General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - June 2019

Jun 2019

Feb 26, 2020

Scientists Find Oldest Plant Fossil

Scientists have spotted in rocks from northern China what may be the oldest fossils of a green plant ever found, tiny seaweed that carpeted areas of the seafloor roughly a billion years ago and were part of a primordial revolution among life on Earth. Researchers said that the plant, called Proterocladus antiquus, was about the size of a rice grain and boasted numerous thin branches, thriving in shallow water while attached to the seafloor with a root-like structure. It may seem small, but Proterocladus - a form of green algae - was one of the largest organisms of its time, sharing the seas mainly with bacteria and other microbes.

4,000-year-old Crafts Village Unearthed Near Varanasi

The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology Professor, Anil Kumar Dubey and his team discovered a 4000-year-old urban settlements, which is mentioned as crafts village as per Ancient texts, in Babhaniyav village, Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
As per former Additional Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) Dr Buddha Rashmi Mani, the settlements could have been a satellite settlement and feeding centre of the Varanasi- Sarnath region.
On the preliminary survey of the site, BHU found a temple which belongs to the 5th Century AD through 8th Century AD, potteries which are 4000-year-old and walls which are 2000-year-old.

Feb 23, 2020

World's Largest Cave Fish Species Found in Meghalaya

The world's largest species of cave fish measuring over 40 cm or around one and a half feet in length were found inside a remote cave in Meghalaya's Jaintia Hills.
The fish, related to the Golden Mahseer but has no eyes and is white due to lack of melanin pigmentation, was found in a cave located in a remote and densely forested area in Jaintia Hills region of Meghalaya by a team of international and local researchers in February 2019.
There are 250 known species of fish found under the earth's surface. As they live in a nutrient-limited environment most of these species are small—195 of them have a mean length of 8.5 cm. The only two species, which exceed 30 cm, are eel-like and have very thin bodies.

Feb 22, 2020

Great Indian Bustard, Asian Elephant, Bengal Florican Classified as 'Endangered Migratory Species'

Great Indian Bustard, Asian Elephant and Bengal Florican have been classified as "endangered migratory species" by a UN body, paving the way for trans-boundary conservation efforts.
India's proposal for inclusion of the three species in the global list for international protection under the UN's Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species was accepted unanimously on Thursday.
The proposal was accepted by 130 countries that are party to the convention at the ongoing 13th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS COP 13).
Migratory species threatened with extinction are listed on Appendix I of the Convention for which CMS Parties strive towards strictly protecting them, conserving and restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them.

Feb 19, 2020

IGIA Becomes 1st Single-use Plastic-free Airport of India

According to the GMR Group-led Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), Delhi-based Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) become the 1st airport in India to be completely free of single-use plastic usage.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) -ITC Sustainable Development Centre of Excellence (CESD) also recognised DIAL for successfully implementing the campaign to make the airport voluntary plastic free.
With the resolve to 'Beat plastic pollution' on the occasion of World Environment Day in the year 2019, the IGIA campus has also become the first airport in the country to complete it by launching a campaign to make plastic single-free.

Feb 18, 2020

India's Bird Population Suffers Long-term Decline

According to a new scientific report jointly released by 10 organisations, over a fifth of India's bird diversity, ranging from the Short-toed Snake Eagle to the Sirkeer Malkoha, has suffered strong long-term declines over a 25-year period, while more recent annual trends point to a drastic 80% loss among several common birds.
The State of India's Birds 2020 (SoIB) assessment raises the alarm that several spectacular birds, many of them endemic to the sub-continent, face a growing threat from loss of habitat due to human activity, widespread presence of toxins including pesticides, hunting and trapping for the pet trade. Diminishing population sizes of many birds because of one factor brings them closer to extinction because of the accelerated effects of others, the report warned. For every bird species that was found to be increasing in numbers over the long term, 11 have suffered losses, some catastrophically.

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