Madhya Pradesh: Wildlife Trust of India training villages around Bandhavgarh tiger reserve under elephant project
Various steps are being taken by the Madhya Pradesh forest department in collaboration with wildlife trust of India (WTI) to avoid man-elephant conflicts in the state. People in around 10 villages near Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve where wild elephants are moving, are being trained. Awareness programs are being conducted by WTI under its Elephant Project.
Wild elephants are moving from within Bandhavgarh between Barmera, Kaseru, Barwahi, Baghaiya, Kothia, Kushmaha, villages inside Pataur Range Core and Sejwahi, Gangital and Manpur villages under Sehra, Naugawa ranges. Volunteers of the elephant project work with the forest department.
Officials say immediate measures were needed to mitigate conflict situations, especially since the migration of wild elephants to Madhya Pradesh has increased in the last few years.
A herd of around 40 jumbos came to Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve a year ago, reviving an old corridor from Jharkhand, and have stayed put. The jumbo death points at the need for an elephant project. On April 2, 2020 three persons, including two women, were trampled to death by a herd of 12 elephants in Rajendragram of Anuppur district. It was an unexpected crop raid by elephants.
India’s dietary guidelines have a relatively lower carbon footprint: study
Growing conversations on climate change in the context of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have sparked more meaningful conversations on dietary diversity, ethical consumption and planetary health in recent years with many celebrities also embracing the ‘green living’ chatter. India’s dietary guidelines have the lowest carbon footprint compared to Germany, the Netherlands, Oman, Thailand, Uruguay, and the United States, a recent study has said.
India’s dietary carbon footprint is 1.6 to 1.8 times lower than the EAT-Lancet recommendations that suggest a diet rich in plant-based foods and with fewer animal source foods for both improved health and environmental benefits
India’s GHG emissions associated with diets are “greatest for rice and livestock products” like milk and eggs because these are widely consumed products with high GHG emissions per unit of product, reports a 2017 paper; and although there is limited consumption of ruminant meat in India, its high GHG intensity means that it is the third greatest contributor to GHG emissions. While mitigation options are available in on-farm management, dietary change could help to decrease GHG emissions considerably, but changes in dietary intakes to reduce GHG emissions would need to “consider the nutritional implications, so as not to compromise health”, the paper cautions.
Livestock rearing (enteric fermentation and manure management) and rice cultivation in India mainly spew methane, roughly 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas, while nitrous oxide, 300-times worse than carbon dioxide, is principally produced when fertilisers are applied to agricultural soils. The agriculture sector is the main source of methane and nitrous oxide emissions.
But a diverse food basket, especially consumption of non-cereal food groups such as fruits and vegetables, is needed for a more nutrition-sensitive food environment in rural India and households would have to shell out more mainly to spend on meat, fish, and poultry, fruits and dairy, to meet the EAT-Lancet recommendations, finds another study.
India’s expert forest panel calls for sustainable mining
The Indian government’s expert forest panel in its May 2021 meeting recommended an in-principle approval for two mining projects, of about 400 hectares each, for red sandstone in Rajasthan and iron and manganese ore in Karnataka.
While the project that was given a go-ahead in Rajasthan falls in a zone where mining has been going on since the 1950s, in Karnataka it falls under a virgin forest area.
The case pertains to the Rajasthan government’s request for diversion of 398 hectares of forest land in the Pahadpur region for red sandstone mining in the Bharatpur district of the state. According to the Rajasthan government’s department of mining and geology, the sandstone available in this area is of “very high quality and is available in large quantities.” The proposal was discussed by the MoEFCC’s Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) during its meeting on May 31, 2021.
The Wildlife Institute of India even observes, in its assessment of the area, that “the heavily mined areas of Bansi Pahadpur has suffered irreparable ecological loss” and the “severity of the damage does not appear to be restorable by any regular forestry activities.”
Similarly, during the latest May 31 meeting, the panel once again sought a study for green/sustainable mining. The FAC was hearing a case for the diversion of about 401 hectares of forest land in Karnataka’s Ballari district for iron ore and manganese ore mining. In this case, as well, the FAC recommended an in-principle approval for the project and noted that the “cumulative impact of mining on the forest, wildlife and ecology needs to be understood and acted upon.”
It said that the area “requires a comprehensive view with regard to sustainable mining vis-à-vis forest, wildlife and ecological conservation including promotion of green mining infrastructure in the future which could not only have the least impact on forest and wildlife in the area but in some cases could actually promote forest and wildlife by itself.”
In both cases, the expert forest panel, while clearing the project, called for sustainable mining while seeking measures, such as a cluster mining plan and common green infrastructure, to protect ecology and wildlife.
Fishermen protest dropping of iron scrap in sea by Sri Lanka
Fishermen affiliated to All Mechanised Boat Fishermen Association staged a protest at Rameswaram in the district, appealing to the Centre to stop Sri Lanka from dropping bus scrap in the Palk Strait that would affect marine ecology and damage Indian fishermen’s boats and nets.
Association president P. Sesuraja said the Sri Lankan government claimed that it was dropping the scrap in its territorial waters. However, the areas were close to where Indian fishermen were traditionally going for fishing.
“The scrap can also be washed into Indian territory by strong currents. The iron scrap can damage costly fishing nets and wooden boats and cause huge a loss to our fishermen,” Mr. Sesuraja said.
He said traditionally only wooden logs or artificial coral reef were dropped in the sea to enable breeding of fishes. However, now iron scrap was being dropped in the sea with a motive to cause loss to Tamil fishermen, he alleged.
NGT directs committee to file report on environmental violations by Wave City project
The National Green Tribunal Wednesday directed a committee to file a report regarding illegal cutting of trees, violation of Environmental Clearance (EC) conditions and illegal extraction of the groundwater by a real estate developer in Ghaziabad and Noida.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel passed the order after taking note that the committee formed to report the violations has not been able to make an assessment of the environmental compensation on the ground that data is awaited from the realty developer. It also noted the committee’s submission that it would make the assessment within two months of receiving the data.
The tribunal had formed a joint committee comprising officials from the Central Pollution Control Board, Member Secretary, State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority, UP, state pollution control board, Central Ground Water Authority and Ghaziabad District Magistrate.
Environment India 