General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - March 2016

Mar 2016

Feb 20, 2023

UN Ocean Treaty Talks Resume with Goal to Save Biodiversity

United Nations members gather in New York to resume efforts to forge a long-awaited and elusive treaty to safeguard the world's marine biodiversity.
Nearly two-thirds of the ocean lies outside national boundaries on the high seas where fragmented and unevenly enforced rules seek to minimise human impacts.
The goal of the U.N. meetings, running through March 3, is to produce a unified agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of those vast marine ecosystems.
The talks, formally called the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, resume negotiations suspended last fall without agreement on a final treaty.
The aim of the talks is not to actually designate marine protected areas, but to establish a mechanism for doing so. The goal is to set up a new body that would accept submissions for specific marine protected areas.

Largest Man-made Forest to Come up in MP

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his cabinet colleagues planted saplings at a site where he said that the largest man-made forest in the state would come up.
The saplings were planted on a plot near the Raja Bhoj Airport to mark two years of Chouhan's daily plantation drive, which started in 2021 in Amarkantak.
"The biggest man made forest with 40,000 trees will be developed at this site and will be monitored by Shri Ram Astha Mission," said Chouhan, who also released a pictorial book about his daily plantation drive.

Feb 18, 2023

Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier at Mercy of Sea Warmth Increase

As per a new survey, Antarctic glaciers may be more sensitive to changes in sea temperature than was thought.
The British Antarctic Survey and the US Antarctic programme put sensors and an underwater robot beneath the vast Thwaites Glacier to study melting.
The size of Britain, Thwaites is one of the world's fastest changing glaciers.
Its susceptibility to climate change is a major concern to scientists because if it melted completely, it would raise global sea levels by half a metre.
The new research suggested that even low amounts of melting can potentially push a glacier further along the path toward eventual disappearance.
The joint survey at Thwaites is part of one of the largest investigations ever undertaken anywhere on the White Continent.

Feb 17, 2023

In a First, Majestic Snow Leopard Sighted in Uttarakhand's Dharma Valley

A snow leopard was sighted for the first time in the Darma Valley in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district.
A team of explorers in search of high-Himalayan fauna spotted a solitary animal of this elusive species in a snowy terrain above Dar village.
The explorers captured the snow leopard in their camera from a distance of about 20 metres.
This is the first time that a snow leopard was found in these altitudes.
Snow leopards are usually found at a height of more than 12,000 feet, while Dar village is located at nearly 11,120 feet.
Snow leopards were earlier spotted in the Nanda Devi Range of the Garhwal Himalayas, parts of Himachal Pradesh and the Ladakh region.
Also known as the Ounce, the snow leopard is listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List.

Feb 16, 2023

Intensive Operation to Clean Yamuna Floodplains Launched

An intensive operation to clean the Yamuna floodplains, involving territorial army personnel, was launched by Delhi Lieutenant Governor V. K. Saxena.
A 94-member company of the territorial army was drafted to ensure ground level enforcement and monitoring of all untrapped drains and sub-drains that pollute the river.
The Lt Governor headed a high-level committee constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in January to oversee implementation of its orders with regard to cleaning of the Yamuna.

Marine Spatial Planning Framework, Country's First, Launched in Puducherry

Puducherry launched the country's first Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) framework as part of a pact under the Indo-Norway Integrated Ocean Initiative, to balance growth alongside sustainable management of ocean resources and coastal environment preservation.
Puducherry and Lakshadweep were chosen as coastlines to pilot the MSP initiative that grew out of a 2019 memorandum of understanding that envisaged India and Norway collaborating on implementing MSP in the oceanic space.
The beta version of the MSP for the Union Territory was put together in a collaborative exercise involving the Norwegian Environment Agency, the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, the Puducherry Coastal Zone Management Authority and Department of Science, Technology and Environment, Puducherry.

Feb 15, 2023

UN, Ocean Cleanup Partner to Reduce Marine Pollution

The Ocean Cleanup and the United Nations Development Programme joined forces to eliminate plastic pollution around the globe.
Their mission is to rid the world's oceans of plastic. To do this, they look to work with others who can help them – from local waste management operators to the most impactful international organizations.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was founded in 1965 and is the UN's global development network. Headquartered in New York City, UNDP helps countries achieve positive and sustainable development through sharing of knowledge, expertise and resources. UNDP is active in over 170 countries, assisting governments and communities with a focus on sustainable development, good governance, and climate and disaster resilience.

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