Environment & Ecology - 1 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Landslides

• Month of October was marked by incessant rain that continued to batter Uttarakhand, leading to floods, landslides, and massive destruction of property especially in the hills of Kumaon, the situation in the area, especially Nainital is getting better as most of the roads have either been repaired or under the process of being repaired.
• Landslide is rapid movement of rock, soil and vegetation down the slope under the influence of gravity. These materials may move downwards by falling, toppling, sliding, spreading or flowing. Such movements may occur gradually, but sudden sliding can also occur without warning. They often take place in conjunction with earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions. The extent and Intensity of landslide depends upon number of factors- Steepness of the slope, amount of vegetation cover, tectonic activity, bedding plane of the rocks etc.

Types of Landslides

• Falls: Abrupt movements of materials that become detached from steep slopes or cliffs, moving by freefall, bouncing, and rolling. 
• Creep: Slow, steady downslope movement of soil or rock 
• Debris flow: Rapid mass movement in which loose soils, rocks, and organic matter combine with water to form slurry that then flows down slope. Usually associated with steep gullies 
• Mudflow: Rapidly flowing mass of wet material that contains at least 50 percent sand-, silt-, and clay-sized particles 
• Flows: General term including many types of mass movement, such as creep, debris flow, mudflow etc.

Causes of Landslides

• Geological Causes: Weak, Sensitive and Weathered material, Sensitive material, Presence of Joints and Fissures, Variation in physical properties such as Permeability. 
• Morphological Causes: Tectonic or volcanic uplift, Erosion due to Wind and Water, Higher deposition of load on the slope or its crest, Removal of Vegetation 
• Physical Causes: Intense rainfall, Earthquake/Volcanic eruption, Rapid snow melt/freeze 
• Human Causes: Excavation of the slope or its toe, Deposition of load on the slope, Drawdown of Reservoir, Deforestation, Mining, Irrigation and artificial vibration.

Landslide Prone Areas in India
As highlighted before, as per Geological Survey of India (GSI), about 0.42 million sq.km covering nearly 12.6% of land area of our country is prone to landslide hazards.
The major landslide prone areas in India include:

• Western Ghats and Konkan Hills (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra) 
• Eastern Ghats (Araku region in Andhra Pradesh) 
• North-East Himalayas (Darjeeling and Sikkim) 
• North West Himalayas (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir).

• The Himalayan mountain ranges and hilly tracts of the North-Eastern region are highly susceptible to slope instability due to the immature and rugged topography, fragile rock conditions, high seismicity resulting from proximity to the plate margins, and high rainfall. Extensive anthropogenic interference, as part of developmental activities, is another significant factor. Similarly, the Western Ghats, though located in a stable domain, experiences landslides due to number of factors- steep hill slopes, high intensity rainfall and anthropogenic activities. 
• The Nilgiris hills located at the convergence zone of the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats experiences a number of landslides due to high intensity and protracted rainfall.

Impact of Landslides
Short run: Loss and damage to property, loss of lives, Destruction to agriculture crops, Damage to Vegetation, Obstruction of vehicular movement leading to Traffic jam, temporary loss of livelihood for the poor people etc.

Long-run:

• Increase in the sediment load of the river which can lead to floods. Early Warning Systems for Landslides: This includes the continuous monitoring of movements, development of stresses and the transmission of this data at regular time intervals.
• Investigations for Landslide Risk Assessment: Multidisciplinary investigations of landslide risk assessment leading to formulation of Standards to mitigate impact of landslides. 

Landslide Risk Mitigation and Remediation: 

• Restricting Development in Landslide-Prone Areas through Land use planning. 
• Laying down standards to be followed for Excavation and Construction 
• Protecting Existing Developments through Restraining walls and rock anchors 
• Slope Stabilisation measures: Generally, include works involving modification of the natural landslide conditions such as topography, geology, ground water, and other conditions that indirectly control portions of the entire landslide movement. These include drainage improvement works, soil/debris removal works etc. 
• Landslide Insurance and Compensation for Losses Regulation and Enforcement: The state governments/SDMAs will adopt the model techno-legal framework for ensuring compliance with land use zoning Early Warning Systems for Landslides: This includes the continuous monitoring of movements, development of stresses and the transmission of this data at regular time intervals. 
• Investigations for Landslide Risk Assessment: Multidisciplinary investigations of landslide risk assessment leading to formulation of Standards to mitigate impact of landslides.
• Awareness and Preparedness: Comprehensive awareness campaigns targeting diverse groups of people living in landslide prone areas should be carried out systematically Capacity Development (Including Education, Training and Documentation): 
• Introduction of curriculum related to Disaster Management, including Landslides in the Schools 
• Training of the Administrators to plan, respond and mitigate the impact of Landslides 
• Technical institutes located in vulnerable areas should develop adequate technical expertise on the various subjects related to landslide management. Immediate Response: Put in place Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) which should ensure coordinated and sustained action from various agencies in the aftermath of landslides. 
• Research and Development: Government should encourage, promote, and support R&D activities to address current challenges, offer solutions, and develop novel investigation techniques, with the application of the latest developments in remote sensing, communications, and instrumentation technologies.

