Environment & Disaster Management

Answer : Solid waste means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded materials including solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material, resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, and from community activities.

Impediments in disposing of the huge quantities of discarded solid wastes are:

• Poor collection of solid waste at household level especially in developing countries like India which is less than 70%.
• Direct discharge of industrial waste in lakes and rivers.
• NMBY (Not in My Backyard Movement) household are protesting against setting new landfills in their nearby areas.
• High costs of available technology to dispose them further impede their disposal.
• Municipal authorities have usually limited financial capacity.

We can remove safely the toxic wastes that have been accumulating in our habitable environment through new technologies and environmental ways such as:

• 4R (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle): It will help to reduce quantity effectively and their consumption.
• Vermiculture: The controlled growing of worms in specialty structures.
• Pyrolysis: It is the thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures in an inert atmosphere.
• Incineration: It is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in waste materials.

According to the Press Information Bureau, India generates 62 million tonnes of waste (mixed waste containing both recyclable and non-recyclable waste) every year, with an average annual growth rate of 4% (PIB 2016). Hence, developing countries like India need to give solid waste management importance to curb their negative impact on environment and health of humans.

Answer : A wetland is a place where the land is covered by water, either saline, fresh or somewhere in between. Marshes and ponds, the edge of a lake or ocean, the delta at the mouth of a river, low-lying areas that frequently floods—all of these are wetlands.

Under Article 3.1 of the Ramsar Convention, Contracting Parties agree to “formulate and implement their planning so as to promote the conservation of the wetlands included in the List, and as far as possible the wise use of wetlands in their territory”. Through this concept of “wise use”, which was pioneering when the Convention was drafted, the Convention continues to emphasize that human use on a sustainable basis is entirely compatible with Ramsar principles and wetland conservation in general.

The Ramsar wise use concept applies to all wetlands and water resources in a Contracting Party’s territory, not only to those sites designated as Wetlands of International Importance. Its application is crucial to ensuring that wetlands can continue fully to deliver their vital role in supporting maintenance of biological diversity and human well-being. As this term “wise use” gained currency within the Ramsar community and was used elsewhere for different purposes, the Conference of the Parties recognized the need for greater precision and adopted a definition at its 3rd meeting in Regina, Canada, in 1987.

The pioneering ‘Wise Use Guidelines’ emphasized the importance for Contracting Parties to:

• adopt national wetland policies, involving a review of their existing legislation and institutional arrangements to deal with wetland matters (either as separate policy instruments or as part of national environmental action plans, national biodiversity strategies, or other national strategic planning);
• develop programmes of wetland inventory, monitoring, research, training, education and public awareness;
• Take action at wetland sites, involving the development of integrated management plans covering every aspect of the wetlands and their relationships with their catchments.

Ramsar sites from India

• Keoladeo National Park, Rajasthan was placed on the Montreux Rrecord in 1990 due to water shortage and unbalanced grazing regime around it.
• Loktak Lake, Manipur was included on the Montreux Record of Ramsar Convention in 1993, as a result of ecological problems such as deforestation in the catchment area, infestation of water hyacinth and pollution.

Answer : Biodiversity is defined as ‘the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are a part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems’.

India is one of 12 megadiversity countries of the world. The innumerable life forms harboured by the forests, deserts, mountains, other land, air and oceans provide food, fodder, fuel, medicine, textiles etc. With only 2.5% of the land area, India already accounts for 7.8% of the global recorded species. India is also rich in traditional and indigenous knowledge, both coded and informal. The avifauna of India includes nearly 1301 species, of which 42 are endemic.

Bio-geographic Zones of India

1. Trans Himalaya
2. Himalaya
3. Desert
4. Semiarid
5. Western Ghats
6. Deccan Plateau
7. Gangetic Plain
8. North East
9. Coasts
10. Islands

Salient Feature of Biological Diversity Act, 2002

• To regulate access to biological resources of the country with the purpose of securing equitable share in benefits arising out of the use of biological resources; and associated knowledge relating to biological resources.
• To conserve and sustainably use biological diversity.
• To respect and protect knowledge of local communities related to biodiversity.
• To secure sharing of benefits with local people as conservers of biological resources and holders of knowledge and information relating to the use of biological resources.
• Conservation and development of areas of importance from the standpoint of biological diversity by declaring them as biological diversity heritage sites.
• Protection and rehabilitation of threatened species.
• Involvement of institutions of state governments in the broad scheme of the implementation of the Biological Diversity Act through constitution of committees.

The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 has been enacted keeping in mind the following facts:

• vIt is essential to global food security and nutrition and also serves as a safety-net to poor households during time of crisis.
• vIncreased diversity of genes within species e.g. as represented by livestock breeds or strains of plants, reduces risk from diseases and increases potential to adapt to changing climates.
• vMore than 70,000 plant species are used in traditional and modern medicine.

There remain several important weaknesses and shortcomings in Biological Diversity Act, 2002 such as:

• Absence of Definition of certain Terms: such as ‘conservation’, ‘commercial utlization’, etc not clearly defined.
• Exemption of certain Plants under PPVFR Act: The Biological Diversity Act experiences a problem that it allows the Government to exempt certain items “including biological resources normally traded as commodities” from the ambit of the Act.
• Prior Intimation to have Access Biological Resources: The provision that Indian corporate and other entities have to require only ‘prior intimation’ to a State Biodiversity Board for the commercial use of bio-resources, rather than ‘permission’ from the National Biodiversity Authority as in the case of foreigners – is not justifiable.
• Absence of Local Representation.

Answer : Natural disasters in India, many of them related to the climate of India, cause massive losses of life and property. Droughts, flash floods, cyclones, avalanches, landslides brought on by torrential rains, and snowstorms pose the greatest threats.

Major Points of ‘Sendai Framework for DRR (2015-2030)

1. Adopt a concise, focused, forward-looking and action-oriented post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction.
2. Complete the assessment and review of the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters.
3. Consider the experience gained through the regional and national strategies/institutions and plans for disaster risk reduction and their recommendations, as well as relevant regional agreements under the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action.
4. Identify modalities of cooperation based on commitments to implement a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction.
5. Determine modalities for the periodic review of the implementation of a post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction.

Major Departures

In the domain of disaster management, the Sendai Framework provides the way forward for the period ending in 2030. There are some major departures in the Sendai Framework:

• For the first time the goals are defined in terms of outcome-based targets instead of focusing on sets of activities and actions.
• It places governments at the center of disaster risk reduction with the framework emphasizing the need to strengthen the disaster risk governance.
• There is significant shift from earlier emphasis on disaster management to addressing disaster risk management itself by focusing on the underlying drivers of risk.
• It places almost equal importance on all kinds of disasters and not only on those arising from natural hazards.
• In addition to social vulnerability, it pays considerable attention to environmental aspects through a strong recognition that the implementation of integrated environmental and natural resource management approaches is needed for disaster reduction.
• Disaster risk reduction, more than before, is seen as a policy concern that cuts across many sectors, including health and education

The Sendai Framework notes that it is “urgent and critical to anticipate, plan for and reduce disaster risk” to cope with disaster. It requires the strengthening of disaster risk governance and coordination across various institutions and sectors. It requires the full and meaningful participation of relevant stakeholders at different levels. It is necessary to invest in the economic, social, health, cultural and educational resilience at all levels. It requires investments in research and the use of technology to enhance multi-hazard Early Warning Systems (EWS), preparedness, response, recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction.

Answer : Water scarcity and climate change have forced India to embrace the concept of river-interlinking. Recently, in Polavaram or Pattiseema project arrangements were made to link Godawari with Krishna which will supply water to Krishna. But such project, if implemented at national level, requires careful study of its advantages as well as possible impact on the environment.

River linking is joining of rivers of the country through network of canals and reservoirs. There are many studies to assess its advantages and adverse impact on environment. One such important study was done by the National Water Development Agency. In the light of many such studies, its advantage and impact can be understood.

Advantages of River Linking

India majorly depends on monsoon for water. About 70% or more rain occurs in 3 month from July to September of the year. This rains too does not follow uniform pattern. This explains why India is plagued by both: floods and droughts. They occur many a times simultaneously in different parts of the country. River linking is considered as a solution to this problem under which water will be transported from surplus region to deficient region.

• It will increase water use efficiency.
• It has potential to prevent and regulate floods.
• It can mitigate drought.
• It can make water available in arid, semi arid and dessert regions. Where new land can be brought under irrigated agriculture and production can be increased many times.
• It can recharge groundwater and water reservoirs and new reservoirs can be created.
• It can give boost to fisheries and aquaculture.
• Through river linking, widely connected waterways can be developed which is more environment-friendly and cost - effective mode of transportation for cargo.

Apart from advantages there can be various impacts also on environment:

[A]Positive impact

• Waterway transports are more environment-friendly and can decrease emission.
• Hydroelectric potential can be increased which is again a environment friendly source of energy.
• Supply of water to arid region may lead to growth in greenery and forest.

[B]Negative impacts

• For river linking projects many forest may be required to cut.
• It can lead to disturbance of biodiversity hotspots and ecologically sensitive zones.
• This will link till-now unconnected ecological regions with river water channels. Many plant and animal species could be introduced to newer regions. Few of them invasive species of the newer regions.
• Greater supply of water to arid regions may be unsuitable to soil and topography which may cause salinity to soil. Canal channels can also cause soil salinity alongside regions.
• There may be a big danger of change in river course due to charge of water flow which could prove an ecological disaster.
• vChange in water-flow, floods and droughts pattern have potential to bring ecological disaster for species which are adapted for today’s conditions.
• Construction of reservoirs may inundate and submerge the regions. As the proposed Ken-Betwa linking project is expected to submerge large areas of Panna Tiger Reserve.

After going through advantages and impact, it is clear that a very detailed Environment Impact Assessment should be done. Only after meticulous cost benefit analysis, the large-scale river linking should be done. Till then water scarcity should be dealt with water conservation and rainwater harvesting.

Answer : Climate change is an effect of global warming due green house gas emission. Different studies point towards projections of 2 - 4°C rise in global temperature which can cause devastating impacts. India being a tropical country may face severity of climate change.

There are various studies and reports about possible impacts on climate change e.g. IPCC, UNFCCC and other. In light of above need to see impact of climate change on India.

How India will be affected

• Rising temperature may create severe heat wave during summer. Already in last 3 years, during summer, there were more than 2000 deaths in Andhra and Telangana alone from heat waves.
• Climate change will make monsoon highly wet and extremely unpredictable. Reports say that the extreme wet monsoon which occurs once in 100 years will be there every 10 years.
• It can increase the frequency of drought and floods. The distribution of rainfall will become extremely uneven with increased frequency of cloud bursts. More rain in short duration will bring havoc.
• Climate change is also going to affect crop productivity. It can decrease the productivity directly. Further, there may be rise in insects and pests leading to food crop losses.
• Vector born diseases are likely to increase along with waterborn diseases as claimed by TERI study report.

