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Subject: Environment

  • India needs a carbon policy for agriculture

    Context

    The UK is set to host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (CoP26) in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12 with a view to accelerate action towards the Paris Agreement’s goals. The focus should be on climate finance and transfer of green technologies at low cost.

    Cause of concern for India

    • According to the Global Carbon Atlas, India ranks third in total greenhouse gas emissions by emitting annually around 2.6 billion tonnes (Bt) CO2eq, preceded by China (10 Bt CO2eq) and the United States (5.4 Bt CO2eq), and followed by Russia (1.7Bt) and Japan (1.2 Bt).
    • India ranked seventh on the list of countries most affected due to extreme weather events, incurring losses of $69 billion (in PPP) in 2019 (Germanwatch, 2021).
    • The fact that 22 of the 30 most polluted cities in the world are in India is a major cause of concern.
    • Delhi is the world’s most polluted capital as per the World Air Quality Report, 2020.

    Issues raised in global negotiation on climate change

    • Nations are still quibbling about historical global emitters and who should take the blame and fix it.
    • Global negotiations on climate change often talk about emissions on a per capita basis and the emission intensity of GDP.
    • Per capita emission: Of the top five absolute emitters, the US has the highest per capita emissions (15.24 tonnes), followed by Russia (11.12 tonnes).
    • India’s per capita emissions is just 1.8 tonnes, significantly lower than the world average of 4.4 tonnes per capita.
    • If one takes emissions per unit of GDP, of the top five absolute emitters, China ranks first with 0.486 kg per 2017 PPP $ of GDP, which is very close to Russia at 0.411 kg per 2017 PPP $ of GDP.
    • India is slightly above the world average of 0.26 (kg per 2017 PPP $ of GDP) at 0.27 kg, while the USA is at 0.25, and Japan at 0.21.
    • In our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted in 2016, India committed to “reduce emission intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from 2005 level.”

    Sector-wise emission and share of agriculture in it

    • Global emissions show that electricity and heat production and agriculture, forestry and other land use make up 50 per cent of the emissions.
    • But the emissions pie in India owes its largest chunk (44 per cent) to the energy sector, followed by the manufacturing and construction sector (18 per cent), and agriculture, forestry and land use sectors (14 per cent), with the remaining being shared by the transport, industrial processes and waste sectors.
    • The share of agriculture in total emissions has gradually declined from 28 per cent in 1994 to 14 per cent in 2016.
    • However, in absolute terms, emissions from agriculture have increased to about 650 Mt CO2 in 2018, which is similar to China’s emissions from agriculture.
    • Agricultural emissions in India are primarily from the livestock sector (54.6 per cent) in the form of methane emissions due to enteric fermentation and the use of nitrogenous fertilisers in agricultural soils (19 per cent) which emit nitrous oxides; rice cultivation (17.5 per cent) in anaerobic conditions accounts for a major portion of agricultural emissions followed by livestock management (6.9 per cent) and burning of crop residues (2.1 per cent).

    Way forward: Carbon policy for agriculture

    • Reward farmers through carbon credit: A carbon policy for agriculture must aim not only to reduce its emissions but also reward farmers through carbon credits which should be globally tradable.
    • Focus on livestock: With the world’s largest livestock population (537 million), India needs better feeding practices with smaller numbers of cattle by raising their productivity.
    • Switch areas from rice to maize: While direct-seeded rice and alternative wet and dry practices can reduce the carbon footprint in rice fields, the real solution lies in switching areas from rice to maize or other less water-guzzling crops.
    • Efficient fertiliser use: Agricultural soils are the largest single source of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in the national inventory.
    • Nitrous oxide emissions from use of nitrogen-fertiliser increased by approximately 358 per cent during 1980-81 to 2014-15.
    • An alternative for better and efficient fertiliser use would be to promote fertigation and subsidise soluble fertilisers.
    • Incentives and subsidies: The government should incentivise and give subsidies on drips for fertigation, switching away from rice to corn or less water-intensive crops, and promoting soluble fertilisers at the same rate of subsidy as granular urea.

