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Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Urbanisation on the rise in India

News

  • About 34% of India’s population now lives in urban areas, the N. World Urbanization Prospects 2018 reporthas said.

Beyond News

  • This is an increase of about three percentage points since the 2011 Census.
  • One way to look at the growth in urbanisation is by studying the size of urban agglomeration, which denotes contiguous territories with an urban population density.
  • The number of megasized urban clusters (above 50 lakh population) has remained almost constant over the years. However, the number of smaller urban clusters has been increasing rapidly.
  • The chart shows the number of urban agglomeration clusters of varying population over the years.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

 ‘Clean air policy needs more focus on health’

News

  • Twenty-four Indian healthcare professionals, including two who are currently posted at the Indian research station in Antartica, have told the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) that the draft policy for the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) falls short of their expectations.

Beyond News

  • They recommend two measures to mitigate adverse health impacts of air pollution and make provisions for the betterment of affected populations.
  • Air pollution is commonly linked only with respiratory diseases but it also contributes to non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular ailments.
  • The doctors cited a report that stated that household air pollution was responsible for 5% of the total disease burden in India in 2016, and outdoor air pollution for 6%.
  • The contribution of air pollution to the disease burden remained high in India between 1990 and 2016, with levels of exposure among the highest in the world.
  • The Clean Air Collective, a group of activists and citizens, has also sent its recommendations for the NCAP draft policy, demanding that it should cover emission targets, waste management, strengthening of non-motorised transport, among others.
  • MoEFCC should incorporate 35% reduction in three years and 50% reduction in five years as targets to make NCAP effective and impactful. It must have a holistic approach to tackle the issue of stubble management.
  • To decongest the traffic more emphasis must be given on promoting/strengthening the Non-Motorised Transport (NMT) and public transportation, which are long term sustainable solutions highlighted under the National Urban Transport Policy.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

 Western Ghats need more attention: IUCN

Western ghats conservation

News

  • Western Ghats and Manas Wildlife Sanctuary face ‘significant concern,’ says the IUCN World Heritage Outlook 2 report, putting them in the second highest risk category in the global assessment.

Beyond News

  • The IUCN considered the status of 241 natural world heritage sites. The two Indian areas were so classified based on their values being “threatened” or showing signs of deterioration.
  • The report called for “significant additional conservation measures” to maintain and/or restore values over the medium to long term.
  • The Kaziranga and Sundarbans National Parks were classified as good, with some concerns. There were no Indian sites in the critical category.
  • Many factors severely threatened the Outstanding Universal Value of the region and required coordinated conservation.
  • The 39 serial sites of the Ghats were “under increasing population and developmental pressure” that required intensive and targeted management to conserve existing values and remedy past damage, it said.
  • Grazing, massive pilgrimage tourism and mining are among the identified threats.
  • The report noted that about 50 million people live in the Western Ghats Region, resulting in greater pressures than many protected areas around the world.” Forest loss, encroachment and conversion affected the ghats.
  • In Manas, the threat, although low, came from unsustainable and illegal logging. Monitoring operations by staff was being done. In recent years the level of poaching here had again increased. Recent cases of rhino poaching were linked to the activity of insurgent groups.
  • These groups also reportedly poached deer and buffalo.

‘India’s freshwater stocks in danger’

Water purification with sunlight

News

  • India is among the hotspots where overuse of water resources has caused a sharp decline in the availability of freshwater, according to a first-of-its-kind study using an array of NASA satellite observations of the earth.

Beyond News

  • Scientists led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the U.S. used data on human activities to map locations where the availability of freshwater is rapidly changing.
  • The study found that wetter parts of the earth’s were getting wetter and dry areas getting drier due to a variety of factors, including human water use, climate change and natural cycles.
  • Areas in northern and eastern India, West Asia, California and Australia are among the hotspots where overuse of water resources has caused a serious decline in the availability of freshwater.
  • In northern India, groundwater extraction for irrigation of wheat and rice crops has led to depletion, despite rainfall being normal throughout the period studied.
  • The fact that extractions already exceed recharge during normal precipitation does not bode well for the availability of groundwater during future droughts, the researchers said.
  • The team used 14 years of observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) spacecraft mission, a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center, to track global trends in freshwater in 34 regions around the world.
  • Scientists noted that while water loss in some regions, like the melting ice sheets and alpine glaciers, is clearly driven by warming climate, it will require more time and data to determine the driving forces behind other patterns of freshwater change.

Creating a comfort zone for spotted deer

Spotted deer conservationNews

  • The deer park, presently spread over 25 acres abutting the scenic Kinnerasani dam in Palvancha mandal of Telangana State, is all set to be expanded into 625 acres facility for creating ample space for deer to move around freely as well as to transform the picturesque site into a major eco-tourism hotspot.

Beyond News

  • The expansion of the park has become imperative to overcome space and resource constraints in the wake of multiplying population of spotted deer.
  • Over 100 spotted deer are presently housed in the park, which is part of the Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary.
  • With the release of several rescued deer from various parts of the erstwhile Khammam district into the park in the recent past, their population has reportedly reached the saturation level, sources said.
  • As part of the ambitious expansion plan, the Forest Department has embarked on civil work to expand the area of the park, erect new fencing and develop grasslands.
  • The Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC) has initiated a grand plan to develop facilities at Kinnerasani dam site to turn the spot into a major tourism destination in the State.
  • Work is under way to construct nine cottages, a food court and a glass house at an estimated cost of ₹23 crore at the Kinnerasani project site, the sources added.
  • The Forest Department has also mooted a plan to develop a safari park at the site which is part of the wildlife sanctuary.
  • The existing deer park would be expanded at an estimated cost of ₹1.10 crore.

A master plan is being prepared to develop a safari park and run battery-operated vehicles by involving the local unemployed tribal youths to transform the spot into an eco-tourism hub.

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