Effect on Himalayan states

• Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change claims that Himalayan glaciers are melting fastest in the would and if the temperature rises to the higher side of expectations then Himalayas may be devoid of glaciers in 50-100 years. Rare species like Snow Leopard may become extinct.
• Eastern Himalayan states will become victim of extreme monsoon and floods.
• The livelihood of millions of people living in river bed of Ganga, Indus and Brahmputra will be affected.
• Himalayan ecosystem is very fragile and climate change can bring drastic change. The glacier fed rivers like Indus and Ganga will become dependent only on monsoon rain. This can change the scenario altogether in agriculture, forest, biodiversity and human life.

How climate change will affect coastal states

• Mumbai and Kolkata are cities having dense human habitation at coasts. Mumbai regularly faces the inundation and submergence. The 26 July 2005 like floods of Mumbai will occur with increased frequency.
• Storm surge and sea level rise would lead to saltwater intrusion in coastal areas impacting agriculture, freshwater bodies and even groundwater.
• Some cities will totally submerge.
• The rising temperature will increase sea surface temperature and affect acidity thereby corals will be destroyed affecting fishing and coastal life and economy.

Answer : Tsunami are the harbour waves in sea and ocean which moves at very high speed and brings devastation to island and coastal life.

Factors for Tsunami occurrence

Tsunami waves are generated due to large and sudden underwater movement. Various causes are:

1. Strong earthquakes can generate Tsunami
2. Volcanic eruptions specially under water eruptions
3. Movement of tectonic plates
4. Sea landslides can also cause Tsunami
5. Undersea Nuclear explosion can trigger Tsunami
6. Large Meteorite fall in sea can generate Tsunami

Effect on life and Economy

• Tsunami is a major disaster which can bring devastation to human life and economy. There is direct loss of many life due to Tsunami. Marine water inundates coastal area affecting agriculture, freshwater bodies and even groundwater creating scarcity of drinking water. Post-Tsunami disease and epidemic outbreak takes place which affects the life negatively.
• Island and coastal economy many a times faces complete destruction of coastal infrastructure including ports, roads, buildings, boats and ships. This destroys the coastal economy. Even the tourism is also affected that too for longer time as recovery is very slow due to large extent of devastation. Not only coastal economy but overall merchandise trade majorly depends on shipping and ports also. So, Tsunami affects the economy of mainland and overall country.
• Apart from immediate loss of life, injuries and diseases it affects the livelihood and employment opportunity of coastal population due to destruction of economy.
• Such devastating impact clearly indicates that early warning systems must be installed with further investment is R&D to prevent losses.

Mechanism of preparedness in the light of NDMA 2010 guidelines:

• Risk assessment and vulnerability analysis should be done for beforehand preparedness.
• Early warning system should be installed incorporating satellite connected buoys in sea.
• Tsunami early warning dissemination with the help of SDMA & DDMA.
• Various institutions should play their specific roles like IMD for monitoring Earthquake and flooding. INCOIS for national Tsunami warning centre. MHA for warning and information bulletin.
• Better coordination mechanisms between different agencies.
• Setting up disaster response force at island and coasts with training and awareness of people.
• Development of mangrove and conservation to prevent losses. Alongwith development of shelter-belts.
• Emergency search and rescue plan and training at community levels.
• Preparing GIS database and mapping.
• Evacuation centres for man and livestock should be prepared.

Answer : Water-use efficiency is the measure of a cropping system’s capacity to convert water into plant biomass. It includes both the use of water stored in the soil and rainfall during the growing season. In the hydrological context, Water-use efficiency has been defined as the ratio of water used productively.

In the Indian context, where agriculture sector corresponds to more than 80% of domestic water use, improving the water-use efficiency is of atmost importance.

Role of Micro-irrigation:

• In micro-irrigation, water is delivered in ‘Micro’ quantities using small outlets, by way of drip irrigation systems or sprinklers. Since water is delivered directly to plant roots, water use efficiency of micro-irrigation systems are significantly higher than conventional methods. While the on-farm irrigation efficiency of a properly designed and managed drip irrigation system is estimated to be about 90 percent, the productivity gain is considered to be 20 to 90 percent for different crops.
• Micro-irrigation systems are particularly useful in arid and semi-arid regions of the country by decreasing water loss from evaporation, wind and run-off. Along with optimising water use, these systems can address the quality issues of water, especially the salinity problem. By using fertigation methods, fertilizers can be directly applied to the roots of the plants thereby optimising agrochemicals.

Answer : Allelopathy is a biological phenomenon by which an organism produces one or more biochemicals that influence the germination, growth, survival, and reproduction of other organisms. These biochemicals are known as allelochemicals and can have beneficial (positive allelopathy) or detrimental (negative allelopathy) effects on the target organisms and the community.

Role of Allelopathy in major cropping systems:

• Allelopathy could play a significant role in the modern agricultural system, by focusing the effects of weeds on crops, crops on weeds, and crops on crops.
• Allelochemicals can stimulate or inhibit plant germination and growth, and permit the development of crops with low phytotoxic residue amounts in water and soil. Allelochemicals can also be used as natural herbicides, thus promoting sustainable agriculture.
• Allelopathic applications, such as straw mulching, provide sustainable weed management further reducing the negative impact of agriculture on environment. The allelochemicals from decomposed straw can suppress weed growth in farmlands, and reduce the incidence of pests and diseases. Synthesis of bio-pesticides which would be less harmful to the environment could be developed by studying the structure and mechanism of allelochemicals.
• By understanding and applying allelopathy we can sustainably maximize crop yields while minimizing disruptive and costly chemical input. Overall, allelopathy offers a whole package to achieve agricultural sustainability, environmental safety, food security, and economic stability.

Answer : Land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement are the major hurdles faced while planning big developmental projects. These very hurdles often attract controversy owing to the displacement of thousands of people as we have seen in the case of Tehri Dam, Sardar Sarovar Dam and Posco project.

• The construction of Tehri dam resulted in rapid changes in the hydrology and geology of the Himalayan region which led to an increase in the frequency of landslides affecting the lives and livelihoods of people residing there along with altering the Himalayan ecology.
• In the case of big investment projects like Posco in Odisha and chemical hub in Nandigram, land acquisition became controversial and the projects did not take off. In many cases clearing of forest tracts severely affected the tribal population making them increasingly vulnerable. The share of tribal population displaced due to developmental projects is disproportionately high. These are the very people who do not enjoy the fruits of development for which they are forced to pay a heavy price.
• In the urban areas infrastructural projects often see the evacuation of slums and unauthorized colonies. In most situations there are grievances against the agency implementing the project for its failure to provide proper rehabilitation and fair compensation before the evacuation drive is carried out. The process of evacuation without rehabilitation could also be considered as the violation of the right to life under article 21 of the constitution.

Suggested measures:

1. Strict implementation of environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and social impact Assessment in the case of infrastructure projects, along with setting up mechanisms to understand local ecology, society and culture.
2. Promote the integration of land use, communication and transport planning in a way that reduce the demand for transport.
3. Setting up a separate fund for the rehabilitation of the displaced population by the project implementing agency on the lines of the compensatory deforestation fund with statutory backing.
4. Tribal population need to have a special focus in the sense that protecting them is the responsibility of the state.
5. Focus on integrated coastal zone management programme to ensure proper development and coastal conservation. Strict implementation of CRZ norms are a necessity in this regard.
6. Empower local authorities who can contract operate and maintain economic, social and environmental infrastructure. These local authorities will also be able to take effective measures regarding rehabilitation if they are empowered.

Answer : With the changing global climate, the frequency of adverse weather events has also been increased. High intensity rainfall has increased in the past couple of decades owing to the changes in Monsoonal pattern leading to increased frequency of urban floods.

• Urban centers across the country are facing increased risk of floods. While climate change could be termed a reason, the magnitude and severity of floods is primarily because of anthropocentric activities.
• Due to climate change the frequency of heavy rainfall events are decreasing in major part of central India, east and north India while increasing in the peninsular India, where urban centers facing increased risk of high intensity rainfall and flood.
• Chennai and J&K floods are the recent events of urban floods which happened due to climatic factors but aggravated because of human actions. Chennai and its neighbouring areas have witnessed unplanned urbanization in recent years that has destroyed the city’s natural flood sink such as wetlands, marshes and river channels. Storm water drains are either clogged or non-existent due to rapid construction activities.
• In the case of J&K the floods aggravated due to the destroyed drainage and the drainage systems in urban areas. Storm water drains to be redeveloped and be made functional throughout the year. There needs to be strict implementation of wetlands protection rules and measures are to be taken to maintain the flow of river channels.
• Urban development needs to have a focus on disaster risk reduction with measures aimed at regulating construction activities in flood plains. More investments are also needed in logistical support to disaster management teams.
• The outreach of public healthcare centers in urban areas need to be expanded so that the rehabilitation work in crisis situations is not hampered.
• Overall, there needs to have concerted effort towards a sustainable environment with minimizing air, water and soil pollution. Reduced emissions and focus on clean energy will reduce the pace of global climate change there by reducing the frequency of adverse weather events.

Answer : The unusually heavy cloudbursts centred in Uttarakhand in June, 2013 caused devastating floods and landslides and became the country’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami. Such adverse and extreme weather events severely impact our society and pose newer challenges to the disaster management agencies.

Due to the peculiar climatic conditions, certain parts of the country experience sudden unprecedented heavy rain referred as cloudbursts. Principal rain bearing meteorological systems that lead to cloudbursts are

1. Monsoon depressions
2. Fluctuations in the intensity and location of the Monsoon trough over the plains of India.
3. A mid-troposphere circulations/low pressure off the coasts of India particularly over Gujarat
4. Off shore vortices.

The hilly regions of India are particularly susceptible to cloudbursts. Unplanned and unscientific development activity deforestation and population pressure compound the problem.

The activities of NDMA is focused on community based disaster management (CBMD), a strategy prevalent worldwide. This uses the community’s ability to cooperate and organize their knowledge means and resources which are crucial post-disaster.

NDMA also incorporates the strategy of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) which sets four specific priorities for action:

1. Understanding disaster risk
2. Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk
3. Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience.
4. Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to ‘Build Back Better’ in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The guidelines of NDMA give special attention to the vulnerable groups such as persons with disability, elderly people, women and children and emphasize on their training, simulations, participation from NGO, gramsabha and urban local bodies.

Measures to be adopted:

1. Mitigating disaster risk through research and incorporating technologies such as early warning systems on cloud burst.
2. Regulating construction activities on hill slopes and strict implementation of environmental impact assessment (EIA) for infrastructural activities in the Himalayan ecosystem. However it shall be constructed as per a disaster severity map.
3. Improvement in the service delivery post disaster (food, medicines etc) by incorporating to light resource helicopter with more functional food dropping system.

Answer : Solar energy is not only sustainable, it is renewable and this means that we will never run out of it. It is about as natural a source of power as it is possible to generate electricity. The creation of solar energy requires little maintenance. Once the solar panels have been installed and are working at maximum efficiency there is only a small amount of maintenance required each year to ensure they are in working order. They are a silent producer of energy. There is absolutely no noise made from photovoltaic panels as they convert sunlight into usable electricity. During operation solar electricity power plants produce zero emissions.

