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

  • Species in news: Sal Forest Tortoise

    A recent study by ecologists in the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, has found that the area designated as a protected area network has only a small overlap with the actual habitat of Sal forest tortoise. Over 90% of the potential distribution of the species falls outside the current protected area’s network.

    What you should focus on?

    On map, identify areas where Sal forest tortoise are found.

    Revise the map of various Forest system of India and their characteristics as well.

    Also…..Is tortoise a mammal or an amphibian?…..or something else??

    Sal Forest/ Elongated Tortoise

    • Also known as the elongated tortoise (Indotestudo elongata), the sal forest tortoise, recently assessed as Critically Endangered, is heavily hunted for food.
    • It is collected both for local use, such as decorative masks, and international wildlife trade.
    • The Sal forest tortoise is widely distributed over eastern and northern India and Southeast Asia.
    • It is one of the only four land tortoises found in India. It is legally protected under Schedule IV of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 as amended up to 2006.
    • According to the IUCN, the population of the species may have fallen by about 80% in the last three generations (90 years).

    About Sal Forest

    • It is a forest type dominated by a single plant species, commonly known as Sal tree (Shorea robusta).
    • It belongs to the category ‘Tropical Moist Deciduous Forest’.
    • The distribution of Sal forests is controlled by the conditions of topography, geology, and soil.
    • Sal forests are mainly distributed in the South and Southeast Asia, occurring along the base of Tropical Himalayas from Assam to Punjab, in the eastern districts of Central India, and on the Western Bengal Hills.

    Also read the complete series on-

    Natural Vegetation and Wildlife- Part 1 | An Overview of Natural Vegetation Types Found in India

  • What is Urban Ozone?

    A Manchester (UK) based research has found that the nationwide lockdown may be leading to the generation of a dangerous pollutant, urban ozone.

    The Ozone is formed due to different factors in the Troposphere and the Stratosphere (where the ozone acts as a protective layer). Note these differences from prelims perspective.

    Urban Ozone

    • The photochemical production of ozone may become more important in urban areas during summertime in these low conditions of oxides of nitrogen.
    • As nitrogen oxides reduce, photochemical production may become more efficient and can lead to higher ozone concentrations in the summertime.
    • The higher summer temperatures increase emissions of biogenic hydrocarbon from natural sources such as trees. These biogenic hydrocarbons significantly affect urban ozone levels.
    • While ozone is important for screening harmful solar UV radiation when present higher up in the atmosphere, it can be a danger at the Earth’s surface and can react to destroy or alter many biological molecules.

    Back2Basics: Ozone Gas

    • It is a gas that occurs both in the Earth’s upper atmosphere and at ground level.
    • Ozone occurs in two layers of the atmosphere. The layer closest to the Earth’s surface is the troposphere.
    • Here, ground-level or “bad” ozone is an air pollutant that is harmful to breathe and it damages crops, trees and other vegetation. It is the main ingredient of urban smog.
    • The stratospheric or “good” ozone protects life on Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays.

    Formation of Ozone

    • Ozone is produced naturally in the stratosphere when highly energetic solar radiation strikes molecules of oxygen, and cause the two oxygen atoms to split apart in a process called photolysis. If a freed atom collides with another O2, it joins up, forming ozone.
    • The majority of tropospheric ozone formation occurs when nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), react in the atmosphere in the presence of sunlight, specifically the UV spectrum.

  • Mass Hatching of Olive Ridley Turtles begins

    Mass hatching of Olive Ridley turtles began at Odisha’s Rushikulya rookery, a major nesting site of these marine turtles.

    Mass hatching of Olive Ridley turtles is a very celebrated news every year. Also make sure to look at the Rivers system in the region from the map above.

    Olive Ridley Turtles

    • The Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), also known as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is a medium-sized species of sea turtle found in warm and tropical waters, primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
    • In the Indian Ocean, the majority of olive ridleys nest in two or three large groups at Rushikulya rookery near Gahirmatha in Odisha.
    • The coast of Odisha in India is the largest mass nesting site for the olive ridley, followed by the coasts of Mexico and Costa Rica.
    • The species is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List, Appendix 1 in CITES, and Schedule 1 in Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

    Special feature: Mass nesting

    • They are best known for their behaviour of synchronized nesting in mass numbers, termed Arribadas.
    • Interestingly, females return to the very same beach from where they first hatched, to lay their eggs.
    • They lay their eggs in conical nests about one and a half feet deep which they laboriously dig with their hind flippers.
    • They hatch in 45 to 60 days, depending on the temperature of the sand and atmosphere during the incubation period.

