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Type: National Parks/WS

  • Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project

    If built on time, Jaitapur Project in Maharashtra would be the largest nuclear power generating station in the world by net generation capacity, at 9,900 MW.

    Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project

    • Jaitapur Project is a proposed nuclear power plant in India.
    • The power project is proposed by Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and would be built at Madban village of Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra.
    • It is being built with technical cooperation from France.

    Project description

    • It is proposed to construct 6 European Pressurized Reactors designed and developed by Framatome (former Areva) of France, each of 1650 MW, thus totaling 9900 MW.
    • These are the third generation pressurized water reactors (PWR).
    • The cost of building the plant is about ₹20 crore (US$2.7 million) per MW electric power compared with ₹5 crore (US$660,000) per MW electric power for a coal power station.
    • A consortium of French financial institutions will finance this project as a loan. Both French and Indian government will give sovereign guarantee for this loan.

    Issues with the project

    (I) Liability for nuclear damage

    • The lack of clarity on the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010 passed in Indian Parliament in August 2010 is a hurdle in finalizing deal.
    • This Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010 has a clause that deals with the legal binding of the culpable groups in case of a nuclear accident.
    • It allows only the operator (NPCIL) to sue the manufacturers and suppliers. Victims will not be able to sue anyone.

    (II) Clearance issue

    • Environmental effects of nuclear power and geological issues have been raised by anti-nuclear activists of India against this power project.
    • Even though the Maharashtra state govt completed land acquisition in 2010, only few people had accepted compensation cheques.

    (III) Seismicity of the area

    • Since Jaitapur is a seismically sensitive area, the danger of an earthquake has been foremost on the minds of people.
    • According to the Earthquake hazard zoning of India, Jaitapur comes under Zone III. This zone is called the moderate Risk Zone and covers areas liable to MSK VIII.
    • The presence of two major creeks on the proposed site has been ignored while clearing the site.

    (IV) Nuclear waste disposal

    • It is not clear where the nuclear waste from the site will be shipped for recycling or removed for disposal.
    • The plant is estimated to generate 300 tonnes of used nuclear fuel each year.

     

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  • Places in news: Solomon Islands

    Australia has announced sending police, troops and diplomats to the Solomon Islands to help after anti-Government demonstrators.

    Solomon Islands

    • Solomon Islands is a sovereign country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu.
    • Its capital, Honiara, is located on the largest island, Guadalcanal.
    • The country takes its name from the Solomon Islands archipelago, which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the North Solomon Islands (a part of Papua New Guinea).
    • It excludes outlying islands, such as the Santa Cruz Islands and Rennell and Bellona.

     

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  • Places in news: Majuli River Island

    Soil erosion, coupled with changing climatic conditions, has been writing a cruel destiny for the inhabitants of Majuli in Assam, the largest river island in the world.

    About Majuli Island

    • Majuli is a riverine island in the Brahmaputra River, Assam and in 2016 it became the first island to be made a district in India.
    • Majuli has shrunk as the river surrounding it has grown.
    • It had an area of 880 square kilometers (340 sq mi) at the beginning of the 20th century but having lost significantly to erosion it covers 553 square kilometers as at 2014.
    • It is the abode of the Assamese neo-Vaishnavite culture.

    Its formation

    • The island is formed by the Brahmaputra River in the south and the Kherkutia Xuti, an anabranch of the Brahmaputra, joined by the Subansiri River in the north.
    • It was formed due to course changes by the river Brahmaputra and its tributaries, mainly the Lohit.

     

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  • Places in news: Mudumalai Tiger Reserve

    P

    PC: MapsOfIndia

    A tiger believed to have been responsible for the death of two herders in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve was finally captured.

    Read all the tiger reserves in India through this map. Put more focus on South Indian states and the NE region.

    Mudumalai Tiger Reserve

    • Mudumalai National Park is a national park in the Nilgiri Mountains in Tamil Nadu.
    • It is located in the Nilgiri District and shares boundaries with the states of Karnataka and Kerala.
    • It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and was declared a tiger reserve in 2007.
    • It harbours several endangered and vulnerable species including Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, Indian elephant and gaur.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. Recently there was a proposal to translocate some of the lions from their natural habitat in Gujarat to which one of the following sites?

