Tag: population

Even China’s 1.4 billion population can’t fill all its vacant homes, former official says

An aerial view shows unfinished residential buildings of the Gaotie Wellness City complex in Tongchuan, Shaanxi province, China September 12, 2023. REUTERS/Xiaoyu Yin/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

Even China’s population of 1.4 billion would not be enough to fill all the empty apartments littered across the country, a former official said on Saturday, in a rare public critique of the country’s crisis-hit property market.

China’s property sector, once the pillar of the economy, has slumped since 2021 when real estate giant China Evergrande Group (3333.HK) defaulted on its debt obligations following a clampdown on new borrowing.

Big-name developers such as Country Garden Holdings (2007.HK) continue to teeter close to default even to this day, keeping home-buyer sentiment depressed.

As of the end of August, the combined floor area of unsold homes stood at 648 million square metres (7 billion square feet), the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show.

That would be equal to 7.2 million homes, according to Reuters calculations, based on the average home size of 90 square metres.

That does not count the numerous residential projects that have already been sold but not yet completed due to cash-flow problems, or the multiple homes purchased by speculators in the last market upturn in 2016 that remain vacant, which together make up the bulk of unused space, experts estimate.

“How many vacant homes are there now? Each expert gives a very different number, with the most extreme believing the current number of vacant homes are enough for 3 billion people,” said He Keng, 81, a former deputy head of the statistics bureau.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/even-chinas-14-bln-population-cant-fill-all-its-vacant-homes-former-official-2023-09-23/

3,115 Leopards ‘Spotted’ in Uttarakhand, Population Grew by 29% in 8 Years: Forest Department Data

In recent weeks, leopard conflict incidents have been reported from Almora, Pauri, Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh, and Tehri districts. (Representational image/News18)

The number of leopards has grown in Uttarakhand since 2015, reveals the population estimates of the felines released on Friday. This comes a week after tiger numbers were shared for Uttarakhand and other states. The data released by the forest department suggests leopard population estimates stand at 3,115 in Uttarakhand.

The last estimates for 2015 counted 2,335 leopards in the Himalayan state. In mathematical terms, the growth has been around 29% in the past eight years. The figures are critical since Uttarakhand is one of the states that witnesses frequent man-leopard conflicts.

Data collected by the forest department underlines that between January 2000 and June 2023, a total of 508 people were killed in leopard attacks and more than 1,800 were injured. However, a total of 1,658 leopard deaths were also reported from June 2001 to date, many due to accidents or mutual fights, among other reasons.

Chief wildlife warden Samir Sinha expressed concern about the growing incidents of conflict. “The leopard population estimates will help us understand the problem areas and we will try to mitigate the situation,” he told News18.

Elaborating on the methodology, Sinha said the estimation was conducted jointly by the Wildlife Institute of India and the forest department. The team used trap cameras and kept a record of the physical sightings.

Of late, on the growing man-leopard conflict, the experts have been divided on whether the urban population is venturing close to forest areas or the growing number of leopards is forcing them to move close to human habitations for food.

Anup Sah, an expert on the big cats and member of the state wildlife board, feels it is urbanisation that has to be blamed for conflicts. “Saving human lives is a concern, at the same time, and much more challenging, as far as saving leopards and tigers are concerned,” he said.

 

Source: https://www.news18.com/india/3115-leopards-spotted-in-uttarakhand-population-grew-by-29-in-8-years-forest-department-data-8506657.html

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