  • Rare Black Panther spotted in Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary

    A rare Black Panther was spotted in the Netravali WLS in South Goa.

    There are many WLS and National Park in the tiny state of Goa. Unlike others, they rarely find any mention in news. Here a quick revision for you.

    Make sure to locate them on map.

    • Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary,

    • Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary,

    • Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary,

    • Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary,

    • Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary,

    • Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary,

    • Anshi National Park.

    Black Panther

    • Black Panther or Black Leopard is a color variant of spotted Indian leopards, reported from densely forested areas of south India, mostly from the state of Karnataka.
    • A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of any Panthera, particularly of the leopard (P. pardus) in Asia and Africa, and the jaguar (P. onca) in the Americas.
    • They are also known as the ghost of the forest.

    About Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary

    • Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary is located in South-Eastern Goa, India.
    • It constitutes one of the vital corridors of the Western Ghats and covers an area of about 211 sq.km.
    • Netravali or Neturli is an important tributary of River Zuari, which originates in the sanctuary.
    • Forests mostly consist of moist deciduous vegetation interspersed with evergreen and semi-evergreen habitat; there are also two all-season waterfalls in the sanctuary.
    • The Gaur or Indian Bison, Malabar giant squirrel, four-horned antelope or chousingha, leopard, black sloth bear along with a host of other predators and herbivores find home in the sanctuary.

  • [pib] Study of flowering plant endemism of Northern Western Ghats

    Scientists at the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune have come up with plant data of the Northern Western Ghats which indicates that plateaus, in addition to the forests, should be prioritized for the conservation of the Northern Western Ghats.

    Last year one  species from our newscard : Species in news: Hump-backed Mahseer made it into the CSP 2019.  The ‘Abutilon ranadei’ flower in the newscard creates such a vibe yet again.

    A stand-alone species being mentioned in the news for the first time often find their way into the prelims. Make a special note here.

    Why conserve Plateaus?

    • The Western Ghats of India is one of the global biodiversity hotspots owing to the endemism that is sheltered by a chain of mountains.
    • The northern part of this along with the Konkan region is considerably different from its southern and central counterparts on account of lesser precipitation and extended dry season.
    • It is the plateaus and the cliffs that harbour most of the endemic species.

    What did the study find?

    • The study found that the Northern Western Ghats has 181 local endemic plant species, including four monospecific genera.
    • They have found that a majority of the endemic species are therophytes, which complete their life cycle in a short period during monsoon.
    • A notable geographical feature of the Northern Western Ghats is the presence of plateaus and cliffs that display maximum endemic species, unlike forests.
    • It is the region of rapid diversification of specific herbaceous endemic genera like Ceropegia, Glyphochloa, Dipcadi, and Eriocaulon.

    One such specie is-

    Abutilon ranadei

    • Abutilon ranadei is a shrub, measuring 2.5-3.5 m high and bears star-shaped hairs.
    • It is a Critically Endangered endemic species from the northern Western Ghats.

    Bonus:

    Consider the following pairs:

    Wildlife Naturally found in
    1. Blue-finned Mahseer Cauvery River
    2. Irrawaddy Dolphin Chambal River
    3. Rusty-spotted Cat Eastern Ghats

    Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    b) 2 and 3 only

    c) 1 and 3 only

    d) 1, 2 and 3

  • Environmental regulations: go or no go?

    As the world struggles to restart the economic activities amid the pandemic, various strategies are being advised to salvage the damaged economies. One amongst them is to cut down on the environmental standards to spur the economic activities. This article explains why India should not be short-sighted to lower the environmental standards.

    What is this fuss about environment and lockdown?

    • The lockdown exit strategies are focused on saving livelihoods.

    • But the lockdown is causing fiscal pressures on governments which further motivates it to lower the environmental standards, suspend environmental monitoring requirements and reduce environmental enforcement. (Well to save some bucks.)

    • And also in the belief that this is necessary to secure economic growth.

    • But it would be a mistake to assume that there is a trade-off between saving livelihoods and protecting the environment.

