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

  • Etalin Hydro Electric Project

    A group of conservationists has written to the Environment Ministry seeking rejection of the approved Etalin Hydro Electric Project in the Dibang Valley district of Arunachal Pradesh.

    Make a note of major dams in India along with the rivers, terrain, major Wildlife sanctuaries and national parks incident to these rivers.

    Etalin Hydro Electric Project

    • Etalin HEP is a 3097 MW project based on the river Dibang.
    • It is envisaged as a run of the river scheme on rivers Dri and Tangon in the Dibang Valley District of Arunachal Pradesh.
    • Dibang is a tributary of the Brahmaputra River which flows through the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
    • The project is being executed through the Etalin Hydro Electric Power Company Limited, a JV company of Jindal Power Limited and Hydro Power Development Corporation of Arunachal Pradesh Limited.
    • It is expected to be one of the biggest hydropower projects in India in terms of installed capacity.

    Issues with the Project

    • The Project falls under the richest bio-geographical province of the Himalayan zone and would be located at the junction of major biogeographic zones like Palaearctic Zone and Indo-Malayan Zone.
    • It would involve the clearing of 2.7 lakh trees in “subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest and subtropical rain forests”.
    • Underscoring the inadequacy of the Environment Impact Assessment report on Etalin, the conservationists said observations by wildlife officials were ignored.
    • These include the threat to 25 globally endangered mammal and bird species in the area to be affected.

    Back2Basics: Biogeographic Zones

    • A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of Earth’s land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms.
    • These zones delineate the large areas of the Earth’s surface within which organisms have been evolving in relative isolation over long periods of time.
    • They are separated from one another by geographic features, such as oceans, broad deserts, or high mountain ranges that constitute barriers to migration.
    • Originally, six biogeographic regions were identified: Palearctic (Europe and Asia), Nearctic (North America), Neotropical (Mexico, Central and South America), Ethiopian/Afrotropic (Africa), Oriental/Indo-Malayan (Southeast Asia, Indonesia) and Australian (Australia and New Guinea).
    • Currently, eight are recognised since the addition of Oceania (Polynesia, Fiji and Micronesia) and Antarctica.

  • Species in news: Pinanga Andamanensis

    A rare palm endemic to the South Andaman Island is finding a second home at Thiruvananthapuram-based Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI).

    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.

    Pinanga Andamanensis

    • Pinanga andamanensis is an IUCN critically endangered species and one of the least known among the endemic palms of the Andaman Islands.
    • The name is derived from ‘Penang’, the modern-day Malaysian state.
    • Its entire population of some 600 specimens naturally occurs only in a tiny, evergreen forest pocket in South Andaman’s Mount Harriet National Park.
    • It was originally described by the Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari in 1934.
    • His description was based on an old herbarium specimen collected by E.H. Man, a late-19th century assistant superintendent in the Andaman administration.
    • After that first identification, it was thought to be extinct till 1992.

  • Species in news: 40 Gharials released into Ghaghara River in UP

    Forty gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) were released in the Ghaghara River by the Bahraich forest division of Uttar Pradesh.

    This year, we have seen many news focusing on species reintroduction into the wild. Can you recall them?? If not, Click Here.

    And one may often get confused between the Mugger, Gharial and the Saltwater Crocodile. Note the differences about their IUCN status, habitat (freshwater/saltwater) etc..

    Gharials

    • The Gharial is a fish-eating crocodile is native to the Indian subcontinent. They are a crucial indicator of clean river water.
    • Small released populations are present and increasing in the rivers of the National Chambal Sanctuary, Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, Son River Sanctuary.
    • It is also found at the rainforest biome of Mahanadi in Satkosia Gorge Sanctuary, Orissa.
    • Gharials are ‘Critically Endangered’ in the IUCN Red List of Species.
    • The species is also listed under Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

    Into the wild

    • A major chunk of gharials in India is found in the Chambal River, which has about 1,000 adults.
    • The Ghaghara acts as an important aquatic corridor for gharials in Uttar Pradesh. The river is a major left-bank tributary of the Ganges.
    • About 250 gharials have been released in the Ghaghara since 2014.
    • However, there are satellite populations of less than 100 adults in the Girwa River (Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh, the Ramganga River in Jim Corbett National Park and the Son River).
    • Like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar too is releasing gharials in the Valmiki Tiger Reserve as part of restocking the wild population. Unlike crocodiles, gharials do not pose any danger to humans.

    Back2Basics

    Mugger

    • The mugger is a marsh crocodile which is found throughout the Indian subcontinent.
    • It is a freshwater species and found in lakes, rivers and marshes.
    • IUCN Status: Vulnerable

    Saltwater Crocodile

    • It is the largest of all living reptiles.
    • It is found along the eastern coast of India.
    • IUCN Status: Least Concerned

  • Global Forest Resources Assessment, 2020

    The deforestation rate globally declined between 2015 and 2020, according to the Global Forest Resources Assessment, 2020. This decline is a result of sustainable management measures worldwide.

    Possible prelim question:

    Q. The Global Forest Resources Assessment Report recently seen in news is published by-

    a) UN-FAO

    b) UN Forum on Forests

    c) International Union of Forest Research Organizations

    d) None of these

    Global Forest Resources Assessment

    • The Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) reports on the status and trends of the world’s forest resources.
    • It is led by the Forestry Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
    • The FRA reports the extent of the world’s forest area as well as other variables, including land tenure and access rights, sustainable forest management (SFM), legal and institutional frameworks for forest conservation, and sustainable use.

    Click here for amazing visuals of the FRA

    Highlights of the 2020 report

    • The rate of forest loss in 2015-2020 declined to an estimated 10 million hectares (mha), down from 12 million hectares (mha) in 2010-2015, according to the FRA 2020.
    • The FRA 2020 has examined the status of, and trends in, more than 60 forest-related variables in 236 countries and territories in the period 1990–2020.
    • The world lost 178 mha of forest since 1990, an area the size of Libya, according to the report.
    • However, the rate of net forest loss decreased substantially during 1990–2020 due to a reduction in deforestation in some countries, plus increases in the forest area in others through afforestation.
    • The largest proportion of the world’s forests were tropical (45 per cent), followed by boreal, temperate and subtropical.

    Data on losses and gains

    • The world’s total forest area was 4.06 billion hectares (bha), which was 31 per cent of the total land area. This area was equivalent to 0.52 ha per person.
    • Among the world’s regions, Africa had the largest annual rate of net forest loss in 2010–2020, at 3.9 mha, followed by South America, at 2.6 mha.
    • On the other hand, Asia had the highest net gain of forest area in 2010–2020, followed by Oceania and Europe.
    • However, both Europe and Asia recorded substantially lower rates of the net gain in 2010–2020 than in 2000–2010.
    • Oceania experienced net losses of forest area in the decades 1990–2000 and 2000–2010.
    • More than 54 per cent of the world’s forests were in only five countries — the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States of America and China.
    • The highest per cent of plantation forests were in South America while the lowest was in Europe.

  • 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.