    Consider the question “Agriculture sector is one of the significant contributors to the greenhouse gas emissions. This underscores the importance of carbon policy for agriculture in India. In this context, suggest the steps needed to be taken under the policy.” 

    Conclusion

    Carbon policy for agriculture in India would help it meet its goals in reducing emissions while making agriculture climate-resilient.

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    Back2Basics: Anaerobic conditions

    • An anaerobic process in which organic food is converted into simpler compounds, and chemical energy (ATP) is produced. Certain types use the electron transport chain system to pass the electrons to the final electron acceptor, which may be an inorganic or an organic compound, but not oxygen.

  • India joins High Ambition Coalition (HAC)

    India has officially joined the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, a group of more than 70 countries encouraging the adoption of the global goal to protect 30×30.

    High Ambition Coalition (HAC)

    Aim: To promote an international agreement to protect at least 30 % the of world’s land and ocean by 2030

    • The HAC is an informal group of approximately 61 countries within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
    • It is committed to advancing progressive proposals on climate ambition.
    • The HAC was founded by the Republic of the Marshall Islands in 2014 with the aim of ensuring the Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, was as ambitious as possible.
    • The Republic of the Marshall Islands serves as the convener and secretariat of the HAC.
    • The global 30×30 goal is currently a centerpiece of the treaty.

    Members

    • HAC members currently include a mix of countries in the global north and south; European, Latin American, Africa and Asia countries are among the members.
    • India is the first of the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to join the HAC.

     

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  • Renaming of the Jim Corbett National Park

    The Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change has recently proposed to change the name of Corbett National Park to Ramganga National Park.

    Who was Jim Corbett?

    • Born in Nainital in 1875, Edward James Corbett lived in India till Independence, after which he left for Kenya where he died in 1955.
    • India’s best known hunter, Corbett earned fame after he tracked down and killed a number of man-eating tigers and leopards (he is said to have killed over a dozen).
    • An ace shot, Corbett was called upon regularly by the government to track and shoot man-eaters in the villages of Garhwal and Kumaon in Uttarakhand.

    Corbett National Park

    • Jim Corbett National Park is a national park in India located in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand state.
    • The first national park in India, it was established in 1936 during the British Raj and named Haily National Park after a governor of the United Provinces in which it was then located.
    • It was renamed Ramganga National Park, named after the river that flows through it, shortly after Independence and was rechristened yet again as Corbett National Park in 1956.
    • Jim Corbett had played a leading role in its establishment and had died the year before.
    • The park was the first to come under the Project Tiger initiative.

    The tiger reserve

    • The national park along with the neighbouring 301-sq km-Sonanadi Wildlife Sanctuary together make the critical tiger habitat of the Corbett Tiger Reserve.
    • With its hills, grasslands and streams, it is ideal tiger territory.
    • The place from where Project Tiger was launched in 1973, with its tiger population at 163, it boasts of a single largest tiger population in a tiger reserve and one of the highest tiger densities in the country.

     

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  • Bhoramdeo Tiger Reserve: Fourth TR in Chhattisgarh

    The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) approved the Chhattisgarh government’s proposal to declare the combined areas of the Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary as a Tiger Reserve.

    Bhoramdeo Tiger Reserve

    • The new Reserve is located in the northern part of the state, bordering Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.
    • This will be the fourth Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh, after the Udanti-Sitanadi, Achanakmar, and Indravati Reserves.
    • The proposal was considered under Section 38V(1) of The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
    • This section says that the State Government shall, on the recommendation of the Tiger Conservation Authority, notify an area as a tiger reserve.

    A decade in making

    • The Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary was identified as part of the Sarguja Jashpur Elephant Reserve in 2011.
    • The Guru Ghasidas National Park used to be part of the Sanjay National Park in undivided Madhya Pradesh.
    • Both were identified as reserve forests, and had been in line to be notified as Tiger Reserve since 2011.