E-Waste

Current Status

• Annual global production of e-waste is estimated to surpass 50 million tons in 2020. 
• India is among the top five e-waste producing countries in the world with estimated annual production of 2 million tons. 
• Like some of the other developing countries, e-waste management in India is dominated by the informal sector with estimates of more than 90 per cent of the waste being processed in this sector.

Importance of E-Waste and its Sound Management

• All e-waste is valuable as it is highly rich in metals such as copper, iron, tin, nickel, lead, zinc, silver, gold, and palladium. Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) contain rare and precious metals such as ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium and platinum – which are together referred to as the Platinum Group Metals (PGM). 
• E-waste, if handled and disposed of in an inefficient manner can lead to extremely damaging impact on human health and the environment. 
• This is mainly because e-waste comprises hazardous constituents such as lead, cadmium, chromium, brominated flame retardants or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) that contaminate soil, water and food.

The Problem of E-Waste Management

• Unfortunately, the collection and recycling of e waste is predominantly being done by the informal or unorganized labour through highly environmentally degradative ways, which cause serious health hazards.

(ii) High rate of collection but low recovery: 

• The rate of e-waste collection is very high in India owing to its valuable content. 
• But since most of the e-waste recycling is done by the informal sector in India, wherein recovery of valuable materials ranges between 10–20% only. 

(iii) Exposure of vulnerable section to toxic elements: 

• The informal sector comprises of unskilled workers, sometimes even children who live near dumps or landfills of untreated e-waste and work in dangerous working conditions without any protection or safety gear. 

(iv) Environmental degradation: 

• Non-environmentally sound practices – such as burning cables to recover copper and unwanted materials in open air – caused environmental pollution and severe health hazards to the operators. 
• Practices like disposal of unsalvageable materials in fields and riverbanks have led to leaching of heavy metals/chemicals into land and water. 
• Some of the e-waste is extremely complex in constitution and hence difficult to recycle, while the other does not even have environmentally sound recycling technologies.

Emerging Issues Apart from The Large Informal Sector, India Faces a Number of Other Challenges in Effective Management of E-Waste, Such As:
Lack of infrastructure: 

• The gap between e-waste that is being collected and recycled by authorized dismantlers/recyclers and the total quantum of e-waste being generated is huge. 
• The existing recycling facilities face issues from lack of suitable environmentally sound technologies to lack of steady supply of raw materials. 
• This is mainly because consumers, owing to lack of awareness about the hazardous impact of inappropriate e-waste recycling, sell their electronic waste to informal recyclers for quick money as it is easier and faster. 
• Thus, registered recycling units are deprived of a regular supply of e-waste which is crucial for their sustenance. Currently, the authorized e-waste recycling facilities in India capture only a small amount of the total e-waste generated and the rest makes its way into informal recycling. 

High cost of setting up recycling facilities: 

• Advanced recycling technology is expensive and makes large investments risky, especially when sourcing of e-waste is a challenge. 
• Most of the formal recycling companies in India limit their role to only pre-processing of e-waste, wherein the crushed e-waste with precious metals is exported to smelting refineries outside India. An end-to-end solution for e-waste recycling is still not available in India. 
• Practices like disposal of unsalvageable materials in fields and riverbanks have led to leaching of heavy metals/chemicals into land and water. 
• Some of the e-waste is extremely complex in constitution and hence difficult to recycle, while the other does not even have environmentally sound recycling technologies.

Addressing the informal sector

• Bridging the gap between formal and informal sectors. 
• Improving the working conditions and minimising the work related to toxic exposure at the e-waste collection, processing, recovery and disposal sites.

Access to Environmentally Sound Technologies

• Cost-effective technologies for recycling e-waste such as Li-ion batteries, printed circuit boards, etc. 
• R&D on innovative technologies for Processing e-waste and effective metal extraction methodologies.
• Development of sustainable e-waste business models and implementation of pilot projects for different innovations.

