General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - August 2019

Aug 2019

Apr 04, 2021

Maharashtra: Amboli Named as Biodiversity Heritage Site

The Maharashtra government has declared an area at Amboli in Western Ghats in Sindhudurg district, where a rare freshwater fish species was discovered, as a biodiversity heritage site. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's son Tejas Thackeray, who is a wildlife researcher, and his team had discovered the new freshwater fish species – Schistura Hiranyakeshi near Amboli in Sawantwadi tehsil of Sindhudurg district. The State government issued a notification declaring the area at Amboli as a biodiversity heritage site.
Earlier, the State government had declared the Glory of Allapalli in Gadchiroli district, Landor Khori Park in Jalgaon, Ganesh Khind in Pune, myristica swamp vegetation in Sindhudurg district as biodiversity heritage sites.

Apr 02, 2021

Mahendragiri: Odisha's Second Biosphere Reserve

The Odisha state government has proposed a second biosphere reserve in the southern part of the state at Mahendragiri. It is a mountain in the Gajapati district of the state. It is at an altitude of 1,501 metres. Mahendragiri is also the second-highest peak in the state.
The area of the proposed 2nd biosphere reserve of the state- Mahendragiri Biosphere Reserve is approximately 470,955 hectares.
As per a feasibility report prepared by the Biosphere Reserve Committee for the proposed project, the hill ecosystem is acting as a transitional zone between the flora and fauna of southern India and the Himalayas. This makes the region an ecological estuary of genetic diversity.
The feasibility report has been submitted to the government which will now be taken up by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Apr 01, 2021

Dal Lake among Several others in J&K to be Declared Protected Wetlands

As per reports, Srinagar's Dal Lake along with five other famous ones in Jammu and Kashmir is to be declared protected wetlands.
The other lakes which are to be declared protected wetlands include Purmandal Lake, also called Chotta Kashi, located in Samba district.
The decision was taken in the maiden meeting of the Jammu and Kashmir Wetland Authority, chaired by Chief Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam.
The meeting was held to chalk out a strategy for the conservation and management of wetlands.
The Chief Secretary passed directions to declare Wular, Dal, Nigeen Lakes in the Kashmir region and Sanasar, Manasbal and Purmandal Lakes in the Jammu region as protected wetlands.

Mar 31, 2021

Brazil Become the 130th Country to Ratify the Nagoya Protocol

Brazil, a global hot spot for biodiversity, has become the 130th country to ratify the Nagoya Protocol, an amendment to a major global conservation pact that lays out specific rules for protecting a country's claims to its biodiversity.
The move, announced last week by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), comes as Brazil's current government, under President Jair Bolsonaro, has drawn substantial criticism for weakening environmental protections. But observers say the decision reflects Brazil's long-standing interest in reaping the potential economic benefits of exerting greater control over its biological resources. Scientists, meanwhile, worry new rules will make it even harder to do biodiversity research in Brazil.
Countries such as Brazil have long worried that outside researchers and companies are reaping the benefits of discoveries related to biodiversity without giving back to people living in the nations where those discoveries were made. In 2010, nations agreed to add the Nagoya Protocol to the CBD, an international agreement originally negotiated in 1992. The protocol calls for better benefit sharing; signees agree to not remove biological material from a country without permission and to share profits from any drugs or other commercial products developed from that material.

Mar 30, 2021

New Species of Red Algae Seen in West, South East Indian Coast

Two new species of seaweed have been discovered by a group of marine biologists from Central University of Punjab, Bathinda. Named Hypnea indica (after India) and Hypnea bullata (because of the blisterlike marks on its body – bullate), the seaweeds are part of the genus Hypnea or red seaweeds.
They grow in the intertidal regions of the coast, namely the area that is submerged during the high tide and exposed during low tides.

Centre Limits States' Role in Forest Matters

According to the Union Environment Ministry, state governments cannot impose any additional environmental or conservation directions for infrastructure projects in forest areas other than what has already been stipulated by the Centre while granting forest clearance to a project.
As per experts, the move will further centralise powers to monitor infrastructure projects and constrain state governments' decision-making in issues related to forest and wildlife conservation.
Under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, every time forest land is diverted for non-forest purposes such as mining or industry, the project developer is supposed to identify land for own use and pay for planting forests over an equal area of non-forest land, or when that is not available, twice the area of degraded forest land. Presently, this money gets collected under the compensatory afforestation fund under the Union Environment Ministry and is used for conservation and wildlife management purposes.

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