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Subject: Conservation & Mitigation

1. Conservation Progs.
2. Worldwide initiatives
3. Mitigation Strategies
4. Conventions and Protocols

  • Species in news: Indian Tent Turtles

    Indian tent turtle is now listed in Schedule –I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and is thereby provided the highest degree of protection.

    Why in news?

    • The Indian tent turtle is threatened due to illegal mining in Narmada River.
    • This turtle has also been widely traded as a pet at aquariums.

    Indian Tent Turtles

    IUCN status: Least Concerned

    • The Indian tent turtle (Pangshura tentoria) is a species of turtle in the family Geoemydidae. The species is endemic to India and Bangladesh.
    • Its preferred habitats are freshwater rivers and swamps.
    • The species is native to India, Nepal and Bangladesh, with three subspecies recorded from the region viz., P. t. tentoria, P. t. circumdata and P. t. flaviventer.
    • t. tentoria occurs in peninsular India and is recorded from Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Madhya Pradesh.
    • t. circumdata occurs in the western tributaries of Ganga and the rivers of Gujarat. It is found in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
    • t. flaviventer occurs in the northern tributaries of Ganga and is recorded from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam.

    Back2Basics:  Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972

    • WPA provides for the protection of the country’s wild animals, birds and plant species, in order to ensure environmental and ecological security.
    • It provides for the protection of a listed species of animals, birds and plants, and also for the establishment of a network of ecologically-important protected areas in the country.
    • It provides for various types of protected areas such as Wildlife Sanctuaries, National Parks etc.

    There are six schedules provided in the WPA for protection of wildlife species which can be concisely summarized as under:

    Schedule I: These species need rigorous protection and therefore, the harshest penalties for violation of the law are for species under this Schedule.
    Schedule II: Animals under this list are accorded high protection. They cannot be hunted except under threat to human life.
    Schedule III & IV: This list is for species that are not endangered. This includes protected species but the penalty for any violation is less compared to the first two schedules.
    Schedule V: This schedule contains animals which can be hunted.
    Schedule VI: This list contains plants that are forbidden from cultivation.

     

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  • Conservation of Sacred Grooves

    India’s sacred groves are being gradually altered due to ever-expanding human populations, pollution and removal of biomass; effective conservation is the need of the hour to maintain their functional values

    What are Sacred Grooves?

    • Sacred groves of India are forest fragments of varying sizes, which are communally protected, and which usually have a significant religious connotation for the protecting community.
    • It usually consists of a dense cover of vegetation including climbers, herbs, shrubs and trees, with the presence of a village deity and is mostly situated near a perennial water source.
    • Sacred groves are considered to be symbols of the primitive practice of nature worship and support nature conservation to a great extent.
    • The introduction of the protected area category community reserves under the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2002 has introduced legislation for providing government protection to community-held lands, which could include sacred groves.

    Historical references

    • Indian sacred groves are often associated with temples, monasteries, shrines, pilgrimage sites, or with burial grounds.
    • Historically, sacred groves find their mentions in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, from sacred tree groves in Hinduism to sacred deer parks in Buddhism for example.
    • Sacred groves may be loosely used to refer to natural habitat protected on religious grounds.
    • Other historical references to sacred groves can be obtained in Vrukshayurveda an ancient treatise, ancient classics such as Kalidasa’s Vikramuurvashiiya.
    • There has been a growing interest in creating green patches such as Nakshatravana

    Regulation of activities in Sacred Grooves

    • Hunting and logging are usually strictly prohibited within these patches.
    • Other forms of forest usage like honey collection and deadwood collection are sometimes allowed on a sustainable basis.
    • NGOs work with local villagers to protect such groves.
    • Traditionally, and in some cases even today, members of the community take turns to protect the grove.

    Threats to such grooves

    • Threats to the groves include urbanization, and over-exploitation of resources.
    • While many of the groves are looked upon as abode of Hindu deities, in the recent past a number of them have been partially cleared for construction of shrines and temples.

