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Subject: Conservation & Mitigation

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

  • Species in news: Great Indian Bustards

    The Environment Ministry has informed the Parliament that there were no Great Indian Bustards (GIB) left in Kutch Bustard Sanctuary (KBS) in Gujarat’s Kutch district.

    Great Indian Bustards

    • GIBs are the largest among the four bustard species found in India, the other three being MacQueen’s bustard, lesser florican, and the Bengal florican.
    • GIBs’ historic range included much of the Indian sub-continent but it has now shrunken to just 10 percent of it. Among the heaviest birds with flight, GIBs prefer grasslands as their habitats.
    • GIBs are considered the flagship bird species of grassland.

    On the brink of extinction

    • The GIB population in India had fallen to just 150.
    • Pakistan is also believed to host a few GIBs and yet openly supports their hunting.

    Protection accorded

    • Birdlife International: uplisted from Endangered to Critically Endangered (2011)
    • Protection under CITES: Appendix I
    • IUCN status: Critically Endangered
    • Protection under Wildlife (Protection) Act: Schedule I

    Threats

    • Overhead power transmission
    • Poor vision: Due to their poor frontal vision, can’t detect powerlines in time and their weight makes in-flight quick maneuvers difficult.
    • Windmills: Coincidentally, Kutch and Thar desert are the places that have witnessed the creation of huge renewable energy infrastructure.
    • Noise pollution: Noise affects the mating and courtship practices of the GIB.
    • Changes in the landscape: by way of farmers cultivating their land, which otherwise used to remain fallow due to frequent droughts in Kutch.
    • Cultivation changes: Cultivation of cotton and wheat instead of pulses and fodder are also cited as reasons for falling GIB numbers.

    Supreme Court’s intervention

    • The Supreme Court has ordered that all overhead power transmission lines in core and potential GIB habitats in Rajasthan and Gujarat should be undergrounded.
    • The SC also formed a three-member committee to help power companies comply with the order.

    Conservation measures

    • In 2015, the Central government launched the GIB species recovery program.
    • Under the program, the WII and Rajasthan Forest departments have jointly set up conservation breeding centers where GIB eggs are harvested from the wild.
    • They have been incubated artificially and hatchlings raised in a controlled environment.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Consider the following pairs:

    Protected Area :: Well-known for

    1. Bhiterkanika, Odisha — Salt Water Crocodile
    2. Desert National Park, Rajasthan — Great Indian Bustard
    3. Eravikulam, Kerala — Hoolock Gibbon

    Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched? (CSP 2014)

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 1 and 2

    (c) 2 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

  • Microplastics Pollution in Ganga

     

    The Ganga is heavily polluted with microplastics at Varanasi, Haridwar, and Kanpur, Delhi-based non-profit Toxics Link claimed.

    What are Microplastics?

    • Microplastics are plastics that are less than 5 mm in size but are a major source of marine pollution.
    • Untreated sewage from many cities along the river’s course, industrial waste, and religious offerings wrapped in non-degradable plastics pile pollutants into the river as it flows through several densely populated cities.
    • The plastic products and waste materials released or dumped in the river break down and are eventually broken down into microparticles.
    • The rivers finally transport significantly large quantities downstream into the ocean, which is the ultimate sink of all plastics being used by humans.

    Microplastics in Ganga

    • They are non-degradable plastics that often entered the Ganga through industrial waste or packaging of religious offerings, its research found.
    • The density of population in the three cities also added to the problem because a large chunk of pollutants got directly discharged into the river by people living on the banks.
    • Among the three cities, the Toxics Link’s study found that sites at Varanasi showed the maximum load of microplastics in the water of the Ganga, as compared to the other two cities.
    • This might be due to cumulative downstream pollution as well as industrial and human activities.

    On a global high

    • The researchers tried to compare the microplastics concentration in Ganga water with similar studies on other rivers across the globe.
    • It included the Rhine in Europe, the Patapsco, Magothy, Rhode in North America, and the Elqui, Maipo, Biobio, and Maule in South America.
    • They found the Ganga microplastics pollution was much higher.
    • This was in spite of a higher per capita consumption of plastic in the European countries, North and South America, as compared to India.

