Preserve repositories of vulnerable biodiversity

By The New Indian Express |  03rd June 2013 07:42 AM
The India archipelago of Nicobar Islands, home to around 1,800 animal species and some of the world’s most endangered tribes, has now been declared as a world biosphere reserve. The 103,870-hectare reserve was last week officially declared as protected by the International Coordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme. The archipelago is also home to the indigenous Shopmen people, semi-nomadic hunters dwelling inland and the Nicobarese who live in coastal areas and are dependent on fishing and agriculture.

Biosphere reserves are chosen by the MAB programme to experiment with different approaches to manage terrestrial, marine, coastal and freshwater resources. They also serve as in situ laboratories for sustainable development. In India the biospheres of Simplipal (Odisha), Nokrek (Meghalaya), Pachmarhi (Madhya Pradesh), Nilgiri (Tamil Nadu), the Gulf of Mannar (Tamil Nadu), Sunderbans (West Bengal) Nanda Devi (Uttarakhand), and Achanakmar-Amarkantak (MP and Chhattisgarh) are already on UNESCO’s list. The designation is not binding under any law but aimed at building and promoting a network of places where people are attempting to mesh human activity with biological and scenic assets.

Man-made changes to ecosystems are now so alarmingly rapid that human lives and societies face epic challenges. Technological fixes cannot replace the role of robust, complex, and interconnected natural ecosystems in maintaining a biosphere’s favourable conditions. Any viable response to the global environmental crisis must greatly expand the level of protection afforded to wildlife and wild places through conservation. It is imperative to protect all old-growth habitats, as these remnants are ancient repositories of rich and vulnerable biodiversity and optimal arenas for life-sustaining processes.

Source: http://newindianexpress.com/editorials/Preserve-repositories-of-vulnerable-biodiversity/2013/06/03/article1617284.ece?commentId=76816&pageNumber=1#comment-76816

Endangered spider sighted at Tirumal foothills

A. D. RANGARAJAN, The Hindu | April 20, 2013

It was way back in the year 1899 that the spider was first sighted near Gooty (in the present Anantapur district) by a researcher Pocock and reported last.

Seshachalam hills, home to a variety of plants and animals, reptiles and amphibians, have proved again to be rich in biodiversity, with the recent sighting of a rare poisonous venomous spider after a gap of 113 years in India at the foothills of Tirumala.

The spider belonging to the genus poecilotheria is known to be native to India and Sri Lanka, of which eight species are found in India and seven in Sri Lanka. While taking inventory of the Seshachalam Biosphere reserve spread across Chittoor and Kadapa districts of Andhra Pradesh, officials of the Seshachalam Biodiversity Lab attached to Tirupati Wildlife Management Circle sighted a dead specimen of Theraphosid spider, a variety listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as ‘critically endangered.’

Very little published information is available on the species’ ecology and distribution. It was way back in the year 1899 that the spider was first sighted near Gooty (in the present Anantapur district) by a researcher Pocock and reported last. Though it was sighted after 102 years in the Eastern Ghats between Nandyal and Giddalur towns, it has not been recorded officially, making the Tirupati discovery the first in 113 years.

The specimen poecilotheria metallica has coloured carapace and abdomen much as in the other species of the genus poecilotheria, but dark bands on the carapace are found to have higher mesial separation.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/endangered-spider-sighted-at-tirumal-foothills/article4634330.ece

Dams may dry up Ganga, warns ministerial group

Nitin Sethi, TNN | Apr 11, 2013

An inter-ministerial group has recommended that the
projects in Ganga basin be re-engineered to maintain
30-50% of water flow in the
lean period of December-March.

NEW DELHI: Recognizing that the plethora of dams built and planned in the Ganga basin could almost empty the river of its waters in the winter season, an inter-ministerial group has recommended that the projects be re-engineered to maintain 30-50% of water flow in the lean period of December-March.

The group headed by Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi also recommended that electricity production in the existing and upcoming dams on the river's tributaries in Uttarakhand be moderated marginally to ensure that water flow is maintained at 25% between April to October -- the period when the river has average or high water levels.

While keeping the ecological flow in the river at these levels, the government could permit the dams already working or in the pipeline to continue after re-designing to ensure the recommended flow of water in the river. The move would require adjusting the tariff and power production levels marginally. The committee has also recommended that 17 proposed projects adding up to 2,633 mw capacity be reviewed after the Ganga basin study by the IIT consortium.

Sixty-nine projects are proposed or running on Bhagirathi and Alaknanda -- the two main tributaries of the Ganga river basin. These add up to a capacity of 9,020.30 mw. Of these, 17 projects are operational at the moment and 26 are under construction.

If accepted by the government, the report could provide the UPA a route to blunt the BJP's shrill 'save the Ganga' campaign. At the moment, the standard prescription given to hydrolectric projects is to let through only 10% of the river water as ecological threat but environmentalists have warned that with the multiple dams proposed on the tributaries uphill, the river could go dry for large parts of the year.

Non-government members on board the inter-ministerial group, however, differed with the report. Sunita Narain, director general of Centre for Science and Environment, has asked for a minimum of 50% flow in all projects in the winter season between December-March. In an alternative view forming part of the report, she said the data used by the committee to limit winter flows to 30% in some projects was faulty and unverified. She contended that maintaining 50% flow in the river in winter would not lead to greater tariff for the projects or lower their power production abilities significantly.

Rajendra Singh, head of Tarun Bharat Sangh, also on board the committee, disagreed with the report demanding 75% flow in the river in winter and 50% in the summer season.

One of the key demands of protestors was met with the committee recommending that the flow of the river must not be intermittent but continuous.

While noting that the existing 21 hydroelectric projects would face an increase of tariff from 10-20% on Alaknanda and Bhagirathi basins, the committee noted that the dams could be optimized to produce more electricity in the high-flow seasons which they are not doing at the moment.

The group proposed that six tributaries -- Nayar, Bal Ganga, Rishi Ganga, Assi Ganga, upper reaches of Dhauli Ganga, Birahi Ganga and Bhyunder Ganga -- should be kept pristine in character. The Nayar river and the Ganga river stretches between Devprayag and Rishikesh as well as that between Balganga and Tehri reservoir be declared as fish conservation reserves.

For the controversial 330 mw Srinagar project, the committee left it to the environment ministry to decide.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/developmental-issues/Dams-may-dry-up-Ganga-warns-ministerial-group/articleshow/19485134.cms