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

  • Tarballs on Mumbai Coast

    A beach in South Mumbai, saw black oil-emanating balls lying on the shore.

    What are Tarballs?

    • Tarballs are dark-coloured, sticky balls of oil that form when crude oil floats on the ocean surface.
    • Tarballs are formed by weathering of crude oil in marine environments.
    • They are transported from the open sea to the shores by sea currents and waves.
    • Tarballs are usually coin-sized and are found strewn on the beaches. Some of the balls are as big as a basketball while others are smaller globules.
    • However, over the years, they have become as big as basketballs and can weigh as much as 6-7 kgs.

    How are tarballs formed?

    • Wind and waves tear the oil slick into smaller patches that are scattered over a much wider area.
    • Various physical, chemical and biological processes (weathering) change the appearance of the oil.

    Why are tarballs found on the beaches during the monsoon?

    • It is suspected that the oil comes from the large cargo ships in the deep sea and gets pushed to the shore as tarballs during monsoon due to wind speed and direction.
    • All the oil spilt in the Arabian sea eventually gets deposited on the western coast in the form of tarballs in the monsoon season when wind speed and circulation pattern favour transportation of these tarballs.

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  • Places in news: Pilibhit Tiger Reserve

    A herd of around 25 elephants from Nepal’s Shuklaphanta National Park reached the tiger reserve in Uttar Pradesh almost a month back.

    Pilibhit Tiger Reserve

    • Pilibhit Tiger Reserve is located in Pilibhit district of Uttar Pradesh and was notified as a tiger reserve in 2014.
    • It is one of the few well-forested districts in Uttar Pradesh.
    • It forms part of the Terai Arc Landscape in the upper Gangetic Plain along the India-Nepal border.
    • The habitat is characterized by sal forests, tall grasslands and swamp maintained by periodic flooding from rivers.
    • The Sharda Sagar Dam extending up to a length of 22 km is on the boundary of the reserve.
    • The tiger reserve got the first international award TX2 for doubling the tiger population in a stipulated time.

    Try answering this PYQ:

    Q.Consider the following protected areas:

    1. Bandipur
    2. Bhitarkanika
    3. Manas
    4. Sunderbans

    Which of the above are declared Tiger Reserves?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 1, 3 and 4 only

    (c) 2, 3 and 4 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

     

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  • First Dugong Conservation Reserve to be built in India

    India’s first Dugong conservation reserve will be built in Tamil Nadu for the conservation of Dugong, a marine mammal.

    Try answering this PYQ:

    With reference to ‘dugong’, a mammal found in India, which of the following statements is/are correct?

    1. It is a herbivorous marine animal.
    2. It is found along the entire coast of India.
    3. It is given legal protection under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1974.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below:

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 3 only

     

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    Dugong Conservation Reserve

    • The reserve will spread over an area of 500 km in Palk Bay on the southeast coast of Tamil Nadu.
    • Palk Bay is a semi-enclosed shallow water body with a water depth maximum of 13 meters.
    • Located between India and Sri Lanka along the Tamil Nadu coast, the dugong is a flagship species in the region.

    Dugong: The sea cow

    • Dugong or the sea cow is the State animal of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
    • This endangered marine species survive on seagrass and other aquatic vegetation found in the area.
    • It is the only herbivorous mammal that is strictly marine and is the only extant species in the family Dugongidae.
    • Dugongs are usually about three-meter long and weigh about 400 kg.
    • Dugongs have an expanded head and trunk-like upper lip.
    • Elephants are considered to be their closest relatives. However, unlike dolphins and other cetaceans, sea cows have two nostrils and no dorsal fin.

    Their habitat

    • Distributed in shallow tropical waters in the Indo-Pacific region, in India, they are found in the Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Mannar, Palk Bay, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
    • Dugongs are long-living animals, that have a low reproductive rate, long generation time, and high investment in each offspring.
    • The female dugongs do not bear their first calf until they are at least 10 and up to 17 years old.
    • A dugong population is unlikely to increase more than 5% per year. They take a long time to recover due to the slow breeding rate.

    Causes of extinction

    • Having being declared vulnerable, the marine animal calls for conserving efforts.
    • Studies have suggested the reasons for the extinction of the animal such as slow breeding rate, fishing, and the loss of habitat.
    • They are also known to suffer due to accidental entanglement and drowning in gill-nets.