    How does it impact people?

    • The Ganga is a source of water for not just drinking and bathing purposes but also for irrigation to a large extent.
    • Microplastics in river water, if ingested in humans or other organisms, can cause toxicity through various means.
    • Not only are these microplastics toxic themselves, they also have a tendency to absorb various toxins present in water, including harmful chemicals.
    • Although some of the effects of microplastics on public health are understood, a lot still needs to be done.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q. Why is there a great concern about the ‘microbeads’ that are released into the environment? (CSP 2019)

    (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.

  • Why rooftop solar and storage offers a viable future for India

    The Union government’s target of producing 40 gigawatts of rooftop solar power by 2022 is unrealistic: The country could produce only 4.4 GW rooftop solar energy till March 31, 2021, according to the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

    What is Solar Rooftop?

    • A solar photovoltaic (PV) system mounted on a rooftop of a building is a mini-power requirement or feed into the grid.
    • The size of the installation varies significantly depending on the availability of space, amount of electricity consumed by the property and the ability or willingness of the owner to invest the capital required.

    Why rooftop?

    • Rooftop solar with a storage system is a benefit for both, end consumers as well as discoms (power distribution companies).
    • A one-kilowatt (kW) rooftop system can produce three to five units of electricity a day.
    • The combination increasingly becomes cost-effective for electricity generation compared to the traditional grid supply and diesel generators.
    • In 2021, solar and storage will be cheaper than grid supply for most commercial and industrial (C&I) customers.
    • The increase in penetration of rooftop solar in the distribution grid will have a significant impact on the stability of the grid.

    A viable alternative

    • Most housing societies in urban India rely on diesel generators for power backup. However, as power availability improves in the country, diesel generators will become redundant.
    • The operational cost of diesel generators is quite high— R16-18 per unit against Rs 5-6 a unit for solar rooftop systems. So rooftop solar power makes financial sense.Solar rooftop is also a perfect solution for commercial and institutional buildings that operate mostly during the day.
    • Their rooftops can be utilized to generate electricity, and they can, partially or completely, replace diesel generators. This would also help them reduce their electricity bills.

    Question of energy storage

    • In order to integrate rooftop solar and electric vehicles, the grid needs to be flexible and smart.
    • Energy storage systems will play a key role in providing this flexibility by acting as a load when there is a surplus generation, as well as generating sources when there is a supply shortage.
    • There are two major methods of integrating battery storage into the electric grid:
    1. Front-of-the-meter (FTM): It is implemented at the utility-scale, wherein the battery system is connected to the transmission or distribution network that ensures grid reliability. This happens on a considerably large scale (~MWh scale).
    2. Behind-the-meter (BTM): The other method is implemented at the residential and commercial/industrial level, mainly to provide backup during a power failure or to store excess locally generated energy from solar rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems.

    India’s storage capacity

    • About 34 GW / 136 GWh of battery storage is expected to be installed by 2030, according to the Central Electricity Authority of India.
    • This capacity would be used for RE integration, demand-side and peak load management services.

    Storage challenges

    • The solar segment offers a huge market opportunity for advanced battery technologies.
    • However, manufacturers have some ground to cover in addressing technical limitations of batteries, such as charging characteristics, thermal performance and requirement of boost current to charge deep cycle batteries.
    • Since solar companies may directly procure batteries from manufacturers and require after-sale services and technical support, battery companies should have wider a presence to address these expectations.

    Other key challenges

    • Rooftop solar source doesn’t match the rise in renewable energy in India.
    • While industrial and commercial consumers account for 70% of total installed capacity residential consumers remain a big untapped potential to give the boost
    • Solar rooftops also face several challenges such as little consumer awareness, lack of innovative government policies or attention, bureaucratic hassles, and limited support from discoms.