    Medium-sized reserve

    • The constituent units of the new Tiger Reserve, Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary, are spread over 1,44,000 hectares (1,440 sq km) and 60,850 hectares (608.5 sq km) respectively.
    • Guru Ghasidas National Park is in Koriya district; Tamor Pingla is in Surajpur district in the northwestern corner of Chhattisgarh.

     

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  • [pib] Central Asian Flyway

    The two-day meeting of 30 range countries of Central Asian Flyway has begun.

    What is Central Asian Flyway?

    • Central Asian Flyway (CAF) is a flyway covering a large continental area of Eurasia between the Arctic Ocean and the Indian Ocean and the associated island chains.
    • It comprises several important migration routes of waterbirds, most of which extend from the northernmost breeding grounds in Siberia to the southernmost non-breeding wintering grounds in West Asia, India, the Maldives and the British Indian Ocean Territory.
    • The CAF range is essentially centred on one of the three major wintering areas of waterfowl in the Old World, namely the Indian subcontinent, the other two being Africa.
    • There are also the African-Eurasian Flyway (AEWA) to the west, and south-east Asia in the East Asian – Australasian Flyway (EAAF) to the east.
    • These wintering areas are geographically separate, and present entirely different ecological, historical and cultural situations.

    Range countries

    • The flyway covers 30 countries of North, Central and South Asia and Trans-Caucasus.
    • India is the core country of the CAF and supports 257 species of water birds.

    Major migratory birds

    • Critically Endangered – northern bald ibis, white-bellied heron, Baer’s pochard
    • Endangered – greater adjutant
    • Vulnerable – black-necked crane, Indian skimmer, lesser adjutant, masked finfoot, Socotra cormorant, wood snipe
    • Near Threatened – black-headed ibis, lesser flamingo, pygmy cormorant, white-eyed gull

    Why designate such flyways?

    • Approximately one in five of the world’s 11,000 bird species11,000 bird species migrate, some covering enormous distances.
    • Conserving migratory birds requires cooperation and coordination along the entire flyway between countries and across national boundaries.

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  • First Nobel for Climate Science

    Three scientists received the Nobel Prize in Physics for work that is essential to understanding how the Earth’s climate is changing, pinpointing the effect of human behaviour on those changes and ultimately predicting the impact of global warming.

    Who are the laureates?

    • The winners were Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann of Germany, and Giorgio Parisi from Italy.
    • In 2015, at a UK-based climate-focused online publication sought to identify the three most influential climate change research papers ever published.
    • The paper that received the most votes was one by Syukuro Manabe and Richard Wetherald way back in 1967.
    • These reports for the first time, had described the impact of carbon dioxide and water vapour on global warming.

    Citation for their Climate Model

    • Manabe is a senior meteorologist and climatologist at Princeton University.
    • In the 1960s, he led ground-breaking research into how increased levels of carbon dioxide lead to higher temperatures on the surface of the Earth.
    • This laid the foundation for the development of current climate models.
    • Hasselmann is a German physicist and oceanographer who greatly advanced public understanding of climate change through the creation of a model that links climate and chaotic weather systems.
    • Parisi has focused on quantum field theory and complex systems.

    Why it is significant feat?

    • This is the first-time climate scientists have been awarded the Physics Nobel.
    • The IPCC had won the Peace Nobel in 2007, an acknowledgement of its efforts in creating awareness for the fight against climate change.
    • A Chemistry Nobel was also awarded to Paul Crutzen in 1995, for his work on the ozone layer, is considered the only other time someone from atmospheric sciences has won this honour.
    • The recognition of Manabe and Hasselmann, therefore, is being seen as an acknowledgement of the importance that climate science holds in today’s world.

     

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  • Taproots to help restore India’s fading green cover

    This op-ed tries to establish a fair link between forest cover and population dependency on it.

