New snake species found in Ganjam named after Odisha

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BHUBANESWAR: A new species of snake, found by a group of herpetologists and snake lovers in Odisha last year, has been named after the eastern state as Lycodon Odishii, becoming the latest addition to the list of 297 species of snakes found in the country.

The Russian Journal of Herpetology, an international science journal, has published a research paper on the new species in its latest edition published on Friday.

"For over 218 years, scientists from across the world were identifying the snake with juveniles of Lycodon Jara. Several attempts to differentiate the snake were made in the past, but proved unsuccessful due to lack of proper documentation. We worked for a year and a half and finally concluded that this was a new species," said the research paper's author Subhendu Mallik, who is also secretary of Snake Helpline, a voluntary organization working for the rescue and rehabilitation of snakes.

The green-coloured snake has a bright white collar on its neck and twin spots on each scale except the collar. The new species, the common name of which is Subhendu's wolf snake, has several similarities with Lycodon Jara. Scientists used to believe that the juvenile Jara has a collar and as it grows old, the collar disappears.

Volunteers of Snake Helpline found the snake in Berhampur in Ganjam district in 2013. "The female snake had a collar. That struck us because how could an adult Jara have a collar? We started our research on the species," said Mallik. A detailed examination of the specimen showed clear morphological differences of at least 12 characters, he added.

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World Land Trust raising funds for the ‘ambitious’ Chilkiya-Kota elephant corridor

LONDON: World Land Trust is an international conservation charity, which protects the world's most biologically important and threatened habitats acre by acre. In one of its most ambitious projects till date, WLT has decided to fund purchase of alternate land for the Pannod villagers of Uttarakhand to move, as part of the path breaking project to create the Chilkiya-Kota elephant corridor in Uttarakhand. The corridor will permanently connect Corbett Tiger Reserve and Ramnagar forest division which is home to the highest density of tigers in the world, harbouring around 8% of India's entire Bengal Tiger population. In an exclusive interview to TOI's Kounteya Sinha, Mary McEvoy, conservation programmes manager of WLT says the cost of land in this area being bought for the Pannod villagers is the highest it has ever spent on any land acquisition project worldwide.

What are the projects that the trust is working on in India?

WLT has been working with the Wildlife Trust of India since 2003. Our joint programme was set up to fundraise and help save critically important "Elephant Corridors" throughout the country. In 2005 WTI published a book called Right of Passage which comprehensively mapped out 88 elephant corridors throughout India which they deemed to be critical for the survival of the Asian Elephant in India. These Elephant Corridors, if protected, will safeguard a network of forest corridors that will enable Indian Elephants and other animals, such as tigers, to move safely between protected areas, avoiding human-wildlife conflict and protecting continuous critical wildlife habitat.

Elephants are nomadic and their ecology is defined by the fact that they move from one location to another in order to find enough food, water and mating partners. Inevitably, in a country with over 1.2 billion people and rapidly developing infrastructure, this means that elephants and other wildlife species such as tiger, leopard and bear, frequently roam within landscapes dominated by human habitations, agricultural lands, busy roads and railways and industrial developments. In India, elephants act as a "flagship species" for our programme but in reality, saving an elephant corridor protects important habitats for a wealth of other wildlife species. The aim of the elephant corridors programme is to safeguard some of these important routes so wildlife can continue to co-exist with people. Often the solutions are complex, politicised and extremely expensive but WLT believes that India's wildlife is too precious to ignore this challenge.

Are you trying to raise funds for any project? What is it?

At present WLT is raising critical funding for the Chilkiya-Kota elephant corridor in the state of Uttarakhand. Once protected, the corridor will permanently connect Corbett Tiger Reserve and Ramnagar Forest Division along a traditional wildlife route. Its proximity to Corbett Tiger Reserve, home to the highest density of tigers in the world harbouring around 8% of India's entire Bengal Tiger population, makes the Chilkiya-Kota corridor a priority for conservation.

Over the last three years, nine people are known to have been killed by tigers in and around the Chilkiya-Kota corridor and countless livestock have been lost to both tiger and leopard. Elephants also cause severe difficulties for local people settled within the corridor through trampling and raiding of croplands. In a country with more than a billion people, it is vital that any conservation initiative in India also involves local communities. The WLT-WTI Elephant Corridors project benefits not only wildlife but also villagers by reducing human-wildlife conflict.

The corridor encompasses one village divided into three segments, and the project has been designed in three phases. WLT and WTI are supporting phase 1, which concentrates on the voluntary relocation of around 50 families from the Panod section of the corridor; the area with the highest density of human-wildlife conflict.

The Uttarakhand forestry department is extremely supportive of protecting Chilkiya-Kota Corridor too and WLT-WTI's completion of phase 1 is likely to act as leverage for funding and support from various state and national government agencies to complete phases 2 and 3 which would see the families from Sunderkhal and Devichaur sections of the corridor safely relocated away from the human-wildlife conflict zone.

Phase I of the project will see WLT fund the purchase of the alternate land for the Pannod villagers to move to. The villagers themselves will select the site they wish to relocate to and once the land has been bought WTI will also coordinate the building of the new village, complete with much improved dwellings, equivalent amounts of agricultural land and infrastructure such as roads and electricity. In the meantime, funds will also be required to help rehabilitate the Pannod section of the corridor to native habitat and to ensure regular patrols and wildlife monitoring of the area can be carried out by WTI and the Uttarakhand Forestry Department.

The project is extremely ambitious. The cost of land in this area is the highest WLT has ever spent on any land acquisition project worldwide; driven upwards by India's rapidly developing economy and the mountainous nature of the landscape meaning that suitable sites for the location are at a premium. WTI needs to raise approximately £800,000 more towards Phase I of the project and WLT intends to continue fundraising to help plug this gap (WLT has already committed £273,000 to this project). In addition we were much buoyed in 2013 to hear of the new law in India stating that any profit making business must donate 2% of profits to charity. We sincerely hope that this will increase WTI's level of corporate support in-country and that support will be forthcoming towards securing the Chilkiya-Kota corridor and WTI's other important programmes.

At present WLT's is raising critical funding for the Chilkiya-Kota Elephant Corridor.

What do you think are the most threatened animals or habitats in India?

At WLT we concentrate on saving threatened habitats rather than supporting species-specific projects that can be very focussed on expensive research and breeding programmes. WLT believe that positive action to save an ecosystem will preserve wildlife assemblages dependent upon that habitat and, more importantly, retain landscape connectivity to leverage unquantifiable benefits to wildlife. In India, WLT works in all three of the Biodiversity Hotspots identified by Conservation International: The Western Ghats and Sri Lanka Hotspot; The Eastern Himalaya Hotspot and; The Indo-Burma Hotspot.

Biodiversity hotspots are described as being "the richest and most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life on Earth" yet despite this, these areas face grave threats from development programmes including development of power stations, mining, and the expansion of human settlements. WLT's two priority projects are currently focussed on an elephant corridor in Uttarakhand between the Corbett Tiger Reserve and Ramnagar Forest Division and in Meghalaya's Garo Hills tribal region where an ambitious project named Garo Green Spine Conservation Project aims to secure elephant corridors and restore degraded habitat surrounding Nokrek and Balphakram National Parks has been underway for some years with plans for its expansion in 2015 and beyond.

In India, elephants act as a "flagship species" for our projects but in reality, saving an elephant corridor protects important habitats for a wealth of wildlife. For example, the critically endangered Gharial has been recorded in the rivers of and surrounding Corbett tiger reserve where WLT's priority elephant corridor project is located. In Meghalaya elephant corridors also provide extremely important habitat for the Western Hoolock Gibbon which was listed on the list of the World's 25 most endangered primates, 2006-2008 (published by IUCN's Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group). Its situation hasn't improved since its 2008 listing; rather the opposite, but the list now features primates considered even more-threatened that the Hoolock.

In 2011 the ministry of environment and forests published a booklet detailing the 57 Critically Endangered species in India. By December 2013 IUCN published a new list of CR bird species in India adding two more to the 2011 list of 13 CR bird species. Therefore it is highly likely that more than 57 species of Indian wildlife are listed CR today.

Both the Asian Elephant and Bengal Tiger are listed as endangered in India and it is clear that the threats they face are ever increasing. The onslaught of the illegal ivory trade is a grave threat to India's elephants especially as only some males possess tusks meaning that the strongest and most sexually-viable males, favoured by females for reproduction are being systematically eradicated. The immediate effect is skewed male-female sex ratios in some landscapes where poaching is rife. The longer-term effect this will have on the robustness of the species as a whole remains to be seen.

Of the five tiger subspecies managing to hang on in the wild, the most numerous is the Bengal Tigernow confined to India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan with a population close to 2,300. Registered as Endangered by IUCN, all five sub-species of tiger face extinction in the wild unless urgent action is taken. The Bengal Tiger is also faced with aggressive levels of poaching throughout its range, primarily to satisfy the illegal trade in tiger body parts for traditional Chinese medicine. Poachers are ever better equipped with the latest technology to track down tigers whilst remaining undetected themselves. This is one of the very real, conflictual frontiers that conservationists are dealing with.

Tigers are present in all the areas in which WLT has supported elephant corridors; Kerala's Western Ghats, Meghalaya's Garo Hills and Uttarakhand's Corbett landscape. Indeed, they are frequently sighted but there is also severe conflict when tigers cross human-dominated landscapes.