    Way forward

    • Supportive policies and innovative technological approaches are needed for the sector to achieve its potential.
    • Indian policymakers need to plan for rooftop solar plus storage, rather than rooftop solar alone with the grid as storage (net / gross metering).
    • The declining cost of storage solutions, along with that of rooftop solar solutions, is likely to change the future of the Indian power sector.
    • Several countries such as Australia, the United States, Germany, among others have already endorsed solar power with battery storage.
    • Energy storage, therefore, represents a huge economic opportunity for India.
    • The creation of a conducive battery manufacturing ecosystem on a fast track could cement India’s opportunity for radical economic and industrial transformation in a critical and fast-growing global market.

  • Re-wilding of wild animals and the challenges involved

    The recent attempt of Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR) to reintroduce into the wild tiger cub named Mangala after rearing it in ‘captivity’ has once again brought the controversial concept of ‘re-wilding’ of abandoned or injured animals under the lens.

    What is the intervention known as ‘re-wilding’?

    • As per the Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, there are three ways to deal with orphaned or abandoned tiger cubs.
    1. The first is to make an effort to reunite the abandoned cubs with their mother.
    2. Second, if a reunion of the cub with its mother is not possible, then shift the cub to a suitable zoo.
    3. Third, reintroduction of the cub into the wild after a certain time when it appears that the cub is capable of surviving in the wild independently.
    • This is what is known as ‘re-wilding.

    NTCA guidelines

    • NTCA stresses that the tiger cub should be reared in an in situ enclosure for a minimum of two years, and during this time, each cub should have a successful record of at least 50 ‘kills’.
    • Within the enclosure, the persons responsible for handling cubs must approach them by putting a tiger mask along with workday clothes of a tiger stripe pattern smeared with tiger urine and faeces.
    • Various conditions must be complied with at the time of releasing the cub in the wild.
    • The tiger cubs should be in prime health, and of dispersing age (three/four years).
    • There should be no abnormality/incapacitation.

    How have attempts at re-wilding of carnivores gone in India?

    • The tiger conservationist Billy Arjan Singh was credited with the re-introduction of re-welding the Dudhwa forest area in the 1970s.
    • The attempt, however, ran into controversy after several incidents of the killing of humans were reported.
    • The re-wilding in Panna Tiger Reserve of two abandoned tigress cubs that were brought up at Kanha Tiger Reserve is considered to be a success in tiger conservation.

    Re-wilding as a concept

    • There are 50-50 chances of success and failure of re-wilding of hand-reared carnivores in the wild.
    • Conservationists, however, maintain that the chances of success are far less than that — less than even 1 per cent.
    • Tigers in India are already occurring at naturally attainable densities.
    • Almost all translocations of captive-raised tigers have failed so far, with only rare successes such as in Panna after a tiger extinction, and some re-introductions in Russia into empty habitats with plenty of prey.

    Way forward

    • The real need is to protect more habitat strictly so that the prey densities rise and more tigers can thrive.
    • Putting individual hand-reared tigers into the wild cannot certainly be called re-wilding says some wildlife activists.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

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

    (a) Corbett

    (b) Ranthambore

    (c) Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam

    (d) Sunderbans

  • Sikkim is home to 27% of India’s flowering plants

    Sikkim, the smallest State with less than 1% of India’s landmass, is home to 27% of all flowering plants found in the country, reveals a recent publication by the Botanical Survey of India (BSI).

    Flora of Sikkim

    • Flora of Sikkim – A Pictorial Guide lists 4,912 naturally occurring flowering plants in the tiny Himalayan State.
    • The total number of naturally occurring flowering plants in the country is about 18,004 species, and with 4,912 species, the diversity of flowering plants in Sikkim, spread over an area of 7,096 sq. km. is very unique.

    Why is Sikkim a host to such large biodiversity?

    • Sikkim is a part of the Kanchenjunga biosphere landscape, has different altitudinal ecosystems, which provide opportunities for herbs and trees to grow and thrive.
    • The State also borders China, Bhutan and Nepal, and the Darjeeling Hills of West Bengal.
    • From subalpine vegetation to the temperate to the tropical, the State has different kinds of vegetation, and that is the reason for such a diversity of flora.
    • The elevation also varies between 300 to 8,598 metres above mean sea level, the apex being the top of Mt. Kanchenjunga (8,586 metres).

