General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - December 2018

Dec 2018

Nov 16, 2019

Longest Bad Air Spell in Two Years

People in Delhi breathed 'severely' polluted air for the fourth day, braving the longest spell of hazardous air quality in two years as officials grappled with a crisis that seemed immune to any of their interventions – with a change in weather conditions now being seen as the only hope.
The Supreme Court pulled up the governments of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi to explain why efforts such as a ban on burning crop residue and odd-even vehicle rationing did not help, and ordered scientists to consider installing air purification towers.
The court also recorded in their order that the Delhi government's odd-even scheme barely had any impact on the high pollution levels in the Capital, and asked the Aam Aadmi Party government to submit a detailed affidavit underlining what measures it can take further.
The hearing came on a day when predictions that pollution would decrease due to a pick-up in wind speed failed to materialise, and pollution forecasters said the situation may not increase by much over the weekend.

Centre Drops Plan to Bring in Changes to Forest Act of 1927

The Union Environment Ministry withdrew a draft amendment that proposed updates to the Indian Forest Act, 1927. Activist groups and some state governments had protested this proposed law after it was mooted in March 2019.
The Indian Forest Act, 2019, was envisaged as an amendment to the Indian Forest Act, 1927, and an attempt to address contemporary challenges to the country's forests. The draft law had been sent to key forest officers in the states for soliciting comments and objections.

Nov 14, 2019

India gets USD 43 million from Green Climate Fund

In a move that may positively impact over 10 million people living on the coastline, India kicked-off a USD 43 million project to boost climate resilience in three coastal states in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The project is funded by the Green Climate Fund, established within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to assist developing countries.
The six-year project will build climate-resilient livelihoods for 1.7 million people in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha, offset 3.5 million tonnes of carbon, protect vulnerable ecosystems, and benefit another 10 million people with improved shoreline protection.

Nov 13, 2019

Incredibly Rare 'Mouse Deer' Spotted in Vietnam After Vanishing For Almost 30 Years

A very rare species of small, deer-like animal thought to be on the verge of extinction has been spotted in the northwestern jungle of Vietnam for the first time in nearly 30 years.Known as the silver-backed chevrotain or mouse deer, a specimen was last recorded in 1990.
The species, Tragulus versicolor, was first described in 1910 based on several animals found near Nha Trang, about 450 kilometres (280 miles) northeast of Ho Chi Minh City.

'Climate strike' named Collins' Word of the Year 2019

'Climate strike', a form of protest popularised by the Sweedish teenage activist Greta Thunburg, has been named Collins' Word of the Year 2019. It is formally defined as 'a form of protest in which people absent themselves from education or work in order to join demonstrations demanding action to counter climate change'.
Collins Dictionary's lexicographers monitor the 9.5 billion-word Collins Corpus and create the annual list of new and notable words that reflect an ever-evolving culture and the preoccupations of those who use it.

Nov 11, 2019

Uttarakhand to tag wild elephants with radio collars

Faced with a rising number of reports of wild elephants straying into human habitats, leading to crops being damaged and some deaths, Uttarakhand's Forest department is moving to resolve the conflict — with radio tags.
The state government is tying up with Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to tranquilise about 6-8 elephants and fit GPS-enabled radio collars around their necks starting December 1, 2019. The objective: monitor their movements in real-time and set up an "early warning system" for residents in about 30 villages near the Rajaji National Park, and Shyampur and Rasiyabad forest areas.
A WII team will track the elephants and record their location after every hour. The information will be shared with forest staff and guards, and village volunteer groups through a mobile application.

Greta-Shame to Deter Plastic Use in Offices

Offices are using photos of climate change activist Greta Thunberg to deter employees from using single-use plastics. The trend, dubbed "Greta-shaming," has become especially popular in Israel, where photos of the 16-year-old have been used in workplaces in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem
. The tactic sees employees hang up photos of Thunberg in workplace cafeterias near plastic utensils or single-use coffee cups, in an effort to shame colleagues away from using the items.
One photo sees a picture of the teenager with her hands clasped under her chin placed near a stack of plastic cups while another shows Thunberg placed in front of coffee cups with the caption: "Are you sure?"
In the AP office in Jerusalem, a photo shared by Sommer shows the activist deterring the use of coffee stirrers. The photo quotes Thunberg's September United Nations speech, reading: "How dare you." Israel is the second-biggest per capita consumer of single-use plastic in the world.

Nov 10, 2019

Coonoor gets waste management park

With the help of non-governmental organisations, the Coonoor municipality and the district administration have officially closed the dump yard that had been an eyesore and a major cause of pollution in Ottupattarai in Coonoor.
Instead, the area has now been turned into a waste management facility and park, capable of processing almost the entirety of the town's generated dry waste.
District Collector J. Innocent Divya inaugurated the park.

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