Are there any plans that the trust has to save tribes?

The Garo Hills of Meghalaya is a tribal area and also home to a 60% majority of the 1,860 Asian elephants that roam Meghalaya's upland terrain. A total of 22 elephant corridors were identified in NE India including in the state of Meghalaya where tribal communities' autonomous district councils still control over 92% of the forest habitats that the Elephants rely upon.

Another ambitious project WLT has on its radar (not yet developed in its entirety) is to consolidate the work done to secure elephant corridors in Garo Hills so far and expand the project to protect a great deal more threatened habitat surrounding and connecting Nokrek and Balphakram National Parks.

What is your most ambitious project in India?

The Corbett project is bigger than any we've tackled in India before. With land prices as high as £20,000/acre and expectations from villagers to be resettled the budget is huge. Equally, in the future, the Garo Hills Green Spine project will be hugely ambitious. A more innovative approach is required to protect land in this area as tribal communities voluntarily set aside crucial wildlife corridor areas in return for eco-developmental support. WLT is planning to establish a "Payments for Ecosystem Services" (PES) project in Garo Hills that can provide long-term finance for village supports and thus ensure the longevity of the newly protected areas created under this scheme. The budget is highly likely to run to millions of pounds.

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NGT fines water packaging unit for not taking permission

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal has directed a water packaging unit in Greater Noida to pay Rs 1 lakh to the UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) for operating without permission from any of the competent authorities and causing damage to the environment.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar directed Omsan Osmocare India Pvt Ltd which runs under the brand name "Osmofresh" to pay the amount to UPPCB within one week.

The directions came after the firm told the bench that they may be permitted to carry on their business since they have now obtained the permission from Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) to extract ground water as well as have consent from UPPCB.

"On the basis of the principle of polluter pays it is the liability of the applicant unit to pay for damage/pollution caused to the environment including the ground water.

"Consequently, we direct the applicant to pay a sum of Rs 1,00,000. The applicant would be permitted to operate the unit only if this payment is made to the Pollution Control Board," it said.

The Tribunal ordered that the amount received by UPPCB shall be used only for the restoration of environment activity and no other purpose.

It also directed UPPCB and CGWA to fix a meter on the premises of the unit and directed the firm to pay cess in accordance with the provisions of the Water Cess Act within six weeks.

The Tribunal had, on February 8, last year ordered shutting down of 34 packaged drinking water units in Noida and Greater Noida for extracting underground water.

The tribunal was hearing a plea of Noida resident Vikrant Kumar Tongad who had alleged that the underground water situation has reached critical dimensions in Noida and Greater Noida and there is also a serious water pollution problem there.

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New snake species found in Ganjam named after Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: A new species of snake, found by a group of herpetologists and snake lovers in Odisha last year, has been named after the eastern state as Lycodon Odishii, becoming the latest addition to the list of 297 species of snakes found in the country.

The Russian Journal of Herpetology, an international science journal, has published a research paper on the new species in its latest edition published on Friday.

"For over 218 years, scientists from across the world were identifying the snake with juveniles of Lycodon Jara. Several attempts to differentiate the snake were made in the past, but proved unsuccessful due to lack of proper documentation. We worked for a year and a half and finally concluded that this was a new species," said the research paper's author Subhendu Mallik, who is also secretary of Snake Helpline, a voluntary organization working for the rescue and rehabilitation of snakes.

The green-coloured snake has a bright white collar on its neck and twin spots on each scale except the collar. The new species, the common name of which is Subhendu's wolf snake, has several similarities with Lycodon Jara. Scientists used to believe that the juvenile Jara has a collar and as it grows old, the collar disappears.

Volunteers of Snake Helpline found the snake in Berhampur in Ganjam district in 2013. "The female snake had a collar. That struck us because how could an adult Jara have a collar? We started our research on the species," said Mallik. A detailed examination of the specimen showed clear morphological differences of at least 12 characters, he added.

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Maharashtra's Rajapur forest belt sees 20% rise in deer, blackbuck population

NASHIK: The forest belt of Rajapur in Yeola, 104 km from here, has seen 20% rise in the population of deer and blackbucks in the past couple of years, according to forest officials.

They said the population has risen due to plantation and sufficient water in the waterholes. The officials said they have also installed the first solar panel in the district, which is used to fill the waterholes from a 180-feet deep bore well.

The forest belt is spread across five villages - Rajapur, Mamdapur, Deodari, Kharwandi and Somthane. The entire forest stretch is on 4,500 hectares of land. Two months ago, Mamdapur was declared as a reserved forest area.

"Electricity does not reach the remote areas of the jungle. That is why we have installed the solar panel six months ago, the first in the district. We fill the waterholes from the bore well using solar power. It has a capacity of one horsepower. There is water in the waterholes throughout the year. In summer, we fill the waterholes with tankers. We have noticed 20% rise in the number of deer and blackbucks in the past two years," said forester Arjun Bhalerao.

There are two waterholes in Rajapur, three in Somthane, four in Mamdapur, two in Deodari and two in Kharwandi. They have water till March after which they are filled with the help of tankers.

"We have kept the solar panels manually operational rather than keeping it on auto mode. It is located at a distance of 1 km from our office. We switch it on as per the requirement," Bhalerao said.

Meanwhile, the forest officials ruled out the possibility of poaching in the belt. "We have forest guards who keep a vigil and the villagers are also cooperative. This area is a delight," they said.

Some years ago, blackbucks were known to destroy standing crops of the farmers in these villages. They used to graze in the farms and destroy the crops. But in the recent past, the forest department has received no such complaints from the villagers.

Panditrao Jadhav, range forest officer of Yeola, said, "If the animals have enough area to graze, they don't go to the farms. We have done plantation in 30 hectares of land. We also have natural jungles here."

However, the forest department is facing staff crunch. There is one forester, three forest guards and six forest labourers for the entire stretch. The forest employees said with few of them nearing retirement, recruitments need to be done soon.

"We are managing with the staff at present. Appointing new staff is up to the government. They have the right to do so. We have told our seniors and they are following up the matter with the government," Jadhav added.

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Uma Bharti participates in cleanliness drive in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Union water resources minister Uma Bharti became the latest minister to take part in a cleanliness drive at the Shram Shakti Bhawan here on Saturday as a part of the NDA government's 'Swachh Bharat' Mission.

After picking up litter in the park, Bharti said, "If I do this on regular basis, then may be the other people will start doing it naturally. Some people may start doing it out of shame and some others might realise that it is their duty."

Bharti also denied taking up the issue to get media attention, "It is not like that I am doing it only when you (media) are around. I plan to take it up even otherwise."

"With the support of media and the people of India, we can maintain the cleanliness of our surroundings," she added.

Earlier, while chairing the first meeting of 'Mission Swacch Bharat', Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to every citizen to dedicate 100 hours in a year towards cleanliness.

"Cleanliness was very close to Mahatma Gandhi's heart. A clean India is the best tribute we can pay to Bapu when we celebrate his 150th birth anniversary in 2019. Mahatma Gandhi devoted his life so that India attains 'Swarajya'. Now, the time has come to devote ourselves towards 'Swachchhata' (cleanliness) of our motherland," said Prime Minister Modi.

"On October 2, I myself will set out with a broom and contribute towards this pious task," he added.

As a reaction to PM Modi's appeal, many BJP leaders took serious initiatives to be a part of the cleanliness drive.

The BJP leader Sambit Patra while praising the PM Modi for such a step said that if people can clean their houses in Diwali, why not the whole year.

Earlier this week, Union Human Resource Development Minister (HRD) Smriti Irmade a surprise visit to the Kendriya Vidyalaya at Sector 8 in R K Puram and participated in the cleaning drive as a part of the government's 'Swachh Bharat' campaign.

Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda yesterday announced that a special cleanliness drive will be carried out at all railway stations across the country on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Gowda said ministers are welcome to visit any railway station on that day. He also invited railway employees to voluntarily participate in this gigantic programme.

The campaign has also taken delivery of appreciation from other party leaders. SP leader Naresh Agarwal praising PM Modi for his cleanliness drive said that such a step is always welcomed.

It is proposed to be implemented over five years starting from October 2, 2014 in all 4041 statutory towns.

The total expected cost of the programme for over five years is Rs. 62,009 crores, out of which the proposed central assistance will be of Rs. 14,623 crores.

The Delhi Municipal Corporations are also geared up to run a 100-day cleanliness drive under the campaign as the Prime Minister Modi also urged the leaders of various organisations to take part in the drive.

In his Independence Day speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had talked of the 'Swachh Bharat' campaign and called for India to be clean by October 2, 2019, Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary.

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Roads emerging critical threats to leopards in Madhya Pradesh

BHOPAL: An adult leopard was run over by a vehicle at Raisen district in Madhya Pradesh (MP) on Wednesday night.

The big cat, fifth to have been killed in vehicular collision in last six months, was hit while it was dragging its kill, a half-eaten cow, off the Bhopal-Silwani road, around 80 km from the district headquarters.

Forest officials said its carcass and kill were found on Jamuniya Ghati area. Leopard had a fatal head injury resulting its death on the spot.

MP has lost more than 60 leopards to poaching, retaliatory killing and road accidents in the last three years, including six that were trapped, axed and electrocuted to death for hides and nails.