    Conservation in India

    • The conservation reserve can promote growth and save vulnerable species from the verge of extinction.
    • Dugongs are protected in India under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Act 1972 which bans the killing and purchasing of dugong meat.
    • IUCN status: Vulnerable

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  • Green hydrogen, a new ally for a zero carbon future

    Context

    The forthcoming 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow from November 1-12, 2021 is to re-examine the coordinated action plans to mitigate greenhouse gases and climate adaptation measures.

    How Green hydrogen as a fuel can be a game changer?

    • Hydrogen is the most abundant element on the planet, but rarely in its pure form which is how we need it.
    • High energy density: It has an energy density almost three times that of diesel.
    • ‘Green hydrogen’, the emerging novel concept, is a zero-carbon fuel made by electrolysis using renewable power from wind and solar to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
    • Best solution to remain under 1.5° C: The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts the additional power demand to be to the tune of 25%-30% by the year 2040.
    • Thus, power generation by ‘net-zero’ emission will be the best solution to achieve the target of expert guidelines on global warming to remain under 1.5° C.
    • Untapped potential: Presently, less than 0.1% or say ~75 million tons/year of hydrogen capable of generating ~284GW of power, is produced.

    Challenges: Production and storage cost

    • The challenge is to compress or liquefy the LH2 (liquid hydrogen); it needs to be kept at a stable minus 253° C.
    • This leads to its ‘prior to use exorbitant cost’.
    • The ‘production cost’ of ‘Green hydrogen’ has been considered to be a prime obstacle.
    • The production cost of this ‘green source of energy’ is expected to be around $1.5 per kilogram (for nations having perpetual sunshine and vast unused land), by the year 2030; by adopting various conservative measures.

    Experiments in India

      • The Indian Railways have announced the country’s first experiment of a hydrogen-fuel cell technology-based train by retrofitting an existing diesel engine; this will run under Northern Railway on the 89 km stretch between Sonepat and Jind.
    • The project will not only ensure diesel savings to the tune of several lakhs annually but will also prevent the emission of 0.72 kilo tons of particulate matter and 11.12-kilo tons of carbon per annum.

    Way forward for India

    • India is the world’s fourth-largest energy-consuming country (behind China, the United States and the European Union), according to the IEA’s forecast, and will overtake the European Union to become the world’s third energy consumer by the year 2030.
    • It is high time to catch up with the rest of the world by going in for clean energy, decarbonising the economy and adopting ‘Green hydrogen’ as an environment-friendly and safe fuel for the next generations.

    Conclusion

    In order to achieve the goal of an alternative source of energy, adopting a multi-faceted practical approach to utilise ‘Green hydrogen’ offers a ray of hope.

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  • Universal Declaration of the Rights of Rivers

    Activists have highlighted the plight of rivers as well as the support building up for according rights to them under the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Rivers.

    What constitutes the Rights of Rivers?

    • Flow: If we look at a river as an ecosystem instead of cubic metres of water, then the ambit of rights gets broadened.
    • Flora and fauna: It includes aquatic flora and fauna, the biodiversity in its catchment areas, forests, its tributaries, groundwater, the rocks and soil in its bed and banks.
    • Human settlements: The rights of rivers in a sense would mean the ecological causes and conditions making up the natural habitat. Human settlements dependent is the prime factor.
    • Economy: Such rights should not put an end to fishing or other localized, subsistence-based human needs related to the river, but rather push for a healthy relationship respecting the river as an ecosystem.

    Universal Declaration of the Rights of Rivers

    • The declaration is a civil society initiative to define the basic rights to which all rivers are entitled, according to a note by non-profit, International Rivers.
    • This trend of granting rights to nature, taking place across the world, signals the beginnings of a radical shift from an extractive mindset to one where conservation safeguards are being extended to nature.
    • The right to recognize rivers as living entities rather than mere human property started in 2008.
    • That year, Ecuador became the first country to constitutionally recognize the Rights of Nature.

    Present campaigns

    • In the one year since the declaration, rights have been recognised or declared for the Boulder Creek watershed in the US, the Magpie River in Canada, the Alpayacu river in Ecuador and the Paraná river and its wetlands in Argentina.
    • Several campaigns calling for rights to be accorded to rivers have also incorporated the declaration.
    • These include campaigns for the Lempa river in El Salvador, Tavignanu river in France, Ethiope river in Nigeria, the Indus river in Pakistan and the Frome river in the UK.
    • In 2017, a treaty agreement between the Whanganui Iwi (a Māori tribe) and the New Zealand government recognized the Whanganui River as a legal person.