    Contribution by the Public

    • The people of Sikkim have a unique bond with nature and trees.
    • As per the Sikkim Forest Tree (Amity & Reverence) Rules, 2017 the State government allows any person to associate with trees standing on his or her private land or on any public land by entering into a Mith/Mit or Mitini relationship.
    • The notification encouraged people to adopt a tree “as if it was his or her own child in which case the tree shall be called an adopted tree”.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Which one of the following National Parks lies completely in the temperate alpine zone?

    (a) Manas National Park

    (b) Namdapha National Park

    (c) Neora Valley National Park

    (d) Valley of Flowers National Park

  • Places in news: Lemru Elephant Reserve

    The proposed Lemru Elephant Reserve in Chhattisgarh, in the pipeline for 20 years, has become the subject of yet another controversy over the reduction of its size.

    Lemru Elephant Reserve

    • The proposal for the reserve, in Korba district, was passed unanimously by the Assembly in 2005 and got central approval in 2007.
    • Lemru is one of two elephant reserves planned to prevent human-animal conflict in the region, with elephants moving into Chhattisgarh from Odisha and Jharkhand.
    • Its area was then proposed to be 450 sq km.

    Why does the government want to reduce the size of the reserve?

    • The area proposed under the reserve is part of the Hasdeo Aranya forests, a very diverse biozone that is also rich in coal deposits.
    • Of 22 coal blocks in the area, seven have already been allotted with mines running in three, and in the process of being established in the other four.
    • Under the ‘No-Go Area’ policy from the UPA area, the entire area was considered out of bounds for mines, but in 2020, five coal blocks from the region were put on the auction list.

    Why is the reserve important?

    • North Chhattisgarh alone is home to over 240 elephants.
    • Elephants in Chhattisgarh are relatively new; they started moving into undivided Madhya Pradesh in 1990.
    • Since these animals were relatively new, the human-animal conflict started once elephants started straying into inhabited areas, looking for food.

  • [pib] Species in news: Avicennia Marina

    Scientists at the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) have reported for the first time a reference-grade whole genome sequence of a highly salt-tolerant and salt-secreting true-mangrove species Avicennia Marina.

    Avicennia marina

    • Avicennia marina is one of the most prominent mangroves species found in all mangrove formations in India.
    • It is a salt-secreting and extraordinarily salt-tolerant mangrove species that grows optimally in 75% seawater and tolerates >250% seawater.
    • It is among the rare plant species, which can excrete 40% of the salt through the salt glands in the leaves, besides its extraordinary capacity to exclude salt entry to the roots.

    Why in news?

    • The A. marina genome assembled in this study is nearly complete and can be considered as a reference-grade genome reported so far for any mangrove species globally and the first report from India.
    • This study assumes significance as agriculture productivity globally is affected due to abiotic stress factors such as limited water availability and salinization of soil and water.

    Its significance

    • Availability of water is a signiïŹcant challenge to crop production in dryland areas, accounting for ~40 per cent of the world’s total land area.
    • Salinity is prevalent in ~900 million hectares globally (with an estimated 6.73 million ha in India), and it is estimated to cause an annual loss of 27 billion USD.
    • The genomic resources generated in the study will pave the way for researchers to study the potential of the identified genes for developing drought and salinity tolerant varieties of important crop species.
    • This is particularly important for the coastal region as India has 7,500m of coastline and two major island systems.

    Try these PYQs:

    Q.Which one of the following is the correct sequence of ecosystems in the order of decreasing productivity? (CSP 2013)

    (a) Oceans, lakes, grasslands, mangroves

    (b) Mangroves, oceans, grasslands, lakes

    (c) Mangroves, grasslands, lakes, oceans

    (d) Oceans, mangroves, lakes, grasslands

     

    Q.The 2004 Tsunami made people realize that mangroves can serve as a reliable safety hedge against coastal calamities. How do mangroves function as a safety hedge? (CSP 2011)

    (a) The mangrove swamps separate the human settlements from the sea by a wide zone in which people neither live nor venture out

    (b) The mangroves provide both food and medicines which people are in need of after any natural disaster

    (c) The mangrove trees are tall with dense canopies and serve as an excellent shelter during a cyclone or tsunami

    (d) The mangrove trees do not get uprooted by storms and tides because of their extensive roots.

