General Awareness

ENVIRONMENT - August 2019

Aug 2019

Aug 27, 2019

WII App To Keep Tab On Aquatic Life In Ganga

Following the success of M-stripes, an app used to count tigers in the country, Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) launched Ganga Data Collector App in collaboration with National Mission for Clean Ganga, ministry of Jal Shakti and Ganga Aqualife Conservation Monitoring Centre, to keep a tab on the aquatic population in the river.
With the help of the android based application, scientists will be able to record real-time data of aquatic life in Ganga.

G7 Nations Pledge Millions To Help Fight Amazon Fires

The G7 has agreed to spend $22 million on the Amazon, mainly to send fire-fighting aircraft to tackle the huge blazes engulfing many parts of the world's biggest rainforest.
The Group of Seven club - comprising Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US - has also agreed to support a medium-term reforestation plan which will be unveiled at the United Nations in September, France's Emmanuel Macron and Chile's Sebastian Pinera said at the G7 summit in the southwestern resort town of Biarritz in France.
Brazil would have to agree to any reforestation plan, as would indigenous communities living in the Amazon.
The initiative was announced after G7 leaders meeting in the resort of Biarritz held talks on the environment, focusing on the record number of fires destroying chunks of the Amazon.
The French president had declared the situation in the Amazon region an "international crisis". He has threatened to block a huge new trade deal between the EU and Latin America unless Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Only half of fragile Western Ghats in protection plan

Four of the six Western Ghats states, including Maharashtra and Goa, have agreed to declare only 31,387 sq km of the recommended 60,000 sq km — about half of what K Kasturirangan Committee had recommended — as ecologically-sensitive areas (ESA) where mining, quarrying, and polluting industries will be banned.
The Madhav Gadgil Committee had in 2010 recommended that 75% of the Western Ghats of 129,037 sq km of Western Ghats be declared ESA because of its dense, rich forest cover and large number of endemic species.
Later, a panel headed by Kasturirangan, former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief, had scaled it down to 50% of total areas — about 60,000 sq km — which may be declared as ESA.
Kerala has proposed to declare 8,656.46 sq km as ESA against the recommendation of 13,108.7 sq km with 123 villages in ESA.

Leonardo Dicaprio's Earth Alliance Fund To Donate USD 5 Million In Aid Amid Amazon Fires

Leonardo DiCaprio's new environmental organisation Earth Alliance, has pledged USD five million to help preserve the Amazon rainforest amid raging fires.
The Hollywood star has created the organisation with friends, Laurene Powell Jobs and Brian Sheth.
According to Earth Alliance's website, the funds will be donated to five local organisations: Instituto Associacao Floresta Protegida (Kayapo), Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), Instituto Kabu (Kayapo), Instituto Raoni (Kayapo) and Instituto Socioambiental (ISA).

Aug 24, 2019

Discovery, WWF Tie Up To Preserve Sundarbans

To help save the world's only mangrove tiger habitat, Discovery India and WWF India have partnered with the Forest Directorate, the government of West Bengal and local communities in the Sundarbans.
With a vision to create climate-smart villages in the Sundarbans, WWF India and Discovery India are working with government agencies, civil society partners and scientific institutions to build the capacity of village panchayats and local communities to incorporate climate resilience into development planning, thereby helping secure livelihoods, biodiversity and ecosystem services.
The project will use technology to solve several of the issues faced in the region. This includes building datasets on impacts of climate change on the estuarine ecosystem.
Through this project, in partnership with the West Bengal Forest Directorate and IISER Kolkata, two Sundarbans Ecological Observatories will be set up, each featuring data loggers, monitoring buoys and an onsite laboratory.

Facing Pressure, Bolsonaro May Send Army To Curb Amazon Wildfires

Amid growing global condemnation, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro mobilise the army to help combat a record number of fires sweeping through the Amazon rainforest.
G7 leaders plan to hammer out "concrete measures" in response to the wildfires, putting them on a collision course with Brazil's leader. French President Emmanuel Macron accused his Brazilian counterpart of lying on pledges to help fight global warming.
France said it will oppose a trade deal between the EU and the Mercosur nations.
Macron had already drawn Bolsonaro's ire by saying the Amazon fires would be a priority on the G7 agenda.

