General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - January 2019

Jan 2019

Sep 11, 2020

68% Average Decline in Species Population Sizes Since 1970: WWF Report

Globally, monitored population sizes of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians have declined an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016, according to World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Living Planet Report 2020.
Populations in Latin America and the Caribbean have fared worst, with an average decline of 94%. Global freshwater species have also been disproportionally impacted, declining 84% on average.
As an important indicator of planetary health, these drastic species population trends signal a fundamentally broken relationship between humans and the natural world, the consequences of which—as demonstrated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic—can be catastrophic.

Forest Department to Study Elephants Using Coonoor Slopes

The Forest Department has taken up an exercise, for the first time, to study elephants using the landscape of the Coonoor ghat.
The study is being done in association with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-India).
According to Forest Department officials, little is known about the elephants that use this particular habitat range along the lower Coonoor slopes.
The Department, with the help of conservationists and NGOs, has a better understanding of the elephant populations that use other habitats in the Nilgiris, including Gudalur and other forest ranges that fall under the Nilgiris forest division.

Sep 10, 2020

Humans Exploiting and Destroying Nature on Unprecedented Scale

Wildlife populations are in freefall around the world, driven by human overconsumption, population growth and intensive agriculture, according to a major new assessment of the abundance of life on Earth.
According to the WWF and Zoological Society of London (ZSL)'s biennial Living Planet Report 2020, on average, global populations of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles plunged by 68% between 1970 and 2016. Two years ago, the figure stood at 60%.
The research is one of the most comprehensive assessments of global biodiversity available and was complied by 134 experts from around the world. It found that from the rainforests of central America to the Pacific Ocean, nature is being exploited and destroyed by humans on a scale never previously recorded.
The analysis tracked global data on 20,811 populations of 4,392 vertebrate species. Those monitored include high-profile threatened animals such as pandas and polar bears as well as lesser known amphibians and fish. The figures, the latest available, showed that in all regions of the world, vertebrate wildlife populations are collapsing, falling on average by more than two-thirds since 1970.

Sep 09, 2020

J&K Glaciers Melting at Significant Rate

Glaciers in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are melting at a significant rate, according to a first-of-its-kind study which used satellite data to find that over 1,200 glaciers in the Himalayan region saw an annual reduction in mass of 35 centimetres (cm) on average between 2000 and 2012.
The study was carried over the Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh region, including areas across the Line of Control (LoC) and Line of Actual Control (LAC), and in all 12,243 glaciers were studied for thickness and mass changes.
In general, it was observed that the glaciers in the Pir Panjal Range are melting at the higher rate, more than one metre per year, while as the glaciers in the Karakoram Range are melting relatively at a slower rate, around 10 cm per year.
Some glaciers are even advancing or stable in the Karakoram Range. In other mountain ranges like the Greater Himalayan Range, Zanaskar Range, Shamabari Range, Leh Ranges, the glaciers are undoubtedly melting but the rate of melting is variable.
They employed this data to determine the glacier thickness changes over the entire Upper Indus Basin, comprising of over 12,000 glaciers.

Thwaites: 'Doomsday Glacier' Vulnerability Seen in New Maps

Scientists have identified Thwaites Glacier's Achilles heel.
This Antarctic colossus is melting at a rapid rate, dumping billions of tonnes of ice in the ocean every year and pushing up global sea-levels.
Now, a UK-US team surveyed the deep seafloor channels in front of the glacier that almost certainly provide the access for warm water to infiltrate and attack Thwaites' underside.
These channels had not been mapped before in this kind of detail, and what has been discovered is that they are actually much bigger than anyone thought - up to 600 m deep.
"And because they are so deep, and so wide - this allows a lot more water to get at, and melt, Thwaites' floating front as well as its ice that rests on the seabed.

Sep 08, 2020

Wildfires Burn Through Record Area in California

Wildfires have burned through a record number of acres in California this year as firefighters continue to battle several large blazes across the state.
The state's department of forestry and fire protection, Cal Fire, said that more than two million acres have burned, more than the size of Delaware.
One fire, El Dorado, which has spread over 7,000 acres, was started by a gender reveal party.
California is currently experiencing a record heatwave.
Los Angeles County reported its highest ever temperature of 49.4C (121F). Although temperatures are expected to drop, which may bring strong winds which could fan the flames, the National Weather Service warns.

Sep 07, 2020

Researchers Discover Two New Species of Wasp Cockroach

Researchers at the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kozhikode have discovered two new species of cockroach wasps in the Western Ghats.
These wasp species were discovered from Coonoor in Tamil Nadu and Peppara Wild Life Sanctuary in Kerala. They belonged to the family Ampulicidae and hunted cockroaches to feed their larvae, thereby helping to control the natural population of cockroaches.
The new finds have been named 'Dolichurus sahyadriensis' after Sahyadri or Western Ghat mountain ranges and 'Dolichurus chareshi' after C. Charesh, laboratory assistant attached to the ZSI, Kozhikode, who has contributed immensely for the collection of the species.
Another wasp of the same genus, 'Dolichurus aridulus' known only from Sri Lanka was also recorded for the first time from Tamil Nadu and Kerala during their present study. With this seven Dolichurus species are presently listed from India.

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