India Environmental Issues
Does anyone perhaps have any articles on the environmental issues India is facing and/or how the population increase is or will be affecting these issues? Im writing an essay on this and a few leads would be appreciated.
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You should be able to get plenty of stuff by googling.
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Corporate India goes beyond lip service in eco initiatives
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A green tax may still be some way off from reality in the country, but corporate houses are already taking up the
responsibility to contribute in their own way to save the environment even without being threatened by any penalty. Corporates in sectors as diverse as tyre manufacturing, hotels and tourism are actively pursuing ideas that save on carbon emissions and corporate gatherings are beginning to feature a 'green tambola' that aims to reinforce in everyone's mind that June 5 is the world environment day. "Awareness is on the rise, and it is encouraging to see that green initiatives are being undertaken by companies in diverse sectors", says Kamaleshwar Sharan, president of Greentech Foundation, a Delhi-based NGO that focuses on promoting awareness about environment protection. Mr Sharan says new ideas in emission-savings are being developed by individual corporates across the country and that Greentech Foundation was taking the lead in spreading those ideas across the corporate and social spectrum so that more people would join the green bandwagon. At its Mysore plant, JK Tyres have introduced novel wooden boxes with hinges to transport tyres, so that the boxes are reusable, thereby saving timber. Adoption of the idea across the tyre-manufacturing sector itself is expected to lead to substantial savings in use of wood. The Orchid hotels in Mumbai and Delhi have hit upon the idea of using live plants with flowers from flower beds to decorate tables or key areas in the hotel properties for a special occasion and then replant them back in the garden, instead of using fresh cut flowers each time. The ITC Welcomgroup property in Mumbai is utilizing its kitchen waste to make manure, while the CGH Earth group in Kerala has a strong leaning on eco-friendliness, even insisting that its suppliers provide everything in biodegradable packaging. Mr Sharan said additional director in the ministry of environment and forest, RK Suri had initiated the idea of the 'green tambola' in which the number 5, when picked, is announced by linking it to the world environment day of June 5, to reinforce that date in people's minds. Source Economic Times |
India may lose south-west monsoon in 150 yrs: Study
New Delhi : India may lose one of its crucial lifelines the south west monsoon, which brings rains across the country during the summers, in the next 150 years, warns a new study by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.
The phenomenon is the result of global warming which has led to increase in the rate of temperature rise over Arabian Sea, researchers say. This rise is reducing temperature difference between land and sea, known as Temperature Gradient (TG), responsible for attracting rain causing winds from Arabian Sea towards Indian mainland. "For climatology, 30 years variations are considered. The decreasing trend (of TG) is highly significant and in another 150 years or so, it may tend to zero," lead author S M Bawiskar, a scientist at the Pune-based institute, said. Once the gradient becomes zero, Bawiskar warns, the monsoon winds will be replaced by dry easterly winds thus disturbing the flow of south-west monsoon. He found that average temperature over Arabian Sea was 18.77 degrees Celsius during 1948-77 but it has increased by 0.87 degrees to touch 19.64 degrees during 1979-2008. The results published in the Journal of Earth System Science show that rate of temperature increase over sea is higher than land which has narrowed the Gradient by 1.11 degrees during the said period. The below normal rains during the current season are also an indication of the changes taking place in the temperature over the Arabian sea. The Indian Meteorology Department has shown a 23 per cent reduced rain activity during the present season, which may be an indication of this phenomenon. "With decreasing TG, monsoon current over Arabian sea would become weak. This will lead to reduced rainfall activity over Indian Peninsula. The break like circulation will prevail for a longer period of time, which we are already experiencing during this monsoon," Bawiskar said. Global warming, which is increasing the average temperature across the planet, is also behind the increasing temperature over the Arabian sea, the study says. During monsoon, Arabian sea and Indian peninsula are under the grip of westerlies (winds coming from west) in the lower troposphere. These winds are mainly responsible for bringing rains over the Indian land mass and are established during the monsoon due to the Temperature Gradient. SourceExpressindia |
Rs 1,700 crore gone down the drain
NEW DELHI: In a frank admission, the Centre on Friday said in the Lok Sabha that Ganga and Yamuna were “no cleaner” now than two decades ago, despite spending over Rs 1,700 crore for checking their pollution. “I admit with full responsibility that Ganga and Yamuna are no cleaner than 20 years ago,” environment minister Jairam Ramesh responded to a calling-attention motion on checking pollution in rivers and lakes in India.