Biodiversity Financing

Issues With Biodiversity Financing

• There seems to be a trend towards providing environment finance as loans and debts, many of them to some of the poorest countries, which already highly indebted. 
• Some finance is inaccurately reported as climate finance, which inflates the numbers. 
• Counting private and non-grant finance as climate finance. 
• Counting finance that is not climate-relevant as climate finance. 
• Applying non-transparent and inconsistent methodologies to count mobilised private finance, resulting in overstating finance volumes. 
• Shortfalls in the quality and composition of finance from what is suggested by the accords. 
• Spending on biodiversity is far less than that for climate change. 
• Relative dearth of financial resources in low- and middle-income countries. 
• More than half of all climate funds take the form of loans while 86% of biodiversity funding comes from public sources. 
• Public & Private investors know that in financing projects such as solar energy plants or batteries R&D, they will earn some return on investment. However, protecting a watershed or a wetland is more of a public service, hence needs to be funded by governments.

Contours of Ideal Biodiversity & Climate Financing

• Financing for biodiversity should be given out as grants and not loans. 
• Financing should be provided for research and development of local biodiversity in the Least Developed Countries. 
• Funding should be pooled and managed through international organisations. 
• Rules for access need to be transparent and fair to all applicants.

Glasgow Agreement

Salient Features of Glasgow Accord

• All the parties agreed that stronger action in the present decade is vital for meeting the 1.5-degree objective, according to the Glasgow Accord.

As a result, it has requested/decided:

• By the end of the year, they should have strengthened their 2030 climate action plans, or NDCs (nationally determined contributions). to Create a work plan to increase mitigation ambition and implementation as soon as possible. 
• Organise an annual summit of ministers to increase the ambition of climate action in 2030. 
• Annual synopsis of individual countries cations. 
• In 2023, a gathering of world leaders will be held to increase the ambition of climate action. 
• Countries should make steps to limit coal use as a source of energy and eliminate "inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies. 
• Coal will be phased down, and fossil fuels will be phased out. This is the first-time coal has been mentioned clearly in a COP decision. Adaptation 
• Adaptation is regarded as the most crucial component of climate action by most countries, particularly the smaller and poorer ones, as well as small island governments. 
• They have demanded that adaptation efforts receive at least half of all climate money.

As a result, the Glasgow Climate Pact has the following provisions

• Developed countries have been asked to at least double the amount of money allocated to adaptation by 2025, compared to current levels. 
• Developed a two-year work plan to create a global adaptation goal. Finance 
• Every step taken to address climate change has a monetary cost. It is now predicted that trillions of dollars will be required each year to pay all the initiatives required to meet the climate goals. 
• As a result of their past culpability for greenhouse gas emissions, developed countries have a responsibility. 
• They must help underdeveloped countries cope with climate change by providing funds and technology. 
• Developed countries committed in 2009 that by 2020, they would raise at least $100 billion annually. Even though the 2020 deadline has passed, the $100 billion pledge has yet to be met. 
• The industrialised countries have recently stated that they will raise this sum by 2023.

Carbon Markets

• Carbon markets make trading emission reductions easier. 
• They are regarded as a crucial and effective tool for reducing overall emissions. 
• A carbon market existed under the Kyoto Protocol; however, it has since disappeared due to the Protocol's expiration last year. 
• Because many countries abandoned their emission reduction commitments, developing countries such as India, China, and Brazil have substantial amounts of carbon credits left over. 
• The Glasgow Pact has provided some relief to poor countries. 
• It has enabled countries to use these carbon credits to satisfy their first NDC targets. 
• Announcement of Parallel Processes: In Glasgow, a lot of important work was done in parallel procedures that were not part of the official COP debates. Prior failures in financing must be considered 
• "Deep regrets" were expressed over the rich countries' failure to deliver on their $100 billion promise. 
• It has requested them to put this money together as soon as possible, and to do so every year until 2025. 
• Discussions on creating a new climate finance target beyond $100 billion for the period after 2025 have begun. 
• The wealthy countries have been asked to offer transparent information about the funds they intend to provide. 

