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Subject: Environment

  • Species in news: Miss Kerala

    A section of aquarists and ornamental fish breeders are surprised that the Denison barb (Miss Kerala), a native freshwater fish species commonly found in parts of Karnataka and Kerala, has been included in Schedule I of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1982 (amendment bill).

    Miss Kerala

    • Miss Kerala is also known as Denison barb, red-line torpedo barb and roseline shark.
    • Its scientific name is Sahyadria denisonii.
    • The fish is featured with red and black stripes on its body.
    • It is found in the States of Kerala and Karnataka.
    • It has been listed on the IUCN Redlist as Vulnerable, in 2010.
    • This species is known to inhabit fast-flowing hill streams and is often found in rocky pools with thick vegetation along river banks.

    Why included in Schedule I of WPA?

    • Ironically, its beauty is the biggest threat to its survival, as it is highly sought-after in the international aquarium trade, constituting 60 – 65% of the total live ornamental fish exported from India.
    • Its numbers are also decreasing owing to habitat degradation due to deforestation, mining, agriculture, urban expansion and hydro-electric projects.

     

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  • What are Smog Towers?

    Some researchers in New Delhi have observed paradoxical phenomena near the smog towers. The air closest to the tower should be cleanest, but the device recorded the opposite in several instances.

    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 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.

    Issues with smog towers

    • Many experts say that the smog towers are not a viable method to clean city’s air.
    • The government had talked about 80% pollution reduction at inlet and outlet of the tower but never mentioned about the effect of distance from the tower.
    • Instead of spending ₹40 crore on two towers, the government could have spent the funds on several other options such as replacing the small and polluting industrial boilers or chimneys etc.

     

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  • Species in news: Asiatic Lions in Kuno National Park

    Experts have argued that the introduction of African cheetahs to Kuno National Park could endanger the Asiatic lion which has also been identified for re-introduction.

    Do you know?

    Cheetahs had a more extensive distribution than lions — there are no records of lions occurring south of the Narmada River, but Asiatic cheetahs roamed most of India until they were hunted to extinction by 1947.

    About 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.

    Why reintroduce Cheetahs?

    • Reintroductions of large carnivores have increasingly been recognized as a strategy to conserve threatened species and restore ecosystem functions.
    • The cheetah is the only large carnivore that has been extirpated, mainly by over-hunting in India in historical times.
    • India now has the economic ability to consider restoring its lost natural heritage for ethical as well as ecological reasons.

    Why was the project halted?

    • The court was worried whether the African cheetahs would find the sanctuary a favorable climate as far as the abundance of prey is concerned.
    • Those who challenged the plan argued that the habitat of cheetahs needed to support a genetically viable population.

    Issues with cheetah re-introduction

    • Since 2018, dozens of lions have died from diseases, including canine distemper, opening up a frightening possibility of loss when confined to a single location.
    • Establishing an additional free-ranging wild lion population in Kuno is of paramount importance and roadblocks, if any, must be transparently addressed.
    • Clearly, the introduction of African cheetahs cannot take precedence over translocating Asiatic lions from Gujarat to Kuno National Park as ordered by none other than the apex court in 2013.
    • However, simultaneous re-introduction can create a conflict for prey between these two wild cats.

     

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  • Undersea Volcanic Eruption in Hunga Islands, Tonga

    A distant undersea volcano has erupted in spectacular fashion near the Pacific nation of Tonga sending large tsunami waves reaching the shore.

    Hunga Volcano

    • The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano has erupted regularly over the past few decades.
    • It consists of two small uninhabited islands, Hunga-Ha’apai and Hunga-Tonga, poking about 100m above sea level 65km north of Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa.
    • But hiding below the waves is a massive volcano, around 1800m high and 20 kilometres wide.
    • During events in 2009 and 2014/15 hot jets of magma and steam exploded through the waves. But these eruptions were small, dwarfed in scale by the January 2022 events.
    • Researchers suggest this is one of the massive explosions the volcano is capable of producing roughly every thousand years.

    Impact of the eruption

    • The ash plume is already about 20km high.
    • Most remarkably, it spread out almost concentrically over a distance of about 130km from the volcano, creating a plume with a 260km diameter, before it was distorted by the wind.
    • The eruption also produced a tsunami throughout Tonga and neighbouring Fiji and Samoa.
    • Shock waves traversed many thousands of kilometres, were seen from space, and recorded in New Zealand some 2000km away.
    • All these signs suggest the large Hunga caldera has awoken.