• There are continual advancements taking place in solar panel technology which are increasing the efficiency and lowering the cost of production, thus making it even more cost effective. The recent dramatic fall in equipment costs and tariff of solar energy can be attributed to several factors like increasing focus of government incentives and subsidies which are promoting solar energy. Increasing innovations in solar technology are also reducing the costs of infrastructure required. Reduced transmission and storage losses help in reducing energy cost per unit. Very low maintenance costs reduce the costs incurred over time. They are more efficient and there are lesser transmission losses. More efficient production processes and improvements in supply chain management continue to provide cost reduction opportunities. New zero white space (ZWS) solar module technology can increase solar module power output by up to 15%, effectively decreasing the total system. Also, the efficiency of solar PV modules in converting sunlight into electricity has improved.

Impact on Thermal and related power generation companies: With the reducing cost of solar energy, the consumers of thermal power will reduce and this will lead to reduction in profit and revenue of thermal power companies. Due to decreasing profit factor in thermal energy sector, the investor will not want invest in these companies. So, these companies may suffer from financial crunch. To remain viable in power market, these companies need to expand the R&D department by which they can reduce the production cost, so that they may offer the affordable rate of power to its consumers.

• There is a fundamental attractiveness about harnessing renewable forces in an age which is very conscious of the environmental effects of burning fossil fuels, and where sustainability is an ethical norm. So today the focus is on both adequacy of energy supply long-term and also the environmental implications of particular sources and this goes against investment in non-renewable sources of energy. A market-determined carbon price will create incentives for energy sources that are cleaner than current fossil fuel sources without distinguishing among different technologies. This puts the onus on the generating utility to employ technologies which efficiently supply power to the consumer at a competitive price and when this happens, it will to a large extent replace thermal, hydro and nuclear energy because there are inherent issues in employing these sources of energy. Thermal Energy is a non-renewable source of energy, there are water scarcity issues with hydro-electricity generation and there are safe disposal problems with nuclear energy.
• With India betting on solar and wind energy to boost power generation and reduce dependence on fossil fuels, renewable energy is emerging as a sunrise sector for the country. The government has put renewable energy at the top of its agenda and set an ambitious target of achieving 100,000MW of solar energy capacity by 2022.This creates a positive environment among investors keen to tap into India’s potential. The country offers unlimited growth potential for the solar PV industry.2015

Answer : The “Ganga Action Plan” (GAP) was launched for immediate reduction of pollution load on the river Ganga in 1985. In 2008, Ganga was declared a ‘National River’ to achieve the objectives of the clean-up operation. Ganga River Basin Authority was entrusted with the responsibility of planning, implementing and monitoring projects regarding the river.

• Some of the reasons for failure of previous schemes to achieve effective results includeadoption of unscientific and arbitrary effluent standards, ignoring of Indian conditions in formulating strategies like many Indian streets are too narrow to install sewer pipelines that require deep excavations creating structural dangers to street buildings, lack of pollution control defensive strategies such as segregation of industrial wastes, not implementing proactive or offensive strategies such as the regulated release of wastewater to ensure the maintenance of the pre-fixed river standard,lack of experts in techniques for river pollution control, rampant corruption that wastes most of the money allocated to river cleaning works, etc.
• Namami Ganga focuses on pollution abatement interventions namely interception, diversion and treatment of wastewater flowing through the open drains through bio-remediation/appropriate in-situ treatment/use of innovative technologies/sewage and effluent treatment plants; rehabilitation and immediate short term measures for arresting pollution at exit points on river front to prevent inflow of sewage etc.
• The NMCG was formed with objectives to ensure effective abatement of pollution and rejuvenation of the river Ganga by adopting a river basin approach to promote inter-sectoral co-ordination for comprehensive planning and management and to maintain minimum ecological flows in the river Ganga with the aim of ensuring water quality and environmentally sustainable development.

We must take the following steps to save our national river:

1. Since the Ganga flows through many states, it would be the best if NGRBA takes the full responsibility of making and keeping the Ganga and its tributaries completely and permanently free from pollution through time-bound steps, leaving no scope for the central and state government authorities blaming each other for the failures.
2. Analogous to the ‘Prevention of Insults to National Honor Act’ for the national flag and anthem, there should be an Act for the national river Ganga with provisions that ensure due respect to her, considering her National River status.
3. The policy of zero discharge into the river be adopted promoting reuse and recycle of wastewater after treatment up to tertiary-level.
4. The bactericidal, health promoting, non-putrefying and self-purifying properties of the water of Ganga should be restored and conserved.
5. Treatment of the sewage through “Pond System and Plant Based Management of Sewage and Waste Treatment” and using the nutrient reach treated waste water for organic forming, which is the cheapest and durable and need least management and electricity, should be preferred wherever possible.

Answer : The recurrence of a major earthquake on May 12, 2015 - this time measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale - with its epicentre near Kodari in Nepal, barely a fortnight after the devastating temblor in the landlocked country, has once again raised questions about preparedness for such disasters in the subcontinent.

• The Nepal earthquake was a result of the movement of the Indian tectonic plate against the Eurasian plate. This created accumulated stress which is released in such a manner that makes predicting earthquakes impossible. We need to accept earthquakes as a reality and do everything in our power to redefine development plans, especially in terms of building quake-resistant buildings. Preparedness is the key to managing any more such disasters.
• Based on the occurrence of earthquakes in the past in and around India, the country is divided into five seismic zones, namely zones I, II, III, IV and IV, where I is the least severe and V is the most severe. Based on this zoning, about 60% of India’s land area is under moderate seismic threat or more, i.e., under seismic zone III or above.
• Preparing for earthquakes involves (1) learning what people should do before, during, and after earthquakes; and (2) doing or preparing to do those things now, before the next quake.
• The dos and don’ts to be observed during and after a quake, for instance, should be properly communicated to people to minimize losses. It would also be a good idea to have regular earthquake drills, with emergency alerts broadcast over radio, TV, and social networks about what to do when the ground starts shaking. Second, Indian agencies should stiffen the criteria for quake-resistant building designs and make it mandatory for real estate agents and buyers to comply with those guidelines. Past earthquakes in our country brought home the harsh reality that earthquakes don’t kill people, unsafe buildings do. The quality of both design engineering and construction is way behind the expected seismic standards.Third, India still doesn’t have a robust disaster management and mitigation plan for earthquakes. The hazard maps that are supposed to be drawn for natural calamities like earthquakes remain ‘on file’ in government offices, which meant only a handful of states could come up with half-baked disaster management plans. This needs to be addressed. The National Disaster Management Authority has two primary functions - policy guidance and disaster response. But it has failed to fulfill its mandate. Earlier work of NDMA has also been criticized as reported by CAG in 2013, “NDMA was not performing several functions prescribed in the Disaster Management Act, 2005. These included recommending provision of funds for mitigation, as well as relief in repayment of loans or grant of fresh ones. The national guidelines developed by NDMA were not adopted and applied by the nodal agencies and state governments. NDMA did not take effective measures to ensure the application of its guidelines.” Response to a specific disaster is the best test of the level of disaster preparedness. India tumbles every time it is struck by any disaster be it flood, earthquake, etc. There is a need to establish linkages between the Government and civil society response plans and capacity building of Government institutions and the local self-governments in disaster mitigation, preparedness and recovery.

Answer : Transport is the heart of urban development and economic activity. However, the current urban transport paradigms, which favor auto-mobility generate multiple social, economic and environmental impacts, and are not sustainable.India’s National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) recognizes and recommends that the focus be moving people not vehicles.

• The prevalence of investments in other countries that favor auto-mobility has resulted in air pollution (local and global), fossil fuel dependence, inequitable access, neighborhood disruption, and mounting congestion, which erodes economic growth and quality of life. Auto-mobility is an important social determinant of negative impacts on health: reduced physical activity, noise and air pollution, and traffic accidents, which result in illness and premature death.
• NUTP incorporates several elements that support achieving that goal. The policy and supporting funding from JnNURM have promoted investment in public transit and non-motorized transport and have encouraged cities to complete comprehensive planning. As a result, more emphasis is needed in the policy instruments to shift business as usual (auto-mobility) paradigms. It alsoproposes enhancing NUTP by establishing a vision of integrated land use and transport planning as the paradigm for the policy instruments and funding. This vision is intended to provide for the accessibility needs of the majority of the population, not just the privileged using individual motor vehicles.
• The public transport options vary between low cost buses to high cost rail metros. Moreover, the shape of a city is very important for selecting the appropriate mode of transport and capacity building is a very important factor in introducing and implementing public transport system. Several initiatives have been taken in India in this regard: many cities have prepared Comprehensive Mobility Plans and have plans to introduce modern bus services; Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) is coming up in eleven cities; six cities are planning new metro rail systems; and Unified Metropolitan Transport Authorities have been set up in two cities. The Government of India has funded 15,260 modern and intelligent transport systems enabled buses for city transport for 61 mission cities as a part of the economic stimulus package. Amongst various urban transport projects, rail based Metro are being developed in many cities of India, viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Kochi and Hyderabad. Light rail systems have been proposed in Kolkata while monorail systems in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. Under road based Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in JNNURM, many projects have been sanctioned, in cities like Ahmedabad, Visakhapatnam, Indore, Jaipur, Bhopal, Rajkot, Vijayawada, Pimpri-Chinchwad , Pune, Suratand Delhi.

Answer : Indian economy is expected to expand at a cumulative aggregate growth rate of 11% until 2020, according to estimates. Its electricity demand is also expected to reach over 350 GW over the next ten years, compared to 119 GW currently. This puts India at a crucial stage in its growth trajectory, faced with the challenge of balancing objectives of economic growth with those of sustainable development. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which helps developing countries such as India finance greenhouse gas emission reduction projects, is a novel way of reconciling these two seemingly conflicting agendas.

• India’s fast burgeoning industrial sector is the country’s largest energy consumer, accounting for over 40% of the annual commercial energy use, most of which is sourced from fossil fuels. Highly energy intensive industries such as iron and steel, fertilizer, cement and petrochemicals play a crucial role in fuelling India’s economy. The industrial sector accounts for about a third of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Of this, 60% stems directly from energy use.
• The National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency in Industry, one of eight National Missions enshrined in Government of India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change, recognizes the role the CDM can play in financing emission reduction projects for India’s Industrial sector. The Mission aims to enhance cost effectiveness of improvements in energy efficiency in nine energy intensive industries - Power, Fertilizer, Iron and Steel, Cement, Textile, Pulp and Paper, Aluminum and Railways.
• Although the Mission’s objectives are voluntary for these industries, the Energy Conservation Act of 2001 makes it mandatory for energy intensive industries to meet certain other energy efficiency requirements. The CDM can go a long way in helping Indian companies covered by the National Mission for Enhanced
• Energy Efficiency finance investments that boost productivity, while promoting more efficient energy use.
• According to the Central Electricity Authority of India, electricity produced from clean sources amounts to 35.3% - 24.7% from Hydroelectricity, 2.9% from Nuclear Energy, and 7.7% from other renewable sources such as wind and solar. The large share of coal in the industrial sector provides ample room for Indian businesses to make use of the CDM to finance fuel switching, waste heat reduction and energy efficiency projects. Thus, India is likely to continue playing a crucial role in the growth of global carbon markets.

Answer : El Niño and La Niña events are a natural part of the global climate system. They occur when the Pacific Ocean and the atmosphere above it change from their neutral (‘normal’) state to entropied state in the equatorial peicific region. El Niño events are associated with a warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific, while La Niña events are the reverse, with a sustained cooling of these same areas.

