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

  • Froth formation in Yamuna

    The visuals of devotees taking a dip in the froth-filled waters of the Yamuna River sent chills down the spine of the residents of Delhi.

    What is Froth Formation?

    • This is a phenomenon that takes place on many lakes and streams.
    • Foam bubbles are produced when organic matter decomposes.
    • These foam-producing molecules have one end that repels water and another that attracts water and they work to reduce the surface tension on the surface of the water.
    • These foam bubbles are lighter than water, so they float on the surface as a thin film that gradually accumulates.

    What causes the froth?

    • The presence of phosphates and surfactants in untreated sewage from Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh is a major reason behind frothing.
    • While these two components comprise of 1 per cent, the remaining 99 percent is air and water.

    What are the sources of pollution that cause foam formation?

    • Untreated sewage may contain soap-detergent particles.
    • The other sources are industrial effluents, organic matter from decomposing vegetation, and the presence of filamentous bacteria.
    • The pollution from the sugar and paper industries in Uttar Pradesh also causes pollution in the Yamuna.

    What are its health hazards?

    • Short-term exposure can lead to skin irritation and allergies.
    • If ingested, these chemicals may cause gastrointestinal problems and diseases like typhoid.
    • Long-term exposure to heavy metals in industrial pollutants can cause neurological issues and hormonal imbalances.

     

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  • The right time for India to have its own climate law

    Context

    The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26, from October 31 to November 12, 2021), at Glasgow, Scotland is important as it will call for practical implementation of the 2015 Paris Accord, setting the rules for the Accord.

    Indian proposals

    • Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced, on November 1 at Glasgow, a ‘Panchamrit solution’ which aims at reducing fossil fuel dependence and carbon intensity.
    • This also includes ramping up India’s renewable energy share to 50% by 2030.
    • Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav has reasserted the call for the promised $100 billion a year as support (from the developed world to the developing world).
    • But as we consider new energy pathways, we must also consider the question of climate hazard, nature-based solutions and national accountability.
    • This is the right time for India to mull setting up a climate law while staying true to its goals of climate justice, carbon space and environmental protection.

    Why India needs climate law

    • There are a few reasons for this.
    • Existing laws not adequate: Our existing laws are not adequate to deal with climate change.
    • We have for example the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA), 1986, the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.
    • Yet, climate is not exactly water or air.
    • The Environment (Protection) Act is grossly inadequate to deal with violations on climate. Clause 24 of the Act, “Effect of Other Laws”, states that if an offence is committed under the EPA or any other law, the person will be punished under the other law (for example, Code of Criminal Procedure).
    • This makes the EPA subordinate to every other law. 
    • There is a need to integrate climate action: Integration includes adaptation and mitigation — and monitoring progress.
    • Comprehensive climate action is not just technological such as changing energy sources or carbon intensity, but also nature-based such as emphasising restoration of ecosystems.
    • India’s situation is unique: Climate action cannot come by furthering sharpening divides or exacerbating poverty, and this includes our stated renewable energy goals.
    • The 500 Gigawatt by 2030 goal for renewable can put critically endangered grassland and desert birds such as the Great Indian Bustard at risk, as they die on collision with wires in the desert.

    Suggestions on climate law

    • A climate law could consider two aspects.
    • Commission on climate change: Creating an institution that monitors action plans for climate change.
    • A ‘Commission on Climate Change’ could be set up, with the power and the authority to issue directions, and oversee implementation of plans and programmes on climate.
    • The Commission could have quasi-judicial powers with powers of a civil court to ensure that its directions are followed in letter and spirit.
    • System of liability and accountability: We need a system of liability and accountability at short-, medium- and long-term levels as we face hazards.
    • This also means having a legally enforceable National Climate Change Plan that goes beyond just policy guidelines.
    • A Climate Commission could ideally prevent gross negligence in fragile areas and fix accountability if it arises.

    Conclusion

    We have an urgent moral imperative to tackle climate change and reduce its worst impacts. But we also should Indianise the process by bringing in a just and effective law — with guts, a spine, a heart, and, most importantly, teeth.

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  • Guidelines released for safe rescue, release of Ganges River Dolphins (GRDs)

    The Jal Shakti Ministry has released a guide for the safe rescue and release of stranded Ganges River Dolphins.

    Gangetic Dolphin

    • The Gangetic river system is home to a vast variety of aquatic life, including the Gangetic dolphin (Platanista gangetica).
    • The species, whose global population is estimated at 4,000, are (nearly 80%) found in the Indian subcontinent.
    • It is found mainly in the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Karnaphuli-Sangu river systems.
    • It is one of five species of river dolphin found around the world.
    • Only three species of freshwater dolphins are remaining on the earth after the functional extinction of the Chinese river Dolphin (Baiji) in 2006.