    Why is it so explosive even after being underwater?

    Answer: Fuel-coolant interaction

    • If magma rises into sea water slowly, even at temperatures of about 1200 degrees Celsius, a thin film of steam forms between the magma and water.
    • This provides a layer of insulation to allow the outer surface of the magma to cool.
    • But this process doesn’t work when magma is blasted out of the ground full of volcanic gas.
    • When magma enters the water rapidly, any steam layers are quickly disrupted, bringing hot magma in direct contact with cold water.
    • Volcano researchers call this ‘fuel-coolant interaction’ and it is akin to weapons-grade chemical explosions.

    A chain reaction

    • Extremely violent blasts tear the magma apart.
    • A chain reaction begins, with new magma fragments exposing fresh hot interior surfaces to water, and the explosions repeat, ultimately jetting out volcanic particles and causing blasts with supersonic speeds.

    How has it emerged out to be so big?

    • The caldera is a crater-like depression around 5km across.
    • Small eruptions (such as in 2009 and 2014/15) occur mainly at the edge of the caldera, but very big ones come from the caldera itself.
    • These big eruptions are so large the top of the erupting magma collapses inward, deepening the caldera.
    • Looking at the chemistry of past eruptions, we now think the small eruptions represent the magma system slowly recharging itself to prepare for a big event.

    What next?

    • This latest eruption has stepped up the scale in terms of violence.
    • Researchers are still in the middle of this major eruptive sequence and many aspects remain unclear, partly because the island is currently obscured by ash clouds.

     

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  • Highlights of the India State of Forest Report, 2021

    The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has released the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021.

    About India State of Forest Report

    • ISFR is an assessment of India’s forest and tree cover, published every two years by the Forest Survey of India under the MoEFCC.
    • The first survey was published in 1987, and ISFR 2021 is the 17th.
    • It compiles data computed through wall-to-wall mapping of India’s forest cover through remote sensing techniques.

    Why need ISFR?

    • It is used in planning and formulation of policies in forest management as well as forestry and agroforestry sectors.

    How are forests categorized?

    The Forest Survey of India has listed four categories of forests. They are:

    1. Very Dense Forest (with tree canopy density of 70 per cent or above)
    2. Moderately Dense Forest (tree canopy density of 40 per cent or above but less than 70 per cent)
    3. Open Forest (tree canopy density of 10 per cent or above but less than 40 per cent)
    4. Scrub (tree canopy density less than 10 per cent)

    Highlights of the ISFR, 2021

    [1] Forest cover is increasing

    • ISFR 2021 has found that the forest and tree cover in the country continues to increase with an additional cover of 1,540 square kilometres over the past two years.
    • India’s forest cover is now 7,13,789 square kilometres, 21.71% of the country’s geographical area, an increase from 21.67% in 2019.
    • Tree cover has increased by 721 sq km.
    • Bamboo forests have grown from 13,882 million culms (stems) in 2019 to 53,336 million culms in 2021.

    [2] State-wise gain/losses

    • The states that have shown the highest increase in forest cover are Telangana (3.07%), Andhra Pradesh (2.22%) and Odisha (1.04%).
    • The Northeast states account for 7.98% of total geographical area but 23.75% of total forest cover.
    • Five states in the Northeast – Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland have all shown loss in forest cover.
    • The report has attributed the decline in the NE states to a spate of natural calamities, particularly landslides and heavy rains, in the region as well as to anthropogenic activities.

    [3] Increase in Mangrove cover

    • Mangroves have shown an increase of 17 sq km. India’s total mangrove cover is now 4,992 sq km.

    [4] Increase in carbon stock

    • The total carbon stock in country’s forests is estimated at 7,204 million tonnes, an increase of 79.4 million tonnes since 2019.

    [5] Big cats population

    • ISFR 2021 has some new features. It has for the first time assessed forest cover in tiger reserves, tiger corridors and the Gir forest which houses the Asiatic lion.
    • The forest cover in tiger corridors has increased by 37.15 sq km (0.32%) between 2011-2021, but decreased by 22.6 sq km (0.04%) in tiger reserves.
    • Buxa, Anamalai and Indravati reserves have shown an increase in forest cover while the highest losses have been found in Kawal, Bhadra and the Sunderbans reserves.
    • Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh has the highest forest cover, at nearly 97%.

