GS Paper: GS3-18.Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.

We often get confused to differentiate between Cheetah/Bagh/Sher/Puli. The cheetah, which is being re-introduced to India from Africa, is not to be confused with the leopard, which too has spots that look somewhat similar.

How are all Big Cats differentiated?

[A] Genus Panthera

• This is the genus of large wild cats that can roar but can’t purr.
• Among them, the lion, the leopard, and the jaguar are more closely related, while the other strand has the tiger and the snow leopard.
• The snow leopard is an exception to the rest of the group in that it can’t roar.

(1) Tiger (Panthera Tigris)

Size: 75-300 kg | IUCN status : Endangered

• Jim Corbett’s “large-hearted gentleman with boundless courage”, the solitary and strongly territorial tiger is the largest of all wild cats and also the earliest Panthera member to exist.
• Primarily a forest animal, they range from the Siberian taiga to the Sunderban delta.
• The national animal of India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and South Korea, the tiger was voted the world’s favourite animal ahead of the dog in a 2004 Animal Planet global online poll.

(2) Lion (Panthera Leo

Size: 100-250 kg | IUCN status: Vulnerable

• Native to Africa and Asia, the lion is the most social cat, and lives in groups called prides.
• They prefer open forests such as scrubland, and adult males have a prominent mane.
• The lion is arguably the most widely recognised animal symbol in human culture — be it the Ashoka pillar in Sarnath, the main entrance to Buckingham Palace, or the 20th Century Fox and MGM logo.

(3) Jaguar (Panthera Onca)

Size: 50-110 kg | IUCN status: Near Threatened

• The largest cat in the Americas, the Jaguar has the strongest bite force of all wild cats, enabling it to bite directly through the skull of its prey.
• Melanistic (black) Jaguars are common and are often called black panthers.
• Jaguar was a powerful motif in the Mayan and Aztec civilisations.

(4) Leopard (Panthera Pardus)

Size: 30-90 kg | IUCN status: Vulnerable

• Similar in appearance to the Jaguar with a rosette patterned coat, the leopard was described by Jim Corbett as “the most beautiful of all animals” for its “grace of movement and beauty of colouring”.
• The most adaptable of all big cats, they occupy diverse habitats at all altitudes across Africa and Asia.
• Like black jaguars, melanistic leopards are called black panthers.
• In some African cultures, leopards are considered to be better hunters than lions.

(5) Snow leopard (Panthera Uncia)

Size: 25-55 kg | IUCN status : Vulnerable

• The ghost of the mountains, this smokey-grey cat lives above the snow line in Central and South Asia.
• The most elusive of all big cats, it cannot roar, and has the longest tail of them all — which comes in handy for balance while hunting along the cliffs, and also gives warmth when wrapped around the body.
• The snow leopard is the state animal of Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh.

[B] Genus Puma

• Closely related to the domestic cat, this genus has only one extant species, the cougar.

Cougar (Puma concolor)

Size: 40-100 kg | IUCN status: Least Concern

• The cougar is the second-largest cat in the Americas. (The Jaguar is the largest.)
• Cougars are also called ‘mountain lion’ and ‘panther’ across their range from the Canadian Yukon to the Southern Andes.
• Concolor is latin for “of uniform colour”. The Incas designed the city of Cusco in the shape of a cougar.

[C] Genus Acinonyx

• This is a unique genus within the cat family, with only one living member, the cheetah.

Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)

Size: 20-70 kg | IUCN status: Vulnerable

• The fastest land mammal, the cheetah is the only cat without retractable claws — the grip helps it accelerate faster than any sports car (0-100 km/hr in 3 seconds).
• Cheetahs are not aggressive towards humans, and they have been tamed since the Sumerian era.
• They don’t breed well in captivity — picky females play hard to get.
• Cheetahs are not really big, and they hunt during the day to avoid competing with other big cats.

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Since July 1, 2022, India has banned the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of single-use plastics (SUP) items with low utility and high littering potential.

What are single-use plastics?

• Single-use plastics, often also referred to as disposable plastics, are commonly used for plastic packaging and include items intended to be used only once before they are thrown away or recycled.
• These include, among other items, grocery bags, food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, cups and cutlery.

Why are single-use plastics harmful?

• The purpose of single-use plastics is to use them once or for a short period of time before disposing of them. Plastic waste has drastic impacts on the environment and human health.
• There is a greater likelihood of single-use plastic products ending up in the sea than reusable ones.

SUP ban in India

• India has taken resolute steps to mitigate pollution caused by littered single-use plastics.
• A number of items are banned, including earbuds with plastic sticks, balloon sticks, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice cream sticks, polystyrene (thermocol) for decorations, plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straws etc.
• India has also banned plastic or PVC banners less than 100 micron, stirrers, etc.

What is the impact on the environment?

[A] Solid Waste generation

• The disposal of plastics is one of the least recognized and most highly problematic areas of plastic’s ecological impact.
• Ironically, one of plastic’s most desirable traits: its durability and resistance to decomposition, is also the source of one of its greatest liabilities when it comes to the disposal of plastics.
• A very small amount of total plastic production (less than 10%) is effectively recycled; the remaining plastic is sent to landfills.
• It is destined to remain entombed.