In other cases, leopards were poached using crude bombs and deadly clutch wire traps, at Chhatarpur and Sagar districts. Poachers had chopped off the claws for their nails in two different cases reported from Alirajpur and Dhar. A hide was seized from south Balaghat area on February 13.

The frequent deaths have prompted wildlife activists to call for conservation programs for leopards in line with those conducted for tigers.

Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey has written a letter to the Union minister for forest and environment (Moef), to constitute a special cell or wing at national level for their protection. An RTI filed by him has revealed that 138 leopards have died in MP since 2008.

Maximum casualties were reported in 2011 (43) of which 17 were killed by poachers in Seoni, Balaghat, Burhanpur, Barwani, Mandla, Sehore, Panna, Hoshangabad and Badwah forest areas.

Poor investigations by inexperienced and un-resourceful rangers has led to submission of week charge-sheets in most of the cases, said wildlife experts adding that the conviction level in poaching cases in MP is below 5%. The poaching figures could have been much more if all cases of leopard deaths are investigated properly. Allegedly, in most of the cases, officers shy away from registering a poaching case. "Instead, a common reason is put forth- "killed in territorial war" to avert action from their higher-ups," said Dubey.

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Land-ice decay behind fast sea level rise

CANBERRA: Land-ice decay at the end of the last five ice-ages caused global sea levels to rise at rates of up to 5.5 metres per century, according to a new study.

An international team of researchers developed a 500,000-year record of sea-level variability to provide the first account of how quickly sea-level changed during the last five ice-age cycles.

The results also found that more than 100 smaller events of sea-level rise took place in between the five major events.

"The really fast rates of sea-level rise typically seem to have happened at the end of periods with exceptionally large ice sheets, when there was two or more times more ice on the Earth than today," explained Katharine Grant from Australian National University (ANU), Canberra.

Time periods with less than twice the modern global ice volume show almost no indications of sea-level rise faster than about two metres per century.

"Those with close to the modern amount of ice on Earth show rates of up to one to 1.5 metres per century," he added.

The team reconstructed sea-levels using data from sediment cores from the Red Sea — an area that is very sensitive to sea-level changes because its only natural connection with the open (Indian) ocean is through the very shallow Bab-el-Mandab Strait.

These sediment samples record wind-blown dust variations, which the team linked to a well-dated climate record from Chinese stalagmites.

Due to a common process, both dust and stalagmite records show a pronounced change at the end of each ice age, which allowed the team to date the sea-level record in detail.

"For the first time, we have data from a sufficiently large set of events to systematically study the time-scale over which ice-sheet responses developed from initial change to maximum retreat," informed Eelco Rohling from University of Southampton and ANU.

The study appeared in the journal Nature Communications.

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Govt should ensure ‘aviral’ flow of Ganga, says environment scientist BD Tripathi

VARANASI: After the UPA government constituted the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) in 2009 and announced "Mission Clean Ganga by 2020", the NDA government led by Narendra Modi has set a target to clean the holy river in the next 18 years. But a top Ganga expert claims that what is missing in the new plan is a provision for uninterrupted flow of the river.

The Central government recently placed a blue print before the Supreme Court on short, medium and long term measures worth thousands of crores to be executed in the next 18 years to restore the glory of the Ganga.

It said in the affidavit that 118 towns situated on the bank of the Ganga have been identified as a first target to achieve total sanitation, including waste-water treatment and solid waste management. In order to ensure rejuvenation of the Ganga, the action plan envisages phase-wise timeline: short term—a period of three years, medium term —a period of next five years and long term — a period of next ten years and more.

Further, the ministry of urban development identified 118 urban habitations on the banks of the Ganga for extending coverage of sewerage infrastructure at the estimated cost of Rs 51,000 crore and also to make 1,649 gram panchayats located along the Ganga free from open defecation.

"But what is missing in the Modi government's approach is 'aviralta' (free flow) of the Ganga. The plan's major thrust is on pollution abatement only, while the most important issue, i.e, of uninterrupted flow, has been given the least importance," said environment scientist B D Tripathi.

Tripathi had also written a letter to the Prime Minister to draw his attention to the issue of ensuring unobstructed and uninterrupted flow of the river.

"The present need of the Ganga is its 'aviralta' and 'nirmalta' (cleanliness). However, during the Ganga Manthan programme organized recently in New Delhi, nobody discussed the modality of increasing the flow of water in the Ganga and maintain the sanctity of Gangajal released from Gomukh," Tripathi wrote in his letter to the PM.

Tripathi said, "in place of restoration of the glory of Gangajal, the ministry has announced commercialization of its water without discussing the environmental impact of dredging or running motor operated ships. Impact assessment of commercial activities on micro and macro flora and fauna of the river, which maintain the 'Ganga ecosystem' besides religious and socio-cultural rituals performed on its banks is also important."

On the issue of barrages on the river, Tripathi said: "As Farakka barrage on the Ganga has imposed several environmental problems, the government should study the impact assessment before building new barrage."

After the NGRBA was set up in 2009, it was decided to achieve "Mission Clean Ganga" by 2020. It was to be ensured that by 2020 no untreated municipal sewage and industrial effluent drained into the Ganga and the investment required to create necessary treatment and sewerage infrastructure to be shared suitably by the Central and state governments. The World Bank approved a fund of $ 1 billion to achieve the objective of Mission Clean Ganga.

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Natural gas usage won't help curb CO2 emission: Study

NEW YORK: Increased use of natural gas will not help arrest carbon dioxide (CO2) emission significantly because it delays the widespread construction of low-carbon energy facilities, such as solar arrays, says a US-based study.

Inexpensive gas boosts electricity consumption and hinders expansion of cleaner energy sources, such as wind and solar, the study noted.

"In our results, abundant natural gas does not significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions. This is true even if no methane leaks during production and shipping," said lead author Christine Shearer from the University of California, Irvine in the US.

Previous studies have focused on the risk of natural gas — composed primarily of methane — leaking into the atmosphere from wells and pipelines.

Analysing a range of climate policies, the researchers found that high gas usage could actually boost cumulative emissions between 2013 and 2055 by five percent — and, at most, trim them by nine percent.

"Natural gas has been presented as a bridge to a low-carbon future, but what we see is that it is actually a major detour. We find that the only effective paths to reducing greenhouse gases are a regulatory cap or a carbon tax," Shearer added.

Greater use of gas is a poor strategy for clearing the atmosphere, the researchers concluded.

"Cutting greenhouse gas emissions by burning natural gas is like dieting by eating reduced-fat cookies," said Steven Davis, assistant professor at UC Irvine and the study's principal investigator.

"It may be better than eating full-fat cookies, but if you really want to lose weight, you probably need to avoid cookies altogether," Davis explained.

The study appeared in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

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Pet chimpanzees suffer behavioural problems

NEW YORK: Chimpanzees who are separated from their mothers early in life and raised by humans as pets or performers are likely to show behavioural and social deficiencies as adults, say researchers.

In a year-long study, scientists from Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois, observed 60 chimpanzees to find that experiences during the first four years of life can shape behavioural and welfare outcomes well into adulthood.

Of their study group, over 35 of the chimpanzees were former pets or performers.

"We found that chimpanzees raised primarily around humans with less experience around their own species during the first four years of life, tend to show reduced social competencies as adults than those with more natural early histories," explained Steve Ross, director of the Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes at Lincoln Park Zoo.

Specifically, chimpanzees with high human exposure in life tended to engage in less social grooming with their group mates — a critically important behaviour for social bonding in chimpanzees.

"Strikingly, these effects were expressed years, sometimes decades after their lives as pets and performers were over," Ross noted.

"We looked at the degree of human and chimpanzee exposure on individual chimpanzees along a continuum," explained Ross.

This showed that those chimpanzees with more atypical beginnings to their lives, spending much more time with humans than with their own species, tended to behave differently than those that stayed with their family through infanthood.

Chimpanzees are incredibly intelligent and sensitive animals.

"Denying them access to members of their own species, during the critical infanthood period, results in behavioural outcomes that last a lifetime. Even with the best possible care as adults, they often cannot fit in with the other chimpanzees," researchers concluded.

The findings of the research project was published in the open access journal PeerJ.

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Lion found dead near Junagadh

RAJKOT: A lion was found dead in Junagadh Agricultural University (JAU)'s research farm on the outskirts of Junagadh town on Tuesday morning.

The lion is believed to be around one-and-a-half-year old. The decomposed body was found some 10 km away from Junagadh towards Bilkha Road. The carcass suggested that the lion might have died two days ago.

"We have sent the body for post-mortem to ascertain the exact cause of death. But preliminary investigation suggests that lion may have died due to snake bite,'' said Parbat Maru, range forest officer, Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary (Girnar South division), Junagadh.

Forest officials said that a lioness and her three cubs were seen roaming around this area before a few days.

The death of lions have remained cause of concerns for wildlife conservationists as over 265 lions have died in Gir forest and adjoining areas in last five years, most of them in unnatural death.

According to last lion census, there were 411 lions in Gir forest, the last abode of Asiatic lions.

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CO2 emissions set to reach record high in 2014

NEW DELHI: Carbon dioxide emissions will reach a record high of 40 billion tonnes in 2014, according to the latest report of the Global Carbon Project, which is co-led in the UK by researchers at the University of East Anglia and the University of Exeter. This dire projection comes ahead of the New York Climate Summit starting on September 23, where world leaders will seek to catalyse action on climate change.