    A decline in Forest Cover

    • The State of the World’s Forests report 2020, says that since 1990, around 420 million hectares of forest have been lost through deforestation, conversion and land degradation.
    • Nearly 178 million hectares have decreased globally due to deforestation (1990-2020).
    • India lost 4.69 MHA of its forests for various land uses between 1951 to 1995.

    Various reasons

    • Despite various international conventions and national policies in place to improve green cover, there is a decline in global forest cover.
    • Dependence on forests by nearly 18% of the global human population has put immense pressure on ecosystems; in India, this has resulted in the degradation of 41% of its forests.

    Why conserve forests?

    • Covering nearly 30% land surface of the earth, forests around the globe provide a wide variety of ecosystem services and support countless and diverse species.
    • They also stabilise the climate, sequester carbon and regulate the water regime.

    Need for restoration

    • Restoration in laymen’s terms is bringing back the degraded or deforested landscape to its original state by various interventions to enable them to deliver all the benefits.
    • Building and maintaining activities help to improve ecological functions, productivity and create resilient forests with multifarious capabilities.
    • India’s varied edaphic, climatic and topographic conditions are spread over 10 bio-geographical regions and four biodiversity hotspots, sheltering 8% of the world’s known flora and fauna.

    India’s dependency on forest resources

    • Out of its 21.9% population living under the poverty line, nearly 275 million people including local tribals depend on the forest for subsistence.
    • The intricate link between poverty and environmental degradation was first highlighted by India at the first UN global conference on the human environment in Stockholm.
    • Though India’s increasing economic growth is helping to eliminate poverty, there is continued degradation and a growing scarcity of natural resources.
    • Further, encroachment of nearly 1.48 MHA of forest and grazing in nearly 75% of forest area is also linked to the livelihood of local communities.
    • The participation of local communities with finances for incentives and rewards is essential to redress this complex riddle.

    Strategies adopted by India

    Ans. Bonn Challenge

    • To combat this, India joined the Bonn Challenge with a pledge to restore 21 MHA of degraded and deforested land which was later revised to 26 MHA to be restored by 2030.
    • The first-ever country progress report under the Bonn Challenge submitted by India by bringing 9.8 million hectares since 2011 under restoration is an achievement.
    • However, continued degradation and deforestation need to be tackled effectively to achieve the remaining target of restoration by addressing various challenges.

    Key challenges

    • Local ecology with a research base: forest restoration and tree planting are leading strategies to fight global warming by way of carbon sequestration.
    • However, planting without considering the local ecology can result in more damage.
    • Similarly, planting a forest in the wrong places such as savannah grasslands could be disastrous for local biodiversity.

    Best strategy: Natural Forest Restoration

    • Luckily recent research has shown that naturally regenerated forests tend to have more secure carbon storage.
    • Being less tech-sensitive, cost-effective and conserving more biodiversity, natural forest restoration is becoming more widely accepted.

    Limitations to India

    • Nearly 5.03% of Indian forests are under protection area (PA) management needing specific restoration strategies.
    • The remaining areas witness a range of disturbances including grazing, encroachment, fire, and climate change impacts that need area-specific considerations.
    • Further, much of the research done so far on restoration is not fully compatible with India’s diverse ecological habitats hence warranting due consideration of local factors.
    • The involvement of multiple stakeholders in forest restoration is bound to cause a conflict of interests among different stakeholders; along with low priority and insufficient funding, it becomes even more challenging.

    Policy measures

    • There have been remarkable initiatives to involve local people in the protection and development of forests by forming joint forest management committees (JFMC).
    • However, a review of their functionality and performance is essential to make them more dynamic and effective to scale up their involvement.
    • Therefore, negotiations with a wide range of stakeholders including these committees for resolving conflicts and fulfilling restoration objectives are a must and a challenging feat to reach a suitable trade-off.

