💥Join UPSC 2027,2028 Mentorship (August Batch) + XFactor Notes & Microthemes PDF
Talk to Mentor

Civilsdaily

Login

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

  • Places in news: Harike Wetland

    Winter migratory waterbirds using the central Asian flyway have started making a beeline to Punjab’s Harike wetland, offering a delight for bird lovers.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.In which one among the following categories of protected areas in India are local people not allowed to collect and use the biomass?

    (a) Biosphere reserves

    (b) National parks

    (c) Wetlands declared under Ramsar convention

    (d) Wildlife sanctuaries

    Harike Wetland

    • Harike Wetland also is the largest wetland in northern India in the border of Tarn Taran Sahib district and Ferozepur district of Punjab.
    • The wetland and the lake were formed by constructing the headworks across the Sutlej River in 1953.
    • The headworks is located downstream of the confluence of the Beas and Sutlej rivers just south of Harike village.
    • The rich biodiversity of the wetland which plays a vital role in maintaining the precious hydrological balance in the catchment with its vast concentration of migratory fauna.
    • It was accorded as a wetland in 1990, by the Ramsar Convention, as one of the Ramsar sites in India, for conservation, development and preservation of the ecosystem.

    Back2Basics: Ramsar Convention

    • The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (better known as the Ramsar Convention) is an international agreement promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands.
    • It is the only global treaty to focus on a single ecosystem.
    • The convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
    • Traditionally viewed as a wasteland or breeding ground of disease, wetlands actually provide fresh water and food and serve as nature’s shock absorber.
    • Wetlands, critical for biodiversity, are disappearing rapidly, with recent estimates showing that 64% or more of the world’s wetlands have vanished since 1900.
    • Major changes in land use for agriculture and grazing, water diversion for dams and canals and infrastructure development are considered to be some of the main causes of loss and degradation of wetlands.

  • Great Green Wall (GGW) Project

    The Great Green Wall (GGW) Project to address desertification, land degradation and climate change in the Sahel region of Africa has hit a new low due to funds crunch.

    Note the countries swept by the GGW project on the African map.

    GGW Project

    • The Great Green Wall project is conceived by 11 countries located along the southern border of the Sahara and their international partners, is aimed at limiting the desertification of the Sahel zone.
    • Led by the African Union, the initiative aims to transform the lives of millions of people by creating a mosaic of green and productive landscapes across North Africa.
    • The initial idea of the GGW was to develop a line of trees from east to the west bordering the Saharan Desert.
    • Its vision has evolved into that of a mosaic of interventions addressing the challenges facing the people in the Sahel and the Sahara.

    Why was such project incepted?

    • The project is a response to the combined effect of natural resources degradation and drought in rural areas.
    • It aimed to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030; only four million hectares had been restored between 2007 and 2019.
    • It is a partnership that supports communities working towards sustainable management and use of forests, rangelands and other natural resources.
    • It seeks to help communities mitigate and adapt to climate change, as well as improve food security.

  • Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Protected Areas

    Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change has released Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of 146 national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in the country.

    Map the protected areas mentioned in the newscard in your Atlas.

    MEE Survey

    • MEE is a very important document that provides valuable guidance on various aspects of wildlife and protected area expand MEE of Marine Protected Areas.
    • In order to assess the efficacy of Protected Areas, evaluation of management effectiveness was required.
    • MEE has emerged as a key tool for PA managers and is increasingly being used by governments and international bodies to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the protected area management systems.
    • The results of the present assessment are encouraging with an overall mean MEE score of 62.01% which is higher than the global mean of 56%.
    • With this round of evaluation, MoEFCC successfully completed one full cycle of evaluating all terrestrial National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries of the country from 2006 to 2019.

    India has systematically designated its Protected Areas in four legal categories — National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, Conservation Reserves and Community Reserves under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

    Areas surveyed

    • Under the WP 1972 Act, India has 903 formally designated Protected Areas with total coverage of 1,65,012.6 square km.
    • Among these are 101 National Parks, 553 Wildlife Sanctuaries, 86 Conservation Reserves and 163 Community Reserves.
    • For the survey, 146 National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries across 29 states and Union territories were evaluated.