• It is commonly believed that natural disasters like cyclone, flood and drought are the commonest fall out of El Nino and La Nina. In September 2010 the National Disaster Management Authority has issued the Guidelines on management of drought.
• These guidelines call for a participatory approach involving all the stakeholders to take forward the task of operationalizing the National Vision for securing proactive and pre-disaster preparedness and emphasizing a mitigation-centric approach.
• Separate Drought Monitoring Cells (DMCs) will be created at the state level with adequate staff under the control of State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs). State level monitoring cells will have requisite Administrative, Technical and data maintenance staff. State DMCs will undertake on a priority basis, the preparation of vulnerability maps for their respective States. Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and role of National Informatics Centre (NIC) for online interaction and availability of realtime drought related information will be developed. The watershed development approach is an important facet of drought management initiatives, taken up through the programmes of the Government of India.
• Efforts will be made to integrate the ground-based information with the space-based information for comprehensive reporting. The role of all departments engaged in drought management will be clearly spelt out.
• Unit of deceleration of drought should be standardised and alternative methods of quicker assessment of crop yield need to be evolved so as to mitigate the impact of drought in time. The Drought Management Information System of DAC will be revamped, institutionalized and made operational with the support of State DMCs.

Answer : Coal-based power plants significantly impact the local environment. Direct impacts resulting from construction and ongoing operations include:

• Ambient Air Pollution – Particulates, sulphur oxides, nitrous oxides, and other hazardous chemicals and toxic metals like Hg, As, etc.
• Water Pollution – It occurs in local water streams, rivers and ground water from effluent discharges and percolation of hazardous materials from the stored fly ash
• Land Degradation – It occurs due to alterations of land used for storing fly ash
• Noise Pollution –It occurs during operation and cause occupational as well as public health hazards.

The indirect impacts result mainly from coal mining, which includes degradation and destruction of land, water, forests, habitats, and societies. In addition to the impact of the coal-power plants, there is also a larger issue of the environmental and social impact of coal mining. In a typical TPP, environmental impacts are likely to comprise the following principal components:

• Transportation of raw material
• Preparing and storing raw material
• Burning fuel and generating steam
• Generating electricity in close-cycle thermal Units
• Treating exhaust gases and solid and liquid residues

Furthermore, the poor quality of Indian coal, with its high ash content and low calorific values, has led to increased particulate pollution and ash disposal problems.

Regulations that limit pollution from power plants are focused mainly on particulate matter emissions and ambient air quality standards for sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), although the enforcement of these regulations has been weak. The demand for electricity is so great that plants that violate the norms are not shut down, despite legal obligations to do so. With the projected increase in installed capacity, a key challenge for the government is to effectively enforce and tighten its existing regulations.

Answer : The green energy corridor will help in integrating renewable energy into the National Grid. It comprises of both inter-state and intra-state schemes for evacuation of power from wind and solar projects.

• To achieve a sustainable growth, energy security is of paramount importance for which large scale integration of renewable generation shall play a prominent role. Renewable energy has the inherent advantage of greater resource flexibility of a distributed energy system. In this direction, transmission plays a central role to facilitate seamless flow of electricity in a reliable and affordable manner, increasing efficiency with the application of smart grid technologies. Towards this, the “Green Energy Corridor” is one of the most appreciable efforts as the renewable energy sector is coming into increasing focus in the context of climate change vis-à-vis concern on energy security.
• India’s green energy corridor is expected to facilitate the flow of renewable energy into its grid electricity. It will be built across seven states over next 5-6 years, with the technical and development assistance of Germany.

Answer : In recent years, run-of-the-river hydropower projects have emerged as a viable, low-impact alternative to existing large-scale projects. Run-of-the-river facilities use conventional hydropower technology to produce electricity by diverting river flow through turbines that spin generators - before returning water back to the river downstream.

• Advantages: Run-of-the-river hydro avoids the need to build large dams to store water, allowing the project to generate as conditions and river flows, space limitation is overcome as no need of larger area, cleaner power and fewer green house gases and less environmental impact.
• Difference: The difference between run-of-river and large, conventional storage hydro, is the absence of a dam and reservoir. Run-of-river relies on coursing rivers to generate electricity, as opposed to stored water. Most small hydro facilities do use a dam, or weir, to ensure enough water enters the penstock.

Answer : Disaster management includes those aspect of managing disasters which deals with prediction, prevention, relief, reconstruction and recovery aspects. Among these, vulnerability and risk assessment are the elements which come under the domain of prediction and prevention aspects and comprises of the hinge of disaster management ecosystem.

• A comprehensive risk assessment not only evaluates the magnitude and likelihood of potential losses but also provides full understanding of the causes and impact of those losses. Risk assessment, therefore, is an integral part of decision and policy-making processes and requires close collaboration among various parts of society.
• As an Administrator I would be vigilant enough to gauge and predict calamity like floods, drought, epidemics, etc. However, predictive elements could be evasive in some forms of calamities like earthquake.
• I would assure preparedness measures such as the maintenance of inventories of resources and the training of personnel to manage disasters.
• In case of occurrence of disaster, focus should shift to relief which involves coordinating with civil society, NGOs, community groups, etc.
• Thereafter, reconstruction and recovery becomes pertinent and for this there needs to be involvement of technical experts to assess the loss so that a future map could be created on the basis of loss to prevent such mishap in future.

Answer : The consequences of illegal mining can be of two types; one is economical and other, ecological. While economical aspects deal only with revenue loss to government exchequer, it is ecological aspects which are more alarming.

Its effect can be seen as:

1. Loss of land
2. Loss of surface topsoil
3. Water pollution
4. Ground water pollution
5. Extensive sedimentation
6. Fire hazard
7. Air pollution
8. Adverse soil conditions
9. Force a river to change its course
10. Adverse effect on habitat of micro organisms
11. Socio-economic pollution – Illegal mining perpetrated by the mine mafias and bourgeoisie results in the formation of a black economy which is a destructive and divisive force in the social and economic environment of the region. As a result of this local village community loses all stake and control over the local resources.

The concept of ‘go and no go’ area are the new strategy formulated by environment ministry to categorize coal bearing areas in the country. Current policy defines No Go area as category A. It is those areas which have more than 10% Weighted Forest Cover (WFC) or more than 30% Gross Forest Cover (GFC). In case both criteria are not met, it is put in “GO” zone, that is category B. Major Parts of Western Ghats have been demarcated along this line.

Answer : National water policy of India focuses on management of surface water as well as ground water, and gives due emphasis on its efficient management. Some of its features are:

1. Planning, management and development of water resources need to be governed by common integrated perspective.
2. Water need to be managed as common pool community resource through a national level legal framework.
3. River basin is to be considered as basic unit for all hydrological planning.
4. Water audit mechanism should be developed for better efficient use of water.
5. Water Regulatory Authority has been envisaged in each state to fix and regulate water tariff system.
6. Hydrological data in public domain.
7. Permanent water disputes tribunal at Centre.

Strategies which are needed to tackle river water pollution control:

• There should be a planning, management and development executive setup. It should involve civil society, NGOs and other bodies for awareness work on the line of NGRBA (National Ganges River Basin Authority)
• Awareness campaign should be vigorous and all forms of media shall be involved.
• There should be collaboration with municipal bodies and stringent penalties shall be imposed on polluting industries and the coffer filled with such fines shall be used for management of pollution.

Legal provisions for handling and managing wastes in India are:

• Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974
• Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution)act 1981
• Environmental Protection Act, 1986
• Hazardous Wastes (Management and Handling Rules), 1989

Answer : The Supreme Court recently banned all tourism activities in the core areas of the tiger reserve forests. This led to a debate on two issues. First, regarding the impact of tourism on already diminishing tiger population and second the impact of the ban on tourism industry and whether both the goals of sustaining tiger population as well as sustainable tourism can be achieved.

• One of the arguments is that Tourism is harmful for tiger population. Tiger is a species that requires an authentic wild forest habitat to survive. Too much disturbance and human interference in its habitat is harmful for their survival. Building of hotels and wide roads and highways in the middle of the core forests areas destroys their natural habitat. But responsible tourism and limited tourism may not be so harmful and in fact may even create employment opportunities for the local community. Moreover the presence of tourists acts as a major motivation force and a monitor for management and protection measures being implemented. It is also a fact that in areas where there is no or low tourism poaching incidences are in fact higher. Taking this view into cognizance the Supreme Court allowed tourism in buffer areas. But the contention with this is that buffer areas hardly have any wildlife present, the forest cover is also sparse. The tourism potential thus is limited. However the tourism industry must view this judgment in a positive light. The core area only forms about 1 per cent of the total forest cover of India. The sanctity of these areas must be protected. This may help in multiplication of tiger population and enhance tiger viewing even in buffer areas.
• The government in this light must look at an innovative approach and strike a balance between protecting the tiger population in core areas and sustainable tourism. The government can take a clue from the management of tourism in the dense forests of Kenya and Tanzania which has adopted methods such as forest safaris and a participative model involving local communities.

Answer : With population of the world set to touch 9 billion by 2050, and availability of agricultural land diminishing at the same time, the FAO has expressed concern over a looming food crisis. It has been encouraging scientists worldwide to discover solutions to increase productivity of food crops. Genetic manipulation of crops to achieve higher production is being proposed as a solution.

• On the other hand, Convention on Biological Diversity is discouraging of such research. They are of the opinion that any playing around with the natural makeup of plants can be harmful for the biodiversity as the food chain may be impacted adversely. Moreover, modification of genes can also have unpredictable side effects at a mass scale which may later become irreversible. For example it can increase the population of a particular species or lead to extinction of another.
• Thus even though the concerns expressed by both CBD as well as FAO are legitimate, but antithetical in nature. The world needs to find a middle ground and innovate on how this problem can be solved.

Answer : The term permaculture meaning permanent agriculture was coined by the Australian ecologist Bill Mollison. It is concerned with designing ecologically sustainable human habitat and food production systems by following specific guidelines and principles. It is a land use planning philosophy based on three ethics: Care of the earth, care of the people and reinvest all surpluses and on three guiding principles i.e. each element of the system performs multiple functions, each desired function of the system is supported by multiple elements andeverything in the system is interconnected to everything else.

The three most common examples of permaculture are:

1. Agro forestry integrating the tree and shrubs with crops and live stock to create a more diverse, healthy sustainable and profitable land use system.
2. Rain water harvesting accumulating and storing rainwater for reuse before it reaches the aquifer.
3. Sheet mulching is an agricultural no digs gardening technique. It mimics the leaf cover that is found on the forest floors and serves as a nutrient bank, storing the nutrients in the organic matter and transferring these slowly to plants.

Answer : Environmental Sustainability means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It involves making decisions and taking action that are in the interests of protecting the natural world, with particular emphasis on preserving the capability of the environment to support human life and to sustain global life support systems indefinitely.

• "Sustainable development of People" ensures the well-being of the human being by integrating social development, economic development, and environmental conservation and protection at local, national and global levels.

Answer : The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), defined in Article 12 of the Protocol, allows a country with an emission-reduction or emission-limitation commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to implement an emission-reduction project in developing countries to earn saleable certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2, which can be counted towards meeting Kyoto targets.