    (a) Corbett National Park

    (b) Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary

    (c) Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary

    (d) Sariska National Park

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”57b43o5jkg” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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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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  • Places in news: Weddell Sea

    India has extended support for protecting the Antarctic environment and for co-sponsoring the proposal of the European Union for designating East Antarctica and the Weddell Sea as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).

    About Weddell Sea

    • The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre.
    • Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula.
    • Much of the southern part of the sea is covered by a permanent, massive ice shelf field, the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf.
    • The sea is contained within the two overlapping Antarctic territorial claims of Argentine Antarctica, the British Antarctic Territory, and also resides partially within the Antarctic Chilean Territory.

    Major ice shelves

    • Various ice shelves, including the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, fringe the Weddell sea.
    • Some of the ice shelves on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula, which formerly covered roughly 10,000 square kilometres of the Weddell Sea, had completely disappeared by 2002.
    • The Weddell Sea has been deemed by scientists to have the clearest water of any sea.

    India’s support for the Antarctic

    • India supports sustainability in protecting the Antarctic environment.
    • The proposed MPAs are essential to regulate illegal unreported and unregulated fishing.
    • India had urged the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) member countries to ensure Antarctic conservation.
    • India remains associated with the formulation, adaptation and implementation mechanisms of these MPAs in future.

    What is CCAMLR?

    • CCAMLR is an international treaty to manage Antarctic fisheries to preserve species diversity and stability of the entire Antarctic marine ecosystem.
    • CCAMLR came into force in April 1982.
    • India has been a permanent member of the CCAMLR since 1986.
    • Work pertaining to the CCAMLR is coordinated in India by the Ministry of Earth Sciences through its attached office, the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE) in Kochi, Kerala.

    Back2Basics: Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

    • An MPA is a marine protected area that provides protection for all or part of its natural resources.
    • Certain activities within an MPA are limited or prohibited to meet specific conservation, habitat protection, ecosystem monitoring, or fisheries management objectives.
    • MPAs can be conserved for a number of reasons including economic resources, biodiversity conservation, and species protection.
    • They are created by delineating zones with permitted and non-permitted uses within that zone.

     

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  • Places in news: Zojila Tunnel

    Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways has inspected the work on Zojila and Z Morh tunnels.

    Zojila Tunnel

    • The Zojila is set to be Asia’s longest bi-directional tunnel.
    • It will connect Srinagar, Dras, Kargil and Leh via a tunnel through the famous Zojila Pass.
    • Located at more than 11,500 feet above sea level, the all-weather Zojila tunnel will be 14.15 km long and ensure road connectivity even during winters.
    • It will make the travel on the 434-km Srinagar-Kargil-Leh Section of NH-1 free from avalanches, enhance safety and reduce the travel time from more than 3 hours to just 15 minutes.
    • The speed limit inside the tunnel is likely to be the same as in the Atal tunnel – 80 kmph.

    Z-Morh tunnel

    • The Z-Morh tunnel — being developed at Sonmarg — will provide it all-weather connectivity with Srinagar allowing it to remain open to tourists all year round.
    • It is likely to be ready by December 2023 and is being developed at a cost of ₹2,378 crore.

    Significance of these tunnels

    • The project holds strategic significance as Zojila Pass is situated at an altitude of 11,578 feet on the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh National Highway and remains closed during winters due to heavy snowfall.
    • At present, it is one of the most dangerous stretches in the world to drive a vehicle and this project is also geo-strategically sensitive.

     

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    Back2Basics: Major Passes in India

     

  • Mura-Drava-Danube (MDD) Biosphere Reserve

    UNESCO has designated Mura-Drava-Danube (MDD) as the world’s first ‘five-country biosphere reserve’.