    Recognition of such rights in India

    • In 2017, the Uttarakhand HC ruled that the Indian rivers Ganga and Yamuna, the Gangotri and Yamunotri glaciers, as well as other related natural elements are “legal persons” with all corresponding rights, duties, and liabilities of a living person.
    • Subsequently, in 2018, the same high court ruled that the entire animal kingdom has rights equivalent to that of a living person.

    Challenges

    • Cultural practices: Activists and communities have been arguing for a need of cultural change that can bring about the ethic of care with regard to the rest of nature. Indigenous people have had such an ethic in their worldviews and ways of living.
    • Development paradigm: The most critical challenge is whether can rights be protected without changing the current development paradigm. Any paradigm shift also needs questioning of fundamental forms of injustices, including capitalism, statism, anthropocentrism, and patriarchy.
    • Cross-boundary issues: Rivers don’t necessarily follow human-made political boundaries. Indus, one of the longest that runs through China, Pakistan, and India, doesn’t flow as per political boundaries. Its contiguity demands a cross-boundary approach.
    • Cooperation deficit: There is still very limited understanding across the world on how a law on the rights of rivers can be implemented. What would be the best ways to ensure custodianship, restitution, compensation.

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  • Places in news: Gulf of Mexico

    An oil spill spanning at least 10 miles has been captured by satellite imagery in waters off the Louisiana coast near the Gulf of Mexico.

    Gulf of Mexico

    • The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent.
    • It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southwest and south by the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo; and on the southeast by Cuba.
    • The US states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, which border the Gulf on the north, are often referred to as the “Third Coast” of the United States (in addition to its Atlantic and Pacific coasts).
    • It is covered with a tangle of pipes, wells and other energy infrastructure, much of it no longer used, as a result of generations of oil extraction there.

    Its formation

    • The Gulf of Mexico took shape approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics.
    • Its floor consists of sedimentary rocks and recent sediments.
    • It is connected to the part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the US and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatán Channel between Mexico and Cuba.
    • Because of its narrow connection to the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf experiences very small tidal ranges.

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  • What is Wood Wide Web?

    Plants appear to be simple enough in their organization. Whether small shrubs or tall trees, all they seem to be made up of is leaves, flowers, fruits, stems, and roots. But simple they are not. Being rooted in one spot has required very special personality traits.

    Wood Wide Web

    • Trees in the forest share resources by using an underground network.
    • A scientist from the University of British Columbia, Dr. Suzanne Simard, revealed this network and called it the wood wide web.
    • In the wood wide web, mycorrhizal fungi colonize the plant roots, and their tiny fungal filaments, or mycelia, connect hairy root tips of different trees together.
    • Mycorrhizal fungi refer to the role they play in the plant’s root system—as symbionts.
    • These root-associated fungi are harmless to plants. Instead, they form harmonious symbiotic relationships with plants.

    An ancient association

    • The association between plants and fungi is ancient.
    • Fossils of plants from about 400 million years ago show the first evidence of roots, and these roots are fungus associations – rhizoids – suggesting that roots co-evolved with fungi.
    • One good example is species of Penicillium, the fungus from which Alexander Fleming isolated the antibiotic penicillin.
    • Fungus–root associations, called mycorrhizae, appear at first glance to be simple mutualisms that are beneficial to both.
    • The root-invading fungus gains nutrients made by the plant, and the plants get difficult-to-find minerals like phosphorus from the microbe. But the association is deeper.

    How does it work?

    • The wood wide web works by offering a win-win situation for all parties: mycorrhizal fungi and trees.
    • The fungal filaments transport nitrogen, phosphorous, water, and other hard-to-capture nutrients from the soil to the trees, in exchange for carbon-rich sugars made by the plants.
    • The fungi also help deliver substances from one tree to its neighboring trees.
    • By using the network, mature trees feed their seedlings with nutrients to boost their survival.
    • When a plant is sick or dying, it can allocate its nutrients to the other plants nearby through the wood wide web.

    Benefits offered

    • Bacteria that associate with roots are called rhizobacteria, and a very wide range of these species are plant growth promoters.
    • Like the fungi, mutualism operates in these relationships too. In exchange for sugars, these bacteria offer plants a wide range of benefits.
    • They may help plants ward off pathogens that cause diseases of the root. They may even trigger systemic resistance to a pathogen throughout the plant.