    Total grooves in India

    • Around 14,000 sacred groves have been reported from all over India, which act as reservoirs of rare fauna, and more often rare flora, amid rural and even urban settings.
    • Experts believe that the total number of sacred groves could be as high as 100,000.
    • They are called by different names in different states:
    1. Sarna in Bihar
    2. Dev Van in Himachal Pradesh
    3. Devarakadu in Karnataka
    4. Kavu in Kerala
    5. Dev in Madhya Pradesh
    6. Devarahati or Devarai in Maharashtra
    7. Lai Umang in Maharashtra
    8. Law Kyntang or Asong Khosi in Meghalaya
    9. Oran in Rajasthan
    10. Kovil Kadu or Sarpa Kavu in Tamil Nadu

    What lies ahead?

    • The groves have great research value in in situ conservation of rare, endangered and threatened plant species.
    • It is high time that public awareness is created about the importance of these sacred groves, developmental activities are banned and the felling of trees or removal of any other vegetation is completely stopped.
    • This is possible only by way of enacting a special law for the protection and management of sacred groves.
    • As the management practices and other rituals vary from state to state, the concerned state governments may promulgate such an act as suitable for the state.
    • The idea should be to protect certain rare, endangered and threatened plant species in the era of global warming and climate change.

     

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  • Rhino population up by 200 in Kaziranga

    The population of the greater one-horned or Indian rhinoceros in the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve has increased by 200 (from 2413 in 2018) in four years, the latest census of the flagship animal has revealed.

    About Indian Rhino

    • The Indian rhinoceros also called the greater one-horned rhinoceros and great Indian rhinoceros is a rhinoceros native to the Indian subcontinent.
    • It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and Schedule I animal in the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
    • It once ranged across the entire northern part of the Indian Subcontinent, along the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra River basins, from Pakistan to the Indian-Myanmar border.
    • Poaching for rhinoceros horn became the single most important reason for the decline of the Indian rhino.

    Why are Rhinos poached for horns?

    • Ground rhino horn is used in traditional Chinese medicine to cure a range of ailments, from cancer to hangovers, and also as an aphrodisiac.
    • In Vietnam, possessing a rhino horn is considered a status symbol.
    • Due to demand in these countries, poaching pressure on rhinos is ever persistent against which one cannot let the guard down.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. Consider the following statements:

    1. Asiatic lion is naturally found in India only.
    2. Double-humped camel is naturally found in India only.
    3. One-horned rhinoceros is naturally found in India only.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

     

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  • Places in news: Sariska Tiger Reserve

    A massive fire has broken out in the Sariska Tiger Reserve and Air Force helicopters equipped with water sprays are battling to bring it under control.

    Sariska Tiger Reserve

    • Sariska Tiger Reserve is a tiger reserve in Alwar district, Rajasthan.
    • It stretches over an area of 881 sq km comprising scrub-thorn arid forests, dry deciduous forests, grasslands, and rocky hills.
    • This area was a hunting preserve of the Alwar state and was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1958.
    • It was given the status of a tiger reserve making it a part of India’s Project Tiger in 1978.
    • It is the first reserve in the world with successfully relocated tigers.
    • It is a part of the Aravalli Range and the Khathiar-Gir dry deciduous forests eco-region.

    Existential threats

    • It is rich in mineral resources, such as copper.
    • In spite of the Supreme Court’s 1991 ban on mining in the area, marble mining continues to threaten the environment.

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  • Detecting Microplastics in Human Blood

    A study by researchers from The Netherlands has found Microplastics in blood samples. About half of these were PET (polyethylene tertraphthalate) plastics, which is used to make food grade bottles.

    What are Microplastics?