    Way forward

    • Adequate financing is one of the major concerns for the success of any interventions including restoration.
    • The active approach of restoration which includes tree planting and the involvement of communities seeks incentives and rewards and make the whole affair quite cost-intensive.
    • The contribution of corporates in restoration efforts so far has been limited to 2% of the total achievement.
    • Hence, alternate ways of financing such as involving corporates and dovetailing restoration activities with ongoing land-based programmes of various departments can help to make it easy for operation.
    • Apart from these specific challenges, the common barriers to restoration as identified globally also need critical review before placing the required methodologies and area-specific strategies in place.

    Conclusion

    • Active engagement of stakeholders including non-governmental organizations, awareness and capacity building of stakeholders with enabling policy interventions and finance can help a lot to achieve restoration objectives for India.
    • The need of the hour is an inclusive approach encompassing these concerns with the required wherewithal.

     

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  • Govt moots easy clearance for Forest Land use

    The government has proposed absolving agencies involved in national security projects and border infrastructure projects from obtaining prior forest clearance from the Centre as part of amendments to the existing Forest Conservation Act (FCA).

    About Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980

    • The FCA is the principal legislation that regulates deforestation in the country.
    • It prohibits the felling of forests for any “non-forestry” use without prior clearance by the central government.
    • The clearance process includes seeking consent from local forest rights-holders and from wildlife authorities.
    • The Centre is empowered to reject such requests or allow it with legally binding conditions.
    • In a landmark decision in 1996, the Supreme Court had expanded the coverage of FCA to all areas that satisfied the dictionary definition of a forest; earlier, only lands specifically notified as forests were protected by the enforcement of the FCA.

    What is the proposed amendment?

    • The proposed amendment is part of a larger rationalizing of existing forest laws for infrastructure projects.
    • The act was regressively interpreted over the right of way of railways, highways.
    • As of today a landholding agency (Rail, NHAI, PWD, etc) is required to take approval under the Act as well as pay stipulated compensatory levies.
    • They are required to pay Net Present Value (NPV), Compensatory Afforestation (CA), etc. for use of such land which was originally been acquired for non-forest purposes.

    Other proposals

    • The Environment Ministry has proposed provisions for penal compensation to make good for the damages already done to trees in forest land.
    • The document also proposes removing zoos, safaris, Forest Training infrastructures from the definition of “non-forestry” activities.
    • The current definition restricts the way money collected as part of compensatory cess can be spent towards forest conservation purposes.

    Previous attempts made

    • Previous attempts to amend acts linked to forest laws have been controversial.
    • There was a plan to amend the Indian Forest Act, 1927, that deals with the rights of forest dwellers, in an attempt to address contemporary challenges to the country’s forests.
    • The draft law had been sent to key forest officers in the States for soliciting comments and objections.
    • It drew flak from activists as well as tribal welfare organizations.
    • The government withdrew the draft and has said that a newer updated version was on the anvil.

     

    Try answering this PYQ

    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?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”mirdxqw0g4″ question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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  • Species in news: Adi Cascade

    Making of check dams on streams and removal of boulders may wipe out the local population of Adi cascade frogs (Amolops adicola), a recently discovered species in Arunachal Pradesh, scientists claimed.

    About Adi cascade

    • The species was discovered while revisiting a century-old Adi expedition in 2018 and named after the land of the Adi tribe where the frogs dwell, particularly post-monsoon.
    • The call of the frog is quite unique with continuous notes almost like a cricket.
    • They are delivered at very short intervals, not long call groups — giving an impression of being continuous: A typical call lasts 485.2 milliseconds.
    • The species is predominantly found in open riverine landscapes and human-inhabited rural areas.
    • Males were mostly observed on tree saplings, fern fronds, and banana plants in and around the cultivated land.
    • Locally known as Juri (stream) Tatik (frog) — is considered a local delicacy.

    What are Cascade Frogs?

    • The nomenclature ‘cascade frogs’ draws on their preference for small waterfalls.
    • Cascade frogs, in general, depend on the flow of water.
    • Both adults and tadpoles of Adi cascade frogs, the species in question, are particularly adapted to fast flowing sections of stream.