     [6] Impact of climate change

    • The report estimates that by 2030, 45-64% of forests in India will experience the effects of climate change and rising temperatures, and forests in all states will be highly vulnerable climate hot spots.
    • Ladakh (forest cover 0.1-0.2%) is likely to be the most affected.
    • India’s forests are already showing shifting trends of vegetation types, such as Sikkim which has shown a shift in its vegetation pattern for 124 endemic species.

    [7] Forest fires

    • The survey has found that 35.46 % of the forest cover is prone to forest fires.
    • Out of this, 2.81 % is extremely prone, 7.85% is very highly prone and 11.51 % is highly prone
    • The highest numbers of fires were detected in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

    Concerns with the declining trends

    • It is worrying that a 1,582 sq km decline was in moderately dense forests, or “natural forests”.
    • This decline shows a degradation of forests in the country, say experts, with natural forests degrading to less dense open forests.
    • Also, scrub area has increased by 5,320 sq km – indicating the complete degradation of forests in these areas.

     

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  • A planetary pressure-adjusted Human Development Index (HDI).

    Context

    Ever since the UNDP took up computation of the HDI in 1990, there have been adjustments such as inequality-adjusted HDI. The environment is one such issue now considered to be an essential component to be factored in to measure human development.

    Planetary pressure-adjusted Human Development Index

    • The purpose of the planetary pressure adjusted HDI, or PHDI, is to communicate to the larger society the risk involved in continuing with existing practices in our resource use and environmental management, and the retarding effect that environmental stress can perpetuate on development.
    • When planetary pressure is adjusted, the world average of HDI in 2019 came down from 0.737 to 0.683.
    • PHDI of India: In the case of India, the PHDI is 0.626 against an HDI of 0.645 with an average per capita CO2 emission (production) and material footprints of 2.0 tonnes and 4.6 tonnes, respectively.
    • India gained in global rankings by eight points (131st rank under HDI and 123rd rank under PHDI), and its per capita carbon emission (production) and material footprint are well below the global average.

    India’s twin challenge

    • India faces the twin challenges of poverty alleviation and environmental safeguarding.
    • India’s natural resource use is far from efficient, environmental problems are growing, and the onslaught on nature goes on unabated with little concern about its fallout.
    • At the same time, India has 27.9% people under the Multidimensional Poverty Index ranging from 1.10% in Kerala to 52.50% in Bihar, and a sizable section of them directly depend on natural resources for their sustenance.

    India’s performance on SDGs

    • The SDGs have acquired high priority in the context of the issue of climate change and its impact on society.
    • The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of IPCC 2021 laid stress on limiting global temperature rise at the 1.5° C level and strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty.
    • ‘No poverty’ and ‘Zero hunger’ are the first and second SDGs.
    •  According to NITI Aayog (2020-21), out of 100 points set for the grade of Achiever, India scored 60 (Performer grade, score 50-64) for no poverty and 47 (Aspirant grade, score 0-49) for zero hunger, with wide State-level variations.
    • India’s score in the SDGs of 8, 9, and 12 (‘Decent work and economic growth’; ‘Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure’ and ‘Responsible Consumption and Production’, respectively) — considered for working out planetary pressure — are 61 (performer), 55 (performer) and 74 (front runner), respectively.

    Way forward

    • Nature-based solutions: It is now well established that there are interdependencies of earth system processes including social processes, and their relationships are non-linear and dialectic.
    • Therefore, the central challenge is to nest human development including social and economic systems into the ecosystem, and biosphere building on a systematic approach to nature-based solutions that put people at the core.
    • Integrated perspective and local level involvement: Social and environmental problems cannot be addressed in isolation anymore; an integrated perspective is necessary.
    • This can be conceived and addressed at the local level, for which India has constitutional provisions in the form of the 73rd and 74th Amendments.

    Conclusion

    An integrated perspective is necessary as social and environmental problems cannot be addressed in isolation anymore.

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  • Places in news: Darvaza Gas Crater

    Turkmenistan President has ordered experts to find a way to extinguish a fire in a huge natural gas crater, the Darvaza gas crater also known as the ‘Gateway to Hell’.

    Darvaza Gas Crater

    • Located in the Karakum desert, 260 kilometres away from Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, the crater has been burning for the last 50 years.
    • The crater is 69 metres wide and 30 metres deep.
    • While the details of the origin of the crater are contested but it has been said that the crater was created in 1971 during a Soviet drilling operation.
    • In 1971, Soviet geologists were drilling for oil in the Karakum desert when they hit a pocket of natural gas by mistake, which caused the earth to collapse and ended up forming three huge sinkholes.