"The time for a quiet evolution in our attitudes towards climate change is now over. Delaying action is not an option - we need to act together, and act quickly, if we are to stand a chance of avoiding climate change not long into the future, but within many of our own lifetimes," Pierre Friedlingstein, professor at the University of Exeter and lead author of the paper published in Nature Geoscience said.

Historical and future CO2 emissions must remain below a total 3,200 billion tonnes to be in with a 66 per cent chance of keeping climate change below 2°C. But two thirds (2,000 billion tonnes) of this quota have already been used. This means that total future CO2 emissions cannot exceed 1,200 billion tonnes.

At the current rate of CO2 emissions, this 1,200 billion tonne CO2 'quota' would be used up in around 30 years. This means that there is just one generation before the safeguards to a 2 degrees C limit may be breached.

The international team of climate scientists say that to avoid this, more than half of all fossil fuel reserves may need to be left unexploited.

Prof Corinne Le Quere, of the University of East Anglia, said: "The human influence on climate change is clear. We need substantial and sustained reductions in CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels if we are to limit global climate change. We are nowhere near the commitments necessary to stay below 2°C of climate change, a level that will be already challenging to manage for most countries around the world, even for rich nations.

"Politicians meeting in New York need to think very carefully about their diminishing choices exposed by climate science."

China, the USA, the EU and India are the largest emitters - together accounting for 58 per cent of emissions, the report said. China's CO2 emissions grew by 4.2 per cent in 2013, the USA's grew by 2.9 per cent, and India's emissions grew by 5.1 per cent. The EU has decreased its emissions by 1.8 per cent, though it continues to export a third of its emissions to China and other producers through imported goods and services.

CO2 emissions are caused primarily by burning fossil fuels, as well as by cement production and deforestation. Deforestation accounts for 8 per cent of CO2 emissions.

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Punjab government to start campaign for clean, green schools

The author has posted comments on this articlePTI | Sep 22, 2014, 07.18PM IST

Page 1 of 4

CHANDIGARH: In a bid to make government schools clean and green in Punjab, the state education department will start a month-long campaign from Friday.

This decision was taken during a high-level meeting held under the chairmanship of education minister Daljit Singh Cheema at his office here on Monday, an official spokesperson said.

The "Sohna School Campaign" would be started from Government Senior Secondary School Mothawal in Kapurthala district where a state-level function would be held by the education department, he said.

In a bid to inculcate sense of cleanliness, Cheema and renowned environmentalist Sant Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal would clean the toilets themselves during this state-level function, he said.

He informed that to make this campaign a success, Punjab education minister and senior department officials would visit different schools of the state and would personally supervise cleanliness of schools.

During the campaign, competitions related to cleanliness, environment, painting and essay would be organized in schools.

The spokesperson said that each school would be directed that the toilets in their premises be cleaned regularly and non-functional toilets be repaired.

The campaign would last on October 31, he said.

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CO2 emissions set to reach record high in 2014

NEW DELHI: Carbon dioxide emissions will reach a record high of 40 billion tonnes in 2014, according to the latest report of the Global Carbon Project, which is co-led in the UK by researchers at the University of East Anglia and the University of Exeter. This dire projection comes ahead of the New York Climate Summit starting on September 23, where world leaders will seek to catalyse action on climate change.

"The time for a quiet evolution in our attitudes towards climate change is now over. Delaying action is not an option - we need to act together, and act quickly, if we are to stand a chance of avoiding climate change not long into the future, but within many of our own lifetimes," Pierre Friedlingstein, professor at the University of Exeter and lead author of the paper published in Nature Geoscience said.

Historical and future CO2 emissions must remain below a total 3,200 billion tonnes to be in with a 66 per cent chance of keeping climate change below 2°C. But two thirds (2,000 billion tonnes) of this quota have already been used. This means that total future CO2 emissions cannot exceed 1,200 billion tonnes.

At the current rate of CO2 emissions, this 1,200 billion tonne CO2 'quota' would be used up in around 30 years. This means that there is just one generation before the safeguards to a 2 degrees C limit may be breached.

The international team of climate scientists say that to avoid this, more than half of all fossil fuel reserves may need to be left unexploited.

Prof Corinne Le Quere, of the University of East Anglia, said: "The human influence on climate change is clear. We need substantial and sustained reductions in CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels if we are to limit global climate change. We are nowhere near the commitments necessary to stay below 2°C of climate change, a level that will be already challenging to manage for most countries around the world, even for rich nations.

"Politicians meeting in New York need to think very carefully about their diminishing choices exposed by climate science."

China, the USA, the EU and India are the largest emitters - together accounting for 58 per cent of emissions, the report said. China's CO2 emissions grew by 4.2 per cent in 2013, the USA's grew by 2.9 per cent, and India's emissions grew by 5.1 per cent. The EU has decreased its emissions by 1.8 per cent, though it continues to export a third of its emissions to China and other producers through imported goods and services.

CO2 emissions are caused primarily by burning fossil fuels, as well as by cement production and deforestation. Deforestation accounts for 8 per cent of CO2 emissions.

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Punjab government to start campaign for clean, green schools

CHANDIGARH: In a bid to make government schools clean and green in Punjab, the state education department will start a month-long campaign from Friday.

This decision was taken during a high-level meeting held under the chairmanship of education minister Daljit Singh Cheema at his office here on Monday, an official spokesperson said.

The "Sohna School Campaign" would be started from Government Senior Secondary School Mothawal in Kapurthala district where a state-level function would be held by the education department, he said.

In a bid to inculcate sense of cleanliness, Cheema and renowned environmentalist Sant Baba Balbir Singh Seechewal would clean the toilets themselves during this state-level function, he said.

He informed that to make this campaign a success, Punjab education minister and senior department officials would visit different schools of the state and would personally supervise cleanliness of schools.

During the campaign, competitions related to cleanliness, environment, painting and essay would be organized in schools.

The spokesperson said that each school would be directed that the toilets in their premises be cleaned regularly and non-functional toilets be repaired.

The campaign would last on October 31, he said.

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Over 1,500 participate in march on climate change in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Over 1,500 people on Saturday took part in a march from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar here to press for stronger action on climate change, a statement said.

"India saw its largest ever climate change mobilization with over 1,500 people coming out onto the streets of New Delhi to press for intervention on climate change," the statement from South Asia Campaign Coordinator of People's Climate March said. i Citizens across the board from college students to rickshaw pullers, from school students to daily wage workers, from artists to working professionals, came out to demand action on climate change, the statement said.

A memorandum suggesting that India should take swift action on climate change was submitted to the prime minister's office.

"The memorandum contained what we call the 'citizen's climate agenda. We spoke to as many people as possible from experts to climate change affected persons to organizations working in the domain and have come up with actionable solutions," said Chaitanya Kumar, organizer, People's Climate March.

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Decline in wind may affect predator-prey balance

WASHINGTON: A new study by a University of Wisconsin Madison zoologist has found that declining wind may alter predator-prey relationships.

The study has demonstrated the way "global stilling" or declining wind may alter predator-prey relationships.

"There are all sorts of other things that are changing in the environment that affect animals and plants and their interactions," said Brandon Barton, a University of Wisconsin Madison researcher.

To find out how winds may have an impact on predator-prey relationships, Barton and his team grew plots of soybeans in alfalfa fields, protecting some with wind blocks and leaving others in the open.

They found two-thirds more lady beetles in the plots hidden from the wind, and twice as many soybean aphids on the plants growing in the open.

Wind has no direct effect on the aphids, tiny insects that hug the plants and anchor themselves while feeding with a needle-like mouthpart called a stylet, found the study.

"The aphids appear on the plants whether it is windy or not, and we showed that in lab experiments," noted Barton.

"But when you add the predators, with the wind block, the beetles eat something like twice as many aphids," explained Barton.

"Think of a wolf or coyote. Larger predators hunting by scent — and the prey trying to detect their predators — may be affected by less wind moving scents around," concluded Barton.

The study appeared in the journal Ecology.

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US power plants world's worst polluters: Report

WASHINGTON: America's power plants are among the leading global sources of carbon emission than the entire economies of Russia, India, Japan or any other nation put together besides China, a latest report said on Friday.

"US power plants are polluters on a global scale," said Elizabeth Ouzts of Environment America Research & Policy Center which released the report "America's Dirtiest Power Plants," ahead of the next weeks United Nations Climate Summit in New York.

"It's time to stop ignoring our largest global warming polluter, and start a major transition to clean power," she said, adding that the US power plants are world's third largest carbon polluters, edging out India.

According to the report, in 2012, US power plants produced more than six percent of global warming emissions worldwide, more than any other industrialised nation except China and the US as a whole.

The 50 dirtiest US power plants produced 30 per cent of all power-sector carbon dioxide emissions in 2012, the same as the entire economy of South Korea, the world's seventh-largest carbon emitter, it said.

The 100 dirtiest US power plants produced 19 per cent of all power-sector carbon dioxide emissions, the same as Germany, the 6th largest carbon emitter.

The Clean Power Plan would eliminate as much carbon pollution as the entire country of Canada produced in 2012.

Canada is the 8th largest carbon emitter in the world, the report said.

