General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - February 2019

Feb 2019

Jul 09, 2020

New Species of a Fan-Throated Lizard, 'Sitana Dharwarensis' Discovered

A team has discovered a new species of a fan-throated lizard, Sitana dharwarensis, from the barren lands of northern Karnataka's Bagalkot district.
The species belongs to the genus Sitana and derives its name from the Dharwar craton, a piece of the Earth's crust formed 3.6-2.5 billion years ago.
Though it is similar to a fan-throated lizard species, Sitana laticeps, it bears a much larger throat fan or dewlap. Its distinctness was confirmed after comparing the DNA sequences and micro-CT-scans of the two species.
Compared to other fan-throated lizards, it is larger in size.
It is restricted to the area surrounded by two major rivers namely Krishna and Dungapatra, which likely acts as biogeographic barriers for terrestrial lizards.

Golden Birdwing Surpasses Southern Birdwing to Become India's Largest Butterfly after 88 Years

The Himalayan butterfly named "Golden Birdwing (Troides aeacus)" surpassed the "Southern Birdwing (Troides minos)" after 88 years and became the largest butterfly in India. The female species of the Golden Birdwing has a wingspan of 194 mm that is 4 mm larger than that of the Southern Birdwing with 190 mm wingspan while the largest wingspan in the male species of the Golden Birdwing is 106 mm. The largest female Golden Birdwing's forewing length is 90 mm.
The female Golden Birdwing was recorded from Didihat in Uttarakhand, the largest male was from the Wankhar Butterfly Museum in Meghalaya capital Shillong.
Golden Birdwing is followed by Common Windmill (Byasa polyeuctes) at 98 mm, Great Windmill (Byasa dasarada) at 96 mm, and Common Peacock (Papilio bianor) at 78 mm- all from Uttarakhand.

Jul 08, 2020

ESA and NASA Line up Satellites to Measure Antarctic Sea-ice

US and European scientists are about to get a unique view of polar ice as their respective space agencies line up two satellites in the sky.
Authorisation was given for Europe's Cryosat-2 spacecraft to raise its orbit by just under one kilometre.
This will hugely increase the number of coincident observations it can make with the Americans' Icesat-2 mission.
One outcome from this new strategy will be the first ever reliable maps of Antarctic sea-ice thickness.
Currently, the floes in the far south befuddle efforts to measure their vertical dimension.
Heavy snow can pile on top of the floating ice, hiding its true thickness. Indeed, significant loading can even push Antarctic sea-ice under the water.
But researchers believe the different instruments on the two satellites working in tandem can help them tease apart this complexity.
NASA's Icesat-2, which orbits the globe at about 500 km in altitude, uses a laser to measure the distance to the Earth's surface - and hence the height of objects. This light beam reflects directly off the top of the snow.
ESA's Cryosat-2, on the other hand, at around 720 km in altitude, uses radar as its height tool, and this penetrates much more deeply into the snow cover before bouncing back.

Jul 04, 2020

Germany to Become First Major Economy to Phase Out Coal, Nuclear Power

German lawmakers have finalised the country's long-awaited phase-out of coal as an energy source, backing a plan that environmental groups say is not ambitious enough and free marketeers criticise as a waste of taxpayers' money.
Bills approved by both houses of parliament envision shutting down the last coal-fired power plant by 2038 and spending some 40 billion euros ($45 billion) to help affected regions cope with the transition.
The plan is part of Germany's 'energy transition' - an effort to wean Europe's biggest economy off planet-warming fossil fuels and generate all of the country's considerable energy needs from renewable sources. Achieving that goal is made harder than in comparable countries such as France and Britain because of Germany's existing commitment to also phase out nuclear power by the end of 2022.

Jul 01, 2020

SDMC Signs MoU to Generate Power from Waste at Okhla Landfill Site

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indian Oil and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to set up a pilot project for 'Waste to Wealth Plant' at its Okhla landfill site.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Power RK Singh, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.
the project will address the problem of disposal of municipal solid waste. Under this project, the plant will process 50 tonnes per day of Refused Derived Fuel (RDF) segregated from municipal solid waste to produce Syn Gas. This Syn gas will be utilised to generate about 1MW electricity. "For this project, SDMC will provide one acre land in Okhla landfill site on lease to Indian Oil for setting up the plant. The south corporation will purchase the power generated from the plant at a mutually agreed rate.

Jun 30, 2020

Uttarakhand Develops India's First Lichen Park

The Forest Department of Uttarakhand has developed India's first Lichen Park in Munsyari (Munsiyari), Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand as a research centre with over 150 Lichen species – Jurassic Era plant. The development process of the 1.5 acres park began in 2019.
The park is developed with an aim to protect, conserve and cultivate the lichen, to provide employment to the locals and to educate the importance of lichens.
Lichen is a composite organism. It grows on the surface of the trees, walls, rocks and soil due to the symbiotic relationship between Algae or Cyanobacteria with fungi species.

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