    • Microplastics are tiny bits of various types of plastic found in the environment.
    • The name is used to differentiate them from “macroplastics” such as bottles and bags made of plastic.
    • There is no universal agreement on the size of microplastics. It defines microplastic as less than 5mm in length.
    • However, for the purposes of this study, since the authors were interested in measuring the quantities of plastic that can cross the membranes and diffuse into the body via the blood stream.
    • Hence they agreed on an upper limit on the size of the particles as 0.0007 millimetre.

    What were the plastics that the study looked for in the blood samples?

    • The study looked at the most commonly used plastic polymers.
    • These were polyethylene tetraphthalate (PET), polyethylene (used in making plastic carry bags), polymers of styrene (used in food packaging), poly (methyl methylacrylate) and poly propylene.
    • They found a presence of the first four types.

    Significance of the study

    • Making a human health risk assessment in relation to plastic particles is not easy, perhaps not even possible, due to the lack of data on exposure of people to plastics.
    • In this sense, it is important to have studies like this one.
    • The authors of the paper also remark that validated methods to detect the tiny (trace) amounts of extremely small-sized (less than 10 micrometre) plastic particles are lacking.
    • Hence this study, which builds up a methods to check the same, is important.

    Health hazard of microplastics

    • It is not yet clear if these microplastics can cross over from the blood stream to deposit in organs and cause diseases.
    • The report point out that the human placenta has shown to be permeable to tiny particles of polystyrene ( 50, 80 and 24 nanometre beads).
    • Experiments on rats where its lungs were exposed to polystryrene spheres (20 nanometre) led to translocation of the nanoparticles to the placental and foetal tissue.
    • Oral administration of microplastics in rats led to accumulation of these in the liver, kidney and gut.
    • Further studies have to be carried out to really assess the impact of plastics on humans.

     

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. Why is there a great concern about the ‘microbeads’ that are released into environment?

    (a) They are considered harmful to marine ecosystems.

    (b) They are considered to cause skin cancer in children.

    (c) They are small enough to be absorbed by crop plants in irrigated fields.

    (d) They are often found to be used as food adulterants.

     

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  • Gahirmatha beach witnesses Arribada

    About 2.45 lakh Olive Ridley sea turtles crawled ashore on the Nasi-II beach of the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary along the Odisha coast for laying eggs, marking one of the largest opening day arrivals of turtles at the site.

    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 behavior 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.

     

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  • Noise Pollution in India

    The city of Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh is the second-most noise polluted city globally, according to a recent report title Frontier 2022 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

    What is Noise Pollution?

    • Noise pollution, also known as environmental noise or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise with ranging impacts on the activity of human or animal life, most of them harmful to a degree.
    • It is generally defined as regular exposure to elevated sound levels that may lead to adverse effects in humans or other living organisms.
    • The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mainly caused by machines, transport, and propagation systems.
    • Poor urban planning may give rise to noise disintegration or pollution, side-by-side industrial and residential buildings can result in noise pollution in the residential areas.
    • Some of the main sources of noise in residential areas include loud music, transportation (traffic, rail, airplanes, etc.), maintenance, construction, electrical generators, wind turbines, explosions, and people etc.

    Defining Noise Pollution

    • Sounds with a frequency over 70 db are considered harmful to health.
    • The World Health Organization (WHO) had recommended a 55 db standard for residential areas in the 1999 guidelines, while for traffic and business sectors, the limit was 70 db.
    • The WHO set the limit of noise pollution on the road at 53 db in 2018, taking into account health safety.

    Noise Pollution in India

    • The report identifies 13 noise polluted cities in south Asia. Five of these, including Moradabad, are in India, which have recorded alarming levels of noise pollution:
    1. Kolkata (89 db)
    2. Asansol (89 db)
    3. Jaipur (84 db)
    4. Delhi (83 db)
    • The noise pollution figures given in the report relate to daytime traffic or vehicles.
    • Moradabad has recorded noise pollution of a maximum of 114 decibels (db). The Frontier 2022 report mentions a total of 61 cities.