He said a “determined and renewed effort” was required to cleanse these major rivers. To a question by BJP MP Adityanath on the cleanliness of the two major rivers of North India, Mr Ramesh said he could provide figures on their pollution levels but “I myself don’t believe these numbers... For a layman, the answer is a depressing no.” While over Rs 816 crore was spent on two phases of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP), Rs 682 crore was spent on the first phase of the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) in the first phase and another Rs 190 crore on the second phase so far, he said. Referring to the National Ganga River Basin Authority headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said global tender for project consultants to prepare a basin management plan have attracted 30 bids and the selection would be done in the next two months. Source :Economic Times |
NASA's GRACE revealed depletion of ground water in India
According, to data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), a pair of satellites that sense changes in Earth’s gravity field and associated mass distribution, including water masses stored above or below Earth’s surface, more than 26 cubic miles of ground water disappeared from aquifers in areas of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and the capital territory of Delhi between 2002 and 2008. The scientists have found that ground water levels in northern India have been declining by as much as one foot per year over the past decade.
Data relating to 2006 shows a staggering fall of 2 metres in several Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka districts in comparison to previous years. Tamil Nadu was worse with levels dropping by 2-4 metres. More than 20% of monitoring wells in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Bihar, West Bengal, east Madhya Pradesh and east Rajasthan registered a decline of more than 2 metres, water fluctuation in January 2007 in comparison to the average between 1997 and 2006 revealed. Parts of UP and the hilly areas of the north registered improved groundwater use. The 2007 Central Groung Water Board (CGWB) report states 18% of assessed units in Andhra Pradesh, 78% in Delhi, 49% in Haryana, 75% in Punjab, 59% in Rajasthan, 37% in Tamil Nadu, 14% in Gujarat and 12% in Uttarakhand are “over-exploited.” Its projections of groundwater availability for irrigation in 2025 — not surprisingly — show negative figures for Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. Only in some areas, like the hilly terrain of West Bengal, Assam, parts of Meghalaya, Tripura and Jharkhand, there is rise in water levels by more than 2m as in the case in parts of the sub-Himalayas. The constant worry on groundwater is increased with the drought covering nearly 250 of the country’s 500-odd districts this year. In Punjab, out of the 138 blocks, 103 have over exploited groundwater, five have reached critical levels and another four are nearing the red zone. The groundwater development in Punjab is 145% which means that water is being used at a rate of 45% more from underground sources than natural systems. The pressure on groundwater is bound to increase as the government planning to battle drought by sinking hundreds of tube wells. The green states of the north are now witnessing a situation where extensive irrigation required is not adequately met by the surface water alone. Ground water levels respond slowly to changes in weather and can take months or years to replenish once pumped for irrigation. Mr. Matthew Rodell of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, answered to this question, “The layer of unsaturated soil acts as a buffer between the atmosphere and the aquifer. When it rains, the surface soil becomes wetter and surface water bodies increase in volume, but it takes time to percolate to the aquifer, and if it is a small amount of rain it may not replenish the aquifer at all. If you look at a time series of soil moisture, surface water, and groundwater, there is always a time lag between changes in the surface storages and the groundwater, also, high frequency variability in the surface stores are smoothed out in the groundwater response. It can take months or years for the aquifer to recover depending on how deep the aquifer is and how depleted it has become.” The results of this research have been published in the latest issue of Nature. It is based on data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites. Source: Ub-News |
Any suggestions to face this problem, Since TG is decreasing is there any hope..?
:tup:
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Earth soils can limit effects of climate change by locking greenhouse gases: study
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Scientists to help build resilience to climate change
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Most Indian cities fail to meet air quality standards: report
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Ban disposal of micro-plastic into sea, fishers forum urges Centre
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Karnataka among 7 states selected for groundwater project
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Live in a megacity? Prepare for deadly heat even if Paris climate goals met
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