    Back2Basics: Symbiotic Relationship

    Parasitism

    • It is a type of interaction between two species that results in damage and harm to one member and benefit to another member.
    • Ex. As in the case of the tick-host relationship, the tick gains benefit by sucking blood while the host is harmed as it loses blood.

    Commensalism

    • In this type of relationship one species benefits without affecting the other.
    • Barnacles growing on the back of the whale, orchids growing as an epiphyte on some mango branch, cattle egret and grazing cattle in close association, Sea anemone, and the Clown Fish are some of the classic examples of Commensalism.

    Amensalism

    • In this relationship, one species is harmed while the other is neither harmed nor benefitted and remains unaffected.
    • When an organism excretes the chemicals as a part of the normal metabolism of its own, but which may severely impact other nearby species, this kind of relationship is seen.

    Mutualism

    • In this type of relationship both the partners benefit from one another. When similar interaction occurs within a species, it is known as cooperation.
    • Lichens a mutual relationship between algae and fungus. In this mutual cooperation, fungus gives protection and raw material for the preparation of the food while Green Algae synthesizes the food for both.

    Saprophytism

    • In this kind of biotic interaction, certain organisms live on dead and decaying organic matter.
    • Dung Beetles, Vultures, Fungi, Bacteria, Protozoa are the example of Saprophytism.

    Predation

    • In this type of biological interaction, a predator feeds upon its prey and in this type of relationship, one species is benefitted while the other is harmed.

    Competition

    • In this type of interaction both the species compete with each other for the resources like food, shelter, mating, and both the species get harmed out of the process of competition.

  • Hydel projects in Ganga-Himalayan basin

    Context

    The affidavit filed recently by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in an ongoing matter in the Supreme Court of India has recommended the construction of seven partially constructed hydroelectric projects in the Uttarakhand Himalaya.

    Background

    • After the Kedarnath tragedy of 2013, an expert body (EB-I) was constituted to investigate whether the hydro-power projects in the State of Uttarakhand was linked to the disaster.
    •  In its findings, EB-I said there was a “direct and indirect impact” of these dams in aggravating the disaster.
    • The Ministry formed another expert body (EB-II; B.P. Das committee) whose mandate has been to pave the way for all projects through some design change modifications
    • This affidavit, dated August 17, reveals that the government is inclined towards construction of 26 other projects, as in the recommendation of the expert body (EB-II; B.P. Das committee). 
    • Ministry’s own observations and admissions given in its earlier affidavit dated May 5, 2014 admitted that hydroelectric projects did aggravate the 2013 flood.

    Concerns

    • Sustainability: The sustainability of the dams in the long term is highly questionable as hydropower solely relies on the excess availability of water.
    • Temperatures across the region are projected to rise by about 1°C to 2°C on average by 2050.
    • Retreating glaciers and the alternating phases of floods and drought will impact the seasonal flows of rivers.
    • Sediment hotspots: The most crucial aspect is the existence of sediment hotspot paraglacial zones, which at the time of a cloud burst, contribute huge amounts of debris and silt in the river.
    • The flash floods in these Himalayan valleys do not carry water alone; they also carry a massive quantity of debris.
    • This was pointed out by EB-II alongside its recommendation not build any projects beyond 2,000 metres or north of the MCT, or the Main Central Thrust (it is a major geological fault).
    • Externalities:  Though hydropower is renewable source, there are contentious externalities associated with the construction of dams such as social displacement, ecological impacts, environmental and technological risks.
    • Climate change: these projects exacerbate ecological vulnerability, in a region that is already in a precarious state.
    • The intense anthropogenic activities associated with the proliferation of hydroelectric projects in these precarious regions accelerate the intensity of flash floods, avalanches, and landslides.
    • Failure of mountain slopes: The construction and maintenance of an extensive network of underground tunnels carrying water to the powerhouses contribute to the failure of mountain slopes.
    • Aggravating the disaster: The Rishi Ganga tragedy and the disasters of 2012 (flashfloods), 2013 are examples of how hydroelectric projects which come in the way of high-velocity flows aggravate a disaster and should be treated as a warning against such projects.