    Conservation status

    1. The GRDs have been designated the National Aquatic Animal of India since 2010.
    • It is listed as:
    1. Endangered under IUCN Red List
    2. Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act (1972)
    3. Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

    About the guidelines

    • The document has been prepared by the Turtle Survival Alliance, India Program and Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department (EFCCD), Uttar Pradesh.
    • The guide has been drawn from years of experience of the organization while rescuing 25 Ganges River Dolphins (GRDs) stranded in irrigation canals.

    Various threats

    • They often accidentally enter canal channels in northern India and are often entrapped, and die as they are unable to swim up against the gradient.
    • They are eventually harassed by the locals.
    • Opportunistic poaching for meat and oil in certain pockets of the country is another big threat.

     

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  • Why India shouldn’t sign on to net zero

    Context

    The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made it clear that limiting the increase in the world’s average temperature from pre-industrial levels to those agreed in the Paris Agreement requires global cumulative emissions of carbon dioxide to be capped at the global carbon budget.

    Understanding why reaching net zero by itself is irrelevant to forestalling dangerous warming

    • The promise of when you will turn off the tap does not guarantee that you will draw only a specified quantity of water.
    • The top three emitters of the world — China, the U.S. and the European Union — even after taking account of their net zero commitments and their enhanced emission reduction commitments for 2030, will emit more than 500 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide before net zero.
    • These three alone will exceed the limit of about 500 billion tonnes from 2020 onwards, for even odds of keeping global temperature increase below 1.5°C.

    Issues with ‘net zero’ target

    • Neither the Paris Agreement nor climate science requires that net zero be reached individually by countries by 2050, the former requiring only global achievement of this goal “in the second half of the century”.
    • Claims that the world “must” reach specific goals by 2030 or 2050 are the product of specific economic models for climate action.
    • They front-load emission reduction requirements on developing countries, despite their already low emissions, to allow the developed world to backload its own, buying time for its own transition.
    • These stringent limits on future cumulative emissions post 2020, amounting to less than a fifth of the total global carbon budget, is the result of its considerable over-appropriation in the past by the global North.
    • Promises of net zero in their current form perpetuate this hugely disproportionate appropriation of a global commons, while continuing to place humanity in harm’s way.

    Suggestions for India

    • India is responsible for no more than 4.37% cumulative emissions of carbon dioxide since the pre-industrial era, even though it is home to more than a sixth of humanity.
    • India’s per capita emissions are less than half the world average, less than one-eighth of the U.S.’s.
    • For India to declare net zero now is to accede to the further over-appropriation of the global carbon budget by a few.
    • India’s contribution to global emissions, in both stock and flow, is so disproportionately low that any sacrifice on its part can do nothing to save the world.
    • India, in enlightened self-interest, must now stake its claim to a fair share of the global carbon budget.
    • Technology transfer and financial support, together with “negative emissions”, if the latter succeeds, can compensate for the loss of the past.
    • Such a claim by India provides it greater, and much-needed long-term options.
    • It enables the responsible use of coal, its major fossil fuel resource, and oil and gas, to bootstrap itself out of lower-middle-income economy status and eradicate poverty, hunger and malnutrition for good.
    • India’s resource-strapped small industries sector needs expansion and modernisation.
    • The agriculture sector, the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions for India after energy, needs to double its productivity and farmers’ incomes and build resilience.
    •  Infrastructure for climate resilience in general is critical to future adaptation to climate change.
    • All of these will require at least the limited fossil fuel resources made available through a fair share of the carbon budget.

    Conclusion

    Without restriction of their future cumulative emissions by the big emitters, to their fair share of the global carbon budget, and the corresponding temperature target that they correspond to made clear, India cannot sign on to net zero.

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  • Podu Land issue in Telangana

    The Telangana government has decided to move landless, non-tribal farmers engaged in Podu shifting cultivation inside forests to peripheral areas as it looks to combat deforestation.

    What is Shifting Cultivation?

    • Shifting cultivation is a form of agriculture or a cultivation system, in which, at any particular point in time, a minority of ‘fields’ are in cultivation and a majority are in various stages of natural re-growth.
    • Over time, fields are cultivated for a relatively short time, and allowed to recover, or are fallowed, for a relatively long time.
    • Eventually, a previously cultivated field will be cleared of the natural vegetation and planted in crops again.
    • Fields in established and stable shifting cultivation systems are cultivated and fallowed cyclically.
    • This type of farming is also called jhumming in India.

    What is Podu?

    • Podu is a traditional system of cultivation used by tribes in India, whereby different areas of jungle forest are cleared by burning each year to provide land for crops.
    • The word comes from the Telugu language.
    • Podu is a form of shifting agriculture using slash-and-burn methods.