    • The crisis of COVID-19 has highlighted that improving the quality of air in our country is not a matter of choice but an emergency.

    How countries around the world are reacting?

    • The US announced a significant reduction in fuel efficiency standards for new cars.

    • This move could result in increased gasoline consumption by 80 billion tonnes, pumping increased carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

    • The US Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it will not be enforcing compliance with routine monitoring and reporting obligations of environmental protection, for an indefinite period.

    • 13 European ministers have been outspoken about resisting the temptations of short-term solutions in response to the present crisis- need to maintain and strengthen EU’s effective regulatory tools to stick to its 2030 climate goals.

    5 Arguments that Indian authorities that look into viz a viz environmental standards

    1. Pollution increases risk to COVID-19

    • People living in areas with higher levels of air pollution face increased risk of premature death from COVID-19.

    • New Delhi was the world’s most polluted capital city for the second straight year in 2019.

    • And India was also home to 21 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, Swiss-based group IQ AirVisual said in a recent study.

    • The State of Global Air 2019 Report finds air pollution responsible for over 1.2 million deaths in China and India each, based on 2017 data.

    2. The poor are the most affected by air pollution

    • There is enormous inequality in the impact of the COVID-19 fallout.

    • Those who suffer the most from air pollution are the millions who live and toil in the open, who cannot afford air-purifiers or other mitigating measures, as also the elderly and children.

    3. Risk of future pandemics

    • There is good evidence that three-quarters of the emerging infectious diseases migrate from wild or domesticated animals into humans.

    • This includes Ebola, SARS, MERS and now COVID-19.

    • Deforestation, industrial agriculture, illegal wildlife trade, climate change and other types of environmental degradation increase the risk of future pandemics.

    4. Public support for environment protection

    • From Delhi to Sao Paulo, Bangkok to Bogota, the dramatic improvement in the quality of air and water in the most polluted cities around the world has been transmitted by social media.

    • This may well result in a groundswell of public support for measures to protect the environment.

    5. The environment will get the value it deserves

    • The corona pandemic will jolt the markets into giving a clean, healthy and sustainable environment the economic value it deserves.

    • There’s a possibility that the gulf between what markets value, and what people value, will close.

    Environment conservation as a silver lining in this Pandemic

    • We have never treated air pollution as a national emergency, failing to coordinate between the Centre and state governments.

    • The COVID pandemic has been declared a national disaster in India, under the National Disaster Management Act, 2005.

    • This legislation mandates the disaster authorities coordinate among themselves and take measures for the prevention and mitigation of the pandemic.

    • Preventing and mitigating the risks of COVID-19, therefore, means the mandate for the disaster authorities is also to tackle air and other forms of pollution head-on.

    Questions based on disasters have been a recurring theme in the UPSC. In 2014, a question was asked with respect to drought, the same could be asked about air pollution. In 2017 again a question based on role of NDMA and tsunami was aksed. In 2018, a question based on Sendai Framework was asked.

     

    Conclusion

    The NDMA is a platform which should be used to combat air pollution as an emergency, similar coordination will be required at an international level to continue to work towards reduced emissions under the Paris Agreement. It is a great pity that it takes a pandemic to bring the realisation that economic growth versus clean air is a false dichotomy.

    Back2Basics: NDMA

    • On 23 December 2005, the Government of India enacted the Disaster Management Act, which envisaged the creation of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
    • It is headed by the Prime Minister, and State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) headed by respective Chief Ministers.
    • It aims to spearhead and implement a holistic and integrated approach to Disaster Management in India.

  • Back in news: International Whaling Commission (IWC)

    Iceland will not be hunting any whales in 2020. Iceland, alongside Norway and Japan, has frequently broken the International Whaling Commission’s 1986 worldwide moratorium, which indefinitely “paused” commercial whaling.

    Regarding IWC, we can expect a statement based prelim question asking-

    1) If IWC has a UN or any other parent organization

    2) If India is a member/observer etc.

    About International Whaling Commission (IWC)

    • The IWC is an Inter-Governmental Organisation set up by the terms of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) signed in Washington, D.C in 1946.
    • It aims to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry.
    • The main duty of the IWC is to keep under review and revise as necessary the measures laid down in the Schedule to the Convention which governs the conduct of whaling throughout the world.
    • The body is the first piece of International Environmental Legislation established in 1946.
    • Commercial whaling was banned by the IWC in 1986 after some species were almost driven to extinction.
    • 89 countries have the membership of in IWC and all the member countries are signatories to this convention.
    • India is a member state of the IWC.