• CDM is the first global, environment investment and credit scheme of its kind, providing standardized offset instrument.

• The symptoms above are related to dehydration (loss of too much fluids, salt and minerals from the body). As a first step I will take him to a shade in a well ventilated area and will apply cold sponging technique or sprinkle some water on him to bring him to consciousness. Fluid replacement in the form of giving him some water, oral rehydration solution, sports drinks and juices are the next steps I will take.

• The Supreme Court equating the right to a clean environment with the right to life has led to the creation of groundbreaking laws for effective environmental compliance and enforcement. The SC exercising its power under Article 142 of the Constitution created the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority. Further, the constitution of the Forest Commission by the SC, establishment of 'Green Courts' in various States and the proactive role of the higher judiciary in environmental matters culminated in the enactment of National Green Tribunal Act of 2010, that proposes to efficiently and expeditiously dispose of cases relating to environmental protection.

Answer : That Arctic sea ice is disappearing has been known for decades. The underlying cause is believed by all but a handful of climatologists to be a global warming brought about by greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet the rate at which the ice is vanishing confounds these climatologists' models. These predict that if the level of carbon dioxide, methane and so on in the atmosphere continues to rise, then the Arctic Ocean will be free of floating summer ice by the end of the century. At current rates of shrinkage, by contrast, this looks likely to happen sometime between 2020 and 2050.

• Also there are fears that the shrinking permafrost (permanently frozen soil) in the Arctic could release large volumes of greenhouse gases and the resultant phenomenon could aggravate global warming and speed up sea level rise. This is an alarming development with severe adversarial impact on humans, there are also several new opportunities as a consequence of melting of the Arctic ice.It is believed that the melting of the Arctic ice could create new frontiers for commercial and economic activity; there are prospects for new sources of oil and gas that are still unexplored, rich fishing grounds, and a new shipping route from the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic region to the Atlantic Ocean that could cut passage time.
• However, there are fears that the melting of the Arctic ice is the harbinger of new geopolitics in the region which could trigger great power rivalry in terms of resources, routes, boundaries, and military deployments. The five nations bordering the Arctic Ocean i.e. Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United Stateshave announced territorial claims in the region, but have so far attempted to play down the disputes and urged the claimants to comply with the U.N. Law of the Sea Convention(1982 UNCLOS III) on territorial claims in the region.
• China has established its Arctic research facility in 2004 at Yellow River Station located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. Since then, China's interest in the Arctic has gathered momentum and in 2007 it joined the Arctic Council as an observer. According to one estimate, the region could contain nearly 83 billion barrels of oil which corresponds to about 4 per cent of the remaining oil of the world; the natural gas deposits in the region have been estimated to be about 1550 trillion cubic feet. These can sustain global oil and gas demand for about 3 years and 14 years respectively. Further, most of these lie offshore below 500 meters of water and can be extracted with the existing deep sea exploration technologies. The region is also known to contain vast amounts of metals such as nickel, copper, lead, manganese, chromium and titanium. It is fair to argue that as the Arctic ice melts, thus the competition to secure resources is sure to become tense.Arctic Council Nationsare more enthusiastic about the opening up of arctic sea for exploration of oil and gas - new sea route will open up linking Atlantic and Pacific and less concerned with global climate change. Whereas, the wider world is more concerned about the impacts of rising sea levels due to rapid melting of ice.

Answer : The objective of solid waste management is to reduce the quantity of solid waste disposed off on land by recovery of materials and energy from solid waste. This in turn results in lesser requirement of raw material and energy as inputs for technological processes.

Functional Elements of Municipal Solid Waste Management

• Waste Generation: Waste generation encompasses activities in which materials are identified as no longer being of value (in their present form) and are either thrown away or gathered together for disposal. Waste generation is, at present, an activity that is not very controllable. In the future, however, more control is likely to be exercised over the generation of wastes. Reduction of waste at source, although not controlled by solid waste managers, is now included in system evaluations as a method of limiting the quantity of waste generated.
• Waste Handling, Sorting, Storage, and Processing at the Source: The second of the six functional elements in the solid waste management system is waste handling, sorting, storage, and processing at the source. Waste handling and sorting involves the activities associated with management of wastes until they are placed in storage containers for collection. Handling also encompasses the movement of loaded containers to the point of collection. Sorting of waste components is an important step in the handling and storage of solid waste at the source. For example, the best place to separate waste materials for reuse and recycling is at the source of generation. Households are becoming more aware of the importance of separating newspaper and cardboard, bottles/glass, kitchen wastes and ferrous and non-ferrous materials.
• Collection: The functional element of collection includes not only the gathering of solid wastes and recyclable materials, but also the transport of these materials, after collection, to the location where the collection vehicle is emptied. This location may be a material processing facility, a transfer station, or a landfill disposal site.
• Sorting, Processing and Transformation of Solid Waste: The sorting, processing and transformation of solid waste materials is the fourth of the functional elements. The recovery of sorted materials, processing of solid waste and transformation of solid waste that occurs primarily in locations away from the source of waste generation are encompassed by this functional element. Sorting of commingled (mixed) wastes usually occurs at a materials recovery facility, transfer stations, combustion facilities, and disposal sites. Sorting often includes the separation of bulky items, separation of waste components by size using screens, manual separation of waste components, and separation of ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
• Transfer and Transport: The functional element of transfer and transport involves two steps: (i) the transfer of wastes from the smaller collection vehicle to the larger transport equipment and (ii) the subsequent transport of the wastes, usually over long distances, to a processing or disposal site. The transfer usually takes place at a transfer station.
• Disposal: The final functional element in the solid waste management system is disposal. Today the disposal of wastes by land filling or uncontrolled dumping is the ultimate fate of all solid wastes, whether they are residential wastes collected and transported directly to a landfill site, residual materials from Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs), residue from the combustion of solid waste, rejects of composting, or other substances from various solid waste-processing facilities. A municipal solid waste landfill plant is an engineered facility used for disposing of solid wastes on land or within the earth’s mantle without creating nuisance or 16 hazards to public health or safety, such as breeding of rodents and insects and contamination of groundwater.

Answer : One criticism of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is that it sometimes produces perverse incentives to increase rather than decrease emissions. One example concerns the production of HCFC-22, a refrigerant gas commonly used in air-conditioning, which produces HFC-23 (a very potent greenhouse gas) as a by-product. Environmentalists claim that the CDM is incentivising the production of HFCs, and that companies are over-producing HFCs so they can be paid to stop doing it.HFC-23 is 11,700 times more powerful than CO2, meaning that just one project to reduce HFC-23 can produce millions of tradable carbon credits.

• Members of a United Nations panel have charged that some Third World companies are producing far more of a deadly greenhouse gas than they need to, since burning the gas — and thus preventing it from entering the atmosphere — earns them carbon credits and hefty profits. These include five Indian companies: SRF Ltd, Chemplast Sanmar Ltd, Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd, Navin Fluorine International Ltd and Hindustan Fluorocarbons Ltd. The panel has specially zeroed in on one of the hydrofluorocarbons, HFC 23, the treatment of which has claimed more than half the carbon credits awarded by the UN so far, mostly to chemical plants in India and China which emit the gas as a byproduct.The UN’s Executive Board, called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and has called for a review of the projects that are benefiting from the scheme. And they do not spare the Indian companies which are authorised to receive more than 10 million carbon credits every year, worth about R1,135 crore, for burning the chemical byproduct HFC 23 instead of emitting it into the atmosphere.

Answer : Air pollution levels in India are rising, courtesy the rising number of vehicles on roads. Majority of the vehicles on sale in the country are still BS3 (Bharat Stage 3) compliant and the BS4 norms have not been implemented across the entire nation yet. On account of this delay and with a smoother transition to the BS5 emission norms in mind, the same have been delayed to 2021. Meanwhile, India will hop on to BS4+ norms by 2016, a stop gap measure in the continuous effort to improve air quality.

• India was due for a BS5 emission norms transition in 2015 and BS6 in 2017, but these timelines seem like a far-fetched dream now. Having different norms for different places in the country accounts for a logistical problem for vehicle manufacturers. To streamline the existing state of affairs, the BS4+ transition will be for the entire country, this move will help manufacturers produce uniform vehicles instead of the splitting vehicles (BS3 and BS4) to cater to different markets in India.
• Salient features of the new BS4+ emission norms concern the sulphur levels. While BS3 norms allow for a sulphur level of 350 PPM (parts per million) whereas the BS4+ norms will result in a drop in sulphur levels to 40 PPM with BS5 ushering in a further drop to 10 PPM. While vehicle manufacturers would be ready for the new emission norms in the country as they already have the technology to produce cleaner vehicles, the BS5 norms could prove to be a big roadblock for petroleum companies. The oil companies which will need to invest about Rs 75,000 crores in order to upgrade their fuel quality to lower sulphur levels. This investment is likely to impact fuel prices.
• Tighter emissions could lead to a rise in vehicle prices but lower costs of ownership as the newer crop of low emission engines are likely to bring in higher fuel efficiency. Manufacturers are expected to reduce the displacement figures of engines with the new norms coming into effect without reducing the power outputs by adding turbochargers. Therefore, expect more turbocharged engines making their way to the cars. Ford’s Ecoboost line of engines, Tata Motors’ Revotron engine, VW’s TSI motors and the likes are bound to see a rise in popularity and will be plonked into more vehicles.

Answer : The parties under the UNFCCC have different obligation on whether they are listed in Annex I, Annex II or Non-Annex I. Annex I includes developed (OECD) countries and economies in transition in 1992, Annex II includes OECD member but excludes the countries that were in transition.

• The main reason for the differentiation between the Annex I and Annex II is that Annex II countries have further responsibilities to provide financing to developing countries for implementation of their commitments under the convention. Non Annex I countries are all other (developing country) parties to the convention.
• Although UNFCCC does not impose any clear emission reduction targets on any of the projects, Annex I parties are required to limit their anthropogenic emissions of GHGs and to protect and enhance their GHG sink and reservoirs whilst.
• Annex II parties (developed countries but not the economic transaction) are required to provide new and additional financial resources to cover implementation costs by the developing countries and financial assistance to developing countries particularly vulnerable to impacts of Climate Change.

Answer : Computer models have become a part and parcel of the climatic studies. As these models can greatly simplify the cause-effect relationships among climatic variables, they have been in vogue for quite some time.

• Computer models help in easy quantification of complex relationships. They also help in the study of those phenomena which cannot be brought about deliberately like earthquakes or acid rains. Thus one primary use of computer models is in simulation. The Earth Simulator (ES) was developed for running global climate models to evaluate the effects of global warming and problems in solid earth geophysics.
• In August, NCAR released its latest and most advanced tool: the Community Earth System Model (CESM), a fully coupled, global model that provides state-of-the-art computer simulations of Earth’s past, present, and future climates. CESM will be one of the primary models used to conduct simulations in support of the next assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be done in 2013–14.
• With the new model, for instance, researchers can simulate the interaction of marine ecosystems with greenhouse gases; the climatic influence of ozone, dust, and other atmospheric constituents; the cycling of carbon through the atmosphere, oceans, and land surfaces; and the influence of greenhouse gases on the upper atmosphere. In addition, an entirely new representation of atmospheric processes in the CESM will allow researchers to pursue a much wider variety of applications, including studies of air quality and the role of aerosols in climate.