    Issue in Telangana

    • Shifting cultivation continues to be a predominant agricultural practice in many parts of India, despite state discouragement and multipronged efforts.
    • Telangana government has red-flagged encroachment of forests by non-tribals, who are indulging in the practice of shifting agriculture (podu).
    • Several political leaders have raised the issues of shifting agriculture and deforestation wherein encroachers clear a portion of land.
    • The government now wants to shift out all farmers from the forests to the periphery by allotting lands to them for cultivation.

    Impact of the move

    • Tribal farmers who have been traditionally cultivating for decades will not be affected by this drive against illegal encroachers.
    • The government has, in fact, given land ownership titles to tribals.
    • Other encroaching farmers will be shifted out.

    Back2Basics: Various shifting cultivation in India

    Type Place of practice
    Jhum North-eastern India
    Vevar and Dahiyaar Bundelkhand Region (Madhya Pradesh)
    Deepa Bastar District (Madhya Pradesh)
    Zara and Erka Southern States
    Batra South-eastern Rajasthan
    Podu Andhra Pradesh
    Kumari Hilly Region of the Western Ghats of Kerala
    Kaman, Vinga and Dhavi Odisha

     

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  • Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Yojana (PK3Y)

    Women farmers in the hill State of Himachal Pradesh are gradually turning to non-chemical, low cost “natural farming”, under the Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Yojana (PK3Y).

    Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Yojana

    • Launched in 2018, the State’s PK3Y is promoting the climate resilient Subhash Palekar Natural Farming (SPNF), also called ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming’.
    • Over 1.5 lakh farmers have been trained in natural farming in the State so far, with substantial numbers of women participants.

    About Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)?

    • ZBNF is a set of farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states in India.
    • Subhash Palekar perfected it during the 1990s at his farm in Amravati district in Maharashtra’s drought-prone Vidarbha region.
    • According to the “zero budget” concept, farmers won’t have to spend any money on fertilisers and other agricultural inputs.
    • Over 98% of the nutrients that crops require — carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water, solar energy — are already present in nature.
    • The remaining 1.5-2% are taken from the soil, after microorganisms convert them from “non-

    Four Wheels of ZBNF

    The “four wheels” of ZBNF are ‘Jiwamrita’, ‘Bijamrita’, ‘Mulching’ and ‘Waaphasa’.

    • Jiwamrita is a fermented mixture of cow dung and urine (of desi breeds), jaggery, pulses flour, water and soil from the farm bund.
    • This isn’t a fertiliser, but just a source of some 500 crore micro-organisms that can convert all the necessary “non-available” nutrients into “available” form.
    • Bijamrita is a mix of desi cow dung and urine, water, bund soil and lime that is used as a seed treatment solution prior to sowing.
    • Mulching, or covering the plants with a layer of dried straw or fallen leaves, is meant to conserve soil moisture and keep the temperature around the roots at 25-32 degrees Celsius, which allows the microorganisms to do their job.
    • Waaphasa, or providing water to maintain the required moisture-air balance, also achieves the same objective.

    Astra’s of ZBNF against pest attacks

    • ZBNF advocates the use of special ‘Agniastra’, ‘Bramhastra’ and ‘Neemastra’ concoctions.
    • They are based on cow urine and dung, plus pulp from leaves of neem, white datura, papaya, guava and pomegranates — for controlling pest and disease attacks.

    Is it organic farming?

    • ZBNF uses farmyard manure or vermicompost.

    However, not all farmers are convinced about ZBNF. Why?

    • Cost of labour: The cost of labour for collection of dung and urine, apart from the other inputs used in preparation of Jiwamrita, Neemastra or Bramhastra is quit higher.
    • Bovine cost: Keeping cows is also a cost that has to be accounted for. Farmers cannot afford to keep desi cows that yield very little milk.
    • Vulnerability to pest attacks:  ZBNF is scarcely practiced.  The crop grown would be vulnerable to attacks by insects and pests have already become pest-immune.

     

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  • Species in news: Bengal Florican

    Environmentalists have recently written to the Assam government on the urgent need to prevent land-use changes at Kokilabari Seed Farm in the state to protect Bengal floricans and other species.

    Bengal Florican

    • The Bengal florican also called Bengal bustard, is a bustard species native to the Indian subcontinent, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
    • Fewer than 1,000 individuals were estimated to be alive as of 2017.
    • It has two disjunct populations, one in the Indian subcontinent, another in Southeast Asia.
    • The former occurs from Uttar Pradesh (India) through the Terai of Nepal to Assam (where it is called ulu mora) and Arunachal Pradesh in India, and historically to Bangladesh.
    • It has a very small, rapidly declining population largely as a result of the widespread loss of its grassland habitat.

    Conservation status

    • IUCN Red List Status: Critically Endangered
    • CITES: Appendix I
    • Wildlife Protection Act of India, 1972: Schedule I

  • Places in news: Mudumalai Tiger Reserve

    P

    PC: MapsOfIndia

    A tiger believed to have been responsible for the death of two herders in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve was finally captured.

