September 2018 Environment

• Nepal to be world's first country to double its tiger population
  Nepal is likely to be the first country in the world to double its tiger population. On the occasion of National Conservation Day on Sept 23rd, Nepal announced that there are now an estimated 235 wild tigers in the country, nearly doubling the baseline of around 121 tigers in 2009.
  
  According to a press release issued by WWF, Nepal, if these trends continue, Nepal could become the first country to double its national tiger population since the launch of ambitious TX2 goal at the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010 to double the world’s wild tiger population by 2022.
  
  Nepal conducted its national tiger survey between November 2017 and April 2018 in the transboundary Terai Arc Landscape (TAL), a vast area of diverse ecosystems shared with India.
  
  The earlier tiger survey in 2013 had estimated the tiger population at 198. Nepal is just a few tigers away from achieving the goal of double tiger numbers by 2022, it also underscores the continued need to ensure protection, and improved and contiguous habitats for the long-term survival of the species.
  
  
• Local Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Reuse (LOTUSHR) project launched
  Union Science & Technology minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurated a novel holistic Local Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Reuse (LOTUSHR) project at Sun Dial Park in New Delhi that produces clean water which is reused for various purposes, while simultaneously recovering nutrients and energy from the urban waste water, thus converting the Barapullah drain into profitable mines.
  
  This plant, can convert 10 lakh litre of sewage into clean water and generate 3 tonnes of biofuel, will be scaled up and will become a model for example for the whole world.
  
  In another unique initiative at the site Department of Biotechnology has undertaken afforestation of marshy flood plains, degraded and unusable land and planted 2281 plant and tree species.
  
  This not only cleans the area, mitigates mosquito breeding but also purifies the air and soil.
  
  The species and the spacing of the planted material is carefully planned using a technology which allows these trees to grow rapidly and within a short span of two-three years recover a unique ecosystem of birds, insects and animals.
  
  
• World must rapidly shift from dependence on fossil fuels by 2020 to prevent runaway climate change: UN chief Guterres
  UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the world is facing "a direct existential threat" and must rapidly shift from dependence on fossil fuels by 2020 to prevent "runaway climate change."
  
  UN headquarters in New York, Guterres called the crisis urgent and decried the lack of global leadership to address global warming.
  
  People everywhere are experiencing record-breaking temperatures and extreme heatwaves, wildfires, storms and floods "are leaving a trail of death and devastation."
  
  World leaders who signed the Paris agreement on climate change in 2015 committed to a series of measures to limit global temperature rises to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees. But recent studies show the world is off track and likely to miss that target.
  
  The UN chief described the upcoming COP 24 summit in the Polish city of Katowice as a "key moment" when leaders will be asked to "show they care about the people whose fate they hold in their hands."
  
  In 2019, a major climate summit will be held at the United Nations to take stock of the achievements and failures of the Paris agreement.

Published date : 04 Oct 2018 01:15PM