According to the report, there are 2,154 power plants in the US, which accounts for six.

Three per cent of the total global carbon dioxide emissions, which is more than the nearly six per cent of the total global carbon dioxide emission by the whole of India.

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Radio-collar infection kills tigress in MP

BHOPAL: The first tigress in India to be translocated to the wild after being hand-bred was on Friday found dead of an infection caused by its radio collar at the Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. T4 had earlier being showcased as the biggest success story of a big-cat breeding experiment.

"It seems the radio-collar caused infection around her neck," MP's chief wildlife warden Narendra Kumar told TOI. "Rigor mortis set in around the maggot-infested wounds. This is the second incident of collar-related infection. In the first case, we had prior information and timely action was taken to remove the collar. This time, the wound was spotted only during autopsy."

The tiger reserve's staff received 'mortality signals' (signals from a constant location) from T4 at 6.45 pm on Thursday. On Friday, it was found dead near Mandla range in the Panna reserve, said officials.

Hand-reared after being rescued when two weeks old from the Kanha Tiger Reserve, T4 was released in Panna in 2009. She had three litters in the wild. T4's translocation and breeding at Panna had created a new chapter in tiger conservation history.

T4 and her two siblings were orphaned when their mother was killed at Kanha. Park officials picked up the litter and hand-reared the cubs with the plan to reintroduce them into the wild. T4 was the first among them to be chosen for the experiment.

After being released in Panna, T4 had struggled in the initial months. Another tiger, T3, had helped her to hunt in the wild.

In 2009, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) had criticized a 'wildlife intelligence report' that claimed radio-collaring had caused the deaths of tigers in the Panna National Park. The report had said radio-collaring hampered natural movement, caused neck infections and was used by poachers to track tigers. Asad Rahmani, the then BNHS director, had told reporters that radio-collaring was an efficient method that had been in use for over 40 years.

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Peacock's train doesn't affect its flight: study

LONDON: The magnificent plumage of the peacock may not be quite the sacrifice to love that it appears to be, a new study on Indian peacocks has found.

Researchers filmed five Indian peacocks taking off using two high-speed video cameras to try to work out what price male birds pay for carrying the spectacular iridescent feathers they use in displays to attract females.

"These feathers weigh about 300g and can exceed 1.5m, so it's expected that the male birds would be making a significant sacrifice in their flight performance for being attractive — possibly giving up their lives if the train restricts escape from predators such as tigers and leopards in their natural environment," Dr Graham Askew, from the University of Leeds's School of Biomedical Sciences, said.

He filmed the take-offs of birds carrying full plumage in 3D, and then filmed the same birds taking off without their trains.

The display feathers, which naturally moult at the end of the breeding season, were cropped to judge the change in take-off performance between the two states.

To his surprise, Askew found there was no significant difference.

Askew observed the position of each bird's centre of mass, their wing motions and the movement of the train in take-off and then calculated the amount of power used by the birds to accelerate and gain height over the first two wing beats. He found it was essentially the same, regardless of the presence or absence of the train.

"Intuitively you expect that the train would detrimentally affect flight performance and so not finding a detectable effect was a bit surprising," Askew said.

"These birds do not seem to be making quite the sacrifices to look attractive we thought they were," Askew said.

"The train of the peacock is one of the most iconic examples of sexual selection in the animal kingdom. It has been thought that such elaborate ornamentation carries a functional cost for the bearer. These results therefore have broader ramifications for evolutionary biology's understanding of sexual selection," said Askew.

Askew also looked at how much drag the train created during take-off by mounting a detached train in a wind tunnel.

Although the drag doubled, overcoming that drag is only a tiny part of the power used by the birds during take-off.

Therefore, the impact of the train on the overall take-off performance is negligible, allowing birds with and without trains to invest the same amount of power in the ascent, researchers said.

The results do not mean that having an ornate train carries no costs for peacocks. Askew pointed out that the feathers might adversely affect flight stability and the birds' ability to run.

Just creating the ornate plumage is a costly exercise; male birds invest about 3 per cent of their daily metabolic energy budget in train growth.

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'Miracle' panda triplets open their eyes in Chinese zoo

HONG KONG: A set of panda triplets, known as the world's only surviving trio, have opened their eyes for the first time more than a month after their birth in a Chinese zoo.

The trio's births at the end of July were hailed as a "miracle" given the animal's famously low reproductive rate.

A video from the zoo showed the three cubs now covered with white and black fur squealing and moving about with their eyes open.

"The panda triplets have all opened their eyes and are in good, healthy condition," Guangzhou's Chimelong Safari Park said in a statement on Thursday.

The second panda to be born was the first to open their eyes, followed by the lastborn and then the firstborn.

The cubs, the size of a small dog, weighed from 2,678 to 2,886 grams (5.9 to 6.3 pounds), the statement said.

"Each one is starting to show its own individuality. For example, the third one is the most lively," it said, adding that the cubs are now living in wooden boxes.

The cubs' next stage in development will be to start walking, the statement continued.

The zoo also has said that a naming competition is already underway and will end in mid-October.

The gender of the cubs cannot be determined until they grow older. The mother panda, named Juxiao, meaning "chrysanthemum smile", delivered the triplets at Guangzhou's Chimelong Safari Park in the early hours of July 29.

A video showed Juxiao sitting in the corner of a room as she delivered her cubs for four gruelling hours and licking them after they were born. By the time it came to the delivery of the third cub, she was lying on her side in exhaustion.

The first known case of triplets from a giant panda was recorded in 1999, when a 15-year-old mother gave birth following artificial insemination in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu.

However the youngest of the trio died after living for just three days because of a bladder disorder.

Pandas, whose natural habitat lies in mountainous southwestern China, have a notoriously low reproductive rate and are under pressure from factors such as habitat loss. China has about 1,600 pandas living in the wild.

Their normal breeding season is mid-April to May.

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‘Lesser’ Florican prompts Madhya Pradesh to develop habitat at Sailana

The author has posted comments on this articleBagish Jha, TNN | Sep 17, 2014, 05.42PM IST

This season, number of Lesser Florican migrating to state has come down by 26% as compared to last year.

Page 1 of 4

INDORE: Alarmed over continuous decline in migration of Lesser Florican locally known as Likh and Kharmor in Madhya Pradesh, forest department has taken up the task to protect and develop habitat of the endangered bird at Sailana Wildlife Sanctuary.

This season, number of Lesser Florican migrating to state has come down by 26% as compared to last year. According to the data collected from different sanctuaries of the state, till now only 11 Lesser Florican have migrated to state, as against 15 last year.

Forest department is planning to develop different variety of grass, pulses and water bodies across the sanctuary. "We are taking help from experts to identify species of grass, which is suitable for Florican's habitat," said chief conservator of forest (CCF) PC Dubey.

Along with grass and water, availability of insects is important for birds and, therefore, department has allowed free grazing inside the sanctuary. "Cattle's dung inside sanctuary will provide a breeding ground for insects," said Dubey, adding that Florican migrate here for breeding and they need sufficient protein diet for their newborn, and insects are an important source of protein for birds.

Ornithologist Ajay Gadikar, who has been tracking movement of Lesser Florican in state for last five years said, loss of habitat and grassland is main reason behind decline in their numbers.

Gadikar said Sailana grass patches with tiny scrubs and small plants of Palash and babool would be ideal as Florican prefer mosaic type of grassland. The existing species of grass at Sailana is attracting herds of Bluebull (Nilgai), which in turn, is creating a lot of trouble for lesser Florican nests. The birds lay its eggs on ground, which is always under danger of being destroyed due to movement of Nilgai.

Change in crop pattern in the region is also considered as one of the reason for decline in migration of Florican. In Sailana, soyabean is being cultivated near breeding grounds of Lesser Florican. Soyabean needs regular use of pesticides to kill insects, which is main food of Lesser Florican. The bird eats insects killed by pesticides that badly affect them. Forest department is also contemplating to encourage farmers to cultivate moong, jawar and other pulses instead of soyabean.

Article continues

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Peacock's train doesn't affect its flight: study

LONDON: The magnificent plumage of the peacock may not be quite the sacrifice to love that it appears to be, a new study on Indian peacocks has found.

Researchers filmed five Indian peacocks taking off using two high-speed video cameras to try to work out what price male birds pay for carrying the spectacular iridescent feathers they use in displays to attract females.

"These feathers weigh about 300g and can exceed 1.5m, so it's expected that the male birds would be making a significant sacrifice in their flight performance for being attractive — possibly giving up their lives if the train restricts escape from predators such as tigers and leopards in their natural environment," Dr Graham Askew, from the University of Leeds's School of Biomedical Sciences, said.

He filmed the take-offs of birds carrying full plumage in 3D, and then filmed the same birds taking off without their trains.

The display feathers, which naturally moult at the end of the breeding season, were cropped to judge the change in take-off performance between the two states.

To his surprise, Askew found there was no significant difference.

Askew observed the position of each bird's centre of mass, their wing motions and the movement of the train in take-off and then calculated the amount of power used by the birds to accelerate and gain height over the first two wing beats. He found it was essentially the same, regardless of the presence or absence of the train.

"Intuitively you expect that the train would detrimentally affect flight performance and so not finding a detectable effect was a bit surprising," Askew said.

