Environmental Issues

The State-level Vulture Conservation Committee (SVCC) has decided to conduct a synchronised vulture census in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. The census has been planned before March as the nesting season is in progress, Chief Wildlife Warden Srinivas Reddy has said. At the SVCC’s first meeting held on January 25, …

A swallowtail butterfly disappearing from its previously known ranges from Myanmar and southern China to Vietnam has been recorded for the first time in India. Three butterfly enthusiasts — Atanu Bose, Loren Sonowal and Monsoon Jyoti Gogoi — recorded the “extremely rare” Noble’s Helen (Papilio noblei) from three locations in …

Researchers have uncovered 92 nesting sites containing a total of 256 fossil eggs in central India’s Narmada Valley belonging to titanosaurs, which were among the largest dinosaurs to have ever lived. The finding, published in the journal PLOS ONE, reveals intimate details about the lives of titanosaurs in the Indian subcontinent. …

In what could be termed as a first for dholes (wild dogs), a partial albino dhole (Cuon alpinus) has been photo-documented in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. This is not only the first-ever record of albinism in dholes from India but also from its entire distribution range in 11 countries. The …

On January 18, the Steering Committee of the Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) held its third meeting in New Delhi. It was chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Water Resources, in the Ministry of Jal Shakti, who reiterated that the KBLP was a “flagship” project of the national government …

Hundreds of dead Olive Ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) have washed ashore along the coastline between Kakinada and Antarvedi in the Godavari region of Andhra Pradesh during the ongoing annual breeding season on the east coast. The breeding grounds — Sakhinetipalli, Malikipuram, Mamidikuduru and Allavaram — have been witnessing the mass …

The current practice of translocating leopards from conflict area, in vogue since many years, will be disbanded in due course as Karnataka is set to establish multiple rehabilitation centres to house leopards and tigers captured from the conflict zones. Senior officials of the Karnataka Forest Department are already studying similar …

India’s financial sector is highly exposed to the risks of the economy transitioning from being largely dependent on fossil fuel to clean energy, says a study in the Global Environmental Change journal, published last week. An analysis of individual loans and bonds found that 60% of the lending to the mining sector …

Ecologically sensitive zones (ESZ) are intended to safeguard ‘protected areas’ — national parks and wildlife sanctuaries — by transitioning from an area of lower protection to an area of higher protection. However, the creation of these zones has provoked protests in Kerala and some other regions, in a precursor to …

The National Aquifer Mapping and Management programme, which is aimed at delineating aquifer and water availability, is set to be completed in a year, G. Asok Kumar, Director-General, National Mission for Clean Ganga, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, said in Chennai on Monday. Kumar inaugurated a three-day conference on ‘Water …