Some specific questions that the model will be applied to include:

1. What impact might warming temperatures have on the massive ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica?
2. How might patterns in the ocean and atmosphere affect regional climate in coming decades?
3. How might climate change influence the severity and frequency of tropical cyclones, including hurricanes?
4. What are the effects of tiny airborne particles, known as aerosols, on clouds and temperatures?

The answers to all these questions are not easily available. But they can be with the help of suitable computer models. Hence it can be said that computer models are today an integral part of climate change studies.

Answer : The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) or Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning development, production and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons and providing safe destruction of such weapons.

The BWC was opened for signature on April 10, 1972 and entered into force March 26, 1975 when twenty-two nations ratified it. At present there are 163 states that are party to this convention. As of July, 2008 an additional 13 states have signed the BWC but have yet to ratify it.However, the absence of any formal verification regime to monitor compliance has limited the effectiveness of the Convention.

The BWC Bans:

A. The development, stockpiling, acquisition, retention, and production of:

i. Biological agents and toxins “of types and in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes;”

ii. Weapons, equipment, and delivery vehicles “designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict.”

B. The transfer of or assistance with acquiring the agents, toxins weapons, equipment, and delivery vehicles described above.

• The convention further requires states-parties to destroy or divert to peaceful purposes the “agents, toxins, weapons, equipment, and means of delivery” described above within nine months of the convention’s entry into force. The BWC does not ban the use of biological and toxin weapons but reaffirms the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which prohibits such use. It does not ban bio-defense programs.
• The treaty regime mandates that states-parties consult with one another and cooperate, bilaterally or multilaterally, to solve compliance concerns. It also allows states-parties to lodge a complaint with the UN Security Council if they suspect other member states are violating the convention. The Security Council can investigate allegations, but this power has never been invoked. Security Council voting rules give China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States veto power over Security Council decision, including those to conduct BWC investigations.
• The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) have evolved in interestingly different ways in the first decade of the twenty-first century. The CWC and its major international organization — the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons — have become rather opaque to civil society, despite a significant program of official activities.
• On the other hand, the BTWC member states failed to agree on a verification system and an associated major international organization in 2001-02. The 2011 BTWC Review Conference should take steps in regard to assistance to a state party that has been exposed to danger as a result of a violation of the Convention. At the upcoming review conference, important issues that need to be addressed should be- increasing the assurance of state parties’ compliance with their obligations. The processes involved in the development of the convention have needed rebalancing toward the issue of compliance for the last decade.

• Rotterdam Convention: Rotterdam convention is a multilateral treaty to promote shared responsibility in relation to importation of hazardous substances. The convention stands for open exchange of information and calls on exporters of hazardous chemicals to use proper labeling, include directions on safe handling and inform purchasers of any known restrictions or bans. Parties can decide whether to allow or ban the importation of chemicals listed in the treaty, & exporting countries are obliged to make sure that producers within their jurisdiction comply. India is a signatory to the Rotterdam Convention.

Answer : National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan: India promulgated National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOS-DCP) in the year 1996. It was approved by Committee of Secretaries to Government of India. Coast Guard was designated as Central Coordination Authority.

NOS-DCP Objectives

• Intended to delineate entire national preparedness and response system including both public and private resources for responding to oil spill emergency.
• Provides the basic framework and guidelines for a national response to a significant spill at sea.

Tiered Response Concept

• Tier 1: Arrangements by the Individual ports and oil handling facilities to deal effectively with small operational spills .i.e. up to 700 Tons
• Tier 2: The pooling of government or privately owned resources at a local level to respond incident which may exceed, either in size, complexity or due to its remote location. In fact, India prides itself at being the only country in the Arabian Sea region to have Tier 2 capability.
• Tier 3: Arrangements for a combined national or international response to a major oil spill that cannot be dealt with effectively under the tier 2 arrangements. Cooperative arrangements have been established between groups of oil companies for responding to such events.

NOS-DCP Responsibilities

• Port authorities responsible for action within port limits.
• Oil industries in and around their area of operation.
• Coastal State PCB for inter tidal zones, beaches and up to depth beyond which CG ships and craft cannot operate.
• Coast Guard responsibilities lie beyond port limits.
• DGICG has overall responsibility for appropriate response to oil spill incidents.

Answer : A 'biosignature' is any phenomenon produced by life, either modern or ancient. Due to its unique biogenic characteristics, a definitive biosignature can be interpreted without question as having been produced by life.

• In biology, biochemistry, and biomedical research, biosignatures are biological indicators obtainable through assays to ascertain facts about an individual's health or disease state.
• In geochemistry, geobiochemistry, and geomicrobiology, biosignatures are often used to determine which living organisms are or were present in a sample. For example, the particular fatty acids measured in a sample can indicate which types of bacteria and archaea live in that environment.
• In astrobiology, a biosignature is a sign of the presence of extraterrestrial life normally made by relatively simple observations e.g. geological, textural, and geochemical. In 1996 some researchers suggested that the microscopic structures on the Martian ALH84001 meteorite could be fossilized bacteria. The Viking missions to Mars in the 1970s conducted the only thorough experiments to date which were explicitly designed to look for biosignatures on another planet.

Answer : The Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) is protein composed of 238 amino acids that exhibits bright green fluorescence when exposed to blue light. GFP traditionally refers to the protein first isolated from the jellyfish aequorea victoria.

• In cell and molecular biology, the GFP gene is frequently used as a reporter of expression.In modified forms it has been used to make biosensors, and many animals have been created that express GFP as a proof-of-concept that a gene can be expressed throughout a given organism. The GFP gene can be introduced into organisms and maintained in their genome through breeding, injection with a viral vector, or cell transformation. To date, the GFP gene has been introduced and expressed in many bacteria, yeast and other fungi, fish such as zebrafish, plant, fly, and mammalian cells, including human.
• Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura, and Roger Y. Tsien were awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in chemistry in October 2008 for their discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein.

Answer : 'Bioinformatics' is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of molecular biology. The term was coined by Paulien Hogeweg in 1979. Bioinformatics now entails the creation and advancement of databases, algorithms, computational and statistical techniques, and theory to solve formal and practical problems arising from the management and analysis of biological data. Over the past few decades rapid developments in genomic and other molecular research technologies and developments in information technologies have combined to produce a tremendous amount of information related to molecular biology. These mathematical and computing approaches are used to understand biological processes.

• Common activities in bioinformatics include mapping and analyzing DNA and protein sequences, aligning different DNA and protein sequences to compare them and creating and viewing 3-D models of protein structures. Major research efforts include sequence alignment, gene finding, genome assembly, protein structure alignment, protein structure prediction, prediction of gene expression and protein-protein interactions, genome-wide association studies and the modeling of evolution. The Human Genome Project has increased its significance.

• Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperature, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level.
• The report said man-made emissions of greenhouse gases can already be blamed for fewer cold days, hotter nights, heat waves, floods and heavy rains, devastating drought, and an increase in hurricane and tropical-storm strengths.

Answer : Social forestry is the forestry by the people and for the people, whose main purpose is to fulfill the needs of forestry which are – manure, food, fruit, fibre and productive capacity. As a whole social forestry's main objective is to reconstruct the ecosystem and conserve the environment. The National Commission for Farmers has determined the following objectives for social forestry –

1. To cooperate soil conservation and to prevent spoiling the productive capacity of soil.
2. To increase fuel availability and to increase the food modification by increasing fruit production.
3. To encourage plantation of large and beautiful trees which provide shadow to enhance the natural beauty and to plant all around the cultivation field to increase production.
4. To encourage environment conservation by plantation and to create general consciousness regarding environment conservation.
5. To enhance the natural beauty of the villages and cities by plantation.

Social forestry programme has certain problems. These are –

1. The lack of information among people and ignorance regarding social forestry programme.
2. Illegal tree-cutting.
3. In many states there are unsatisfactory activities regarding social forestry.
4. Social forestry has not been implemented extensively.
5. Corruption and misuse of the fund which is for the purpose of social forestry.

Answer : From 20 to 60 km from the earth's surface, a layer exists consisting of Ozone gas (O3) is found. With the help of industrial development human beings have developed a lot and also polluted a lot. As a result a danger to the Ozone layer has arisen. Holes have been found in Ozone layers, and as a result the ultra violet rays have started coming to earth through the holes, which influence badly human beings, animals and plants. Gases like Chlorine, Florin and Bromine are the main Ozone depleting gases besides chloroflorocarbon (CFC) which are used in industrial units. These are used in refrigerators, air-conditiners, plastic industries, and electronic and optical industries. chloroflorocarbon is formed from the atoms of Chlorine, Florin and Carbon. All the three elements are reaching the Ozone layer in large quantity. The ultra-violet rays of the Sun separate the Chlorine from the chloroflorocarbon. The same Chlorine reacts with Ozone and turns it into Oxygen, thus weakening the Ozone layer and the ultra violet rays are able to reach the earth's surface. Currently, European Union, USA, Argentina, Chile and Australia are in danger due to Ozone depletion.

• The harmful effects of the Ozone layer include skin cancer due to ultra violet rays. Ultra violet rays also increase the temperature of the earth which can melt the ice-bergs, raising the sea level which can submerge the islands and the coastal areas.
• The international efforts to stop the Ozone depletion include Vienna Conference (1985) and Montreal Protocol (1989). Various agreements have been signed against the production of Ozone depleting elements in these conferences. Moreover in the London Conference (1990) decision was taken to stop production of CFL. Still every nation needs to implement the above-mentioned treaties honestly; especially the developing nations need to be more aware in this regard. Today the development of Ozone-Friendly technology and transfer of this technique to the developing nations is essential.

Answer : 'Biological diversity' means the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are a part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. (Convention on Biological Diversity 1992)

Biodiversity simply means the sum of all of the variation in nature – the kind and number of species, their association into units (communities or ecosystems), or, at another level, the genes which are present in all of earth’s organisms and their arrangement, including genetic variation within species. The term includes functional diversity (such as nutrient capture and other ecological functions) as well as simply species diversity.

Causes of degradation of biodiversity: There are various factors responsible for the degradation of biodiversity, the primary among them being destruction of habitat and habitat fragmentation leading to species movement to other habitat where they find it difficult to adapt. But it is also being affected by rapid population growth, animal hunting, urbanization, deforestation, industrialization and climatic change. Major reasons of degradation of biodiversity are: Environmental degradation, Excessive use of biodiversity, Attempts to develop new species of plants and animals, Different types of pollution, Change in functions of like climate, Population growth Urbanization and industrialization.

According to the Global Biodiversity Strategy (WRI/IUCN/UNEP 1992) there are six fundamental causes of biodiversity degradation:

• Unsustainable high rates of human population growth and natural resource consumption.
• Steadily narrowing spectrum of traded products from agriculture and forestry and introduction of exotic species associated with agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
• Economic systems and policies that fail to value the environment and its resources.
• Inequity in ownership and access to natural resources, including the benefits from use and conservation of biodiversity.
• Inadequate knowledge and inefficient of information.
• Legal and institutional systems that promote unsustainable exploitation.