    Highlights of the MEE

    • Tirthan Wildlife Sanctuary and Great Himalayan National Park in Himachal Pradesh have performed the best among the surveyed protected areas.
    • The Turtle Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh was the worst performer in the survey.

  • Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Rules

    Few illegal apartment complexes in Maradu, Kerala, were razed as ordered by the Supreme Court for breaching Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms. The court had called the illegal constructions a “colossal loss” to the environment.

    What are CRZ norms?

    • In India, the CRZ Rules govern human and industrial activity close to the coastline, in order to protect the fragile ecosystems near the sea.
    • They restrict certain kinds of activities — like large constructions, setting up of new industries, storage or disposal of hazardous material, mining, reclamation and bunding — within a certain distance from the coastline.
    • After the passing of the Environment Protection Act in 1986, CRZ Rules were first framed in 1991.
    • After these were found to be restrictive, the Centre notified new Rules in 2011, which also included exemptions for the construction of the Navi Mumbai airport and for projects of the Department of Atomic Energy.
    • In 2018, fresh Rules were issued, which aimed to remove certain restrictions on building, streamlined the clearance process, and aimed to encourage tourism in coastal areas.
    • While the CRZ Rules are made by the Union environment ministry, implementation is to be ensured by state governments through their Coastal Zone Management Authorities.

    Where do they apply?

    • In all Rules, the regulation zone has been defined as the area up to 500 m from the high-tide line.
    • The restrictions depend on criteria such as the population of the area, the ecological sensitivity, the distance from the shore, and whether the area had been designated as a natural park or wildlife zone.
    • The latest Rules have a no-development zone of 20 m for all islands close to the mainland coast, and for all backwater islands in the mainland.

    Back2Basics

    https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/coastal-regulation-zone-how-rules-for-building-along-coast-have-evolved/

  • Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) 2021

    The two-day Asian Waterbird Census-2020 was recently held in Andhra Pradesh.

    Anyone can participate!

    By using eBird and filling an additional site form, one can take part in this multi-country effort to document the state of our wetlands and waterbirds.  To take part one simply visits a wetland and count the birds he/she see there.

    Asian Waterbird Census

    • The Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) takes place every January.
    • The AWC was started in 1987, and many birders were initiated into bird counting and monitoring through this project.
    • This citizen-science event is a part of the global International Waterbird Census (IWC) that supports the conservation and management of wetlands and waterbirds worldwide.
    • The data collected each year is shared by Wetlands International with global conservation organisations such as IUCN and Ramsar Convention.

    Why need such census?

    • Waterbirds are one of the key indicators of wetlands health.
    • Wetlands provide feeding, resting, roosting and foraging habitats for these charismatic species.

    AWC in India

    • In India, the AWC is annually coordinated by the Bombay Natural history Society (BNHS) and Wetlands International.
    • BNHS is a non-government Organisation (NGO) founded in the year 1883.
    • It engages itself in the conservation of nature and natural resources and also in the research and conservation of endangered species.
    • Its mission is to conserve nature, primarily biological diversity through action based on research, education and public awareness.

    Back2Basics: Waterbirds

    • The term water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird is used to refer to birds that live on or around water.
    • In some definitions, the term is especially applied to birds in freshwater habitats, though others make no distinction from birds that inhabit marine environments.
    • Also, some water birds are more terrestrial or aquatic than others, and their adaptations will vary depending on their environment.
    • These adaptations include webbed feet, bills, and legs adapted to feed in the water, and the ability to dive from the surface or the air to catch prey in water.

  • Tide–Rainfall Flood Quotient

    To understand if a coastal city is more prone to floods caused by tidal events or extreme rainfall, a team from the IIT Bombay devised a new metric or measure called the Tide–Rainfall Flood Quotient.

    Try this PYQ:

    The 2004 Tsunami made people realize that mangroves can serve as a reliable safety hedge against coastal calamities. How do mangroves function as a safety hedge?