    Why is it flamed?

    • This pocket of natural gas contained methane, hence to stop that methane from leaking into the atmosphere, the scientists lit it with fire, assuming the gas present in the pit would burn out within a few weeks.
    • The scientists seemed to have misjudged the amount of gas present in the pit, because the crater has been on fire for five decades now.

    A popular tourist attraction

    • The crater has become a significant tourist attraction in Turkmenistan.
    • In 2018, the country’s president officially renamed it as the “Shining of Karakum”.

    Why did Turkmenistan order to extinguish it?

    • Calling it a human-made crater, it has negative effects on both environment and the health of the people living nearby.
    • It also ends up losing valuable natural resources for which could fetch significant profits.

    How harmful are methane leaks?

    • Methane is the primary contributor to the formation of ground-level ozone, a hazardous air pollutant and greenhouse gas, exposure to which causes 1 million premature deaths every year.
    • Methane is also a powerful greenhouse gas. Over a 20-year period, it is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide.

    Back2Basics: TAPI Gas Pipeline

    • The Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) Pipeline is a natural gas pipeline being developed with the participation of the Asian Development Bank.
    • It will be a 1,814km trans-country natural gas pipeline running across four countries.
    • It will transport natural gas from the Galkynysh Gas Field in Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India.
    • The plan for the TAPI project was originally conceived in the 1990s to generate revenue from Turkmenistan’s gas reserves by exporting natural gas via Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.
    • Construction on the project started in Turkmenistan on 13 December 2015, work on the Afghan section began in February 2018, and work on the Pakistani section was planned to commence in December 2018.
    • Presently, the construction work has been stalled due to terror activities of Taliban in Afghanistan since few years.

     

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  • Red Sanders falls back in IUCN’s ‘endangered’ category

    Red Sanders (Red Sandalwood) has fallen back into the ‘endangered’ category in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List.

    A recently released and trending Telugu movie plot provides a fictional account of red sandal smuggling.

    About Red Sanders

    • The species, Pterocarpus santalinus, is an Indian endemic tree species, with a restricted geographical range in the Eastern Ghats.
    • It is endemic to a distinct tract of forests in Andhra Pradesh.
    • It is mainly found in Chittoor, Kadapa, Nandhyal, Nellore, Prakasam districts of Andhra Pradesh.
    • It was classified as ‘near threatened’ in 2018 and has now joined the ‘endangered’ list once again in 2021.
    • It is listed under Appendix II of CITES and is banned from international trade.

    Status of legal protection in India

    • The Union Environment Ministry had decided to keep Red Sanders (red sandalwood) OUT of the Schedule VI of Wild Life Protection Act, 1972, arguing that this would discourage the cultivation of the rare plant species.
    • Schedule VI regulates and restricts the cultivation, possession, and sale of a rare plant species.

    Significance of listing

    • It was a moment of celebration when the species was lifted off from the endangered category for the first time since 1997.
    • Over the last three generations, the species has experienced a population decline of 50-80 percent.
    • It is also scheduled in appendix II of the CITES and Wildlife Protection Act.

    Threats to this species

    • Red Sanders are known for their rich hue and therapeutic properties, are high in demand across Asia, particularly in China and Japan.
    • They are used in cosmetics and medicinal products as well as for making furniture, woodcraft and musical instruments.
    • Its popularity can be gauged from the fact that a tonne of Red Sanders costs anything between Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore in the international market.

    Try this question from CSP 2016:

    Q.With reference to ‘Red Sanders’, sometimes seen in the news, consider the following statements:

    1. It is a tree species found in a part of South India.
    2. It is one of the most important trees in the tropical rain forest areas of South India.

    Which of the above statements is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”wtga11jsfj” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

    Back2Basics: Red List Categories of IUCN

    Species are classified by the IUCN Red List into nine groups specified through criteria such as rate of decline, population size, area of geographic distribution, and degree of population and distribution fragmentation. They are:

    • Extinct (EX) – beyond reasonable doubt that the species is no longer extant.
    • Extinct in the wild (EW) – survives only in captivity, cultivation and/or outside native range, as presumed after exhaustive surveys.
    • Critically endangered (CR) – in a particularly and extremely critical state.
    • Endangered (EN) – very high risk of extinction in the wild, meets any of criteria A to E for Endangered.
    • Vulnerable (VU) – meets one of the 5 red list criteria and thus considered to be at high risk of unnatural (human-caused) extinction without further human intervention.
    • Near threatened (NT) – close to being at high risk of extinction in the near future.
    • Least concern (LC) – unlikely to become extinct in the near future.
    • Data deficient (DD)
    • Not evaluated (NE)

     

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  • National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)

    Delhi and most of the other non-attainment cities under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) have shown only a marginal improvement, said a new analysis released.

