PCD technique changes that, cutting graphene production costs by 80% to ₹40,000 per kg and consuming just 0.5 units of electricity per gram, making it scalable, energy-efficient, and sustainable.
Why does using graphene as a construction material matter? Because it is a greener alternative in the concrete industry, responsible for nearly 8% of global CO2 emissions. It reduces the need for cement and, consequently, its environmental toll. Trials with fly ash bricks and pavements are showing equally promising results.
But the innovation does not stop at construction. With its superior electrical conductivity and strength, graphene can play a key role in energy storage technologies. Flash graphene made from waste is being used to enhance batteries, including those for electric vehicles and renewable energy systems, and supercapacitors, while even offering a solution for recycling graphite from old batteries, tackling the environmental challenge of battery recycling.
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Hyderabad: A group of senior IAS and IPS officers, along with their spouses, approached the Telangana HC Tuesday seeking a stay on a single judge’s order that flagged their residential plots in Nagaram village in Rangareddy district as Bhoodan land.
The officers, who were served notices by the court earlier, argued that the land was lawfully purchased and not part of any Bhoodan endowment, as alleged. It can be recalled, the single judge heard a petition filed by Birla Mallesh of Maheswaram mandal and directed the state authorities to keep the land in survey numbers 181, 182, 194 and 195 under the prohibition list until further orders.
IPS officers Mahesh Bhagwat, Soumya Mishra, Swathi Lakra, Rekha Sharaf, wife of Umesh Sharaff, Tarun Joshi, Renu Goyal, wife of Jitender Goyal, and BK Rahul Hegde, along with Rahul Busireddy, son of former IAS officer and former TGPSC chairman B Janardhan Reddy, filed the pleas questioning the single judge order that termed the land as Bhoodan land.
They contended that this is a ryotwari land which they bought from the rightful owners. Citing an order from the Bhoodan board, they said land in survey number 194 is not being claimed by the board, and they bought land that fell within the purview of this survey number.
Businessman V Goutam Reddy, another recipient of HC notice, also filed an appeal against the single judge order.
The single judge had ordered notices to several officials, including principal secretary of revenue Navin Mittal, Rangareddy district former collector Amoy Kumar and several private persons. While police are already probing into some of the issues pertaining to this land, the HC in its order sought to know the stand of the CBI and ED on the plea of the petitioner seeking a deeper probe into the issue.
The bureaucrats and their spouses said in their pleas that the single judge went beyond the contents of the petition and sought a stay on his order. The case is likely to come up for hearing in a day or two.