Aug 23, 2019

NASA Scientists Fly Over Greenland To Track Melting Ice

NASA scientist Josh Willis is now closely studying the phenomenon in hopes of figuring out precisely how global warming is eating away at Greenland's ice.
Specifically, he wants to know whether the melting is being caused more by warm air or warm sea-water. The answer could be crucial to Earth's future.
Water brings more heat to something frozen faster than air does, as anyone who has ever defrosted a steak under the faucet knows.
Greenland contains enough ice to make world sea levels rise by 20 feet if it were all to melt. In a single day this month, it lost a record 13.7 billion tons (12.5 billion metric tons) by one estimate

Chhattisgarh Elephant Reserve May Lead To Mining Ban

Days after the Chhattisgarh government announced the setting up of the Lemru Elephant Reserve (LER), officials indicated that this could automatically lead to a ban on the mining activity in the region, especially in Hasdeo Arand forest, known for its high quality coal reserves.
There are two operational coal mines in this region and they are not included in the proposed reserve. There are about 19 coal deposits in LER, on which the cabinet will take decision in due course.
An area of 1,995 sq kms falling in four forest divisions — Korba, Kathghora, Surajpur and Dharamjaigarh — will be declared an elephant reserve.

Aug 22, 2019

Forest Fires Singe Amazon

Venezuela ranked second with 26,453 fires and Bolivia with 16,101 fires in Amazonian rainforests under their territory.
There has been a surge in forest fires in the Amazon in 2019 with activists and some foreign governments blaming the Brazilian administration for rampant destruction of one of the greenest regions in the world.
National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said there have been nearly 73,000 fires in rainforests in Brazil till August, 2019 compared with 39,759 in all of 2018.

Factors causing fire:

Forest fires tend to intensify during the dry season, which usually ends in late October or early November, as land is cleared to make way for crops or grazing – similar to farm fires in India.
This year's fires, however, are also being attributed to deforestation – which has led to a lack of rain and, consequently, moisture in soil.

Rare Species Of Bear, Deer Spotted In Remote HP Valley

Himachal Pradesh's forest department has found rare species of Himalayan brown bear and white-bellied musk deer during a census conducted at Pangi's 390-sq km Sechun Tuan Nalla Wildlife Sanctuary, which remains cut off for eight months in a year.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has categorised brown bear as a critically endangered species and musk deer as endangered.

Aug 21, 2019

New Species Of Freshwater Fish Found

Scientists of the Zoological Survey of India have discovered two new species of freshwater fish from the north-eastern and northern parts of the country.
While Glyptothorax gopii, a new species of catfish was found in Mizoram's Kaladan river, Garra simbalbaraensis was found in Himachal Pradesh's Simbalbara river.
Both fish, measuring less than seven centimetres, are hill stream fauna and are equipped with special morphological features to suit rapid water flow.
Glyptothorax gopii (measuring 63 mm standard length without caudal fin) is dark brown on its dorsal surface, and its ventral surface is of a yellowish-light brown.
Garra simbalbaraensis (measuring 69 mm standard length without caudal fin) has a yellowish-grey colour fading ventrally.

IndianOil HQs Inaugurates Swachhta Pakhwada

SM Vaidya, Executive Director (Operations), IndianOil Refineries Headquarters, inaugurated Swachhta Pakhwada in New Delhi by releasing a poster on afforestation and a booklet on swachhta initiatives undertaken.
Vaidya also released a sticker for vehicles.Inaugurating the Swachhta Pakhwada in Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Dr Nalin Shinghal, CMD administered the 'Swachhta Pledge' to its employees.
He exhorted BHEL employees to participate enthusiastically and contribute wholeheartedly to the national mission.

India Emits The Most Sulphur Dioxide In The World

India is the largest emitter of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in the world, contributing more than 15 per cent of global anthropogenic emissions, according to a new report by Greenpeace released on August 19, 2019.
The primary reason for India's high emission output is the expansion of coal-based electricity generation over the past decade. Five of the top 10 SO2 emission hotspots from coal/power generation industry across the world are in India.
The analysis is based on hotspots detected by NASA Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite data that captured more than 500 major source points of SO2 emissions across the globe including natural sources such as volcanoes.
However, the analysis excluded all natural sources and only anthropogenic sources of SO2 were investigated. SO2 emissions are a significant contributor to air pollution.

President Ram Nath Kovind Launches Plantation Drive As Part Of Van Mahotsav Celebrations

President Ram Nath Kovind planted a sapling of Maulsari in the Rashtrapati Bhavan Estate and launched a plantation drive as part of Van Mahotsav celebrations.
On the occasion, the President met students and urged them to encourage fellow citizens to plant more trees and reaffirm the commitment to a greener and sustainable planet.
The President's Secretariat will be planting over three thousand trees and around three thousand shrubs. The President's Estate spread over 330 acres of harbours rich biodiversity.

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