This week’s environment and conservation news stories rolled into one.
To receive a weekly email with a roundup of our stories, please sign-up for our newsletter.
Hope for healthy yak rides on Druk, the yak bull from Bhutan raised in Sikkim
Sikkim in India is raising a yak bull gifted by Bhutan in a transboundary germplasm exchange to improve the species gene pool. Two bulls were handed over to Nepal as well.
Shhh! CPCB proposes stringent fines for noise pollution
The country’s pollution watchdog, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), has proposed a set of fines ranging from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 100,000 for people violating noise pollution rules.
Bridging the gender gap through groundwater monitoring in a Rajasthan village
A group of trained farmer-researchers, ‘Bhujal Jaankars’ in two Rajasthan and Gujarat watersheds monitor groundwater levels under a village-level project for groundwater sustainability.
The Indian dragons we know so little about
India is home to four Varanus species. Basic ecological and behavioural information on these large reptiles are lacking and very few scientists study varanids.
Ecosystems-based adaptation keeps water running in Bhojdari even in dry months
Bhojdari’s water self-reliance that withstood the return of migrants to their home village in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown has proved that villages with an ecosystems-based adaptation (EbA) approach to agricultural policy are better placed to provide food security and livelihoods to returning migrant workers.
Overhead electricity wires prove death traps for Sarus cranes
Sarus cranes use roads as the edge of their territories. Since electricity wires are laid out along roads, the birds are constantly threatened.
How a Karnataka district is rapidly losing lush forest cover
According to a study, the forest cover in Uttara Kannada has reduced from 74.19 percent in 1973 to 48.04 percent in 2018. Construction of dams in Kali river basin in the district has halved the evergreen forest cover.
These flowers are likely to climb up the Himalayas as temperature rises
In Uttarakhand, reports of early flowering of Rhododendron arboreum (locally called buransh) have elicited concerns over the sensitivity and responses of plants to temperature and rainfall (snow) changes in the warming Himalayas.
Linear infrastructure severely affects large forest patches in India, finds study
Linear infrastructure, such as roads and power transmission lines, has led to a 71.5 percent reduction in the number of large forest patches in India, compared to a scenario that excluded all linear infrastructures.
[Commentary] Securing India’s tiger habitats and natural assets for preventing future pandemics
Tiger bearing forests support ecological processes that produce varied ecosystem services important for human well-being.