Loss and Damage 

• Climate disasters are becoming more common, and many of them have resulted in widespread devastation. There is no institutional system in place to reimburse these countries for their losses or to assist them with relief and reconstruction. 
• The Paris Agreement's loss and damage provision attempts to remedy this. Substantive discussions on loss and damage could take place in Glasgow, thanks to a push from numerous countries. 
• A provision for the establishment of a facility to coordinate loss and damage actions was included in one of the earlier draughts. 
• India has announced a Panchamrita (a five-point plan) to combat climate change. 
• Brazil's net-zero target year would be pushed back from 2060 to 2050. 
• China agreed to release a clear strategy for meeting its commitment to peak emissions in 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2060. Israel has set a goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. 
• Over a hundred countries have committed to cutting methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030, compared to current levels. 
• Over a hundred countries have pledged to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. 
• Over 30 countries signed a declaration vowing to work toward a transition to zero-emission vehicles by 2040, at least in the world's major car markets. Panchamrit Strategy of India Prime Minister of India announced a heightened commitment to address the issue of climate change. 
• This was in line with the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR-RC), wherein it is accepted that developed nations account for most of the legacy greenhouse emissions, which are the cause of present climate change. 
• Hence, developing nations like India which have only very low per capita carbon emissions need lesser commitment. Also, developing countries like India need carbon space to pursue development path ensuring sustainable development of their country. 
• The strategy includes: India will get its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030 
• India will meet 50 per cent of its energy requirements till 2030 with renewable energy 
• India will reduce its projected carbon emission by one billion tonnes by 2030 
• India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 45 per cent by 2030 
• India will achieve net zero by 2070 ‘Panchamrita’ is a traditional method of mixing five natural foods — milk, ghee, curd, honey and jaggery. These are used in Hindu and Jain worship rituals. It is also used as a technique in Ayurveda.

Draft National Water Policy

The water cycle no longer operates within an invariant range of prediction, as seen by changing precipitation patterns and intensity, as well as river discharge rate. This necessitates a greater focus on water management's agility, resilience, and flexibility to respond appropriately to the future's unpredictability increased.

Issues in Water Policy 2012

• Water Governance uncertainty and the strategy proposes fundamental changes to the way water is managed, which is plagued by three types of challenges: That is, the distinction between irrigation and drinking water, surface and groundwater, and water and wastewater. 
• Because of over-extraction of groundwater, rivers are drying up, reducing the base-flows required for rivers to have water following the monsoon. 
• Dealing with drinking water and irrigation in silos has resulted in aquifers offering reliable sources of drinking water drying up because the same aquifers are also utilised for irrigation, which consumes far more water. 
• Water quality suffers when water and wastewater are separated during planning.

Demand Management

• The policy recognises that increasing water supply indefinitely has limits and argues for a shift to demand management. 
• Irrigation: Rice, wheat, and sugarcane use most of India's water, which is consumed by irrigation. The basic water needs of millions of people cannot be addressed unless this pattern of water demand is drastically altered.

Groundwater

• Sustainable and equitable groundwater management is a top concern for the NWP. 
• The key is community-based groundwater management. Stakeholders selected as custodians of their aquifers would be able to adopt guidelines for effective groundwater management if they were given information about aquifer boundaries, water storage capacities, and flows in a user-friendly way. 

River

• Historically, rivers have been viewed as primarily an economic resource. Despite the economic value of rivers, the NWP prioritises river protection and rehabilitation. 
• The NWP lays forth a plan for drafting a River Rights Act, which would protect rivers' rights to flow, meander, and reach the sea. 

Water Quality 

• It is the most critical neglected issue in India today. o It is proposed that a water quality department be included in every water ministry, both at the federal and state levels.

New Water Policy in Draft (NWP)
The proposed NWP made two major recommendations: 

• Shift the focus away from never-ending water supply increases and toward demand management strategies. In keeping with area agroecology, this entails changing our cropping pattern to incorporate fewer water-intensive crops. 
• We must reduce our industrial water footprint, which is among the highest in the world, by switching to recycled water and reducing freshwater use. All non-potable applications, such as flushing, firefighting, vehicle washing, landscaping, gardening, and so on, must be shifted to treated wastewater by cities. 
• A shift in concentration on the supply side is also since the country is running out of land for new major dams, and water tables and groundwater quality are declining in many locations. Trillions of litres of water are held in large dams but never reach the farmers who are supposed to benefit from them. 
• The policy specifies how this can be accomplished using pressured closed conveyance pipelines, SCADA systems, and pressurised micro-irrigation. The case for "nature-based solutions" for water storage and supply is becoming increasingly compelling around the world. 
• As a result, the NWP lays a strong emphasis on water supply through watershed rejuvenation, which must be rewarded with ecosystem services compensation, vulnerable communities in mountainous areas. particularly in for upstream.

Recommendations in Draft Water Policy

• It is the single most critical step in alleviating India's water crisis, according to demand side options. 
• Diversifying public procurement activities to include Nutri-cereals, pulses, and oilseeds is suggested in the policy. The Integrated Child Development Services, the mid-day meal scheme, and the public distribution system are the primary outlets for these procured crops. Given the higher nutritional composition of these crops, establishing this link would also assist address the crisis of starvation and diabetes. 
• Farmers should be encouraged to diversify their cropping patterns, resulting in significant water savings. 