    Case in the neighborhood

    • The highest noise pollution of 119 db has been recorded in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
    • At third place is Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, where the noise pollution level has been recorded at 105 db.

    Hazards created

    • High levels of noise pollution affect human health and well-being by having an effect on sleep.
    • This has a bad effect on the communication of many animal species living in the area and their ability to hear.
    • Regular exposure for eight hours a day to 85 decibels of sound can permanently eliminate the ability to hear.
    • Not only that, exposure to relatively low noise pollution for long periods in cities can harm physical and mental health.

     

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  • Re-introducing African Cheetahs to India

    The cheetah, which became extinct in India after Independence, is all set to return with the Union Government launching an action plan in Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

    According to the plan, about 50 of these big cats will be introduced in the next five years, from the Africa savannas, home to cheetahs, an endangered species.

    Distribution of cheetahs in India

    • Historically, Asiatic cheetahs had a very wide distribution in India.
    • There are authentic reports of their occurrence from as far north as Punjab to Tirunelveli district in southern Tamil Nadu, from Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west to Bengal in the east.
    • Most of the records are from a belt extending from Gujarat passing through Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha.
    • There is also a cluster of reports from southern Maharashtra extending to parts of Karnataka, Telangana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
    • The distribution range of the cheetah was wide and spread all over the subcontinent. They occurred in substantial numbers.
    • The cheetah’s habitat was also diverse, favouring the more open habitats: scrub forests, dry grasslands, savannahs and other arid and semi-arid open habitats.

    What caused the extinction of cheetahs in India?

    • The major reasons for the extinction of the Asiatic cheetah in India:
    1. Reduced fecundity and high infant mortality in the wild
    2. Inability to breed in captivity
    3. Sport hunting and
    4. Bounty killings
    • It is reported that the Mughal Emperor Akbar had kept 1,000 cheetahs in his menagerie and collected as many as 9,000 cats during his half century reign from 1556 to 1605.
    • The cheetah numbers were fast depleting by the end of the 18th century even though their prey base and habitat survived till much later.
    • It is recorded that the last cheetahs were shot in India in 1947, but there are credible reports of sightings of the cat till about 1967.

    Conservation objectives for their re-introduction

    • Based on the available evidence it is difficult to conclude that the decision to introduce the African cheetah in India is based on science.
    • Science is being used as a legitimising tool for what seems to be a politically influenced conservation goal.
    • This also in turn sidelines conservation priorities, an order of the Supreme Court, socio-economic constraints and academic rigour.
    • The issue calls for an open and informed debate.

    What is the officially stated goal?

    • To establish viable cheetah meta-population in India that allows the cheetah to perform its functional role as a top predator
    • To provide space for the expansion of the cheetah within its historical range thereby contributing to its global conservation efforts

    Issues in re-introduction

    • Experts find it difficult whether the African cheetahs would find the sanctuary a favorable climate as far as the abundance of prey is concerned.
    • The habitat of cheetahs needed to support a genetically viable population.

    Back2Basics: Asiatic Cheetah

    • Cheetah, the world’s fastest land animal was declared extinct in India in 1952.
    • The Asiatic cheetah is classified as a “critically endangered” species by the IUCN Red List, and is believed to survive only in Iran.
    • It was expected to be re-introduced into the country after the Supreme Court lifted curbs for its re-introduction.
    • From 400 in the 1990s, their numbers are estimated to have reached to 50-70 today, because of poaching, hunting of their main prey (gazelles) and encroachment on their habitat.

     

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  • What are Karewas?

    Kashmir’s highly fertile alluvial soil deposits called ‘karewas’ are being destroyed in the name of development, much to the peril of local people

    What are Karewas?