    About NCAP

    • The NCAP was implemented across India in 2019 to reduce particulate matter levels in 132 cities by 20-30% in 2024.
    • Cities are declared non-attainment if they consistently fail to meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) over a five-year period.

    What are NAAQ standards?

    • The mandate provided to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act empowers it to set standards for the quality of air.
    • Hence the current National Ambient Air Quality Standards were notified in November 2009 by the CPCB.
    • Prior to this, India had set Air Quality standards in 1994, and this was later revised in 1998.
    • The 2009 standards further lowered the maximum permissible limits for pollutants and made the standards uniform across the nation.
    • Earlier, less stringent standards were prescribed for industrial zones as compared to residential areas.

    Pollutants covered:

    • Sulphur Dioxide (SO2)
    • Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2),
    • Particulate Matter (size less than 10 µm) or PM 10
    • Particulate Matter (size less than 2.5 µm) or PM2.5
    • Ozone (O3)
    • Carbon Monoxide (CO)
    • Ammonia (NH3)

    (Air Pollutants that most of us NEVER heard of:)

    • Lead
    • Benzene (C6H6)
    • Benzo(a)Pyrene (BaP)
    • Arsenic(As)
    • Nickel (Ni)

    Source: Arthpaedia

     

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  • Draft Regional Plan 2041 for NCR

    Many environment analysts and activists has offered objections to the Draft Regional Plan-2041 for National Capital Region (NCR).

    Draft Regional Plan 2041

    • The National Capital Region Planning Board had sought objections and suggestions to the Draft RP-2041 from public.
    • Under the NCRPB plan, Delhi, two districts of Rajasthan, eight districts of Uttar Pradesh and 14 districts of Haryana are covered. In all, it covers an area of around 55,083 square kilometres.
    • The plan paves the way for a future-ready and slum-free NCR comprising of facilities like air ambulance, high-speed connectivity by means of rail, road, Heli taxis, and inland waterways.

    Key provisions

    • This plan puts special impetus on 30-minute connectivity by means of super-fast trains within major cities of NCR.
    • It also proposes to explore feasibility of 30-minute Mass Transit Rail System (MTRS) from boundaries of NCR to Delhi.
    • The plan seeks to make NCR a smart connected region by improving connectivity using bullet trains, smart roads, and helitaxi services.
    • It will evolve the region into an economically prosperous region comprising of citizen centric harmonious infrastructure.
    • It laid emphasis on circular economy of water & air quality improvements, improving environment conservation.

    Need for the plan

    • There was a need to ease out traffic congestions and create more integrated, accessible, user-centric and affordable transportation system.

    Various objections with the Plan

     

    • The plan excludes the terms “Aravalli” and “forest areas” from the Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ).
    • The Aravallis were an integral part of the NCZ in the current Regional Plan-2021.
    • This has left Aravallis open to unlimited real estate construction.
    • Similarly, the phrase “forest areas” has been deleted from the NCZ also. This will drastically reduce the forest cover that is eligible for NCZ zoning protection.

    Why Aravallis matters?

     

    • The Aravallis are home to over 400 species of native trees, shrubs and herbs, more than 200 native and migratory bird species, and wildlife that includes leopards, jackals, hyenas, mongoose and civet cats.
    • They are crucial to groundwater recharge, which is significant given the water scarcity the region faces during harsh summer months.
    • The thick forest cover helps to naturally purify air in a region plagued by high levels of vehicular and industrial pollution through the year.

    Back2Basics:  Aravali Range

    • The Aravali is a mountain range in Northwestern India, running approximately 670 km in a southwest direction, starting near Delhi, passing through southern Haryana and Rajasthan, and ending in Gujarat.
    • The highest peak is Guru Shikhar at 1,722 meters.
    • The Aravalli Range, an eroded stub of ancient mountains, is the oldest range of fold mountains in India.
    • The natural history of the Aravalli Range dates back to times when the Indian Plate was separated from the Eurasian Plate by an ocean.
    • Three major rivers and their tributaries flow from the Aravalli, namely Banas and Sahibi rivers which are tributaries of Yamuna, as well as Luni River which flows into the Rann of Kutch.

     

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