    Earlier reference

    • Japan has last year withdrawn from the IWC citing domestic reasons.
    • Thus, it resumed commercial whaling after 31 years, meeting a long-cherished goal of its traditionalists.

  • [pib] Sariska Tiger reserve

     

    The Ministry of Tourism’s Dekho Apna Desh webinar featured a presentation and virtual tour of ‘Destination- Sariska Tiger reserve’.

    Tourism and tourist sites carry high stakes for possible prelims questions.  Take time to quickly revise the Swadesh Darshan , PRASHAD Schemes.   Click here for the repository of all such initiatives.

    Sariska Tiger Reserve

    • It is located in the Aravalli Hills, 35 km from Alwar, 250 km SW of Delhi and 110 km NE of Jaipur.
    • The former hunting reserve of the Maharaja of Alwar, the Sariska valley is home to a variety of flora and fauna.
    • The park has populations of tigers, leopards, Nilgai, Sambar, chital etc.
    • The place is a paradise for bird lovers as it shelters a large population of Indian peafowl, crested serpent eagles, sand grouse, golden-backed woodpeckers, great Indian horned owls, tree pies, vultures and many others.
    • It is the first reserve in the world with successfully relocated tigers. It is an important biodiversity area in the Northern Aravalli leopard and wildlife corridor.

    Features of this episode

    • Alwar is a city dotted with heritage buildings, Forts, tombs and palaces. Some of the important sights not to be missed are Bala Qila, Vijai Mandir Lake Palaces, Fateh Jung ki Gumbad, Moti Doongri etc.
    • The sanctuary is strewn with ruins of ancient temples dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries.
    • Some of the highlights are the ruins of the Kankwari Fort and the 10th-century Neelkanth temples, which have Khajuraho-like carvings as key features.
    • Neelkanth Mahadeva houses the ruins of over 300 Hindu and Jain temples constructed between the 8th and 12th Centuries.
    • Chand Baoli (stepwell) at Abhaneri is enormous with 3500 steep steps built by the Nikhumbha dynasty is one of the largest step-wells in the world.

    About DekhoApnaDesh

    • Under this, a series of webinars will showcase the diverse and remarkable history and culture of India through a documentary series on various cities.
    • It will be including various monuments, cuisine, arts, dance forms, natural landscapes, festivals and many other aspects of the rich Indian civilization.
    • The objective of the webinar series is to create awareness about and promote various tourism destinations of India – including the lesser-known destinations and lesser-known facets of popular destinations.
    • The webinar will be available in the public domain through the Ministry’s social media handles- “Incredible India” on Instagram and Facebook.

    Back2Basics: Project Tiger

    • Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 by during PM Indira Gandhi’s tenure.
    • It is administered by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
    • The project aims at ensuring a viable population of Bengal tigers in their natural habitats, protecting them from extinction, and preserving areas of biological importance as a natural heritage forever represented as close as possible the diversity of ecosystems across the distribution of tigers in the country.
    • The project’s task force visualized these tiger reserves as breeding nuclei, from which surplus animals would migrate to adjacent forests.
    • The government has set up a Tiger Protection Force to combat poachers and funded relocation of villagers to minimize human-tiger conflicts.

  • Ganga water improves during lockdown

    The Ganga water quality has improved remarkably during the lockdown period. This highlights the importance of synergy for absolute symbiosis between nature and man as the need of the hour.

    Context

    • The novel coronavirus lockdown (COVID-19) pandemic has put millions in the throes of adversity — and yet, there is a reason to celebrate.
    • Over a month into the nationwide lockdown, air and water pollution levels have shrunk and the wildlife is free.
    • Of 36 monitoring units placed in the Ganga, water quality at 27 points was found suitable for bathing and propagation of wildlife and fisheries in the lockdown period

    Status of rivers in India

    • India’s water bodies are in a poor state. The rivers are becoming dumpyard for untreated sewage and industrial waste.
    • In the name of economic growth, most rivers and streams have been turned into sewer canals and are getting difficult to be treated.
    • It is estimated that every day, almost 40 million litres of wastewater enters rivers and other water bodies; only 37 per cent is adequately treated.
    • A Centre Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report showed that critically polluted river stretches in the country have increased from 302 stretches in 2016 to 351 stretches in 2018.
    • The finding was based on Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD).