Consequences of degradation of biodiversity

The loss of biodiversity has many consequences on the basis of scholars understanding, and many that we do not. It is apparent that mankind is willing to sustain a great deal of biodiversity loss if there are concomitant benefits to society; they are net benefits. In many cases, the benefits seem to accrue to a few individuals only, with net societal loss. However, it is extremely difficult to estimate the future costs of losses in biodiversity, or of environmental damage.

One important fact that is often forgotten is that ecosystems are, as it were, living structures. They are constantly changing and subject to evolution, so that at various times they will be composed of different organisms. At present, we know little, and what we do have is information on short-term, small-scale experimental plots. We need to know more, much more. It is vital to realize, then, that biodiversity does not mean simply the number and kinds of living organisms present. Biodiversity depends upon the habitats and ecosystems which support them.

• Species richness: Most research has been done on the effects of species richness (that is, the number of species) on the functioning of ecosystems. Most of the research into the interrelationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functions has been done on plants, which affect soil processes, decomposition, water retention and many other ecosystem functions. Higher plant diversity does not appear to have any great effect on soil processes such as decomposition rates, but does affect productivity and enhances the stability of ecosystem processes.
• Species composition: The array of species in an ecosystem (species composition) must also be important to its function. Certain species will have a greater influence than others, particularly if they are among those groups which capture and transfer energy or nutrients, or which affect environmental conditions regulating these processes.
• Species interactions: Species interactions are perhaps the most important aspect of ecosystem functioning. Species are not just “there,” they are interacting at some level with all the other organisms in the system, forming highly complex interlocking systems. They compete, they parasitize, they cooperate, they prey, and they provide food or shelter.
• Ecosystem stability: “diversity-stability hypothesis”: The idea behind this hypothesis is that biodiversity acts as a stabilizing factor in ecosystems, and that therefore highly diverse ecosystems can act to reduce the impact of changes in the environment. Since humans are now altering so many environmental variables – atmospheric gases, surface temperatures, water quality – it behooves us to maintain as many areas with high biodiversity as possible. The more species, the more likely that at least some will remain after environmental changes occur. Some species may also be capable of mitigating the effects of the changes.

Answer : In the past two centuries, development process has been adopted extensively. Actually a lot of harm was done on environment. So naturally people started understanding the dangerous consequences of deteriorating environment. Regarding this, to discuss the issues related to environment and conservation of environment was established in Brazil. The Earth Summit was established under the UN. In the UN conference on the Environment and Development (Earth Summit), it was clarified that there is a need of change in the prevailing programme and development of environment, and environment conservation should always be given importance. In the Earth Summit, decision was taken to create awareness among people regarding the influences of the deteriorating environment. In this summit importance was put on the problems of the developing countries. By this summit, the “environment development programmes were made strong and effective. With the same purpose a summit took place in Johannesburg in 2002. The tradition started from the Earth Summit to establish a continuous and permanent environment conservation programme, and long-lasting developmental programme.

Answer : There are many revolutions in India in the direction of resource development. One among them was Blue Revolution, which was started in 1970s, to improve the quality and quantity of fish production.Under this revolution several new technologies were applied in the fisheries. Many new species of fishes have been developed to improve the production. For the development of Sea Fishing stress was given in the mechanization of deep-sea fishing. Lighthouse management was upgraded in the coastal region. Many ponds were developed to improve the quality of inland fishing. With these efforts the production of fish reached 63 lakh tones from 24 lakh tones.

• Although, Blue Revolution has been a great success in terms of production but its environmental effects cannot be ignored. Marine eco-systems have been destabilized and many fauna and flora have reached on the verge of extinction. Inland eco-system has also been destabilized where ponds were developed for inland fishers. Fishers in the field of paddy have also destroyed some useful bacteria, which is very dangerous for Agro-eco-system.

Answer : A bio-refinery is a facility that integrates biomass conversion processes and equipment to produce fuels, power and chemicals from biomass. The bio-refinery concept is analogous to today's petroleum refineries, which produce multiple fuels and products from petroleum. Industrial bio-refineries have been identified as the most promising route to the creation of a new domestic bio based industry.

• Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons, primarily coal, fuel oil or natural gas, formed from the remains of dead plants and animals. These are sometimes known instead as mineral fuels. The utilization of fossil fuels has enabled large-scale industrial development and largely supplanted water-driven mills, as well as the combustion of wood or peat for heat.
• Fossil fuel is a general term for buried combustible geologic deposits of organic materials, formed from decayed plants and animals that have been converted to crude oil, coal, natural gas, or heavy oils by exposure to heat and pressure in the earth's crust over hundreds of millions of years.
• When generating electricity, energy from the combustion of fossil fuels is often used to power a turbine. Older generators often used steam generated by the burning of the fuel to turn the turbine, but in newer power plants the gases produced by burning of the fuel turn a gas turbine directly.
• With global modernization in the 20th and 21st centuries, the thirst for energy from fossil fuels, especially gasoline derived from oil, is one of the causes of major regional and global conflicts. A global movement toward the generation of renewable energy is therefore underway to help meet the increased global energy needs.
• The burning of fossil fuels by humans is the largest source of emissions of carbon dioxide, which is one of the greenhouse gases that allows radiative forcing and contributes to global warming. A small portion of hydrocarbon-based fuels are bio-fuels derived from atmospheric carbon dioxide, and thus do not increase the net amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

• Under Green Box Subsidies are allowed without limits, provided that they comply with relevant criteria. They also include environmental protection and regional development programmes.
• The Blue Box is an exemption from the general rule that all subsidies linked to production must be reduced or kept within defined minimal ("de minimis") levels.

Answer : Causes of Soil Erosion

Land use: Humans play a major role in soil erosion through their use and abuse of natural resources, for example deforestation, grazing, arable land use, faulty farming systems, high crop intensity, housing construction, mining etc.

Climate: The two most important climatic factors having a direct effect on erosion are precipitation and wind velocity. Other climatic factors have an indirect effect on soil erosion, such as water balance, evapotranspiration, temperature and relative humidity. Indirect factors affect the erosivity of rainfall by altering the soil moisture regime and the proportion of rainfall that may become surface runoff. For erosion control it is necessary to investigate physical characteristics of rainfall, including the amount, distribution, intensity, energy load, seasonality and variability of rainfall and the formation and course of surface runoff.

Soil: The susceptibility of a soil to erosion is influenced by its physical, hydrological, chemical and mineralogical properties as well as its soil profile characteristics. Important soil physical and hydrological properties that affect the resistance of a soil to erosion include texture, structure, and water retention and transmission properties.

Hydrology: Infiltration, surface detention, overland flow velocity, and subsurface water flow are important soil erosion components of the hydrological cycle. The different types of flow and their velocities may be turbulent or laminar, steady or unsteady, uniform or non-uniform and influence the extent of erosion

Landforms: Slope gradient, slope length and shape of slope are the important variables of landform that affect erosion processes for all types of soil erosion, e.g., splash, sheet, rill, and gully erosion.

Preventing Soil Erosion: Aspects of technical changes include:

• use of contour ploughing and wind breaks;
• leaving unploughed grass strips between ploughed land;
• Making sure that there are always plants growing on the soil, and that the soil is rich in humus (decaying plant and animal remains).
• Avoiding overgrazing and the over-use of crop lands;
• allowing indigenous plants to grow along the river banks
• encouraging biological diversity by planting several different types of plants together;
• Conservation of wetlands.

Soil Conservation Practices:

• Conservation measures - reduce soil erosion by both water & wind.
• Tillage and cropping practices, as well a land management practices, directly affect the overall soil
• Erosion problem.
• Combination of approaches (Eg. contour plowing, strip cropping, or terracing)
• Other measures: Silt Fencing, Erosion Control Blankets, Sediment Traps, Plastic Covering/Bank Stabilization Pipeline Sand Bagging Check Dams Stabilization, Pipeline Sand Bagging, Check Dams, Drain Inlets, Filter Berms & Silt Dikes

Answer : Asbestos and polythene are non-bio-degradable elements i.e. when left to decay they do not degrade as other biotic elements do with the rest of the environment. They stay in their present form for long enough, releasing toxins slowly into the atmosphere and even getting into our food chain eventually.

• Asbestos is a mineral fiber that has been used commonly in a variety of construction materials for insulation and as a fire retardant. Elevated concentrations of airborne asbestos can occur after asbestos-containing materials are disturbed by cutting, sanding etc. The most dangerous asbestos fibers are too small to be visible. After they are inhaled, they can remain and accumulate in the lungs causing lung or chest cancer. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) of which plastic is made can have negative impact on environment and people's health. PVC in reported to cause diseases like Reynaud’s syndrome, scleroderma, cholangio-carcinoma, angiosarcoma, brain cancer and acroosteolysis.

Answer : Disaster Management can be defined as the organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies, in particular preparedness, response and recovery in order to lessen the impact of disasters.

Any disaster can interrupt essential services, such as health care, electricity, water, sewage/garbage removal, transportation and communications. The interruption can seriously affect the health, social and economic networks of local communities and countries. Disasters have a major and long-lasting impact on people long after the immediate effect has been mitigated. Poorly planned relief activities can have a significant negative impact not only on the disaster victims but also on donors and relief agencies. So it is important that physical therapists join established programmes rather than attempting individual efforts.

Local, regional, national and international organisations are all involved in mounting a humanitarian response to disasters. Each will have a prepared disaster management plan. These plans cover prevention, preparedness, relief and recovery.

• Disaster prevention: These are activities designed to provide permanent protection from disasters. Not all disasters, particularly natural disasters, can be prevented, but the risk of loss of life and injury can be mitigated with good evacuation plans, environmental planning and design standards.
• Disaster preparedness: These activities are designed to minimise loss of life and damage – for example by removing people and property from a threatened location and by facilitating timely and effective rescue, relief and rehabilitation. Preparedness is the main way of reducing the impact of disasters. Community-based preparedness and management should be a high priority in physical therapy practice management.
• Disaster relief: This is a coordinated multi-agency response to reduce the impact of a disaster and its long-term results. Relief activities include rescue, relocation, providing food and water, preventing disease and disability, repairing vital services such as telecommunications and transport, providing temporary shelter and emergency health care.
• Disaster recovery: Once emergency needs have been met and the initial crisis is over, the people affected and the communities that support them are still vulnerable. Recovery activities include rebuilding infrastructure, health care and rehabilitation. These should blend with development activities, such as building human resources for health and developing policies and practices to avoid similar situations in future.

Answer : Global Warming is a catch phrase for the increase in the globe’s mean temperature due to build up of atmospheric greenhouse gases and the negative effects of rising temperature like melting glaciers, high levels of oceans or changing precipitation patterns.

