General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - August 2019

Aug 2019

Sep 14, 2019

COP14: Delhi Declaration Adopted To Combat Land Degradation

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar said the 14th Conference of Parties to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification was seamless and flawless.
It saw a record number of participants. Delhi Declaration is an ambitious statement of global action by each country on how to achieve land degradation neutrality.
The Conference of Parties 14 of the United Nations convention to Combat Desertification concluded in Greater Noida.
The 12-point Delhi Declaration agreed to by the parties at the conclusion of Conference raises ambitious targets with a people's first approach to land restoration.
Representatives of 197 countries participated in the conference. India will preside over the conference of parties for 2 years.
India has been playing an important role in increasing environmental protection and preventing desertification.

MMRCL Gets Nod To Cut Trees At Aarey

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) Tree Authority has issued the final permission letter to the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) for felling and transplanting 2,646 trees in Aarey Colony for construction of the proposed car shed for the Metro 3 corridor.
Mumbai has been seeing large scale protests since the Tree Authority of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) decided in August 2019 to allow cutting of 2,185 trees and transplantation of 461 trees.
Activists and the Shiv Sena have already moved court against the decision.

Railways Signs MoU With CII On Green Initiatives

Indian Railways signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Confederation of Indian Industries in New Delhi for the facilitation of green initiatives.
The objectives of the MoU is greening of Railway properties and energy efficiency in manufacturing facilities and railway workshops.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State of Railways Suresh Angadi said, concerted efforts are being made to ensure cleanliness and hygiene in trains and on station premises.
Railway Ministry officials further said, Railways have undertaken some major green initiatives as part of India's contribution towards mitigation of global warming and combating climate change.

Sep 13, 2019

Drought-Forecasting Toolbox Unveiled At UNCCD Event

A UN body has unveiled a toolbox that will not only warn of an impending drought, but also suggest means to mitigate the adverse impact of acute water scarcity.
The ongoing 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) witnessed the official release of the Drought Toolbox, which can be used by countries to assess drought risks in their regions much in advance, and prepare to deal with the water scarcity.
The drought toolbox, which uses 30 parameters, including soil moisture, rainfall data and temperature data of the present and past, can accurately evaluate the vulnerability of different geographic regions to drought. Already 70 countries have shown interest in making use of the toolbox.

Sep 12, 2019

Two New Species Of Ginger Discovered From Nagaland

Scientists from the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have discovered two new species of Zingiber, commonly referred to as ginger, from Nagaland. While Zingiber perenense has been discovered from the Peren district of Nagaland, Zingiber dimapurense was found in the Dimapur district of the State.
Details of both discoveries were published in two peer-reviewed journals earlier in 2019. Of the two species, Zingiber dimapurense is taller in size, with leafy shoots measuring 90-120 cm high, whereas the leafy shoots of Zingiber perenense reach up to 70 cm in height.
For Zingiber dimapurense, the lip of the flower (modified corolla) is white in colour, with dense dark- purplish red blotches.Its pollen is a creamy-white and ovato-ellipsoidal, whereas the fruit is an oblong 4.5 cm-5.5 cm long capsule.
In the case of Zingiber perenense, which was discovered about 50 km from where the other species was found, the lip of the flower is white with purplish-red streaks throughout, and the pollen is ellipsoidal.

Sep 11, 2019

Mission Paani

The Jal minister launched Mission Paani global campaign in Stockholm.
It was launched in Mumbai, India by News 18 and Reckitt Benckiser hygiene home product company's brand Harpic, along with Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan (campaign ambassador).
Drinking water and Sanitation department secretary Parameswaran Iyer, Retired Indian Administrative Service(IAS) officer who resigned his job to head India's cleanliness drive Swachh Bharat Mission concluded the closing ceremony of the conference.
This is India's massive undertaking for access to clean water and safe sanitation before 2024.

India Will Restore 26 Million Hectares Of Degraded Land By 2030: PM Modi

India will restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, more than its earlier target of 21 million hectares, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a UN conference to combat desertification.
Modi also reiterated India's resolve to tackle the problem of plastic waste at the 14th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) at Greater Noida.
The agenda of the UN conference is to reverse degradation of land and fix critical gaps in its management.
The Prime Minister called upon leaders of the UNCCD to prepare a global water action agenda, which would be "central to the land degradation neutrality strategy".

DPIIT To Launch Plastic Waste Management Campaign For Swachhta hi Sewa 2019

Under the Plastic Waste Management campaign, DPIIT will ensure recycling of plastic waste collected on 2nd October, 2019 in cement kilns. It will also collect plastic waste through nationwide shramdaan.
For this, DPIIT has urged States and Union Territories to mobilize the Industrial Parks for collection of plastic waste across all Industrial Estates, Parks, Corridors, Nodes and Industrial Areas.
The Department has also asked the state governments to sensitize Industrial Parks by focusing on Plastic Waste Management on a sustained and continuous basis.
The move comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for action against Plastic Waste.

Sep 10, 2019

Researchers Unearth New Mass-extinction

A team of scientists has concluded that earth experienced a previously underestimated severe mass-extinction event, which occurred about 260 million years ago, raising the total of major mass extinctions in the geologic record to six.
Notably, all six major mass extinctions are correlated with devastating environmental upheavals -- specifically, massive flood-basalt eruptions, each covering more than a million square kilometers with thick lava flows.
Scientists had previously determined that there were five major mass-extinction events, wiping out large numbers of species and defining the ends of geological periods: the end of the Ordovician (443 million years ago), the Late Devonian (372 million years ago), the Permian (252 million years ago), the Triassic (201 million years ago), and the Cretaceous (66 million years ago).
And, in fact, many researchers have raised concerns about the contemporary, ongoing loss of species diversity -- a development that might be labelled a "seventh extinction" because such a modern mass extinction, scientists have predicted, could end up being as severe as these past events.

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