"These birds do not seem to be making quite the sacrifices to look attractive we thought they were," Askew said.

"The train of the peacock is one of the most iconic examples of sexual selection in the animal kingdom. It has been thought that such elaborate ornamentation carries a functional cost for the bearer. These results therefore have broader ramifications for evolutionary biology's understanding of sexual selection," said Askew.

Askew also looked at how much drag the train created during take-off by mounting a detached train in a wind tunnel.

Although the drag doubled, overcoming that drag is only a tiny part of the power used by the birds during take-off.

Therefore, the impact of the train on the overall take-off performance is negligible, allowing birds with and without trains to invest the same amount of power in the ascent, researchers said.

The results do not mean that having an ornate train carries no costs for peacocks. Askew pointed out that the feathers might adversely affect flight stability and the birds' ability to run.

Just creating the ornate plumage is a costly exercise; male birds invest about 3 per cent of their daily metabolic energy budget in train growth.

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Scientists given rare glimpse of 350-kilo colossal squid

WELLINGTON: Scientists said on Tuesday a female colossal squid weighing an estimated 350 kilograms (770 lbs) and thought to be only the second intact specimen ever found was carrying eggs when discovered in the Antarctic.

The squid had been kept in optimum freezing conditions at the Te Papa museum in Wellington ever since it was brought back to New Zealand from the seas off the frozen continent during the southern hemisphere's summer.

The colossal squid is thought to extend up to 4-5 metres (13-16 feet) from tip to tentacle and weigh up to 500 kilograms. Its relation, the giant squid, can grow a lot longer but is much more spindly.

This specimen, like other octopus and squid species, has three hearts — one to pump blood around the body and two for its gills (lungs) — and is estimated to be about 3.5 metres in length.

"This one had two perfect eyes," scientist Kat Bolstad from Auckland University of Technology who led the examination told AFP.

"They have very large and very delicate eyes because they live in the deep sea. It's very rare to see an eye in good condition at all."

Measurements revealed the animal's eye was 35 centimetres (14 inches) in diameter, and confirmed that the specimen was a female.

(Scientists holds the arms of a colossal squid as they examine the squid at a national museum facility in Wellington, New Zealand. AP Photo)

"We were excited to find that out... as it turns out this one is a female, and it has got some eggs," Bolstad told reporters.

"This was by far the most perfect colossal squid that I have seen." The only other time scientists anywhere have had the chance to examine an intact colossal squid was in 2008, also at Te Papa, the museum said. That specimen was also female.

Bolstad said the latest specimen was so well preserved the scientists were able to examine it with an unusual level of detail, including the lens on the eyes.

"The fact that we have a specimen in good shape, but that we can get so much information from and still have in good shape, is a win-win," Bolstad said

The squid was found by a fishing vessel in Antarctica last southern hemisphere summer when the boat's captain, recognising what had come to the surface, carefully netted it and brought it onboard.

The number of colossal squid in the ocean is unknown but Bolstad said sperm whales in the Antarctic ate a lot of the animals.

After samples were taken from the squid examined on Tuesday, it would be preserved for further research and display, she added.

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‘Lesser’ Florican prompts Madhya Pradesh to develop habitat at Sailana

INDORE: Alarmed over continuous decline in migration of Lesser Florican locally known as Likh and Kharmor in Madhya Pradesh, forest department has taken up the task to protect and develop habitat of the endangered bird at Sailana Wildlife Sanctuary.

This season, number of Lesser Florican migrating to state has come down by 26% as compared to last year. According to the data collected from different sanctuaries of the state, till now only 11 Lesser Florican have migrated to state, as against 15 last year.

Forest department is planning to develop different variety of grass, pulses and water bodies across the sanctuary. "We are taking help from experts to identify species of grass, which is suitable for Florican's habitat," said chief conservator of forest (CCF) PC Dubey.

Along with grass and water, availability of insects is important for birds and, therefore, department has allowed free grazing inside the sanctuary. "Cattle's dung inside sanctuary will provide a breeding ground for insects," said Dubey, adding that Florican migrate here for breeding and they need sufficient protein diet for their newborn, and insects are an important source of protein for birds.

Ornithologist Ajay Gadikar, who has been tracking movement of Lesser Florican in state for last five years said, loss of habitat and grassland is main reason behind decline in their numbers.

Gadikar said Sailana grass patches with tiny scrubs and small plants of Palash and babool would be ideal as Florican prefer mosaic type of grassland. The existing species of grass at Sailana is attracting herds of Bluebull (Nilgai), which in turn, is creating a lot of trouble for lesser Florican nests. The birds lay its eggs on ground, which is always under danger of being destroyed due to movement of Nilgai.

Change in crop pattern in the region is also considered as one of the reason for decline in migration of Florican. In Sailana, soyabean is being cultivated near breeding grounds of Lesser Florican. Soyabean needs regular use of pesticides to kill insects, which is main food of Lesser Florican. The bird eats insects killed by pesticides that badly affect them. Forest department is also contemplating to encourage farmers to cultivate moong, jawar and other pulses instead of soyabean.

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Environmental norms will be made more stringent: Prakash Javadekar

NEW DELHI: Amid criticism of mindless clearances to many projects at the cost of green concerns, environment, forests and climate change minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday said that his ministry had taken many steps to bring transparency and emphasized that environmental norms would be made "more stringent and practical" keeping in mind the enormity of the problem and issues involved.

"The stakeholders would be consulted in the process so as to ensure complete compliance once the norms are laid down," said the minister while delivering his address at the ninth 'Sustainable and Inclusive solutions Summit', organized by the CII.

His remarks may be seen in the context of the government's recent decision to set up a panel to review all environmental laws. The mandate of this panel is to suggest necessary changes in the green laws, keeping in mind the developmental goal of the new government.

Referring to the revision of norms related to the cement industry undertaken recently, he said that these norms were implemented taking into account the concerns of the industry.

Elaborating further, Javadekar said that the cooperation of the industry stakeholders was critical in the context of monitoring, evaluation and implementation of environmental norms. This would enable the government to implement "eco friendly and growth friendly" policies, he added.

He also insisted that his ministry has taken a number of measures in the past three months to not only ensure speedy clearances of crucial infrastructure and defence-related projects but also bring transparency by launching online mechanism in the decision making processes.

Unlike many ministries that had first to chalk out strategies to give new direction to their mandated tasks, the environment ministry had found its works right on the table from the day one under the new government.

It had to simply take 'decisions' on various pending clearances and let things move quickly at the time when years of 'indecisions' under previous government had made the ministry a major stumbling block before economic activities.

The ministry exactly did what it was expected to do in the first 100 days. It had not only given all kinds of green clearances (environment, forest and wildlife) but also launched two 'online' systems to make future clearances easy.

The ministry under Javadekat did all this so quickly that it got an epithet of 'environment clearance' ministry and faced criticism for ignoring its original mandate of 'environment protection'.

Be it giving much awaited nod to the Indian Navy's ambitious infrastructure project at Karwar or easing out norms to give clearances to over 100 small and big road projects and transmission\communication lines along Indo-China border and in naxal-affected areas, the ministry had just to apply common sense by prioritizing its goals. It selected key public sector projects having huge security implications as its first preference.

Secondly, it turned its attention to ease out norms for coal mining so that the existing thermal power plants do not face scarcity of raw materials.

Thirdly, it reconstituted the powerful National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) by keeping outside experts (dissenting voices) mostly out of its ambit and ended up clearing as many as 133 proposals — specifically road projects — within five to 10 kilometres radius of various wildlife sanctuaries and national parks across the country.

Though the ministry has had its share of criticism for ignoring ecological concerns while taking call on such clearances, its acts perfectly suited the agenda of the new government.

Javadekar, on his part, tried to convince his critics by repeatedly saying that both 'development works' and 'environment protection' would go hand in hand by adopting right approach. He had launched two web-based systems to give faster environment and forest clearances through transparent manner.

Besides, the ministry has also written to all the states to equip its respective pollution watchdogs with online platforms so that it can strictly monitor treatment of industrial waste and its discharge into rivers including Ganga.

Quick actions on pending clearances may be needed to spur economic growth, but the ministry is still far away from doing some actual works on the ground to protect environment.

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Global wild tiger population to be counted by 2016

DHAKA: Thirteen countries with wild tiger populations agreed on Tuesday to take part in a global count to establish how many of the critically endangered big cats are left and improve policies to protect them.

Experts say that although the tiger population is thought to have remained stable over the last four years, a lack of accurate numbers is hindering effective policies.

The pledge came at a global conference in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka where more than 140 people have converged for three days to discuss actions to save the tiger.

"We really need science-based data on the number of tigers," said John Seidensticker of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington.

The count is due to be completed within two years and will replace data Seidensticker said was based mostly on "guesstimates".

The world's wild tiger population fell to little over 3,200 in 2010 from 100,000 only a century ago and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature has listed the animal as critically endangered.

Poaching, encroachment on its habitat and the illegal wildlife trade are blamed for the declining numbers.

In 2010 the 13 countries with tiger populations - Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam - launched a plan to double their numbers by 2022.

Officials at Tuesday's conference said populations had risen in major "tiger range" nations such as India, Nepal and Russia.

But poaching continues to be a major problem. Statistics from TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, show that at least 1,590 tigers - an average of two a week - were seized between January 2000 and April 2014.

