General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - February 2019

Feb 2019

Jul 04, 2019

Declare Panje a Bird Sanctuary

Nature conservation group Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) questioned the Maharashtra government's delay in declaring three wetlands in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) as wildlife sanctuaries, even after the state wildlife board directed conservation of these areas.
In December 2015, the state wildlife board, headed by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, said that the Panje-Funde zone in Uran; Mahul-Sewri in Mumbai; and the Training Ship Chanakya (TSC) - NRI Complex wetland in Navi Mumbai, would be declared as bird sanctuaries.
These sites were meant to provide shelter for migratory birds that were likely to be dislocated from other wetlands by the construction of 22.5-km-long Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) project.
The forest department, however, said that it was awaiting a proposal of the site co-ordinates. Once the forest department receives the proposal, future course of action would be considered.

Jun 28, 2019

Desert-dwelling Carnivorous Dinosaur Found

A desert-based carnivorous dinosaur that used claws to capture small prey 90 million years ago was unearthed in southern Brazil.
Just over a meter and a half in length (five feet), the fossil remains of the Vespersaurus paranaensis were found in Cruzeiro do Oeste municipality of Parana state.
The Vespersaurus was a theropod, a group of two-footed, meat-eating dinosaurs that included the better known tyrannosaurus and velociraptor.
Footprints now believed to belong to this new species of dinosaur were discovered in Cruzeiro do Oeste in the 1970s.
Other dinosaur species have been found there and, according to the scientists, the latest discovery must "catapult" paleontological investigations in the region.

Jun 27, 2019

Greenland Ice Sheet

Scientists have identified more than 50 new lakes of liquid water lying under the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Only four had previously been detected.
Antarctica hides some 470 lakes beneath its ice but this latest UK/US study proved the northern polar region also has its share.

Jun 24, 2019

Pacific Trash Clean-up

A floating device designed to catch plastic waste was redeployed in a second attempt to clean up a huge island of trash swirling in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii.
Boyan Slat, creator of The Ocean Cleanup project, announced that a 600-metre-long floating tube that broke apart late last year (2018) was sent back to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch after four months of repair.
Fitted with solar-powered lights, cameras, sensors and satellite antennas, the device communicate its position in real time, allowing a support vessel to fish out the collected plastic and transport it to dry land.
The plastic barrier with a tapered three-metre-deep screen is intended to act like a coastline, trapping some of the 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic that scientists estimate are swirling in the patch while allowing marine life to safely swim beneath it.

Jun 22, 2019

Forest Cover Up

According to Union Minister for Environment Prakash Javadekar, India's forest cover was up by 1% in the last one year, while former Minister and his own party's MP Maneka Gandhi told that the additional forest cover could be a result of satellite imagery being taken where the sugar cane crops could be mistaken for trees.
Mr. Javadekar said that for one tree chopped for development work, three to four were planted either in the same area or elsewhere.
Responding to Ms. Gandhi, he said satellite imagery was taken at regular intervals and it was unlikely that sugar cane crops were counted as such.
According to a latest report, over 24.39% of the country's geographical area now constitutes of green cover.

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