    Back2Basics: Mangroves

    • A mangrove is a shrub or small tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water.
    • Mangroves occur worldwide in the tropics and subtropics, mainly between latitudes 30° N and 30° S, with the greatest mangrove area within 5° of the equator.
    • Mangroves are salt-tolerant trees, also called halophytes, and are adapted to live in harsh coastal conditions.
    • They contain a complex salt filtration system and complex root system to cope with salt water immersion and wave action.
    • They are adapted to the low-oxygen conditions of waterlogged mud.
    • They are a unique group of species found in marshy intertidal estuarine regions and survive a high degree of salinity through several adaptive mechanisms.
    • They form a link between marine and terrestrial ecosystems, protect shorelines, provide habitat for a diverse array of terrestrial organisms.

  • How India can face the tidal wave of marine plastic

    The problem of marine plastic pollution has reached a new peak. Hence it must be tackled from various perspectives. This article discusses some of them.

    Plastic use in India

    • The Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) Annual Report on Implementing the Plastic Garbage Rules, 2016, is the only regular estimate of the quantum of plastic waste generated in India.
    • According to it, the waste generated in 2018-19 was 3,360,043 tonnes per year (roughly 9,200 tonnes per day).
    • Given that total municipal solid waste generation is between 55 and 65 million tonnes per day, plastic waste contributes about 5-6 per cent of total solid waste generated in India.

    What happens to Plastic Waste?

    • Only nine per cent of all plastic waste has ever been recycled.
    • Approximately 12 per cent has been burnt, while the remaining 79 per cent has accumulated in landfills.
    • Plastic waste is blocking our sewers, threatening marine life and generating health risks for residents in landfills or the natural environment.

    Marine plastic pollution

    • Incredibly vast and deep, the ocean acts as a huge sink for global pollution. Some of the plastic in the ocean originates from ships that lose cargo at sea.
    • Abandoned plastic fishing nets and longlines – known as ghost gear – is also a large source, making up about 10% of plastic waste at sea.
    • Marine aquaculture contributes to the problem, too, mainly when the polystyrene foam that’s used to make the floating frames of fish cages makes its way into the sea.
    • The financial costs of marine plastic pollution are significant as well.
    • According to conservative forecasts made in March 2020, the direct harm to the blue economy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will be $2.1 billion per year.

    Threats posed to coastal areas

    • Enormous social costs accompany these economic costs.
    • Residents of coastal regions suffer from the harmful health impacts of plastic pollution and waste brought in by the tides and are inextricably linked to the fishing and tourism industry for their livelihoods.
    • Therefore, we must begin finding solutions to prevent plastics and other waste from polluting our oceans and clean them up.

    Tackling the issue

    The problem of marine plastic pollution can — and must — be tackled from a range of perspectives. Some of the solutions are as follows:

    1.Designing a product: Identifying plastic items that can be replaced with non-plastic, recyclable, or biodegradable materials is the first step. Find alternatives to single-use plastics and reusable design goods by working with product designers.

    2.Pricing: Plastics are inexpensive because they are made with substantially subsidized oil and may be produced at a lower cost, with fewer economic incentives to employ recycled plastics.

    3.Technologies and Innovation: Developing tools and technology to assist governments and organizations in measuring and monitoring plastic garbage in cities. ‘Closing the loop’ project of the UN assists cities in developing more inventive policy solutions to tackle the problem. A similar approach can be adopted in India. 

    4.Promoting a plastic-free workplace: All catering operations should be prohibited from using single-use plastics. To encourage workers and clients to improve their habits, all single-use goods can be replaced with reusable items or more sustainable alternatives.

