Assam lost 320 hectares forest land by encroachment
The Assam forest department has admitted before the Gauhati high court that 320 hectares of reserved forest land of Longai Reserved.
Forest in Karimganj district have been encroached by people from Mizoram.
The petitioner’s advocate said the divisional forest officer in its affidavit stated that about two/three families from Mizoram encroached upon 7.58 hectares of the reserved forest land at Chutobubirbond inside Singla reserved forest along the Assam-Mizoram Border and constructed temporary houses and also raised cash crops during the Covid-19-induced lockdown. However, they were evicted and the area was cleared.
“But, due to lack of manpower and non-availability of quick response force, the evicted area was re-encroached upon in October last year when a significant number of people from Mizoram, along with uniformed personnel, entered Singla reserved forest and built camp huts, tent houses, bunkers and also dug out trenches,” the forest department stated.
However, the Mizoram and Assam governments as well as the Centre, who were directed by the court on January 29 to clear their stand in the matter, are yet to file an affidavit before the court, which has now fixed March 9 as the next date of hearing.
By Indiatimes
Fragmentation of tiger habitat is leading to inbreeding, low survival: Study
A new research paper has concluded that fragmentation of habitat has already disrupted the natural evolutionary process in wild tigers and will continue to do so in future as anthropogenic pressures increase, leading to higher inbreeding and lower survival.
A team of researchers from Stanford University, the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bengaluru, and various zoological parks and wildlife NGOs sequenced 65 genomes from four of the surviving tiger subspecies—Amur tigers, Bengal tigers, Sumatran tigers and Malayan tigers—over a period of three years to gain insight into the genomic variation in tigers.
The study published in journal of Molecular Biology and Evolution published on February 16 suggests that these four tiger subspecies are genetically distinct but there is inbreeding among Indian tigers, which is a result of isolated populations due to habitat loss. “What the paper points out is that although Indian tigers as a whole (all Indian tigers looked at in this study) have the highest amount of variation compared to any other subspecies, some Indian tigers do show signs of possible inbreeding or founding events (loss of genetic variation).
Army of women came together to revive Naganadhi river
The Naganadhi river with its catchment area in Vellore and Tiruvannamalai districts had dried up many years ago. The groundwater in the area reduced subsequently making the area bore-well dependent.
Over a 1000 women from 21 villages of a revenue block in Vellore district built recharge wells and check dams to recharge groundwater which, in turn, revived the river. The groundwater recharge work has now been extended to nine other districts led by close to 20,000 women.
The Naganadhi river rejuvenation is a story of transformation, not just that of a river but the lives and livelihoods it sustains. With the recharging of groundwater, the moisture retention of soil has increased. Even during the heavy rains in Tamil Nadu which resulted in floods in Chennai in 2015, these villages were safe because the waterbodies did not overflow. In the summer of 2016, the lakes were full because of the groundwater recharge.
Orissa High Court notices to officials on death of Olive Ridley turtles
Orissa High Court February 23, 2021 took suo motu cognisance of Down to Earth’s February 4 report on the death of around 800 Olive Ridley sea turtles due to negligence by Odisha’s forest and fisheries departments.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice S Muralidhara and BP Routray sought report on the matter.
Endangered marine species like the Olive Ridleys are to be protected under Scheduled 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The state’s Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary is known as the world’s largest rookery of sea turtles.
The court Tuesday issued notices to and sought appearances on February 26.
NGT orders NTPC to pay Rs 58L for ruining the environment
The National Green Court (NGT) on Tuesday rejected a petition from the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) requesting the review of an order passed by the Uttarakhand Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Board and fined it. of 57.9 lakh to the potency for Harming the environment.
The company was found to have violated manure disposal site maintenance standards at its Tapovan-Vishnugad hydroelectric project in Chamoli, resulting in damage to the environment. Incidentally, the 520 MW Tapovan-Vishnugad project was severely damaged in the February 7 flash floods that resulted in more than 100 people, who were associated with the project, missing.
Environment India 