Subject: Conservation & Mitigation

The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) has issued an advisory saying people importing “exotic live species” will have to make a voluntary disclosure.

Practice questions for mains:

Q. What are Zoonotic Diseases? Discuss how the illicit trade in wildlife has resulted in the spread of zoonotic diseases of the scale of the ongoing COVID-19?

What is the new Advisory?

• According to the advisory, the phrase “exotic live species” includes “animals named under the Appendices I, II and III of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora”.
• It does not include species from the Schedules of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.
• This will create a process where all imports will be screened.
• As of now, the imports are being made through the Director-General of Foreign Trade and State Forest departments are not kept in the loop.
• For new “exotic live species”, the importer should obtain a no-objection certificate from the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) of the State.
• For existing species, stocks shall be declared by the owner/ holder (stock, as on 1 January 2020) to the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) of the concerned State or UT.

Why need such advisory?

• Many exotic species of birds, reptiles and amphibians are imported into India for commercial purposes.
• Some of the most sought after exotic species in India are Ball python, Scarlet Macaw, sea turtles, sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps), marmoset and grey African parrots.
• These imports were happening through the Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), but they were beyond the purview of the forest departments and the chief wildlife wardens weren’t aware of them.
• Wildlife experts have long been asking for stringent laws and guidelines to document and regulate numbers of exotic species being kept as pets by individuals and breeders in India.

Significance

• The move comes as the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) has raised global concern about illegal wildlife trade and zoonotic diseases.
• Often these species are illegally trafficked into the country to avoid lengthy documentation and scrutiny.

Issues with guidelines

• Matters such as the spread of invasive species as well as zoonotic diseases had not been taken care of in the advisory.
• There is a growing domestic trade in exotic species of wildlife that is unfortunately not listed under the various appendices of CITES (such as sugar gliders, corn snakes).
• Hence limiting the scope of the latest advisory to only those species covered under CITES drastically limits the scope of the advisory itself.
• It does not have the force of law and could potentially incentivize illegal trade by offering a long amnesty period.

Back2Basics: CITES

• CITES stands for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
• It is as an international agreement aimed at ensuring “that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival”.
• It was drafted after a resolution was adopted at a meeting of the members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1963.
• It entered into force on July 1, 1975, and now has 183 parties.
• The Convention is legally binding on the Parties in the sense that they are committed to implementing it; however, it does not take the place of national laws.
• India is a signatory to and has also ratified CITES convention in 1976.

CITES Appendices

• CITES works by subjecting international trade in specimens of selected species to certain controls.
• All import, export, re-exports and introduction from the sea of species covered by the convention has to be authorized through a licensing system.

It has three appendices:

• Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction. Trade-in specimens of these species are permitted only in exceptional circumstances.
• Appendix II provides a lower level of protection.
• Appendix III contains species that are protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES Parties for assistance in controlling trade.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued an order mandating a coloured strip to identify four-wheeled BSVI vehicle.

Note important PM levels allowed under BS VI norms. Note how it is different from the earlier BS IV norm.

Details of the colour band

• MoRTH has mandated a strip of green colour of 1 cm width on top of the existing sticker carrying details of registration for BS-VI.
• Vehicles of any fuel type will carry the green strip irrespective of their original stickers i.e. for petrol or CNG which have a light blue colour sticker and a diesel vehicle which is of orange colour.
• These stickers will now have a green strip of 1 cm on top for BS-VI, as mandated.

Back2Basics:  Bharat Stage Norms

Minutes of BS-VI

• Carmakers would have to put three pieces of equipment — a DPF (diesel particulate filter), an SCR (selective catalytic reduction) system, and an LNT (Lean NOx trap) — to meet stringent BS-VI norms, all at the same time.
• This is vital to curb both PM (particulate matter) and NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions as mandated under the BS-VI norms.

How is BS-VI Different from BS-IV?

• The major difference between the existing BS-IV and forthcoming BS-VI norms is the presence of sulphur in the fuel.
• While the BS-IV fuels contain 50 parts per million (ppm) sulphur, the BS-VI grade fuel only has 10 ppm sulphur content.
• Also, the harmful NOx (nitrogen oxides) from diesel cars can be brought down by nearly 70%.
• In the petrol cars, they can be reduced by 25%.
• However, when we talk about air pollution, particulate matter like PM 2.5 and PM 10 are the most harmful components and the BS-VI will bring the cancer-causing particulate matter in diesel cars by a phenomenal 80%.