    5.Producer responsibility: Extended responsibility can be applied in the retail (packaging) sector, where producers are responsible for collecting and recycling products that they launch into the market.

    6.Municipal and community actions: Beach and river clean-ups, public awareness campaigns explaining how people’s actions contribute to marine plastic pollution (or how they may solve it) and disposable plastic bag bans and levies.

    7.Multi-stakeholder collaboration: Government ministries at the national and local levels must collaborate in the development, implementation and oversight of policies, which includes participation from industrial firms, non-governmental organisations and volunteer organisations. Instead of acting in silos, all these stakeholders must collaborate and synchronise with one another.

    Way forward

    • Solving the problem of marine plastic involves a change in production and consumption habits, which would help meet the SDGs.
    • Apart from the solutions mentioned above, the government can take several steps to combat plastic pollution.
    • Identifying hotspots for plastic leakage can assist governments in developing effective policies that address the plastic problem directly.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Why is there a great concern about the ‘microbeads’ that are released into environment? (CSP 2019)

    (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 fi elds.

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

  • [pib] Project BOLD

    The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has launched the unique Project Bamboo Oasis on Lands in Drought (BOLD) in Rajasthan.

    Project BOLD

    • Project BOLD seeks to create bamboo-based green patches in arid and semi-arid land zones.
    • It is a unique scientific exercise serving the combined national objectives of reducing desertification and providing livelihood and multi-disciplinary rural industry support.
    • 5000 saplings of special bamboo species: Bambusa-Tulda and Bambusa-Polymorpha specially brought from Assam – have been planted over 25 bigha (16 acres approx) of vacant arid Gram Panchayat land.
    • KVIC has thus created a world record of planting the highest number of bamboo saplings on a single day at one location.

    Why Bamboo?

    • KVIC has judiciously chosen bamboo for developing green patches.
    • Bamboos grow very fast and in about three years’ time, they could be harvested.
    • Bamboos are also known for conserving water and reducing evaporation of water from the land surface, which is an important feature in arid and drought-prone regions.

    Significance of the move

    • The project will help in reducing the land degradation percentage of the country, while on the other hand, they will be havens of sustainable development and food security.
    • The bamboo plantation program will boost self-employment in the region.
    • It will benefit a large number of women and unemployed youths in the region by connecting them to skill development programs.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q. Consider the following statements:

    1. As per recent amendment to the Indian Forest Act, 1927, forest dwellers have the right to fell the bamboos grown on forest areas.
    2. As per the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, bamboo is a minor forest produce.
    3. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 allows ownership of minor forest produce to forest dwellers.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2019)

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    Back2Basics: Bamboo in India

    • Bamboos are tall treelike grasses.
    • With an amendment in 2017 in the Indian Forest Act 1927, the Bamboo has ceased to be a tree anymore.
    • Earlier, the definition of tree in the law included palm, bamboo, brushwood and cane.
    • The move aims to promote cultivation of bamboo in non-forest areas to achieve the “twin objectives” of increasing the income of farmers and also increasing the green cover of the country.
    • Bamboo grown in the forest areas would continue to be governed by the provisions of the Indian Forest Act.

  • Are solar electricity and electric vehicles really ‘clean’

    It Matters How the Electricity Is Made

    • Among the many drivers of global warming, electricity generation/consumption and transportation of people and goods have been identified as two important drivers which contribute almost 50% to the emissions load.
    • Against this backdrop, two non-food or agriculture technologies that have been projected and implemented as ‘clean alternatives’ to mitigate the global warming phenomenon are:
    1. Solar photovoltaics for electricity generation
    2. Electrification of transport

    Cleanliness of these alternatives

    • There is a general propensity to push these two alternatives in terms of energy and financial return on investments but very little is being said upfront about environmental cost and effect.
    • Both these technologies indeed lead to significantly reduced emissions after they are implemented.
    • The catchphrase here, however, is after!
    • There is little information or discussion in the public domain about upfront environmental cost as it is an inconvenient truth that cannot be wished away.