"We recognise that poaching is still the number one threat to tigers. It's happening all over the tiger ranges. But we are still not really seeing strong commitment by the governments put in place against poaching," said Mike Baltzer of conservation group WWF.

Seidensticker said some concerns also stemmed from recent findings that "forested habitat within protected areas and tiger conservation landscape have declined over the last 10 years".

Bangladesh has come under fire for setting up a giant coal-fired power plant on the edge of the Sundarbans mangrove forest, home to one of the largest tiger populations.

Experts fear the 1,320-megawatt power plant being built just 14 kilometres (nine miles) from the Sundarbans will pollute the water of the world's largest mangrove forest, jeopardising its delicate biodiversity and threatening the tiger population.

"The impact will be disastrous. It will break up the Sundarbans into isolated parts, affecting tiger breeding," said Y V Jhala of the Wildlife Institute of India.

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Asian monsoon almost 40 million years old

WASHINGTON: Asian monsoon, one of the largest and crucial climate system in the world, existed 40 million years ago — much earlier than previous estimates, according to a new study.

Scientists believed the climate pattern known as the Asian monsoon began 22-25 million years ago as a result of the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalaya Mountains.

An international research team has now found that the Asian monsoon already existed 40 million years ago during a period of high atmospheric carbon dioxide and warmer temperatures.

"It is surprising. People thought the monsoon started much later," said lead author Alexis Licht, a research associate in the University of Arizona geoscientist department of geosciences.

The monsoon, the largest climate system in the world, governs the climate in much of mainland Asia, bringing torrential summer rains and dry winters.

"This research compellingly shows that a strong Asian monsoon system was in place at least by 35-40 million years ago," co-author Jay Quade, a UA professor of geosciences, said.

The research by Licht and his colleagues shows the earlier start of the monsoon occurred at a time when atmospheric CO2 was three to four times greater than it is now.

The monsoon then weakened 34 million years ago when atmospheric CO2 decreased by 50 per cent and an ice age occurred.

Licht said the study is the first to show the rise of the monsoon is as much a result of global climate as it is a result of topography.

"This finding has major consequences for the ongoing global warming. It suggests increasing the atmospheric CO2 will increase the monsoonal precipitation significantly," he said.

Unravelling the monsoon's origins required contributions from three different teams of scientists that were independently studying the environment of 40 million years ago.

All three investigations showed the monsoon climate pattern occurred 15 million years earlier than previously thought.

Due to its effect on agriculture, flora and fauna and the general weather of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, among other economic, social and environmental effects, monsoon is one of the most anticipated, followed and studied weather phenomena of the Indian subcontinent.

The study was published in the journal Nature.

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Javadekar to represent India at UN Climate Summit on September 23

NEW DELHI: India will be represented by environment minister Prakash Javadekar at the UN Climate Summit which is to be held in New York on September 23. One-day summit is being organized to give a 'political' momentum to the climate deal negotiations ahead of the December Peru talks.

Though the UN secretary general Ban-Ki-moon wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend it, the latter prefers to skip the meet as India does not want to commit anything at such forum before the world communities arrive at a global climate deal in Paris next year.

Chinese president Xi Jinping will also not attend the Summit which is to be attended by many world leaders including US president Barack Obama, UK prime minister David Cameron, French president Francois Hollande and South Korean president Park Geun-hye among others.

Although Javadekar is not expected to commit anything at the forum, he is learnt to have given a task to, at least, tell the world communities what all India has voluntarily been doing to cut greenhouse gas emissions for the last over six years.

He may also use the occasion to remind the developed countries of their responsibilities and seek their support - both financial as well as technical - in helping out developing countries without diluting the fundamentals of the UNFCCC framework and the Kyoto protocol.

Javadekar will leave on September 19 for USA to attend the summit.

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Wild Chinese Sturgeon faces extinction

BEIJING: The wild Chinese Sturgeons, believed to have lived since the age of dinosaurs, had no natural reproduction last year, leaving the rare species of fish at the risk of extinction, according to a latest research.

"It is the first time that we found no natural reproduction of the endangered sturgeons since records began 32 years ago when a dam was built," said Wei Qiwei, a principal investigator at the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences.

The number of wild Chinese Sturgeons has sharply declined to around 100 from thousands in the 1980s, mainly due to human activities and water pollution, Wei said.

Researchers found no eggs laid by the wild sturgeons in a river water area downstream the Gezhou Dam in central China's Hubei Province between October 31 and December 28 last year, he told state run Xinhua news agency yesterday.

Wild sturgeons usually swim all the way from the sea waters to the river area to lay eggs around mid and late November after they become mature.

Meanwhile, a monthlong research starting August 10 last year found no young sturgeons swimming all the way along the Yangtze river to the sea waters. Young sturgeons usually swim downstream to the sea in August.

"No natural reproduction means that the sturgeons would not expand its population and without protection, they might risk in extinction," Wei said.

The fish, nicknamed aquatic pandas, is listed as a wild creature under the national top protection.

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Leopard found dead in Betul

BETUL (MP): Around seven-year-old leopard was found dead near Bhoura village in north forest division, a forest official said here on Sunday.

The carcass of the leopard was spotted by the forest guards during their routine patrol on the intervening nights of September 12 and 13.

"Injury marks were found near the leopard's eyes," north forest division's divisional forest officer (DFO) A K Tiwari said.

A post-mortem was conducted and nine samples were sent to the forensic laboratory for examination.

"The exact reason behind the death will be known only after getting a detailed report from the laboratory," he said.

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Whale huddle braces for clash over Japanese hunting

PARIS: Nations will square off in Slovenia next week over the fate of hundreds of whales in the crosshairs of Japanese and Greenland hunters accused of sidestepping a commercial killing ban.

The stage is set for fiery debate among International Whaling Commission (IWC) members, touching on issues of national sovereignty, aboriginal rights and the conservation of Earth's bounty.

Trigger issues are Tokyo's plans to relaunch its Antarctic whale hunt despite a ruling of the UN's highest court, and a bid for Greenland's subsistence whaling quota to be enlarged.

"We are dealing with some contentious issues and the positions of the countries at the meeting remain far apart," Ryan Wulff, deputy United States commissioner to the IWC, told AFP.

In a statement pointing to stormy waters ahead, the IWC said it had moved "complex" issues to the top of the agenda to "allow maximum time for the 88 member governments to find ways of reaching consensus".

The commission's 65th meeting runs in the Adriatic resort of Portoroz from Monday to Thursday -- its first since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in March ordered a stop to Japan's annual Antarctic hunt.

Japan cancelled its 2014/15 season but has vowed to restart the campaign.

Commercial whaling is banned under a 1986 IWC moratorium, which has seen a rebound of many species hunted to near-extinction well into the 20th century.

It allows killing only for "purposes of scientific research" and for aboriginal communities in North America, Russia, Greenland and the Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines with a tradition of eating whale meat.

Japan continued hunting minkes within a whale sanctuary in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, invoking the scientific exemption, which the ICJ found it abused.

Much of the catch ended up at restaurants and fish markets in Japan, where the tradition of eating whale meat is declining.

IWC figures show that in 2013 and during the 2013/14 Antarctic summer, Japanese hunters took 252 minke whales in the Antarctic and 92 off its own coast, as well as 100 sei, 28 Bryde's, three minke and one sperm whale in the northwest Pacific.

A Japanese fisheries agency official told AFP that in Slovenia, his country would "explain its plan to resume research whaling in the next season (2015-16)."

Japan has not submitted a formal motion to the IWC, but New Zealand has filed a draft resolution that would place a heavier onus on Tokyo in future to prove that any Antarctic hunt is truly for science.

There is, however, nothing that prevents Japan from going ahead without the commission's blessing.

Wulff, whose country backs the New Zealand resolution, said scientific whaling was "simply not necessary".

"Any scientific question that you need to ask that is required to conserve or manage a stock, population or species of whales can be addressed through non-lethal means," he said.

Conservationists say minkes, the main target for commercial and subsistence whalers, is one of few species seemingly in decline, though not yet endangered.

In Portoroz, Japan will also elaborate on plans for "small-scale commercial whaling in its coastal area," with a target of 17 minkes, the fisheries official said. These are also opposed.

Denmark, meanwhile, is under scrutiny in its bid for a larger quota for aboriginal subsistence whalers in Greenland, an autonomous, Danish-dependent territory.

Critics say some of the catch ends up on tourists' plates in local restaurants.

"We have concerns that the proposal is commercial," said Kitty Block of conservation group Humane Society International (HSI).

At the last IWC meeting, in 2012, the quota sought for Greenland was rejected after a bust-up between Denmark and fellow EU members.

But whaling went on regardless. IWC figures show nine fin-, eight humpback-, and 181 minke whales were caught off the Greenland coast in 2013.

The latest proposal has the backing of Japan and the United States, which with Europe is keen to bring Denmark back under IWC control.

Another topic for debate is a southern hemisphere proposal for a South Atlantic whale sanctuary, which requires 75 percent of votes to pass, and has failed before.

"Conservation countries don't hold a three-quarters majority," said Block. "No side does."

Questions will likely be asked of Norway and Iceland, whose governments issue commercial permits under an objection or reservation registered against the moratorium.

Norway caught 594 minke whales last year, and Iceland 35 minke and 134 fin whales.