• Causes: Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution atmospheric concentration of CO2 have increased by 30%, Methane concentration by 100% and Nitrous Oxide concentration by about 15%. These increases have enhanced the heat-trapping capability of the Earth’s atmosphere.
• Humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions have already disturbed the global energy balance by about 1% of the net incoming solar energy. The combustion of coal, oil and natural gas accounts for most of the heat-trapping green-house gases emitted by human activities.
• Consequences: One of the ill effects of global warming is thought to be the rise in the sea level due to melting of glaciers and ice-caps at poles. It is estimated that global sea-level is rising at the rate of 1-3 mm/year. This will result in the submergence of low-lying geographical regions. Global warming activates the hydrological cycle along with the warming of the environment. It brings forth unpredictable climate change causing drought at certain places and cyclones and heavy shower at some places. The global warming is likely to reduce the availability of agricultural land as river deltas may be inundated due to rise in sea level. Agricultural pests may prosper to cause widespread damage to crop at increased temperature.
• Global Initiatives: Several global initiatives have been taken to tackle the problem of global warming. The latest among them is the Kyoto Protocol. As per the Kyoto Protocol, the countries are to ensure that green-house gases do not exceed their assigned amounts so that their overall emmissions of such gases are limited to at least 5% below 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008-2012.

• Natural heritage has been provided by the nature in the forms of river, forest and so on. It also includes some special places which are natural type. For example, Kashmir is the best example of natural heritage. Nowadays, various types of movements are going on for saving natural heritage.
• By cultural heritage we mean the knowledge of the past, its art, literature, philosophy, religion and music. Through history text books and indirectly through celebration of patriotic holidays a child is acquainted with his cultural heritage. Different types of museum, Taj Mahal, Red Fort are some of the examples of cultural heritage. Cultural heritage may be a natural heritage.

Answer : Depletion of ozone layer: The loss of ozone molecules is known as the depletion of the ozone layers and this loss of ozone molecules reduces the ability of the stratosphere to filter out harmful UV rays.

• It is considered harmful because increased UV radiation would retard photosynthesis in plants. Moreover, it would increase earth’s mean temperature which would have disastrous consequence of flooding or submerging many low lying islands. Recently it has been found that the UV radiation degrades polymers used in paints and building materials. It is also considered harmful because increased radiation would lead to diseases like skin cancer etc.
• Ozone depleting substances are chlorofluoro carbons (CFCs), nitrogen oxides, hydrocarbons and oxides of chlorine and bromine. Most ozones are created and destroyed in the stratosphere. The high energy UV rays break some of the oxygen molecules into the oxygen atoms. These oxygen atoms recombine with the oxygen molecules to form a three atom molecule of oxygen called ozone. But ozone being highly reactive combines with other compounds present in the atmosphere. This is how ozone is created and destroyed in a balanced way by the Sun’s radiation. However, this balance is disturbed when chlorine atoms, released from the earth, react with the ozone molecules and thus reduces ozone contents in the atmosphere.

Montreal Protocol: Considering the monumental damage ozone depletion does, the world community has taken steps to control the ozone depletion. The Montreal Protocol, adopted in 1987 and strengthened in 1990, called for phasing out CFCs and other depleting substances (ODS) by 2000, established rules governing international trade in ODS and their products. Since the developing countries lack the financial and technological means to replace CFC or other ODS such as halons and carbon tetrachloride, they have been given a grace period of 10 year. That is they are required to phase out CFCs by 2010.

• The High Yield Vaniety (HVY) revolution has done wonders not only to the starving million in India but also to the animals also. The best example of this fact is the Siliguri-Bagdogara region where human and animals have come closer in this interaction and interdependence as the crop cultivation is providing food and fodder both to the humans and the animals respectively. The barbed varieties which had earlier occupied the region had prevented the animals from their coveted fodder, rice husk, wheat twigs etc. The new cropping pattern and crop varieties have replaced the barbed varieties and thus provide fodder for the animals who otherwise had to rely on the pastures and forestlands. Thus in a way it has led to ecological conservation also which will further smoothen the Human-animal conflict for food. It will ease the pressure on the forestlands and the dwindling pastures can grow green again.

• Integrated wasteland development progamme was started with Centers’ assistance in 1985-86. It was primarily meant for the conservation and preservation of culturable wastelands in India. But it also incorporated soil conservation, forest conservation, employment to the people, developing pastureland and giving a cropping pattern suitable to the soil, reclamation of soil and their nutrient management. Thus it adopted an integrated approach in which, local people participation, conservation of soil and ecology, reclamation of the culturable wastelands, treatment of the wastelands and converting the non-culturable wastelands into pastures and forested area. Methods like soil testing, use of chemicals and fertilizers, preventing hazards like blowing wind, encroaching seawater are also adopted.

Answer : Desert Development Progra­mme was started in 1977-78 with the objective ofControlling desertification of the desert areas through integrating and dovetailing other related state/central programmes.

• To conserve, develop and harness land water and other resources including rainfall for restoration of ecological balance in the long run.
• The DDP is now implemented on watershed basis like DPAP as per the new guidelines for watershed development. In sandy areas, area development is done by taking up a cluster of villages on an index catchment as the unit of planning. Sand dune stabali­sation and shelter belt plantation are the key activities in sandy areas, apart from development of dairy, irrigation facilities, forestation and pastures.
• The Centre gives cent percent grant for this programme. The Northwestern region of India, Rajasthan and adjacent state are most benefitted from it.

Answer : Plastics are prepared from non-biodegradable material. No virus or bacteria consume them so that they could be recycled in the ecological system.

• They have become one of the major pollutants in recent times. By burning they produce lethal toxic gases like Carbon Monoxide, CO2, CH4, etc. Thus they cause air pollution and suffocation in the metropolitan cities as there is no other means of their disposability. They, even contribute to the global warming phenomena.
• They choke the urban drainage system and dirty water swoops over the localities and road causing diseases like Dengue, Malaria etc. They have been rightly termed Urban Scare.
• Plastic bottles floating across the ocean and the plastic coming from the rivers have become seeds of ecological chaos for wherever they end up. British Antarctic Survey has found that the rising tide of plastic debris has replaced wood as major debris as they carry new organisms which are causing alien invasion which is an important cause of diversity loss.
• The solution lies in using bio-degradable material like Jute, Hemp, Wood pulp made sacks and packages.

Answer : Environment is the surrounding in which living and non-living beings interact and interchange nutrients and energy.

• Thus environment has two main components. The biotic component, which include all the living beings virus, bacteria, vegetation etc. The Abiotic component includes soil, water, rock, relief of a region. Both these components influence each other in a huge way.
• In environment there is a balance among various species of plants and animals and balance between living and non-living.
• Man through his tools has caused depletion of biodiversity, change in climatic pattern thus leading to environmental degradation.
• Thus awareness about environment holds great significance for its preservation which is vital for our life and the posterity.

Answer : Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987. Its objective was to control and ultimately ban the production of Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS).

• The overproduction and overuse of CFCs and other ODS such as Halons, used in fire-extinguishers, aircrafts, computers etc. Carbon Tetrachloride used in pesticides, paints etc. and Methyl Chloroform have led to depletion of ozone layer and further creating and enlarging the ozone hole. This has made earth’s environment vulnerable to dangerous ultra-violet radiation. The effect of such expose is destruction of phytoplankton in ocean which interferes with protectivity of marine plants and it is responsible for depletion of marine oxygen concentration. The UV-radiation further interferes with life cycle of shrimp which is single largest source of natural protein. This UV-radiation has many such hazardous effects. To check this, Montreal protocol was adopted in 1987 and strengthened in 1990 by London Protocol.
• It provided for developed countries completely phasing out the CFC & other ODS by the year 2000. The developing countries have been provided a 10 year grace period i.e. up to 2010. It provided for establishment of multi-lateral fund contributed by industrialised nations to assist the developing countries those are parties to this protocol, financially and technologically to achieve its objective. India and China is largest beneficiary to this.

Answer : The Hague Climatic Conference held on November 15, 2000, collapsed, as there was no consensus on the issues it sought to resolve. The conference was convened to shape the modalities of a plan that would ensure that countries reach the quantified targets that they committed at Kyoto, Japan in 1997 to reduce consumption of Green house gases responsible for global warming. The Kyoto protocol enjoins the industrialised countries to limit and reduce their emissions by 7 percent on an average relative to 1990 levels during 2008-12. It is noteworthy that developing countries have no such commitments. India and China are among the world’s top ten polluters but are free from any commitment. No wonder George Bush has objected to the Kyoto protocol. The US oil and auto industry also had objected to the target arguing that meeting the target would make driving cars and eggs very expensive. Hence, US agreed to do this on the condition that it could buy ‘emissions reductions’ from developing countries as well as industrialised countries and credit them as its own emission reduction effort.

• At the Hague Conference, the US insistence on credits for ‘carbon sinks’ led the talks into a deadlock. The US argued that “Carbon Sequestration” projects undertaken by developed countries should also qualify for credits as they contribute to the cooling of the earth. Negotiations from EU countries opposed the US suggestion which they perceived as an attempt by the US to prevent the curtailment of fossil fuel use. It was pointed out that US accounts for almost one fourth of all greenhouse gasses emissions. According to the Kyoto protocol, the US is to reduce emissions by 7 percent by 2010, compared to levels prevailing in 1990.

Answer : We are now talking about Gross Environmental Product along with Gross National Product. Green GNP relates to all those products which are environment friendly. Stress on this aspect has been given in Doha Summit.

• Wasteland is a land, which due to some reasons like loss of vegetation cover leads to loss of soil through erosion, which ultimately creates wastelands.
• Wastelands can be classified into (1) Easily reclaimable, (2) Reclaimable with some difficulty, (3) Reclaimable with extreme difficulty.
• Wasteland development provides a source of income for the rural poor. It ensures a constant supply of fuel, fodder and timber for local use.
• It makes the soil fertile by preventing soil erosion and conserving moisture. The program helps maintain an ecological balance in area, the increasing forest cover maintain the local climatic conditions.
• Agro-forestry can help in holding moisture and reducing surface run-off rates thus controlling soil erosion.

Answer : Rapid rate of urbanization, industrialization and modernization since decades have given birth to degradation of environment and lot of problems going with it, there by endangering the human sustainability on this earth.

• As the pollution of environment have caused by race of development in unsustainable manner, world countries have been concerned for its consequences like global warming, acid rain, flood, drought, ozone hole, sea level changes soil degradation, desertification etc.
• All these consequences have posed a question against the existence of human being in near future if the rate of environment is continue to this level.
• Now, since 1970’s there has aroused widespread awareness concerning sustainable development and environment protection. The efforts are done through various summit conferences, agreements pacts and treaties like,
  • Montreal protocol – 1987
  • Bio-diversity Treaty – 1992
  • Rio-de-janerio Earth conference – 1992
  • Quito Conference – 1997

Answer : Water harvesting means saving the rain water with proper scientific methods to be used in future. In India, Rain pours instead of rainfall and that also within a short time span of 3 to 4 months of monsoon regime.

• Thus water harvesting in macro and micro scale becomes significant to Indian climatic condition.
• Two ways of water harvesting: (i) Ground water Recharge (ii) check dams.
• In some areas, shortage of rain is reason for water shortage while in some other parts, topography lead to flowing of water wasted. Kutch, Rajasthan etc. exemplifies the former situation while Cherapunji.
• Delhi is examples of the later.
• But through water harvesting not only water for domestic use but also for the irrigation can be stored and utilized at properly required time.
• And zones can also be provided with extra water flood prone areas, if the plan is handled at larger level.
• Rain-water harvesting can solve the water shortage problem to a large extent in India.