    About Mura-Drava-Danube BR

    • The biosphere reserve covers 700 kilometres of the Mura, Drava and Danube rivers and stretches across Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia.
    • The total area of the reserve — a million hectares — in the so-called ‘Amazon of Europe’, makes it the largest riverine protected area on the continent.
    • The reserve is home to floodplain forests, gravel and sand banks, river islands, oxbows and meadows.
    • It is home to continental Europe’s highest density of breeding white-tailed eagle (more than 150 pairs), as well as endangered species such as the little tern, black stork, otters, beavers and sturgeons.
    • It is also an important annual resting and feeding place for more than 250,000 migratory birds, according to WWF.
    • Almost 900,000 people live in the biosphere reserve. (UPSC may ask if it is uninhabited.)

    Significance of this BR

    • The new reserve represented an important contribution to the European Green Deal and contributes to the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy in the Mura-Drava-Danube region.
    • The strategy’s aim is to revitalize 25,000 km of rivers and protect 30 per cent of the European Union’s land area by 2030.
    • The declaration as BR puts river revitalization, sustainable business practices enhancing cross-border cooperation into focus.

    Ignore at your own risk! Its better to correct it here itself.

    Such PYQs are ought to repeat any number of times in UPSC CSE.

    Q. Consider the following statements:

    1. The boundaries of a National Park are defined by legislation.
    2. A Biosphere Reserve is declared to conserve a few specific species of flora and fauna.
    3. In a Wildlife Sanctuary, limited biotic interference is permitted.

    Which of the above statements is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

     

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

    Back2Basics: UNESCO Biosphere Reserves

    • Biosphere reserves are ‘learning places for sustainable development’.
    • They are nominated by national governments and remain under the sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located.
    • They are designated under the intergovernmental MAB Programme by the Director-General of UNESCO following the decisions of the MAB International Coordinating Council (MAB ICC).
    • Their status is internationally recognized. Member States can submit sites through the designation process.
    • Biosphere reserves include terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems.

    They integrate three main “functions”:

    1. Conservation of biodiversity and cultural diversity
    2. Economic development that is socio-culturally and environmentally sustainable
    3. Logistic support, underpinning development through research, monitoring, education and training

    (a) Core Areas

    It comprises a strictly protected zone that contributes to the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic variation

    (b) Buffer Zones

    It surrounds or adjoins the core area(s), and is used for activities compatible with sound ecological practices that can reinforce scientific research, monitoring, training and education.

    (c) Transition Area

    The transition area is where communities foster socio-culturally and ecologically sustainable economic and human activities.

    UNESCO recognized BRs in India

    Year of

    recognition

    Name

    States
    2000 Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve Tamil Nadu
    2001 Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve Tamil Nadu
    2001 Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve West Bengal
    2004 Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve Uttarakhand
    2009 Pachmarhi Biosphere Reserve Madhya Pradesh
    2009 Nokrek Biosphere Reserve Meghalaya
    2009 Simlipal Biosphere Reserve Odisha
    2012 Achanakmar-Amarkantak Biosphere Reserve Chhattisgarh
    2013 Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve Great Nicobar
    2016 Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve Kerala and Tamil Nadu
    2018 Kanchenjunga Biosphere Reserve Part of North and West Sikkim districts
    2020 Panna Biosphere Reserve Madhya Pradesh

     

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  • Places in news: Pilibhit Tiger Reserve

    A herd of around 25 elephants from Nepal’s Shuklaphanta National Park reached the tiger reserve in Uttar Pradesh almost a month back.

    Pilibhit Tiger Reserve

    • Pilibhit Tiger Reserve is located in Pilibhit district of Uttar Pradesh and was notified as a tiger reserve in 2014.
    • It is one of the few well-forested districts in Uttar Pradesh.
    • It forms part of the Terai Arc Landscape in the upper Gangetic Plain along the India-Nepal border.
    • The habitat is characterized by sal forests, tall grasslands and swamp maintained by periodic flooding from rivers.
    • The Sharda Sagar Dam extending up to a length of 22 km is on the boundary of the reserve.
    • The tiger reserve got the first international award TX2 for doubling the tiger population in a stipulated time.

    Try answering this PYQ:

    Q.Consider the following protected areas:

    1. Bandipur
    2. Bhitarkanika
    3. Manas
    4. Sunderbans

    Which of the above are declared Tiger Reserves?

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 1, 3 and 4 only

    (c) 2, 3 and 4 only

    (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”kaucolpxf4″ question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

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