Reduce-Recycle-Reuse 

• This has been recommended as the basic motto of integrated urban water supply and wastewater management, with sewage treatment and ecorestoration of urban river sections achieved as far as practicable through decentralised wastewater management. Use of cleaned and treated wastewater for all non-potable purposes, such as flushing, firefighting, and vehicle washing. 

Supply Side recommendations

• The policy recommends utilising water stored in large dams that are still not reaching farmers and explains how irrigated areas could be greatly expanded at a low cost by deploying pressurised closed conveyance pipelines, combined with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and pressurised micro-irrigation. 
• The NWP lays a strong emphasis on water supply via "nature-based solutions" such as catchment area rejuvenation, which will be rewarded with ecosystem services compensation. 
• Rain gardens and bioswales restored rivers with wet meadows, bio-remediation wetlands, urban parks, permeable pavements, green roofs, and other specially curated "blue-green infrastructure" are proposed for urban areas. 

Water Quality

• The policy encourages the use of cutting-edge sewage treatment technology that are low-cost, low-energy, and environmentally friendly. 
• The widespread use of reverse osmosis has resulted in significant water waste and harmed water quality. 
• If the total dissolved solids count in water is less than 500 mg/L, the guideline states that RO units should be avoided. 
• It proposes forming an emerging water pollutants task team to better understand and address the problems they are anticipated to pose. 
• Re-vegetation of catchments, management of groundwater extraction, river-bed pumping, and sand and boulder mining are all steps in the process of restoring river flows.

Kuno to Get 13 Cheetahs Next Year Who Can Co-Exist with Leopards

Need For Cheetah Reintroduction

• Because the Cheetah species has got extinct in the country. 
• And the plan is to revive the Indian Population of Cheetah.

Original Geographical Range

Causes For Extinction of Cheetahs

• They were hunted into extinction during and after the Mughal Period, largely by Rajput and Maratha Indian royalty and later by British colonialists, until the early 20th century when only several thousand remained. 

Captive (help in hunting) 

• Trapping of large numbers of adult Indian cheetahs, who had already learned hunting skills from wild mothers, for assisting in royal hunts is said to be another major cause of the species rapid decline in India as they never bred in captivity with only one record of a litter ever. 
• Reintroduction of the cheetah in India involves the re-establishment of a population of cheetahs into areas where they had previously existed: A part of the reintroduction process is the identification and restoration of their former grassland scrub forest habitats.

Methods of Reintroduction of Cheetahs

• India first proposed this method during the last decade but it didn't work. 
• During the early 2000s, Indian scientists from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, proposed a plan to clone Asiatic cheetahs obtained from Iran. 
• Indian scientists requested Iran to allow them to collect some live cells of the cheetah pair in Iran itself, which can then be made into living cell lines. They planned to use the nucleus from these cells to manually reproduce their own cheetahs, over a significantly long amount of time. 
• Iran refused to cooperate (would neither send any cheetahs to India nor would allow Indian scientists to collect their tissue samples) 
• It is said that Iran wanted an Asiatic lion in exchange for a cheetah and that India was not willing to export any of its lions. 

Reintroducing live Cheetahs 

• So, it was decided that African Cheetah would be introduced in protected areas in India.

Issues With Cheetah Reintroduction

• As the habitat for Asiatic lion and Tiger as well as the Cheetah is similar, many sites identified for Cheetah reintroduction clash with lion & Tiger conservation. As we know, that there is only a single population of Lion in India in Gir and that has become unsustainable due to rapid growth in their population and there is a need to relocate many lions from Gir. 
• An expert panel formed by the government shortlisted a number of protected areas where cheetahs could be relocated. These were Kuno Palpur and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, Velavadar National Park in Gujarat and the Shahgarh bulge in Rajasthan. 
• The Kuno reintroduction plan ran into trouble. The protected area had also been shortlisted for introduction of Asiatic Lions from heavily populated Gir in Gujarat. 
• To not give lions to Kuno, Gujarat's legal counsel had put forward the argument that Kuno was being used for the introduction of African cheetah which might take several years to fully settle down and repopulate the area and hence reintroduction of lions should only be done after that. Perpetual problems with India’s wildlife 
• As the import of the Cheetahs from Africa will be very limited, the problems being faced by the wildlife in the country might undo the efforts. 
• It is advisable to resolve following issues first: Human-wildlife conflict, Loss of habitat and loss of prey Illegal trafficking. Climate change and growing human populations have only made these problems worse. With less available land for wildlife, species that require vast home range like the cheetah are placed in competition with other animals and humans, all fighting over less space.