Parties including the United States are pushing for the commission to take on a bigger conservation role, given that there is actually little "legal" whaling to control.

"There are so many environmental threats in addition to the direct killing that Japan, Norway and Iceland do: environmental degradation, pollution, ship strokes, there are so many impacts on these animals," said Block.

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Outfit flays move to renew ownership certificate for captive elephants

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Noted animal rights group Heritage Task Force has criticised the Kerala forest department's move to renew the ownership certificate for captive elephants, holding that the move will lead to the regularization of illegal ownership of many jumbos.

The prescribed application form, issued by the state forest department for renewal of ownership certificate, does not comply with the guidelines in the Union government's Declaration of Wildlife Stock Rule 2003, the outfit alleged.

Heritage Task Force also wrote to the ministry of environment and forest, seeking immediate intervention into the issue, its secretary V K Venkatachalam told PTI.

"The application form, released along with the circular released by the office of the chief wildlife warden here, does not seek many relevant information mentioned in the Union government directive issued in 2003," he said.

The circular and the form did not mention anything about the self declaration of the inheritance status of the jumbos or the surrendering of the original ownership certificate as cited in the Centre's directive, he added.

Windchill also wanted the authorities to make it mandatory to produce the original ownership certificate for its renewal to avoid the possibility of malpractice.

According to records, there are over 500 captive jumbos in Kerala.

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Hunt on for man-eater leopard in Alirajpur district of MP

INDORE: A day after a pregnant woman was mauled by a man-eater leopard at Chhoti Jwari village in Alirajpur district, wildlife rescue team and battery of forest officials have launched a massive hunt to trace the beast.

DFO Alirajpur RS Sikarwar said, "Nearly six teams have been sent to different directions to trap the leopard. The rescue operation is being carried out with two tranquilizer guns and other equipment to catch the beast. Local villagers are also helping us but so far we are unable to trace it. Search operation is expected to intensify from Friday morning."

Meanwhile, throughout the day rumours about killing by leopard kept forest officials on their toes.

"Today no one was killed by leopard and people are spreading rumours," said Sikarwar.

On Wednesday, Kanta Bai who had gone out to relieve was attacked by a man-eater leopard. She died just nine days before she was expected to deliver her second child.

A man-eater leopard is on prowl in the area and this was second death due to its attack in a week. On September 3, a 12-year-old boy was killed along with his goat at a place located 8 km away from Chhoti Jwari village probably by the same leopard. In last one year six people have been killed in leopard attack.

Alirajpur district has around 38 leopards as per the census of 2013. Latest census report is awaited but forest officials believe that the number of leopard might have increased in the district.

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Govt launches an exclusive portal for river Ganga

NEW DELHI: Government on Friday launched an exclusive website on the river Ganga. The move will provide a digital platform to people to extend their suggestions and tips on good practices to keep the country's national river clean.

The idea of this launch is to involve people in a big way in the government's Ganga rejuvenation programme.

Launching the website, Union minister of water resource, river development and Ganga rejuvenation Uma Bharti said that the website was an important tool to connect the public with the gigantic task of Ganga rejuvenation.

She expressed the hope that large number of people concerned with the present state of Ganga will come forward to give their suggestions to improve the situation.

She also reiterated the resolve of the Narendra Modi government to rejuvenate the holy river "within the shortest possible time".

The website (nmcg.nic.in) contains wide range of information on the 'clean Ganga' mission which includes Ganga Manthan, Namami Gange, conservation of pollution project, status of NGRBA, Ganga action plan, water quality monitoring, industrial pollution monitoring, waste water management and comprehensive details of Ganga basin.

The bilingual website has a provision to receive feedback from the public where suggestions can be given about Ganga rejuvenation plan.

"Members of the public can also upload files up to the size of 4 MB along with their suggestions", said the water resources ministry in its formal statement.

This web portal will be a second digital platform for the general public and experts to extend their suggestions on the river Ganga. The Prime Minister had in July launched MyGov portal which also carries a separate section on the river Ganga for getting public suggestions.

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Climate-damaging greenhouse gases reached new record high in 2013

NEW DELHI: With world leaders getting ready to give a political push to the efforts to deal with the climate change at a mega summit in New York on September 23, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Tuesday came out with an alarming disclosure saying the climate-damaging greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new record high in 2013, propelled by a surge in levels of carbon dioxide.

The shocking disclosure is part of the WMO's annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, released in Geneva.

The Bulletin ahead of the UN climate summit assumes significance as it may infuse a sense of urgency when world leaders assemble in New York on September 23 to discuss ways and means to arrive at a global climate deal in Paris next year.

The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin showed that between 1990 and 2013 there was a 34% increase in radiative forcing - the warming effect on our climate — because of long-lived greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide.

"In 2013, concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 142% of the pre-industrial era (1750), and of methane and nitrous oxide 253% and 121% respectively," said the WMO report.

It said, "The observations from WMO's Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) network showed that CO2 levels increased more between 2012 and 2013 than during any other year since 1984. Preliminary data indicated that this was possibly related to reduced CO2 uptake by the earth's biosphere in addition to the steadily increasing CO2 emissions".

The WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin reports on atmospheric concentrations — and not emissions — of greenhouse gases. Emissions represent what goes into the atmosphere.

Concentrations represent what remains in the atmosphere after the complex system of interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere and the oceans. About a quarter of the total emissions are taken up by the oceans and another quarter by the biosphere, reducing in this way the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

The ocean cushions the increase in CO2 that would otherwise occur in the atmosphere, but with far-reaching impacts. The current rate of ocean acidification appears unprecedented at least over the last 300 million years, according to an analysis in the report.

"We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

"The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin shows that, far from falling, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere actually increased last year at the fastest rate for nearly 30 years. We must reverse this trend by cutting emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases across the board," he was quoted as saying by the WMO's press statement, released in Geneva.

"We are running out of time....Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for many hundreds of years and in the ocean for even longer. Past, present and future CO2 emissions will have a cumulative impact on both global warming and ocean acidification. The laws of physics are non-negotiable," said Jarraud.

"The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin provides a scientific base for decision-making. We have the knowledge and we have the tools for action to try keep temperature increases within 2°C to give our planet a chance and to give our children and grandchildren a future. Pleading ignorance can no longer be an excuse for not acting," said Jarraud.

"The inclusion of a section on ocean acidification in this issue of WMO's Greenhouse Gas Bulletin is appropriate and needed. It is high time the ocean, as the primary driver of the planet's climate and attenuator of climate change, becomesa central part of climate change discussions," said Wendy Watson-Wright, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO.

"If global warming is not a strong enough reason to cut CO2 emissions, ocean acidification should be, since its effects are already being felt and will increase for many decades to come. I echo WMO Secretary General Jarraud's concern — we ARE running out of time," she said.

Basic details

Atmospheric concentrations

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide accounted for 80% of the 34% increase in radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases from 1990 to 2013, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Annual Greenhouse Gas Index.

On the global scale, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere reached 396.0 parts per million in 2013. The atmospheric increase of CO2 from 2012 to 2013 was 2.9 parts per million, which is the largest annual increase for the period 1984-2013. Concentrations of CO2 are subject to seasonal and regional fluctuations. At the current rate of increase, the global annual average CO2 concentration is set to cross the symbolic 400 parts per million threshold in 2015 or 2016.

Methane

Methane is the second most important long-lived greenhouse gas. Approximately 40% of methane is emitted into the atmosphere by natural sources (e.g., wetlands and termites), and about 60 % comes from human activities like cattle breeding, rice agriculture, fossil fuel exploitation, landfills and biomass burning. Atmospheric methane reached a new high of about 1824 parts per billion (ppb) in 2013, due to increased emissions from anthropogenic sources. Since 2007, atmospheric methane has been increasing again after a temporary period of levelling-off.

Nitrous oxide (N2O)

Nitrous oxide is emitted into the atmosphere from both natural (about 60%) and anthropogenic sources (approximately 40%), including oceans, soil, biomass burning, fertilizer use, and various industrial processes. Its atmospheric concentration in 2013 was about 325.9 parts per billion. Its impact on climate, over a 100-year period, is 298 times greater than equal emissions of carbon dioxide. It also plays an important role in the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer which protects us from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun.

Ocean acidification

For the first time, this Bulletin contains a section on ocean acidification prepared in collaboration with the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP) of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-Unesco), the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), and the Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre (OA-ICC) of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The ocean currently absorbs one-fourth of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, reducing the increase in atmospheric CO2 that would otherwise occur because of fossil fuel combustion. Enhanced ocean CO2 uptake alters the marine carbonate system and lead to increasing acidity. The ocean's acidity increase is already measurable as oceans take up about 4 kilograms of CO2 per day per person.

The current rate of ocean acidification appears unprecedented at least over the last 300 million years, based on proxy-data from paleo archives. In the future, acidification will continue to accelerate at least until mid-century, based on projections from Earth system models.

The potential consequences of ocean acidification on marine organisms are complex. A major concern is the response of calcifying organisms, such as corals, algae, mollusks and some plankton, because their ability to build shell or skeletal material (via calcification) depends on the abundance of carbonate ion. For many organisms, calcification declines with increased acidification. Other impacts of acidification include reduced survival, development, and growth rates as well as changes in physiological functions and reduced biodiversity.

(Source: WMO)

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