General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - December 2018

Dec 2018

Jan 17, 2020

Oldest Solid Meteorite Material Found in Australia

A study proved that a meteorite that fell in Australia back in 1999 has the oldest solid meteorite material found on Earth till date.
The research indicates that stars are like phoenixes, after one dies, their dust and bits travel through space and eventually forms new stars, along with new planets, meteorites and satellites.
This study was contributed by researchers from the Field Museum, University of Chicago, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Washington University, Harvard Medical School, ETH Zurich, and the Australian National University.
The materials examined are called presolar grains-minerals formed before the Sun was born.

Jan 16, 2020

3 new species of tiny frogs discovered in Arunachal Pradesh

Three new species of tiny frogs have been discovered in Arunachal Pradesh's Lower Subansiri district by scientists of Zoological Survey of India, according to a recently published journal.
The frogs are so small in size that one can sit on a coin.
The new species discovered from Talle Valley Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) have been named as 'Liurana himalayana', 'Liurana indica' and 'Liurana minuta'.
The specimens of the new frog species were collected by Bikramjit Sinha, another scientist of ZSI in Itanagar during 2015-16 as part of the documentation of faunal diversity in the protected area.

Centre eases CRZ rules for 'Blue Flag' beaches

The Environment Ministry has relaxed Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules that restrict construction near beaches to help States construct infrastructure and enable them to receive 'Blue Flag' certification.
Last year, the Ministry selected 13 beaches in India to vie for the certificate. This is an international recognition conferred on beaches that meet certain criteria of cleanliness and environmental propriety.
The earmarked beaches are — Ghoghala beach (Diu), Shivrajpur beach (Gujarat), Bhogave beach (Maharashtra), Padubidri and Kasarkod beaches (Karnataka), Kappad beach (Kerala), Kovalam beach (Tamil Nadu), Eden beach (Puducherry), Rushikonda beach (Andhra Pradesh), Miramar beach (Goa), Golden beach (Odisha), Radhanagar beach (Andaman & Nicobar Islands) and Bangaram beach (Lakshadweep).

Arunachal to start red-listing of orchids

Arunachal has become the first state in the country to initiate the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) 'red listing' at the state level after it inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the IUCN.
As per the MoU, the state government will collaborate with the IUCN in carrying out red-list assessment of the orchids in the state.
The MoU was signed by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Manmohan Singh Negi and the IUCN's country representative Dr Vivek Saxena. The environment & forests department is the nodal department for executing the project.
The IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species is a critical indicator of the health of the world's biodiversity. A powerful tool to inform and catalyze action for biodiversity conservation and policy change, it is critical in protecting the natural resources. The project will be spread across 12 months, during which workshops on red list assessment will be conducted by experts from the IUCN.

Jan 14, 2020

Govt Identifies 16 Islands In Andamans, 10 In Lakshadweep For Development

The Centre has identified 16 islands in Andaman and Nicobar Islands and 10 in Lakshadweep for holistic development by promoting tourism and offering facilities for export of seafood and coconut-based products.
This was disclosed at the sixth meeting of the Island Development Agency (IDA), chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The Island Development Agency reviewed the progress made towards the programme holistic development of islands and for the first time in the country, under the guidance of IDA, an initiative of sustainable development in the identified Islands within scientifically-assessed carrying capacity has been taken-up.

Jan 13, 2020

Australia May List Koalas As 'Endangered' Species

The Australian government said it could declare koalas as an "endangered" species after their population suffered "extraordinary hit" in the bushfire crisis, which destroyed 30 per cent of their habitat across the country.
Since September 2019, the raging Australian bushfires, one of the worst in its history, has killed at least 26 people, burned over 10 million hectares of land, destroyed over 2,000 homes and pushed many species towards extinction.
Over 1.25 billion animals are believed to be dead in the wake of bushfires and experts believe that hundreds of billions of insects may have been wiped out.
The government has established a 50-million Australian dollar emergency fund to address the devastating loss of wildlife.

Kaziranga Records 96 Species Of Wetland Birds

Kaziranga, home of the world's most one-horned rhinos, has 96 species of wetland birds — one of the highest for wildlife preserves in India.
Officials of the Kaziranga National Park and avian specialists conducted the second wetland bird count on January 9-10, 2020. The teams counted a total of 19,225 birds belonging to 96 species under 80 families.

Taal Volcano: Lava Spews As 'Hazardous Eruption' Feared

A weak flow of lava began seeping out of Taal volcano - located some 70km (45 miles) south of the capital Manila.
A volcano in the Philippines has begun spewing lava, as authorities warn that a "hazardous eruption" is possible "within hours or days".
Taal had earlier emitted a huge plume of ash, triggering the mass evacuation of 8,000 people from the area.
Taal is the Philippines' second most active volcano.
Situated on an island in the middle of a lake, it is one of the world's smallest volcanoes and has recorded at least 34 eruptions in the past 450 years.

Jan 11, 2020

Environment Ministry Notifies New Wetland Rules

In a major decision, the union environment ministry notified the new Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules 2017 which prohibit a range of activities in wetlands like setting up and expansion of industries, waste dumping and discharge of effluents.
Environmental experts, however, are unhappy as they felt the new wetland rules seriously weakens the existing regulations.
The new rules will replace the 2010 version of the rules. The draft of the Wetland Rules was first presented by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in April 2016. But they were severely criticized by conservationists who had alleged that the draft rules don't mention anything about a national regulator and don't list specific activities prohibited in these ecologically sensitive areas.

IEA Launches First In-Depth Review Of India's Energy Policies

In partnership with NITI Aayog, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released the first in-depth review of India's energy policies.
The report highlights the achievements of India's energy policies and provides recommendations to support the government's goals of promoting well-functioning energy markets and boosting deployment of renewables.
Dr Fatih Birol (Executive Director of the IEA) presented the key findings of the IEA in-depth review of India's energy policies in New Delhi in the presence of Shri Pralhad Joshi (Minister of Coal), Shri Dharmendra Pradhan (Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Steel), Shri R K Singh (Minister for Power and Renewable Energy), Dr Rajiv Kumar (Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog), Shri Amitabh Kant (CEO of NITI Aayog), key energy secretaries, ambassadors, think tanks and the media.

10 New Bird Taxa Discovered In Islands Of Wallacea

Birds are the best known class of animals, and since 1999, only five or six new species have been described each year on average. Recently, a joint research team from NUS and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) made a quantum leap in the discovery of cryptic avian diversity by uncovering five bird species and five subspecies new to science.
The team, led by Associate Professor Frank Rheindt from NUS Biological Sciences, found the birds in three small island groups off Sulawesi, Indonesia. The islands are situated in Indonesia's Wallacea region, an archipelago at the interface between the Oriental and Australian biogeographical realms, named after Sir Alfred Wallace, who was the most famous historical collector exploring the area.

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