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Subject: Conservation & Mitigation

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

  • Leaded Petrol is officially eradicated

    The use of leaded petrol has been eradicated from the globe, a/c to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

    What is Leaded Petrol?

    • Tetraethyl-lead (TEL) is a petro-fuel additive, first being mixed with petrol beginning in the 1920s as a patented octane rating booster that allowed engine compression to be raised substantially.
    • This in turn caused increased vehicle performance and fuel economy.
    • The practice of adding tetraethyl lead to petrol had spread widely to all countries soon after its anti-knock and octane-boosting properties were discovered.
    • TEL is still used as an additive in some grades of aviation gasoline.

    Issues with leaded petrol

    • Lead is toxic, affects multiple body systems and is particularly harmful to young children.
    • It affects the brain, liver, kidneys, and bones. Lead is measured in the blood to understand exposure.
    • Lead in bone is released into the blood during pregnancy and becomes a source of exposure to the developing foetus.
    • More recent research has indicated that lead can damage the infant brain even at blood levels as low as 5 microunits per decilitre (ÎŒ/dl).

    India’s tryst with leaded petrol

    • India was among those countries that took early action to phase out leaded petrol. The process of phase down that had started in 1994, got completed in 2000.
    • Initially, low-leaded petrol was introduced in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai in 1994, followed by unleaded petrol in 1995.
    • The entire country got low-leaded petrol in 1997 while leaded fuel was banned in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
    • The final introduction of unleaded petrol in the entire country was mandated in April 2000.
    • This decision was also catalyzed by the Supreme Court order that had directed the introduction of unleaded petrol to enable the adoption of catalytic converters in petrol cars.

    Significance of phasing out

    • It is a milestone that will prevent more than 1.2 million premature deaths and save world economies over $2.4 trillion annually.
    • It has taken 100 years to stop the use of leaded fuel finally.

    Try answering this PYQ:

    Q.Lead, ingested or inhaled, is a health hazard. After the addition of lead to petrol has been banned, what still are the sources of lead poisoning? (CSP 2012)

    1. Smelting units
    2. Pens pencils
    3. Paints
    4. Hair oils and cosmetics

    Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

    (a) 1, 2 and 3 only

    (b) 1 and 3 only

    (c) 2 and 4 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

     

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  • Places in news: Pantanal Wetlands

    Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetlands is facing a severe crisis due to wildfires and climate change.

    Pantanal Wetlands

    • The Pantanal is a natural region encompassing the world’s largest tropical wetland area, and the world’s largest flooded grasslands.
    • It is located mostly within the Brazilian and extends to some portions of Bolivia and Paraguay.
    • It sprawls over an area estimated at between 140,000 and 195,000 square kilometer.
    • Roughly 80% of the Pantanal floodplains are submerged during the rainy seasons, nurturing a biologically diverse collection of aquatic plants and helping to support a dense array of animal species.

    Risks faced

    • Unlike the Amazon rainforest, vegetation in the Pantanal has evolved to coexist with fire — many plant species there require the heat from fires to germinate.
    • Often caused by lightning strikes, those natural fires spring up at the end of the dry season, but the surrounding floodplains prevent them from spreading.
    • What’s different now is the drought, contributing further to the unusually dry conditions and exacerbating the fire risk.

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  • Places in news: Deepar Beel Wildlife Sanctuary

    The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the eco-sensitive zone of the Deepar Beel Wildlife Sanctuary on the south-western edge of Guwahati.

    Deepar Beel

    • Deepar Beel is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Assam and the State’s only Ramsar site besides being an Important Bird Area.
    • It is located to the south-west of Guwahati city, in Kamrup Metropolitan district.
    • It is a permanent freshwater lake, in a former channel of the Brahmaputra River, to the south of the main river.
    • It is also called a wetland under the Ramsar Convention which has listed the lake in November 2002, as a Ramsar Site for undertaking conservation measures on the basis of its biological and environmental importance.

    Major threats

    • Deepar Beel has long been used as a sponge for Guwahati’s sewage via a couple of streams.
    • The wetland has also suffered from seepage of toxins from a garbage dump at Boragaon adjoining it.
    • It has for decades been threatened by a railway track — set to be doubled and electrified — on its southern rim, a garbage dump, and encroachment from human habitation and commercial units.
    • The water has become toxic and it has lost many of its aquatic plants that elephants would feed on.