[B] Ecological Impact

(i) Groundwater and soil pollution

• Plastic is a material made to last forever, and due to the same chemical composition, plastic cannot biodegrade; it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces.
• When buried in a landfill, plastic lies untreated for years.
• In the process, toxic chemicals from plastics drain out and seep into groundwater, flowing downstream into lakes and rivers.
• The seeping of plastic also causes soil pollution and have now started resulting in presence of micro plastics in soil.

(ii) Water Pollution

• The increased presence of plastic on the ocean surface has resulted in more serious problems.
• Since most of the plastic debris that reaches the ocean remains floating for years as it does not decompose quickly, it leads to the dropping of oxygen level in the water.
• It has severely affected the survival of marine species.
• When oceanic creatures and even birds consume plastic inadvertently, they choke on it which causes a steady decline in their population.
• In addition to suffocation, ingestion, and other macro-particulate causes of death in larger birds, fish, and mammals.

[C] Health Hazards

• Burning of plastic results into formation of a class of flame retardants called as Halogens.
• Collectively, these harmful chemicals are known to cause the following severe health problems: cancer, neurological damage, endocrine disruption, birth defects and child developmental disorders etc.

Ban elsewhere

• India is not the first country to ban single-use plastics.
• Bangladesh became the first country to ban thin plastic bags in 2002; New Zealand banned plastic bags in July 2019.
• China had issued a ban on plastic bags in 2020 with a phased implementation.
• As of July 2019, 68 countries have plastic bag bans with varying degrees of enforcement.

What are the plastic waste management rules in India?

• With effect from September 30, 2021 India has the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021.
• It prohibited the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of plastic carry bags whose thickness is less than 75 microns.
• From December 31, 2022, plastic carry bags whose thickness is less than 120 microns will be banned.
• It means that the ban does not cover all plastic bags; however, it requires the manufacturers to produce plastic bags thicker than 75 microns which was earlier 50 microns.
• As per the notification, the standard shall be increased to 120 microns in December this year.

What is the role of the manufacturer?

• In addition, the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2022 on February 16, 2022.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is the responsibility of a producer for the environmentally sound management of the product until the end of its life.
• The guidelines provide a framework to strengthen the circular economy of plastic packaging waste, promote the development of new alternatives to plastic packaging and provide the next steps for moving towards sustainable plastic packaging by businesses.

Various steps taken

• The Indian government has taken steps to promote innovation and create an ecosystem for accelerated adoption and availability of alternatives across the country.
• To ensure the effective enforcement of the ban, national and State-level control rooms will be established, as well as special enforcement teams for the purpose of checking the illegal sale and use of single-use plastics.
• To prevent the movement of banned single-use plastic items between States and Union Territories, border checkpoints have been established.
• In an effort to empower citizens to help curb the plastic menace, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has launched a grievance redressal application.

What are the challenges?

• The ban will succeed only if all stakeholders participate enthusiastically and engage in effective engagement and concerted actions.
• However, if we look back at our past, almost 25 Indian States previously banned plastic at the state level.
• However, these bans had a very limited impact in reality because of the widespread use of these items.
• Now the challenge is to see how the local level authorities will enforce the ban in accordance with the guidelines.
• Banned items such as earbuds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, etc., are non-branded items and it is difficult to find out who the manufacturer is and who is accountable.

Way forward

• The consumer needs to be informed about the ban through advertisements, newspaper or TV commercials, or on social media.
• In order to find sustainable alternatives, companies need to invest in research and development.
• The solution to the plastic pollution problem is not the responsibility of the government alone, but of industries, brands, manufacturers and most importantly consumers.
• Finding alternatives to plastic seems a little difficult, however, greener alternatives to plastic may be considered a sustainable option.
• For example, compostable and bio-degradable plastic, etc., may be considered as an option.
• While the total ban on the use of plastic sounds a great idea, its feasibility seems difficult at this hour, especially in the absence of workable alternatives.

 

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A study carried out by researchers from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, undertook to characterise urbanisation in the region and also to understand where the rock agama reside in and around Bengaluru specifically.

Why in news?

• The study examined several environmental factors that could affect the presence of the lizard and revealed that they are found mainly in rocky places and warm spots.
• Thus, the inference is that conservation efforts must point towards retaining rocky patches even while reviving landscapes by planting trees.

Peninsular Rock Agama

• The Peninsular Rock Agama (Psammophilus dorsalis) is a type of garden lizard has a strong presence in southern India.
• This lizard is a large animal, strikingly coloured in orange and black.
• They do not generate their own body heat, so they need to seek warmth from external sources like a warm rock or a sunny spot on the wall.
• They are important in ecology from different aspects — they can indicate which parts of the city are warming, and their numbers show how the food web is changing.
• Habitat loss and other such features of urbanisation have affected the presence of the animal in urban centres.

Why study them?

• Insects are critical components of a healthy ecosystem as they provide so many services, including pollination.
• So, while rock agamas are interesting in themselves, they are also a good model system to understand other aspects of the ecosystem.
• In cities such as Bengaluru, there is a lot of flora and fauna that is rapidly disappearing.
• The rock agama is one such species which is dependent on rocky scrub habitats which are being converted into buildings and plantations.

