Environment Issues and Health Effects - 2 | Environment for UPSC CSE PDF Download

MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS

CHIPKO MOVEMENT

• It is a social-ecological movement that practised the Gandhian methods of satyagraha and non-violent resistance, through the act of hugging trees to protect them from falling.
• The modern Chipko movement started in the early 1970s in the Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand, with growing awareness towards rapid deforestation
• The landmark event in this struggle took place on March 26, 1974, when a group of peasant women in Reni village, Hemwalghati, in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, India, acted to prevent the cutting of trees and reclaim their traditional forest rights that were threatened by the contractor system of the state Forest Department.
• Their actions inspired hundreds of such actions at the grassroots level throughout the region.
• By the 1980s the movement had spread throughout India and led to formulation of people-sensitive forest policies, which put a stop to the open felling of trees in regions as far reaching as Vindhyas and the Western Ghats.
• The first recorded event of Chipko however, took place in village Khejarli, Jodhpur district, in 1730 AD, when 363 Bishnois, led by Amrita Devi sacrificed their lives while protecting green Khejri trees, considered sacred by the community, by hugging them, and braved the axes of loggers sent by the local ruler, today it is seen an inspiration and a precursor for Chipko movement of Garhwal.

APPIKO MOVEMENT

• Appiko movement was a revolutionary movement based
  on environmental conservation in India.
• The Chipko movement in Uttarakhand in the Himalayas inspired the villagers of the district of Karnataka province in southern India to launch a similar movement to save their forests.
• In September 1983, men, women and children of Salkani “hugged the trees” in Kalase forest. (The local term for “hugging” in Kannada is appiko.)
• Appiko movement gave birth to a new awareness all over southern India.
  International Standards and Environment
• The ISO 14000 environmental management standards exist to help organizations
• Minimize how their operations (processes etc.) negatively affect the environment (i.e. cause adverse changes to air, water, or land)
• Comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements,
• Continually improve in the above. ISO 14000 is similar to ISO 9000 quality management
  in that both pertain to the process of how a product is
  produced, rather than to the product itself.
• As with ISO 9000, certification is performed by thirdparty organizations rather than being awarded by ISO directly.
• The ISO 19011 audit standard applies when auditing for both 9000 and 14000 compliance at once.
• List of ISO 14000 series standards
• ISO 14001 Environmental management systems - Requirements with guidance for use
• ISO 14004 Environmental management systems - General guidelines on principles, systems and support techniques
• ISO 14015 Environmental assessment of sites and organizations
• ISO 14020 series (14020 to 14025) Environmental labels and declarations
• ISO 14030 discusses post production environmental assessment
• ISO 14031 Environmental performance evaluation - Guidelines
• ISO 14040 series (14040 to 14049), Life Cycle Assessment, LCA, discusses pre-production planning and environment goal setting.
• ISO 14050 terms and definitions.
• ISO 14062 discusses making improvements to environmental impact goals.
• ISO 14063 Environmental communication —Guidelines and examples
• ISO 14064 Measuring, quantifying, and reducing.
• Greenhouse Gas emissions.
• ISO 19011 which specifies one audit protocol.

The National Wastelands Development Board (NWDB)

• The National Wastelands Development Board (NWDB) was set up under the Ministry of Environment & Forests in 1985 with the objective of
• to increase tree and other green cover on wastelands,
• to prevent good land from becoming wasteland, and
• to formulate within the overall nodal policy, perspective plans and programmes for the management and development of the wastelands in the country.
• In 1992, the Board was transferred to the Ministry of Rural Development, putting under a New Department of Wastelands Development under the charge of a Minister of State.

Bioassay

• Bioassay is a test in which organisms are used to detect the presence or the effects of any other physical factor, chemical factor, or any other type of ecological disturbance.
• Bioassays are very common in pollution studies. Bioassays can be conducted by using any type of organisms. However, the fish and insect bioassays are very common.
• The aim is to find out either lethal concentration or effective concentration causing mortality or other effects.
• Ultimately they are to be used for determination of safe concentration of a chemical or maximum acceptable toxicant concentration (MATC).
• The organism is exposed to different concentrations of a toxicant for a definite period and mortality, behavioral change or other signals of distress are noted periodically.
• Out of three types, static bioassay test is designed, where the organisms are exposed to the same toxicant solution for the whole experimental period. The other two are, renewal bioassay and flow-through bioassays. Flagship species
• A flagship species is a species chosen to represent an environmental cause, such as an ecosystem in need of conservation. These species are chosen for their vulnerability, attractiveness or distinctiveness in order to engender support and acknowledgement from the public at large. Thus, the concept of a flagship species holds that, by giving publicity to a few key species, the support given to those species will successfully leverage conservation of entire ecosystems are all species contained therein.
• Example: Indian tiger, African elephant, giant panda of China, mountain gorilla of Central Africa, orangutan of Southeast Asia and the leatherback sea turtle.

Keystone species

• Keystone species is a species whose addition to or loss from an ecosystem leads to major changes in abundance or occurrence of at least one other species. Certain species in an ecosystem is considered more important in determining the presence of many other species in that ecosystem.
• All top predators (Tiger, Lion, Crocodile, Elephant) are considered as keystone species because it regulates all other animals’ population indirectly. Hence top predators are given much consideration in conservation.
• Key stone species deserves special attention from the conservation point of view. Conservation of keystone species encourages conservation of all other relevant species associated with this.
• If keystone species is lost, it will result in the degradation of whole ecosystem. For example certain plant species (ebony tree, Indian-laurel) exclusively depends upon bats for its pollination. If the bat population is reduced then regeneration of particular plants becomes more difficult. This changes the vegetation structure which adversely influence on the dependant animals. Indicator species
• Indicator species is a species whose presence indicates the presence of a set of other species and whose absence indicates the lack of that entire set of species.
• An indicator species is any biological species that defines a trait or characteristic of the environment. For example, a species may delineate an ecoregion or indicate an environmental condition such as a disease outbreak, pollution, species competition or climate change. Indicator species can be among the most sensitive species in a region, and sometimes act as an early warning to monitoring biologists.
• Many indicator species of the ocean systems are fish, invertebrates, periphyton, macrophytes and specific species of ocean birds (like the Atlantic Puffin). Amphibian indicates chemicals, global warming and air pollution. Lichens are indicators of air quality and are sensitive to sulfur dioxide.

Foundation species

• Foundation species is a dominant primary producer in
  an ecosystem both in terms of abundance and influence.
  Example: kelp in kelp forests and corals in coral reefs.

Charismatic megafauna

• These are large animal species with widespread popular appeal that environmental activists use to achieve
  conservation goals well beyond just those species. Examples include the Giant Panda, the Bengal Tiger, and
  the Blue Whale.

Umbrella species

• Umbrella species is a wide-ranging species whose requirements include those of many other species. The protection of umbrella species automatically extends protection to other species. These are species selected for making conservation related decisions, typically because protecting these species indirectly protects the many other species that make up the ecological community of its habitat.