    Ganga

    • According to CPCB, more than half of wastewater treatment plants in the basin do not comply with the discharge norms.
    • Since 1985, several programmes and schemes have been launched to clean the Ganga. It began with the Ganga Action Plan I, followed by Ganga Action Plan II.

    • In 2015, the biggest-ever initiative, Namami Gange was launched with a budget of over Rs 20,000.
    • Despite numerous programmes and huge funds, the Ganga still runs polluted.

    The causes

    • More than 80 per cent of pollution in the Ganga is due to domestic sewage from surrounding towns and villages. The rest is contributed by industrial waste.
    • During the lockdown, domestic sewage would have increased owing to increased demand for water to maintain hand-washing hygiene. Industrial waste, however, stopped entering the Ganga.
    • Other activities such as tourism, fairs, bathing and cloth washing near the ghats were curtailed. Experts said these observations reflected that domestic sewerage was not the only cause of concern.
    • When sewage is mixed with industrial effluents, it gets difficult for the river to assimilate pollution.
    • One more reason was high number of western disturbances which brought rain and improved the flow in the river leading to dilution.

    COVID-19’s gift to Ganga

    • After the nationwide lockdown was imposed, within 10 days signs of improvement in water quality started surfacing.
    • At Varanasi’s Nagwa Nala, the Dissolved Oxygen (DO) values were found increased to 6.8 milligram/litre against 3.8 mg/l on March 6, showcasing an extraordinary improvement of 79 per cent in DO values.
    • 30 per cent of the total BOD load was due to industries along the river, which amounted to 130-150 tons per day.
    • Since all major polluting industries are closed, the toxic load is off the river.

    Surprisingly better

    • Ganga water at Haridwar and Rishikesh was reported fit for drinking due to 500 per cent decrease in sewage and industrial effluents.
    • A dip in the number of visitors at ghats in Haridwar also helped the river water quality.
    • The Ganga water has become fit for ‘achaman’, which means ritual sipping, after a long time.

    Bringing the ambitions to reality

    There is an urgent need to:

    • Reinvestigate the main source of pollution in Ganga and reorient all river cleaning policies and programmes based on lockdown findings.
    • Industries need to strictly adhere to discharge norms accompanied with strong enforcement of laws and regulations vis-a-vis strong monitoring and vigilance framework.
    • Setting up of effective interventions to clean rivers, reliable, representative and comprehensive data collected at high frequency in a disaggregated manner.
    • There is an urgent need to expand the network of monitoring stations on the Ganga, the Yamuna and tributaries of Ganga in more places.
    • Over-extraction and over-exploitation of Ganga’s waters have rendered long stretches of the river completely dry for much of the year. There is a need to maintain ecological flow to keep it clean for longer run.
    • Education and awareness needs to be carried out strategically.

    Back2Basics: Biochemical Oxygen Demand

    • BOD is the amount of dissolved oxygen needed (i.e. demanded) by aerobic biological organisms to break down organic material present in a given water sample at certain temperature over a specific time period.
    • The BOD value is most commonly expressed in milligrams of oxygen consumed per litre of sample during 5 days of incubation at 20 °C and is often used as a surrogate of the degree of organic pollution of water.
    • BOD is similar in function to chemical oxygen demand (COD), in that both measure the amount of organic compounds in water.
    • However, COD is less specific, since it measures everything that can be chemically oxidized, rather than just levels of biodegradable organic matter.

  • Species in news: Trimeresurus Salazar

    The new species, Trimeresurus Salazar is a snake been discovered in Arunachal Pradesh.

    Another specie spotted with one more peculiarity, the name Salazar 🙂 Such species are most likely to be asked in prelims to match the columns with their habitat state.

    Trimeresurus Salazar

    • Salazar’s pit viper belongs to the genus Trimeresurus Lacépède comprising “charismatic venomous serpents with morphologically as well as ecologically diverse species”.
    • Pit vipers are venomous snakes distinguished by their heat-sensing pit organs between the eye and the nostril.
    • The name was inspired by Salazar Slytherin, the co-founder of J.K. Rowlings’ fictional Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.