    (a) The mangrove swamps separate the human settlements from the sea by a wide zone in which people neither live nor venture out

    (b) The mangroves provide both food and medicines which people are in need of after any natural disaster

    (c) The mangrove trees are tall with dense canopies and serve as art excellent shelter during a cyclone or tsunami

    (d) The mangrove trees do not get uprooted by storms and tides because of their extensive roots

    Tide–Rainfall Flood Quotient

    • Using the past rainfall data, tidal data, and topography of the region one can apply this framework to pinpoint the major factor at play.
    • This quotient helps understand the main driver of the flooding events for effective disaster management.
    • It considers three geographically diverse flood-prone coastal regions – Mithi Catchment in Mumbai, , Jagatsinghpur District in Odisha, and Greater Chennai to test their new metric.
    • The new method helped classify these regions into ‘storm-tide dominated’ or ‘pluvial (rainfall) dominated’ regions.
    • In Mithi, they found a devastating impact of storm-tide reaching even up to a distance of 7 km from the coastal boundary.
    • It concluded that Mithi catchment was ‘storm-tide dominated’, while Jagatsinghpur and Chennai were ‘pluvial dominated’

    A tool for flood management

    • This metric can help disaster management experts in framing better flood risk management systems directed towards long term planning.
    • For storm-tide dominated regions, severe flood hazard can be alleviated by building coastal defence structures such as closure dams, tide breakers, and storm-surge barriers at appropriate locations.
    • The tide and surge forecasting systems in these regions should be equipped with state-of-the-art ocean circulation models.
    • On the other hand, for pluvial dominated regions, structural measures such as rainwater storage structures, lakes, and detention basins should be prioritized in the flood management plans.

  • Places in news: Deepor Beel

    Assam has prohibited community fishing at Deepor Beel, a wetland on the south-western edge of Guwahati and it’s the only Ramsar site.

    Try this PYQ:

    In which one among the following categories of protected areas in India are local people not allowed to collect and use the biomass?

    (a) Biosphere reserves

    (b) National parks

    (c) Wetlands declared under Ramsar convention

    (d) Wildlife sanctuaries

    Deepor Beel

    • Deepor Beel is located to the south-west of Guwahati city, in Kamrup district of Assam, India.
    • It is a permanent freshwater lake, in a former channel of the Brahmaputra River, to the south of the main river.
    • It is a wetland under the Ramsar Convention which has listed since November 2002, for undertaking conservation measures on the basis of its biological and environmental importance.
    • Considered as one of the largest beels in the Brahmaputra valley of Lower Assam, it is categorised as a representative of the wetland type under the Burma monsoon forest biogeographic region.
    • It is also an important bird sanctuary habituating many migrant species.
    • Freshwater fish is a vital protein and source of income for these communities; the health of these people is stated to be directly dependent on the health of this wetland ecosystem.

    Back2Basics: Ramsar Convention

    • The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (better known as the Ramsar Convention) is an international agreement promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands.
    • It is the only global treaty to focus on a single ecosystem.
    • The convention was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
    • Traditionally viewed as a wasteland or breeding ground of disease, wetlands actually provide fresh water and food and serve as nature’s shock absorber.
    • Wetlands, critical for biodiversity, are disappearing rapidly, with recent estimates showing that 64% or more of the world’s wetlands have vanished since 1900.
    • Major changes in land use for agriculture and grazing, water diversion for dams and canals and infrastructure development are considered to be some of the main causes of loss and degradation of wetlands.

  • Places in news: Dibru-Saikhowa National Park

    PC: Gmaps

    Assam has asked the State’s Forest and Revenue departments to permanently rehabilitate the indigenous forest dwellers of the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park.

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2019:

    Q. Which of the following are in Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve?

    (a) Neyyar, Peppara and Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuaries; and Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve

    (b) Mudumalai, Sathyamangalam and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuaries; and Silent Valley National Park

    (c) Kaundinya, Gundla Brahme-swaram and Papikonda Wildlife Sanctuaries; and Mukurthi National Park

    (d) Kawal and Sri Venkateswara Wildlife Sanctuaries; and Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve

    Dibru-Saikhowa National Park

    • DSNP is a national park in Assam located in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.
    • It was designated a Biosphere Reserve in July 1997 with an area of 765 sq. km.
    • The park is bounded by the Brahmaputra and Lohit Rivers in the north and the Dibru river in the south.
    • It mainly consists of moist mixed semi-evergreen forests, moist mixed deciduous forests, canebrakes, and grasslands.
    • It is the largest Salix swamp forest in north-eastern India, with a tropical monsoon climate with a hot and wet summer and cool and usually dry winter.

     Why in news?