    Read all the tiger reserves in India through this map. Put more focus on South Indian states and the NE region.

    Mudumalai Tiger Reserve

    • Mudumalai National Park is a national park in the Nilgiri Mountains in Tamil Nadu.
    • It is located in the Nilgiri District and shares boundaries with the states of Karnataka and Kerala.
    • It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and was declared a tiger reserve in 2007.
    • It harbours several endangered and vulnerable species including Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, Indian elephant and gaur.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. Recently there was a proposal to translocate some of the lions from their natural habitat in Gujarat to which one of the following sites?

    (a) Corbett National Park

    (b) Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary

    (c) Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary

    (d) Sariska National Park

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”57b43o5jkg” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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  • Climate finance

    Context

    In the run-up to the 26th UNFCCC media reports have claimed that developed countries are inching closer to the target of providing $100 billion annually. This view has been bolstered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which claimed that climate finance provided by developed countries had reached $78.9 billion in 2018.

    Issue of climate financing and claim of reaching the target of $100 billion

    • These claims reaching the target of $100 billion annually is erroneous.
    • First, the OECD figure includes private finance and export credits.
    • Public finance: Developing countries have insisted that developed country climate finance should be from public sources and should be provided as grants or as concessional loans.
    • However, the OECD report makes it clear that the public finance component amounted to only $62.2 billion in 2018, with bilateral funding of about $32.7 billion and $29.2 billion through multilateral institutions.
    • Nature of finance: Significantly, the final figure comes by adding loans and grants. Of the public finance component, loans comprise 74%, while grants make up only 20%.
    • The report does not say how much of the total loan component of $46.3 billion is concessional.
    • Non-concessional loans: From 2016 to 2018, 20% of bilateral loans, 76% of loans provided by multilateral development banks and 46% of loans provided by multilateral climate funds were non-concessional.
    • Between 2013 and 2018, the share of loans has continued to rise, while the share of grants decreased.
    • The OECD reports on climate finance have long been criticised for inflating climate finance figures.
    •  In contrast to the OECD report, Oxfam estimates that in 2017-18, out of an average of $59.5 billion of public climate finance reported by developed countries, the climate-specific net assistance ranged only between $19 and $22.5 billion per year.
    •  The 2018 Biennial Assessment of UNFCCC’s Standing Committee on Finance reports that on average, developed countries provided only $26 billion per year as climate-specific finance between 2011-2016.

    Broken commitments from the US on climate financing

    • U.S. President Joe Biden recently said that the U.S. will double its climate finance by $11.4 billion annually by 2024.
    • It is Congress that will decide on the quantum after all.
    • The U.S. also has a history of broken commitments, having promised $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) under President Barack Obama, but delivering only $1 billion.
    • The future focus of U.S. climate finance is the mobilisation of private sector investment.
    • The bulk of the money coming in would be through private funds, directed to those projects judged “bankable” and not selected based on developing countries’ priorities and needs.

    Finance skews toward mitigation

    • Climate finance has also remained skewed towards mitigation, despite the repeated calls for maintaining a balance between adaptation and mitigation.
    • The 2016 Adaptation Gap Report of the UN Environment Programme had noted that the annual costs of adaptation in developing countries could range from $140 to $300 billion annually by 2030 and rise to $500 billion by 2050.
    • Currently available adaptation finance is significantly lower than the needs expressed in the Nationally Determined Contributions submitted by developing countries.

    Conclusion

    Delivering on climate finance is fundamental to trust in the multilateral process. Regrettably, while developing countries will continue to pressure developed countries to live up to their promises, the history of climate negotiations is not in their favour.

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  • Kunming Declaration on Biodiversity Conservation

    The Kunming Declaration was adopted by over 100 countries at the first part of the ongoing virtual 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

    Kunming Declaration

    • It calls upon the parties to “mainstream” biodiversity protection in decision-making and recognise the importance of conservation in protecting human health.
    • The theme of the declaration is Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth.
    • By adopting this, the nations have committed themselves to support the development, adoption and implementation of an effective post-2020 implementation plan for the Cartagena Protocol on biosafety.
    • Signatory nations will ensure that the post-pandemic recovery policies, programs and plans contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

    About Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

    • The CBD (wef 1993) known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty.
    • The convention has three main goals:
    1. the conservation of biodiversity
    2. the sustainable use of its components
    3. the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources
    • Its objective is to develop national strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and it is often seen as the key document regarding sustainable development.
    • It has two supplementary agreements, the Cartagena Protocol and Nagoya Protocol.

    (1) Cartagena Protocol

    • It is an international treaty governing the movements of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology from one country to another.

    (2) Nagoya Protocol

    • It deals with Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS).

     

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