    Conclusion

    Considering the environmental and cultural significance of these areas, it is imperative that the Government refrains from the construction of hydroelectric projects and declares the upper reaches of all the headstreams of the Ganga as eco-sensitive zones. It must allow the river to flow unfettered and free.

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    Back2Basics: Main Central Thrust (MCT)

    • The Main Central Thrust is a major geological fault where the Indian Plate has pushed under the Eurasian Plate along the Himalaya.
    • The fault slopes down to the north and is exposed on the surface in a NW-SE direction (strike).
    • It is a thrust fault that continues along 2200 km of the Himalaya mountain belt

  • [pib] Formation of Blue Straggler

    Carrying out the first-ever comprehensive analysis of blue stragglers, Indian researchers found that half of the blue stragglers in their sample are formed through mass transfer from a close binary companion star.

    What are Blue Stragglers?

    • A blue straggler is a main-sequence star in an open or globular cluster that is more luminous and bluer than stars at the main sequence turnoff point for the cluster.
    • The most likely explanation is that blue stragglers are the result of stars that come too close to another star or similar mass object and collide.
    • The newly-formed star has thus a higher mass and occupies a position on the HR diagram which would be populated by genuinely young stars.
    • One-third of them are likely formed through collisions of 2 stars, and the remaining are formed through interactions of more than 2 stars.

    How are they formed?

    • A bunch of stars born at the same time from the same cloud form a star cluster.
    • As time passes, each star evolves differently depending on its mass.
    • The most massive and bright stars evolve and move off the main sequence creating a bend in their track, known as the turnoff.
    • Stars above this bend or brighter and hotter stars are not expected in a cluster, as they leave the main sequence to become red giants.
    • But in 1953, Allan Sandage found that some stars seem to be hotter than the turnoff of the parent cluster.

    Behind the nomenclature

    • Initially, these blue stars still straggling above the turnoff were not part of these clusters.
    • However, later studies confirmed that these stars are indeed cluster members, and they were termed “Blue Stragglers”.
    • The only probable way these stars can still be present in these clusters is if they have somehow acquired extra mass along the way while on the main sequence.
    • Confirming the mechanisms of the mass gain required a study using a large sample of blue-straggler stars and estimates of the mass they have gained.

    What have Indian researchers found?

    • Research showed that these stars are primarily present in the older and massive star clusters. And due to their large mass, they are segregated towards the centre of the clusters.
    • The researchers compared the mass of the blue stragglers to the mass of the turnoff stars (which are the most massive ‘normal’ stars in the cluster) and predicted the formation mechanisms.
    • The study will help improve understanding of these stellar systems to uncover exciting results in studies of large stellar populations, including galaxies.
    • Following these findings, the researchers are conducting detailed analyses of individual blue stragglers in the catalog to obtain their stellar properties.

  • Behler Turtle Conservation Award

    Indian biologist Shailendra Singh has been awarded the Behler Turtle Conservation Award for bringing three critically endangered turtle conservation species back from the brink of extinction.

    Behler Turtle Conservation Award

    • The Award is a major annual international award honoring excellence in the field of tortoise and freshwater turtle conservation and biology, and leadership in the chelonian conservation and biology community.
    • It is co-presented by the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA), the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group (TFTSG) among others.
    • It is widely considered the “Nobel Prize” of turtle conservation and biology.

    Citation for the 2021 Award

    • For some species, such as the Red-crowned Roofed Turtle (Batagur kachuga), Northern River Terrapin (Batagur Baska), and Black Softshell Turtle (Nilssonia nigricans) Dr. Singh and his team’s efforts are the last hope for their wild survival in the country.
    • In just 15 years, there are few individuals that have made such monumental contributions to turtle conservation.

    Turtles in India

    • The Northern River Terrapin (Batagur Baska) is being conserved at the Sunderbans; the Red-crowned Roofed Turtle (Batagur kachuga) at Chambal; and the Black Softshell Turtle (Nilssonia nigricans) at different temples in Assam.
    • These critically endangered turtles are being conserved as a part of TSA India’s research, conservation breeding and education programme in different parts of the country.
    • There are 29 species of freshwater turtles and tortoises in the country.

    About Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA)

    • The TSA was formed in 2001 as an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) partnership for sustainable captive management of freshwater turtles and tortoises.
    • This alliance arose in response to the rampant and unsustainable harvest of Asian turtle populations to supply Chinese markets, a situation known as the Asian Turtle Crisis.

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