    Rich biodiversity of Arunachal

    • Arunachal, a biodiversity hotspot, is home to many endemics, endangered and threatened species as well as to indigenous people who depend on its biological resources.
    • The Forest Survey of India in 2019 estimated that Arunachal had 66,688 sq km of forests — 79.6 per cent of the state’s area.
    • Global Forest Watch, however, estimated the forests cover at 74 per cent of its total land area.

     

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  • Various terms related to Indian Monsoon

    The monsoon is likely to begin withdrawing from the mainland from October 6, said the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

    Let us learn all terminologies related to Monsoon.

    What is Monsoon?

    • Indian monsoon, the most prominent of the world’s monsoon systems, which primarily affects India and its surrounding water bodies.
    • It blows from the northeast during cooler months and reverses direction to blow from the southwest during the warmest months of the year.

    Onset of Monsoon

    • This process brings large amounts of rainfall to the region during June and July.
    • As the high-sun season (that is, the Northern Hemisphere summer) moves northward during April, India becomes particularly prone to rapid heating because the highlands to the north protect it from any incursions of cold air.
    • There are three distinct areas of relative upper tropospheric warmth—namely, (1) above the southern Bay of Bengal, (2) above the Plateau of Tibet, and (3) across the trunks of the various peninsulas that are relatively dry during this time.
    • These three areas combine to form a vast heat-source region.
    • In contrast, a heat sink appears over the southern Indian Ocean as the relatively cloud-free air cools by emitting long-wavelength radiation.
    • Monsoon winds at the surface blow from heat sink to heat source.

    Peak period

    • The position of the easterly jet controls the location of monsoonal rains, which occur ahead and to the left of the strongest winds and also behind them and to the right.
    • The surface flow, however, is a strong, south-westerly, humid, and unstable wind that brings humidifies of more than 80 percent and heavy squally showers that are the “burst” of the monsoon.
    • The overall pattern of the advance follows a frontal alignment, but local episodes may differ considerably.

    Key areas

    • Most spectacular clouds and rain occur against the Western Ghats in India, where the early monsoonal airstream piles up against the steep slopes, then recedes, and piles up again to a greater height.
    • Each time it pushes thicker clouds upward until wind and clouds roll over the barrier and, after a few brief spells of absorption by the dry inland air, cascade toward the interior.
    • Various factors, especially topography, combine to make up a complex regional pattern.

    Break in Monsoon

    • During the south-west monsoon period after having rains for a few days, if rain fails to occur for one or more weeks, it is known as break in the monsoon.
    • These dry spells are quite common during the rainy season.
    • In northern India rains are likely to fail if the rain-bearing storms are not very frequent along the monsoon trough or the ITCZ over this region.
    • Over the west coast the dry spells are associated with days when winds blow parallel to the coast.

    Withdrawal of Monsoon

    • By August the intensity and duration of sunshine have decreased, temperatures begin to fall, and the surge of south-westerly air diminishes spasmodically almost to a standstill in the northwest.
    • In September, dry, cool, northerly air begins to circle the west side of the highlands and spread over north-western India.
    • The easterly jet weakens, and the upper tropospheric easterlies move much farther south.
    • Because the moist southwesterlies at lower levels are much weaker and variable, they are soon pushed back.
    • The rainfall becomes extremely variable over most of the region, but showers are still frequent in the south-eastern areas and over the Bay of Bengal.
    • By early October, variable winds are very frequent everywhere.

    Winter rains

    • At the end of the month, the entire Indian region is covered by northerly air and the winter monsoon takes shape.
    • The surface flow is deflected by the Coriolis force and becomes a north-easterly flow.
    • Tropical depressions and cyclones are important contributing factors.
    • Most of India thus begins a sunny, dry, and dusty season.
    • Conversely, the western slopes of the Karakoram Range and Himalayas are then reached by the midlatitude frontal depressions that come from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
    • The winter rains they receive, moderate as they are, place them clearly outside the monsoonal realm.

     

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