On the occasion of World Environment Day (5th June), the union govt has announced the implementation of the Nagar Van Scheme to develop 200 Urban Forests across the country in the next five years.

Do you know?

India has 8 per cent of world’s biodiversity, despite having many constraints like only 2.5 % of the world’s landmass, has to carry 16% of human population and having only 4% of freshwater sources.

Urban Forest Scheme

• The scheme will be implemented with people’s participation and collaboration between the Forest Department, Municipal bodies, NGOs and corporates.
• These forests will work as lungs of the cities and will primarily be on the forest land or any other vacant land offered by local urban local bodies.
• This urban area rejuvenation scheme is based on the Smriti Van in the Warje area of Pune City
• This forest now hosts rich biodiversity with 23 plant species, 29 bird species, 15 butterfly species, 10 reptiles and 3 mammal species.
• This Urban Forest project is now helping maintain ecological balance, serving both environmental and social needs.

Click here for high resolution of the image: National Geographic

The ongoing sixth mass extinction may be one of the most serious environmental threats to the persistence of civilization, according to new research published in an American journal.

Try this question from CSP 2018:

The term “sixth mass extinction/sixth extinction” is often mentioned in the news in the context of the discussion of

(a) Widespread monoculture Practices agriculture and large-scale commercial farming with indiscriminate use of chemicals in many parts of the world that may result in the loss of good native ecosystems.

(b) Fears of a possible collision of a meteorite with the Earth in the near future in the manner it happened 65million years ago that caused the mass extinction of many species including those of dinosaurs.

(c) Large scale cultivation of genetically modified crops in many parts of the world and promoting their cultivationin other Parts of the world which may cause the disappearance of good native crop plants and the loss offood biodiversity.

(d) Mankind’s over-exploitation/misuse of natural resources, fragmentation/loss, natural habitats, destructionof ecosystems, pollution and global climate change.

Highlights of the research

• The study analysed 29,400 species of terrestrial vertebrates and determined which of these are on the brink of extinction because they have fewer than 1,000 individuals.
• The disappearance of their component populations has been occurring since the 1800s.
• Most of these 515 species are from South America (30 per cent), followed by Oceania (21 per cent), Asia (21 per cent) and Africa (16 per cent) among others.

The Anthropocene Extinction

• Mass extinction refers to a substantial increase in the degree of extinction or when the Earth loses more than three-quarters of its species in a geologically short period of time.
• So far, during the entire history of the Earth, there have been five mass extinctions.
• The sixth, which is ongoing, is referred to as the Anthropocene extinction.
• The five mass extinctions that took place in the last 450 million years have led to the destruction of 70-95 per cent of the species of plants, animals and microorganisms that existed earlier.
• These extinctions were caused by “catastrophic alterations” to the environment, such as massive volcanic eruptions, depletion of oceanic oxygen or collision with an asteroid.
• After each of these extinctions, it took millions of years to regain species comparable to those that existed before the event.

So what is the sixth mass extinction then?

• Researchers have described it as the “most serious environmental problem” since the loss of species will be permanent.
• Even though only an estimated 2% of all of the species that ever lived are alive today, the absolute number of species is greater now than ever before.
• The research claims that this extinction is human-caused and is more immediate than climate destruction.

Major drivers of mass extinction

• Significantly, the study calls for a complete ban on wildlife trade as many of the species currently endangered or on the brink of extinction are being decimated by legal and illegal wildlife trade.
• The current COVID-19 pandemic, while not fully understood, is also linked to the wildlife trade.
• There is no doubt that there will be more pandemics if man continues destroying habitats and trading wildlife for own consumption as food and traditional medicines.

What happens when species go extinct?

• When species go extinct, the impact can be tangible such as in the form of a loss in crop pollination and water purification.
• Further, if a species has a specific function in an ecosystem, the loss can lead to consequences for other species by impacting the food chain.
• The effects of extinction will worsen in the coming decades as the resulting genetic and cultural variability will change entire ecosystems.
• If the number of individuals in a population or species drops, their contributions to ecosystem services become unimportant.
• Their genetic variability and resilience is reduced, and its contribution to human welfare may be lost.” the study says.