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  • Understanding the importance of vultures in our ecosystem

    Context

    India lost more than 95% of its vulture population through the 1990s and by the mid-2000s. Today, the country requires urgent conservation efforts to save vultures from becoming extinct.

    About vultures

    • Vultures belong to the Accipitridae family whose members include eagles, hawks and kites.
    • They are relatively social birds with an average lifespan of 10-30 years in the wild.
    • Vultures are slow breeders and so the survival of every individual is very crucial.
    • Generally, vultures rely on other carnivores to open carcasses.
    • Their powerful bills and long slender necks are designed to help them tear off the meat chunks from inside the carcass.
    • India has nine species of vultures. Many are critically endangered.
    • Vultures have a highly acidic stomach that helps them digest rotting carcass and kill disease-causing bacteria.

    Role played by vultures in ecosystem

    • Removing vultures from the ecosystem leads to inefficient clearing of carcasses and contaminates water systems.
    • If dead animals are left to rot for long durations, it may give rise to disease-causing pathogens.
    • The animals that consume such flesh become further carriers of disease.
    • Thus, they play a crucial role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem.

    Factors responsible for decline in future population

    • India has nine species of vultures. Many are critically endangered.
    • Use of diclofenac: The main reason for the decline in the vulture population is the use of the drug, diclofenac.
    • Diclofenac, which relieves cattle of pain, is toxic to vultures even in small doses and causes kidney failure and death.
    • Hunting: Myths about the medicinal healing powers of vultures’ body parts has led to the hunting of vultures.
    • Quarrying: Quarrying and blasting of stones where vultures nest have also caused their decline.

    Steps to increase numbers

    • India banned diclofenac for veterinary use in 2006.
    • Five States are to get vulture breeding centres under the Action Plan for Vulture Conservation for 2020-2025, approved in October 2020.
    • Vulture ‘restaurants’, which exist in some countries, are also a way of preserving the population.
    •  In these ‘restaurants’, diclofenac-free carcasses of cattle are dumped in designated areas where vultures gather to feed.

    Conclusion

    Awareness and action must go hand in hand. With International Vulture Awareness Day coming up on September 4, it is important for us to spread awareness about the importance of vultures in our ecosystem.

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  • Places in news: Sambhar Lake

    The world-famous Sambhar Salt Lake in Rajasthan is constantly shrinking with the degradation of soil and water quality and a decline in the population of migratory birds.

    Sambhar Lake

    • The lake, situated 80 km south-west of Jaipur, is the country’s largest inland saline water body which attracts thousands of migratory birds every year.
    • The death of more than 20,000 birds belonging to about 10 species which migrate annually to the lake had made international headlines in 2019.
    • The lake receives water from six rivers: Mantha, Rupangarh, Khari, Khandela, Medtha and Samod.
    • Sambhar has been designated as a Ramsar site because the wetland is a key wintering area for tens of thousands of pink flamingos and other birds that migrate from northern Asia and Siberia.

    Threats: Illegal mining

    • 30% of the Sambhar Lake’s area had been lost to mining and other activities, including the illegal salt pan encroachments.
    • It has also threatened the livelihoods of local people who have always lived in harmony with the lake and its ecology.

    Try answering this:

    Which one of the following is an artificial lake? (CSP 2014)

    (a) Kodaikanal (Tamil Nadu)

    (b) Kolleru (Andhra Pradesh)

    (c) Nainital (Uttarakhand)

    (d) Renuka (Himachal Pradesh)

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  • SUJALAM Campaign

    The Ministry of Jal Shakti began ‘SUJALAM’, a ‘100 days campaign’ to create more and more ODF Plus villages by undertaking wastewater management at the village level.

    SUJALAM Campaign

    The key activities that will be organized in the villages under this campaign include:

    • Organizing Community consultations, Khuli Baithaks and Gram Sabha meetings to analyze the current situation
    • Pass resolution to maintain ODF sustainability and achieve a needed number of soak pits to manage the greywater
    • Develop a 100 days’ plan to undertake sustainability and soak pit construction-related activities
    • Construct a requisite number of soak pits
    • Retrofit toilets where needed through IEC and community mobilization and
    • Ensure all newly emerging Households in the village have access to toilets

    Objectives of the campaign

    • The effort of the campaign would be directed towards achieving the ODF plus status for villages across the country in an accelerated manner in a short time.
    • The campaign will not only build desired infrastructure soak pit for management of greywater in villages but will also aid in sustainable management of water bodies.
    • The disposal of wastewater and clogging of water bodies in the villages or on the outskirts of the villages remain one of the major problems.
    • The Campaign would help in the management of the wastewater and in turn, would help to revive the water bodies.