 

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The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has objected to the transfer of thousands of hectares of land without following due process by Chhattisgarh from its Forest to the Revenue Department for setting up industries and for building road, rail, and other infrastructure.

What is the news?

• The Union Environment Ministry has warned that the land in question is “undemarcated protected forests”, which cannot be used for non-forest purposes without clearance under the Forest Conservation (FC) Act, 1980.

‘Types of Forests’ in Law

• Broadly, state Forest Departments have jurisdiction over two types of forests notified under the Indian Forest (IF) Act, 1927:

1. Reserve Forests (RF): where no rights are allowed unless specified and
2. Protected Forests (PF): where no rights are barred unless specified

• Certain forests, such as village or nagarpalika forests, are managed by state Revenue Departments.
• The FC Act, 1980, applies to all kinds of forests, whether under the control of the Forest or the Revenue Department.
• It requires statutory clearance before forests can be used for any non-forest purpose such as industry, mining, or construction.
• In 1976, forests were included in List III (Concurrent List) under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.

Chhattisgarh case

• The recorded forest area in Chhattisgarh covers 44.21% of its geography.
• The state government says it is constrained by the limited availability of land, particularly in the tribal regions, for development works.
• Therefore, in May 2021, it sought a field survey to identify non-forest land — parcels smaller than 10 hectares with less than 200 trees per hectare.

Orange, a grey area

• It sought that the forests had been included by mistake in Orange Areas under the Forest Department.
• This year, it announced that over 300 sq km of “Orange” area in the Bastar region had been handed over to the Revenue Department.
• Under the zamindari system, villagers used local malguzari (livelihood concessions) forests for firewood, grazing, etc.
• When zamindari was abolished in 1951, malguzari forests came under the Revenue Department.
• In 1958, the government of undivided Madhya Pradesh notified all these areas as Protected Forest (PFs) under the Forest Department.
• Through the 1960s, ground surveys and demarcations of these PFs continued — either to form blocks of suitable patches to be declared as Reserve Forests, or to denotify and return to the Revenue Department.
• For this purpose, Madhya Pradesh amended the IF Act, 1927, in 1965 — when forests figured in the State List — to allow denotification of PFs.
• The areas yet to be surveyed — undemarcated PFs — were marked in orange on the map.

Policy jam

• Since 2003, a case has been pending in the Supreme Court on rationalising these orange areas that have remained a bone of contention between the two Departments.
• The transfer of PFs to the Revenue Department continued until 1976, when reports of illicit felling in Revenue areas prompted Madhya Pradesh to seek a fresh survey to shift quality forest patches.
• But before this survey could be undertaken, the new government that came to power in the state in 1978 switched the focus to settling encroachments.
• The FC Act came in 1980, and required central clearance for non-forest use of forest land.
• This led to a situation where the rights of lakhs of villagers, including those settled by the government through pattas, remained restricted.

After MP was split

• Carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000, Chhattisgarh inherited its share of ‘orange’ areas.
• Ranked second after Orissa in implementing the Forest Rights Act, 2006, the state has settled over 26,000 claims since 2019.
• The logical next step, say officials who declined to be quoted, was to find land for the economic development of the tribal belt.
• Chhattisgarh did not seek central clearance to transfer over 300 sq km to Revenue, they claim, because it did not have to.

New definition of forests

• In December 1996, the SC defined ‘forest’ after its dictionary meaning, irrespective of the status of the land it stands on.
• It also defined forestland as any land thus notified on any government record irrespective of what actually stands on that land.
• To meet this broad definition, Madhya Pradesh in 1997 framed a “practical yardstick” — an area no smaller than 10 hectares with at least 200 trees per hectare — to identify forests in Revenue areas for handing over to the Forest Department.
• These non-forest areas, they claim, are now being identified and returned to the Revenue.

Issues with such Un-forestation

• The nature of vegetation changes over time.
• After so many years, a visual survey cannot determine if a particular piece of land did not meet the definition of forest.
• Once brought under the Forest Department, whether mistakenly or otherwise, an area gets the status of forestland as per the 1996 SC order, and hence comes under the FC Act, 1980.

Options available for CG

• Chhattisgarh, thanks to the 1965 amendment to the IF Act, can still denotify PFs unilaterally.
• It may also vest management of any land with any department since the state owns all land within its boundaries.
• But if the stated purpose is non-forest use — building industries and infrastructure — the state will anyway require central clearance under the FC Act, 1980.

What lies ahead?

• Clearance for non-forest use of forestland under the FC Act requires giving back twice the area for compensatory afforestation (CA) from Revenue to Forest.
• That would defeat the very purpose of the state government’s action.
• However, conversion of Forest to Revenue land has been exempted from CA under exceptional circumstances in the past.
• For example, when enclaves were moved out of forests, the SC allowed those to be resettled at the edge of the forests, in the absence of suitable Revenue land, as revenue villages.
• It will be a stretch, though, for such considerations to apply to thousands of hectares meant for industries.

 

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