    • The Kashmir valley is an oval-shaped basin, 140 km long and 40 km wide, trending in the NNW–SSE direction.
    • It is an intermountain valley fill, comprising of unconsolidated gravel and mud.
    • A succession of plateaus is present above the Plains of Jhelum and its tributaries.
    • These plateau-like terraces are called ‘Karewas’ or ‘Vudr’ in the local language.
    • These plateaus are 13,000-18,000 metre-thick deposits of alluvial soil and sediments like sandstone and mudstone.
    • This makes them ideal for cultivation of saffron, almonds, apples and several other cash crops.

    Significance of Karewas

    • Today, the karewa sediments not only hold fossils and remnants of many human civilisations and habitations, but are also the most fertile spots in the valley.
    • Kashmir saffron, which received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2020 for its longer and thicker stigmas, deep-red colour, high aroma and bitter flavour, is grown on these karewas.

    How are they formed?

    • The fertility of these patches is believed to be the result of their long history of formation.
    • When formed during the Pleistocene period (2.6 million years to 11,700 years ago), the Pir Panjal range blocked the natural drainage in the region and formed a lake spanning 5,000 sq km.
    • Over the next few centuries, the water receded, making way for the valley and the formation of the karewas between the mountains.

    Threats to Karewas

    • Despite its agricultural and archaeological importance, karewas are now being excavated to be used in construction.
    • Between 1995 and 2005, massive portions of karewas in Pulwama, Budgam and Baramulla districts were razed to the ground for clay for the 125-km-long Qazigund-Baramulla rail line.
    • The Srinagar airport is built on the Damodar karewa in Budgam.

     

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  • Tiger Density in India

    Preliminary findings of a study by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) suggest that the density of tigers in the Sunderbans may have reached the carrying capacity of the mangrove forests, leading to frequent dispersals and a surge in human-wildlife conflict.

    Tiger Density of India

    • In the Terai and Shivalik hills habitat — think Corbett tiger reserve, for example — 10-16 tigers can survive in 100 sq km.
    • This slides to 7-11 tigers per 100 sq km in the reserves of north-central Western Ghats such as Bandipur, and to 6-10 tigers per 100 sq km in the dry deciduous forests, such as Kanha, of central India.
    • The correlation between prey availability and tiger density is fairly established.
    • There is even a simple linear regression explaining the relationship in the 2018 All-India Tiger report that put the carrying capacity in the Sunderbans “at around 4 tigers” per 100 sq km.
    • A joint Indo-Bangla study in 2015 pegged the tiger density at 2.85 per 100 sq km after surveying eight blocks spanning 2,913 sq km across the international borders in the Sunderbans.

    Conflict: cause or effect

    • The consequence, as classical theories go, is frequent dispersal of tigers leading to higher levels of human-wildlife conflict in the reserve peripheries.
    • Physical (space) and biological (forest productivity) factors have an obvious influence on a reserve’s carrying capacity of tigers.
    • What also plays a crucial role is how the dispersal of wildlife is tolerated by people — from the locals who live around them to policymakers who decide management strategies.
    • More so when different land uses overlap and a good number of people depend on forest resources for livelihood.

    Why tiger corridors are not a solution?

    • But though vital for genes to travel and avoid a population bottleneck, wildlife corridors may not be the one-stop solution for conflict.
    • First, not all dispersing tigers will chance upon corridors simply because many will find territories of other tigers between them and such openings.
    • Even the lucky few that may take those routes are likely to wander to the forest edges along the way.
    • Worse, the corridors may not lead to viable forests in reserves such as Sunderbans, bounded by the sea and villages.

    Way ahead

    • Artificially boosting the prey base in a reserve is often an intuitive solution but it can be counter-productive.
    • To harness the umbrella effect of tigers for biodiversity conservation, it is more beneficial to increase areas occupied by tigers.
    • For many, the prescription is to create safe connectivity among forests and allow tigers to disperse safely to new areas.

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2020:

    Q.Among the following Tiger Reserves, which one has the largest area under “Critical Tiger Habitat” ?

    (a) Corbett

    (b) Ranthambore

    (c) Nagarjunasagar- Srisailam

    (d) Sunderbans

     

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