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  • [pib] Transport Initiative for Asia (TIA) Project

    NITI Aayog and World Resources Institute (WRI), India, jointly launched the ‘Forum for Decarbonizing Transport’ in India as part of the NDC-Transport Initiative for Asia (NDC-TIA).

    Transport Initiative for Asia

    • The NDC Transport Initiative for Asia (TIA 2020-2023) is a joint programme that will engage China, India, and Vietnam in promoting a comprehensive approach to decarbonizing transport in their respective countries.
    • The project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI).
    • NITI Aayog is the implementing partner for the India component of the project.
    • The project aims at bringing down the peak level of GHG emissions (transport sector) in Asia (in line with a well below 2-degree pathway), resulting in problems like congestion and air pollution.

    Why need such initiative?

    • India has a massive and diverse transport sector, which is also the third most CO2 emitting sector.
    • Data suggests that within the transport sector, road transport contributes to more than 90% of the total CO2 emissions.
    • The NDC-TIA India component focuses on developing a coherent strategy of effective policies and the formation of a multi-stakeholder platform for decarbonizing transport in the country.

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  • Places in news: Corbett Tiger Reserve

    The Delhi High Court has asked the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) to consider as a representation a petition to stop the alleged illegal construction of bridges and walls within the tiger breeding habitat of the Corbett Tiger Reserve.

    Jim Corbett National Park

    • Jim Corbett NP is the oldest national park in India and was established in 1936 as Hailey National Park to protect the endangered Bengal tiger.
    • It is located in Nainital district and Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand and was named after hunter and naturalist Jim Corbett.
    • The park was the first to come under the Project Tiger initiative.
    • It has sub-Himalayan belt geographical and ecological characteristics.
    • Dense moist deciduous forest mainly consists of sal, haldu, peepal, rohini and mango trees.
    • Forest covers almost 73% of the park, while 10% of the area consists of grasslands.

    Try answering this PYQ:

    Among the following Tiger Reserves, which one has the largest area under “Critical Tiger Habitat” ? (CSP 2020)

    (a) Corbett

    (b) Ranthambore

    (c) Nagarjunasagar- Srisailam

    (d) Sunderbans

     

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    Back2Basics: National Tiger Conservation Authority

    • The NTCA was established in December 2005, following a recommendation of the Tiger Task Force, constituted by the Prime Minister of India.
    • The Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 was amended in 2006 to provide for constituting NTCA responsible for the implementation of the Project Tiger plan to protect endangered tigers.
    • It works for the reorganized management of Project Tiger and the many Tiger Reserves in India.
    • A program for protection called, ‘Tiger Protection Program’ (popularly known as Project Tiger) was started in 1973, by the GOI in co-operation with WWF.

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  • Delhi’s new Smog Tower

    Ahead of its infamous smog season, Delhi has got a ‘smog tower’, a technological aid to help combat air pollution.

    What are Smog Towers?

    • Smog towers are structures designed to work as large-scale air purifiers. They are fitted with multiple layers of air filters and fans at the base to suck the air.
    • After the polluted air enters the smog tower, it is purified by the multiple layers before being re-circulated into the atmosphere.

    Structure of the Delhi smog tower

    • The structure is 24 m high, about as much as an 8-storey building — an 18-metre concrete tower, topped by a 6-metre-high canopy. At its base are 40 fans, 10 on each side.
    • Each fan can discharge 25 cubic metres per second of air, adding up to 1,000 cubic metres per second for the tower as a whole. Inside the tower in two layers are 5,000 filters.
    • The filters and fans have been imported from the United States.

    How does it work?

    • The tower uses a ‘downdraft air cleaning system’ developed by the University of Minnesota.
    • Polluted air is sucked in at a height of 24 m, and filtered air is released at the bottom of the tower, at a height of about 10 m from the ground.
    • When the fans at the bottom of the tower operate, the negative pressure created sucks in air from the top.
    • The ‘macro’ layer in the filter traps particles of 10 microns and larger, while the ‘micro’ layer filters smaller particles of around 0.3 microns.
    • The downdraft method is different from the system used in China, where a tower uses an ‘updraft’ system — air is sucked in from near the ground, and is propelled upwards by heating and convection.
    • Filtered air is released at the top of the tower.