    • Rehabilitation of some 10,000 people has been hanging fire since 1999 when the Dibru-Saikhowa Wildlife Sanctuary was upgraded to a national park.
    • The park, home to a few wild horses, had been in focus since May when a blowout at an Oil India Limited gas well in the vicinity posed an ecological threat.

    What is the issue?

    • The affected people belong to the Missing community.
    • The forest dwellers of the 425-sq. km. Dibru-Saikhowa National Park has been denied access to government schemes since 1986 through a notification.
    • It allowed them to continue staying until their shifting to a suitable place.
    • The organization said the villagers’ problems started when 765 sq. km. around their habitations was declared a biosphere reserve in 1997, limiting the access of the forest to the community.
    • The hardship compounded in 1999 when the national park came into existence.

  • The climate policy needs new ideas

    The article highlights the issues with the current climate policies which are centred on the inequality.

    Inequality and climate change

    • Inequity is built into the climate treaty, which considers total emissions, size, and population, making India the fourth largest emitter.
    • According to the United Nations, the richest 1% of the global population emits more than two times the emissions of the bottom 50%.
    • .China, with four times the population of the U.S., accounts for 12% of cumulative emissions.
    • India, with a population close to that of China’s, for just 3% of cumulative emissions that lead to global warming.
    • In an urbanized world, two-thirds of emissions arise from the demand of the middle class for infrastructure, mobility, buildings, and diet.
    • Well-being in the urbanized world is reflected in saturation levels of infrastructure.
    • Growth in the developed countries is consumption-driven not production driven.
    • The vaguely worded ‘carbon neutrality’, balancing emitting carbon with absorbing carbon from the atmosphere in forests is a triple whammy for latecomers like India.
    • Such countries already have less energy-intensive pathways that will not encroach on others’ ecological space, a young population, and are growing fast to reach comparable levels of well-being with those already urbanized and in the middle class.

    What changes are required in the policies

    • At present, the focus is on physical quantities which indicates effects on nature.
    • The solutions require analysis of drivers, trends, and patterns of resource use. 
    • This anomaly explains why the link between well-being, energy use, and emissions is not on the global agenda.
    • Modifying unsustainable patterns of natural resource use and ensuring comparable levels of well-being are societal transformations.
    • New thinking must enable politics to acknowledge transformational social goals and the material boundaries of economic activity.

    India’s unique national circumstances

    • India must highlight its unique national circumstances.
    • For example, the meat industry, especially beef, contributes to one-third of global emissions.
    • Indians eat just 4 kg of meat a year compared to those in the European Union who eat about 65 kg.
    • Also to be noted is the fact that the average American household wastes nearly one-third of its food.
    • Transport emissions account for a quarter of global emissions.
    • Transport emissions are the symbol of Western civilization and are not on the global agenda.
    • Rising Asia uses three-quarters of coal drives industry and supports the renewable energy push into cities.
    • India, with abundant reserves and per capita electricity use that is one-tenth that of the U.S., is under pressure to stop using coal.

    Way forward

    • India has the credibility and legitimacy to push an alternate 2050 goal for countries currently with per capita emissions below the global average.
    • These goals should include well-being within ecological limits, the frame of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as multilateral technological knowledge cooperation around electric vehicles, energy efficiency, building insulation, and a less wasteful diet.

    Conclusion

    Emissions are the symptom, not the cause of the problem. India, in the UN Security Council, must push new ideas based on its civilizational and long-standing alternate values for the transition to sustainability.

  • Places in news: Sea of Galilee

    The Sea of Galilee, well-known in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic lore, has swelled up due to recent rains, according to reports in the Israeli media.

    Do you know?

    The Sea of Galilee Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth and the second-lowest lake in the world (after the Dead Sea, a saltwater lake).

    Sea of Galilee

    • The lake lies in northern Israel, between the occupied Golan Heights and the Galilee region. It is fed by underground springs but its major source is the Jordan River.
    • The lake has risen to 209.905 meters below sea level due to heavy rainfall in the surrounding areas.
    • The Jordan flows into the lake and then exits it before ending in the Dead Sea, the saltiest and the lowest point on the planet.
    • Water is not extracted from the Sea of Galilee. But it is considered to be an important barometer of the water situation in Israel.