    Why aren’t they clean

    • Prior to their implementation, a lot of different human-made materials have to be synthesized from naturally occurring raw materials.
    • Then, these have to be put together as a functioning unit or a device for a specific purpose.
    • These processes, unfortunately, are both energy- and emissions-intensive and to realise the extent of these intensities, one needs to go behind the scene.

    Critical analysis

    [1] Solar energy

    • The dominant market player in the field of solar energy conversion to electricity is silicon-based modules occupying more than 90 per cent of the installed capacity.
    • These modules are made of elements as well as inorganic and organic compounds such as silicon, aluminum, copper, silver, glass, epoxy, plastics and are generally installed using steel and concrete.
    • All these materials are human-made and hence need to be synthesized utilizing naturally occurring raw materials.
    • These synthesis processes are energy- and water-consuming and emit greenhouse gasses and pollutants into the atmosphere — dark horses in the chain of realization of solar energy conversion to electricity.
    • Information regarding the environmental costs of these processes is not extensively mentioned in the public domain except for a few occasional studies.
    • These studies indicate that the CO2(e) gasses emission due to solar panel manufacturing alone is about 2,560 kg per kilowatt of installed capacity, which is quite significant.

    [2] Electrification of transportation

    • This involves the substitution of current petrol, diesel and gas combustion-powered engines in automobiles with electric engines.
    • The two main components of such an automobile, therefore, are: the engine which converts electrical energy to propulsion and a battery.
    • The electric engine or motor has been known for a long time but for the above application, it needs to have high energy density along with being compact and lightweight.
    • This can be accomplished by using what is known as ‘rare earth’ magnets which require extensive mining and processing which are environmentally intensive activities.
    • A closer look at the Li-ion battery shows that it requires a 40-kilowatt-hour battery and putting together such a battery results in releasing about 3,000 Kg of CO2(e) gasses into the

    The Indian scenario

    After looking at the behind-the-scenes emissions scenario of the two technologies, let us put Indian goals into perspective with respect to these two technologies.

    Solar energy

    • It was recently announced that India will have an installed capacity of 100 gigawatt (GW) for electricity generation by solar photovoltaics by the year 2022.
    • This will mean gaseous emissions to the tune of 0.256 GTons of CO2(e) for manufacturing of solar panels, which is a staggering amount from this activity alone.
    • It should be noted here that installation of 100 GW electrical power generation plants will actually result in only 25 GW of usable electricity at best, assuming an efficiency of 25 per cent, which itself is quite high.
    • If, on the other hand, we would like to have 100 GW of usable electrical power being generated by solar photovoltaics, it will result in emissions to the tune of 1.024 GTons of CO2(e), which is enormous.
    • This is an upfront loading of the environment with greenhouse gasses gases and excludes the embodied carbon in batteries, inverters, junction boxes, wiring and so on.

    Electric automobiles

    • The Union transportation minister has recently announced that India will become the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles and Li-ion batteries will be manufactured in India within the next six months.
    • To replace about a million conventional fuel-based vehicles (a fraction of the existing vehicles), it will result in upfront loading to the tune of 3 MTons of CO2(e) greenhouse gasses, just due to the battery assembly process alone.
    • The environmental costs due to electric motor manufacturing, mining of raw materials required for the battery and generation of electricity to run these million electric automobiles will be additional.
    • In both cases, the water requirement and particulate emissions have not been included, both of which are strongly linked to ecology and the environment.

    Conclusion

    • It is very clear from the two technologies and the related national goals that huge environmental, human, as well as economic costs, need to be paid upfront to realise these goals.
    • The task becomes even more daunting as the infrastructure required to make either solar grade Si or for that matter put together a million Li-ion batteries is non-existent at present.
    • In light of these facts, it becomes imperative to realign goals and prioritize steps to be taken to alleviate the problem of emissions and the associated global warming.

    Way forward

    • It is important to try various less harmful alternatives.
    • On another note, it is time to legislate so that businesses will also include the costs of atmospheric pollution together with their profit and loss statements.