    Likely impact

    • Computational fluid dynamics modelling suggests the tower could have an impact on the air quality up to 1 km from the tower.
    • The actual impact will also determine how the tower functions under different weather conditions, and how levels of PM2.5 vary with the flow of air.

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  • Second-generation bioethanol: It is time to launch it headlong

    India has been promoting 2G bioethanol to achieve its E20 target.

    What is Bioethanol?

    • Biomass has always been a reliable source of energy.
    • Cultivated biomass has begun to be used to generate bioethanol.
    • They are categorised as first (1G), second (2G) and third-generation (3G), based on the source of raw material used for bioethanol production.

    Its types

    • 1G bioethanol: Raw materials required are corn seeds and sugarcane; both are food sources. There is not enough food for everyone; so the use of 1G is a major concern. However, some countries have enough raw materials to manufacture 1G.
    • 2G bioethanol: It can be produced using inedible farm waste left over after harvest. Corn cobs, rice husks, wheat straw and sugarcane bagasse can all be transformed into cellulose and fermented into ethanol that can then be mixed with conventional fuels.
    • 3G bioethanol: Algae grown in wastewater, sewage or saltwater can be used to produce bioethanol. Water used for human consumption is not required. The benefit of 3G is that it does not compete with food. Nevertheless, economic viability remains a critical issue.

    Ethanol blending in India

    • India currently blends approximately 8.5 per cent ethanol with petrol.
    • It is estimated that ethanol production in India will triple to approximately 10 billion litres per year by 2025.
    • The 2G plant will play a major role in making bioethanol available for blending.
    • In addition to reducing agricultural waste incineration, it can also help meet the goal of converting waste into energy.

    Moves for production

    • The first 2G ethanol biorefinery is being set up at Bathinda, Punjab.
    • Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) plans to set up four 2G ethanol plants that will convert agricultural waste into biofuel, reducing toxic air pollution in northern India.
    • Additionally, HPCL has plans to build four plants to produce ethanol using grains, such as surplus maize, surplus rice and damaged grain.

    Innovations in this field

    • An Indian company has filed a patent for loop reactor technology.
    • It is a long, serpentine tubular reactor, in which fermentable sugars are converted to ethanol with the help of brewer’s yeast.
    • This sparked an idea to come up with reactive pipeline technology, wherein the pipeline connects the sugar factories where the ethanol is produced to the blending depot at the closest oil manufacturing companies.
    • Reactive pipeline technology is poised to be a game-changer for sugar factories and grain-based distilleries since uninterrupted raw material supply is a major challenge.

    Benefits offered by ethanol blending

    (1) Energy security

    • The Union government has emphasized that increased use of ethanol can help reduce the oil import bill.
    • India’s net import cost stands at $551 billion in 2020-21. It is estimated that the E20 program can save the country $4 billion (Rs 30,000 crore) per annum.

    (2) Emission reduction

    • Use of ethanol-blended petrol decreases emissions such as carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), the expert committee noted.
    • Higher reductions in CO emissions were observed with E20 fuel — 50 per cent lower in two-wheelers and 30 per cent lower in four-wheelers.

    Some issues to be addressed

    (1) Fuel efficiency

    • There is an estimated loss of six-seven per cent fuel efficiency for four-wheelers and three-four per cent for two-wheelers when using E20, the committee report noted.
    • These vehicles are originally designed for E0 and calibrated for E10.

    (2) Recalibrating engines

    • The use of E20 will require new engine specifications and changes to the fuel lines, as well as some plastic and rubber parts due to the fuel’s corrosive nature.
    • The engines, moreover, will need to be recalibrated to achieve the required power, efficiency and emission-level balance due to the lower energy density of the fuel.

    Conclusion

    • The country’s target of 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol (E20) by 2025 can play a key role in reducing crude oil imports and bolstering India’s energy independence.
    • But India may miss an earlier goal set by him in 2015 — of reducing crude oil import dependency 10 per cent by 2022.
    • The target is far from being met and the country’s import dependency is only increasing.
    • The country’s target of 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol (E20) by 2025 can play a key role in reducing crude oil imports and bolstering India’s energy independence.

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    Back2Basics: EBP Programme

    • Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme was launched in January 2003 for the supply of 5% ethanol blended petrol.
    • The programme sought to promote the use of alternative and environment-friendly fuels and to reduce import dependency for energy requirements.
    • OMCs are advised to continue according to priority of ethanol from 1) sugarcane juice/sugar/sugar syrup, 2) B-heavy molasses 3) C-heavy molasses and 4) damaged food grains/other sources.