General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - December 2018

Dec 2018

Apr 10, 2021

New Species from Arunachal Added to India's Bird List

A bird spotted in Arunachal Pradesh at an altitude higher than its recorded perch in adjoining China has become the 1,340th species of the bird family in India.
The three-banded rosefinch is a resident of southern China and a vagrant in Bhutan. A team of scientists from Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) spotted and photographed this rare species of bird in Arunachal Pradesh.
The new species of bird was found during an intensive survey of finches across the Eastern Himalayas as a part of an ongoing study. The survey team members spotted the three-banded rosefinch with a flock of white-browed rosefinch, a species commonly seen in this landscape.

Apr 09, 2021

New Species of Bird Discovered in Brazil

A team of ornithologists from the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Paraguay has described a new species of Trogon from the Atlantic Forest of north-eastern Brazil.
The Trogons and their close relatives, quetzals, are members a pantropically distributed order of birds consisting of a single family, the Trogonidae, which contains at least 43 species and 109 subspecies.
They are among the most colorful birds in the world: males are patterned with hues of iridescent green, blue, violet and purple above, and a bright red, yellow or orange abdomen; females have gray or brown plumage.
They are most diverse in the Neotropics with 29 species, of which 24 species and 66 subspecies belong to the genus Trogon.

Apr 07, 2021

Climate Change Shrinks Marine Life Richness Near Equator

During some summers, as the Caribbean water temperatures climb, the luminous coral colonies of gold, green and blue that ring the island nation of Cuba give way to patches of skeletal white.
The technicolor streaks of darting tropical fish flash less frequently. The rasping sounds of lobsters go quiet.
While Cuba's marine life has suffered from overfishing and pollution, there is mounting evidence that the warming of waters due to climate change may be taking a large toll as well -- both off the island's coast and globally.
A research found that the total number of open-water species declined by about half in the 40 years up to 2010 in tropical marine zones worldwide. During that time, sea surface temperatures in the tropics rose nearly 0.2 degree Celsius.
As per study co-author Chhaya Chaudhary, a biogeographer at Goethe University, climate change is already impacting marine species diversity distribution, with changes being more dramatic in the Northern Hemisphere where waters have warmed faster.

Apr 04, 2021

Maharashtra: Amboli Named as Biodiversity Heritage Site

The Maharashtra government has declared an area at Amboli in Western Ghats in Sindhudurg district, where a rare freshwater fish species was discovered, as a biodiversity heritage site. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's son Tejas Thackeray, who is a wildlife researcher, and his team had discovered the new freshwater fish species – Schistura Hiranyakeshi near Amboli in Sawantwadi tehsil of Sindhudurg district. The State government issued a notification declaring the area at Amboli as a biodiversity heritage site.
Earlier, the State government had declared the Glory of Allapalli in Gadchiroli district, Landor Khori Park in Jalgaon, Ganesh Khind in Pune, myristica swamp vegetation in Sindhudurg district as biodiversity heritage sites.

Apr 02, 2021

Mahendragiri: Odisha's Second Biosphere Reserve

The Odisha state government has proposed a second biosphere reserve in the southern part of the state at Mahendragiri. It is a mountain in the Gajapati district of the state. It is at an altitude of 1,501 metres. Mahendragiri is also the second-highest peak in the state.
The area of the proposed 2nd biosphere reserve of the state- Mahendragiri Biosphere Reserve is approximately 470,955 hectares.
As per a feasibility report prepared by the Biosphere Reserve Committee for the proposed project, the hill ecosystem is acting as a transitional zone between the flora and fauna of southern India and the Himalayas. This makes the region an ecological estuary of genetic diversity.
The feasibility report has been submitted to the government which will now be taken up by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

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