General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - March 2017

Mar 2017

Oct 24, 2020

River Ran Through Thar Desert 172 Thousand Years Ago

Researchers from Anna University, IISER Kolkata and Max Planck Institute of Germany have found that the population of Stone Age lived in a different landscape in Thar Desert.
The researchers have found a lost river in the central Thar Desert. The river had supported human population in the region over 172 thousand years ago. The river would have supported populations of Paleolithic era.
The researchers have made the discovery using satellite images. The images from satellite show strong evidence of dense river channels crossing the desert.
The different phases of the river activity were deciphered by studying deep deposits of sands and gravels that were exposed during a quarrying activity in a nearby village.
The river activity in the region continued between 95,000 to 78,000 years ago. Later, there was only limited evidence for the presence of river. The river activity was at its strongest during weak monsoonal activity in the region. This might have enabled population to inhabit the Thar Desert.
Luni is the only inland drainage river in Rajasthan. The river rises on the western slopes of Aravalli range. It is also known as Sagarmati River. It flows southwestward and across the plains of the region.

Oct 22, 2020

State of Global Air Report 2020

The State of Global Air report 2020 was released by US based institutes. These institutes were Health Effects Institute and Institute for Health metrics and evaluation. The report has been created based on data from ground monitors and satellites
According to the report, India recorded the highest PM 2.5 exposure in the world in 2019. India was followed by Nepal and Niger.
India is one of the top 10 countries that has highest Ozone exposure. With the recorded the highest Ozone exposure followed by Nepal and India. In the past 10 years the Ozone concentration in India has increased by 17 %. Globally Ozone exposure has increased from 47.3 part per billion to 49.5 parts per billion.
India had the highest number of Infant deaths due to air pollution. India was followed by Nigeria, Pakistan and Ethiopia. In 2019, more than hundred and sixteen thousand children died within the month of their birth due to exposure to air pollution.
Around 1.67 million deaths occurred in India due to long term exposure of outdoor pollution. The total death in the world in this category was 6.7 million.
Air pollution is the fourth highest risk in creating death out of 87 health risk factors.
Out of the 20 most populous countries 14 had improved in air quality. However, countries such as India, Niger, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Japan recorded modest increase in pollution levels.

Oct 20, 2020

Paddy Stubble can Decompose in 25 Days with Microbial Solution: ICAR

Initial results from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) about trials on the effectiveness of a microbial consortium to decompose paddy stubble show that the latter can decompose within 25 days amid reports of Delhi-national capital region (NCR) and several other north-western states battling "poor" air quality index (AQI), which has become an annual phenomenon in the past few years around this time of the year.
Trials are in progress in up to 14,000 hectares (ha) of paddy farmland in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Delhi, said the ICAR chief.

Oct 17, 2020

October Downpour Sees UK's Wettest Day on Record

October 2020 saw the wettest day for UK-wide rainfall since records began in 1891.
The downpour followed in the wake of Storm Alex and saw an average of 31.7mm (1.24ins) of rain across the entire UK.
The deluge was enough to exceed the capacity of Loch Ness - the largest lake in the UK by volume - the researchers added.
The previous record wettest day was in August 1986.
It has been a year of stark contrasts across the UK when it comes to rainfall.
Two named storms, Ciara and Dennis, helped push February to the top of the records as the wettest ever in the UK.
This was followed by a very dry and bright spring that saw May break the record for sunniest calendar month with 266 hours of sunshine.
But a middling summer has been followed by a drenching autumn across much of the UK.

Oct 16, 2020

Asan Conservation Reserve becomes Uttarakhand's first Ramsar site

Asan Conservation Reserve has become Uttarakhand's first Ramsar site, making it a 'Wetland of International Importance', announced the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
The Reserve is located on the banks of Yamuna river near Dehradun district in Garhwal region of the Himalayan state.
Ramsar declares Asan Conservation Reserve as a site of international importance. With this, the number of Ramsar sites in India goes up to 38, the highest in South Asia and Uttarakhand gets its first Ramsar site

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