This week’s environment and conservation news stories rolled into one.
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One of the world’s most trafficked animals needs focus outside India’s protected areas
Experts call for addressing the gap in population status, distribution, and ecology of the two pangolin species in India.
Environmental threats can destroy Edakkal caves and their Stone Age carvings
The Ambukuthi mountain, which houses the Edakkal rock shelters with their unique stone carvings, are under threat from illegal constructions, mining, and urbanisation.
Is joint community ownership the way forward for mineral governance in India?
The involvement of communities impacted by mining as a stakeholder in the mining business emerged as a way forward for sustainable mining and development of communities.
Conserving high elevation shola-grasslands crucial for the Nilgiri pipit
Surveys across 170 locations and statistical models revealed that elevation matters greatly for both pipit presence and numbers.
To dam or not to dam? Floods in eastern Vidarbha raise the perennial debate
Extremely heavy rainfall in Madhya Pradesh led to swollen reservoirs, large discharges that inundated areas in eastern Vidarbha, in downstream Maharashtra.
Punjab’s Mattewara forest, Sutlej river under threat from industrial park
The Punjab Chief Minister has said that forest land will not be used for the project. However, environmentalists are concerned about loss to forests and water bodies.
Peninsular India close to losing its last remaining great Indian bustards
There have been no recent sightings of the eight GIBs found in Karnataka. Conservationists attribute the lack of sightings to disturbances caused by tall structures (two watch-towers and two anti-poaching centres) in the area.
Closer watch on vulnerable tribal groups in the Andamans in the face of COVID-19
Recently, 11 of the 56 members of the Great Andamanese Tribe in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands tested positive for COVID-19.
Sundarbans endangered as per IUCN’s Red List of Ecosystems framework
The assessment calls for ‘cautious optimism’ because of the slow down in historically high rates of mangrove clearing, and recently stabilising tiger populations.
Community conservation model in Western Arunachal Pradesh protects wildlife habitats
Thembang has been practicing community-based tourism for over a decade. It has increased revenue four-fold since inception, as of 2019.
Proposed rules for power consumers could hurt solar rooftop sector
The government of India has proposed a new set of rules for electricity consumers that proposes several regulations for the grid-interactive solar rooftop sector.
Nature in peril as biodiversity losses mount alarmingly, states the Living Planet Report
Published by WWF, the report has revealed a global species loss of 68 percent in less than 50 years, a catastrophic decline never seen before.
Bat call library for the western Himalayas takes wing
The library is based on a systematic survey of bats in Uttarakhand. The survey unveiled a new species record for the Indian subcontinent and eight for the western Himalayan region.
Bengaluru’s Biodiversity Management Committee is back in action
Constituted under the Biological Diversity Act, these local units of conservation document biodiversity in the form of a People’s Biodiversity Register.