General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - December 2018

Dec 2018

Sep 25, 2022

Scientists Expose Vulnerabilities of Critical Antarctic Ice Shelf

Pine Island Ice Shelf in West Antarctica, which holds back enough ice to raise sea levels by 0.5 meters, could be more vulnerable to complete disintegration than previously thought. A new study led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists shows two processes, whose recent enhancement already threatens the stability of the shelf can interact to increase the likelihood of collapse.
This large ice shelf (the section of the glacier that floats on the sea) controls the flow of ice from Pine Island Glacier, roughly the size of England, into the Amundsen Sea. This is a crucial role as the glacier is one of the world's largest and fastest changing and is responsible for approximately 25% of ice loss from Antarctica. This is equivalent to the amount of water in 13,000 Olympic swimming pools.

Sep 24, 2022

NCC, UNEP Sign MoU to Tackle Plastic Pollution

The National Cadet Corps (NCC) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to tackle the issue of plastic pollution and achieve the universal goal of clean water bodies through ' Puneet Sagar Abhiyan' and 'Tide Turners Plastic Challenge programme'.
The MoU was signed between Director-General NCC Lt. Gen. Gurbirpal Singh and Resident Representative, UN World Food Programme Bishow Parajuli in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
The aim of the MoU between the NCC and the UNEP is to synergise and collate efforts towards engaging youth for promoting clean water bodies.
The MoU, to remain in force for a period of three years, aims at consolidating, developing and detailing their cooperation and effectiveness to achieve the common objectives in the field of environment.

Sep 23, 2022

Kotak Mahindra Bank Launches "Kotak IITM Save Energy Mission"

Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited and the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IITM) announced their CSR partnership and launched Kotak IITM Save Energy Mission. The Hon'ble Minister of Education, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the initiative.
Under Kotak's CSR Project on Environment and Sustainable Development, KMBL is funding IITM to establish five centres across India to promote energy efficiency for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. IIT Madras (IITM) at the Chennai campus will be the hub of Kotak IITM Save Energy Mission, which in turn will engage with IIT Bombay (IITB), IIT Gandhinagar (IITG), IIT Indore (IITI), and IIT Ropar (IITR) to establish four satellite centres for carrying out energy efficiency and performance audits and encouraging adoption of various energy conservation measures in the Indian MSME sector. These audits will focus on identifying inefficiencies in energy utilisation, process operations and safety-related concerns. The hub at IITM will monitor and implement energy assessment activities across India.
The satellite centres will identify MSMEs that qualify for Industrial Energy Assessment services and carry out audits and share recommendations for saving energy with them. Further, Kotak IITM Save Energy Mission will provide assistance and training to MSMEs for periodic audits. Furthermore, an online platform will be developed to maintain the entire database on the energy audits conducted.

Sep 22, 2022

SBI Foundation, WWF India Join Hands for Red Panda Conservation

SBI Foundation and WWF India entered into a partnership to generate fine-scale information on the species at a transboundary level and engage with communities in safeguarding key habitats of the Red Panda in the Khangchendzonga landscape of Sikkim and West Bengal.
An event was organised at the Himalayan Zoological Park in Gangtok. This Zoological Park is the first-of-its-kind, where animals are kept in their natural habitat. The event was hosted to raise awareness about the endangered species among young visitors. The programme included presentations and talks on Red Panda conservation, an inter-school quiz competition, and culminated with zoo visits.

Sep 20, 2022

Pando, Earth's Largest Living Organism, is 'Breaking Up

The Pando aspen clone, also known as the Trembling Giant, is the largest known organism on our planet in terms of dry-weight mass.
This 'forest of one tree' has an estimated mass of 5.9 million kg, covers some 43 ha (106 acres) in south-central Utah's Fishlake National Forest.
It consists of more than 47,000 genetically identical above-ground stems or 'ramets' originating from a single underground parent clone.

India among Few Countries in the World Where Forest Cover is Consistently Increasing

The efforts made by the Narendra Modi government have brought positive results in the conservation of wildlife. The government has said that the coverage of Protected Areas which was 4.90 per cent of country's geographical area in 2014 has now increased to 5.03 per cent.
This includes an increase in Protected Areas in the country from 740 with area of over one lakh 61 thousand square kilometres in 2014 to 981 with an area of over one lakh 71 thousand square kilometres at present.
On the other hand, forest and tree cover has increased by 16 thousand kilometres in the last four years and India is among few countries in the world where forest cover is consistently increasing.

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