Nature / Environment – Page 3 – Global Records India

10 more Indian wetlands sites get Ramsar tag, number rises to 64

Six of them are in Tamil Nadu and one each in Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha

India has added 10 more Ramsar sites, or wetlands that are of international importance, taking the number of such sites to 64, Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav said on Wednesday.

“Absolutely thrilled to inform that 10 more Indian wetlands have got Ramsar recognition as wetlands of international importance,” Mr. Yadav tweeted.

The 10 new sites — six in Tamil Nadu and one each in Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha — encompass an area of 1,51,842.41 hectares, bringing India’s total wetland area to 1.2 million hectares.

The sites are Koothankulam Bird Sanctuary, Gulf of Mannar Marine Biosphere Reserve, Vembannur Wetland Complex, Vellode Bird Sanctuary, Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary and Udhayamarthandapuram Bird Sanctuary, all in Tamil Nadu, Satkosia Gorge in Odisha, Nanda Lake in Goa, Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary in Karnataka, and Sirpur Wetland in Madhya Pradesh.

Until 2012, India had 26 Ramsar sites, with the last decade witnessing a meteoric rise. On July 26, Mr. Yadav announced that India had added five Ramsar sites.

Prof. receives patent for creating supercapacitors from used tyres

Professor Nand Gopal Sahu of the Rajendra Singh Nano Science and Nanotechnology Centre of Kumaun University’s Chemistry department has obtained a patent for making supercapacitors and energy storage devices from tyre waste.

Talking to Sahu, he said that Tyre waste can be used to synthesize graphene, which is a vital industrial material.

This graphene is used to make supercapacitors that can be used for the manufacture of a variety of devices, including electric vehicles.

Sahu acknowledges Professor AB Melkani, research scholars Gaurav Tatari, Dr Chetna Tiwari, Dr Sandeep Pandey, Dr Manoj Kadakoti, and Dr Himani Tiwari for their contributions to the study.

Nainital, Uttarakhand

thetimesbureau.com

Kerala’s damselfly checklist gets a new member

Anamalai Reed-tail first spotted at Peechi Wildlife Sanctuary

The odonates’ checklist of Kerala has now grown to 182 with the discovery of a new damselfly species from the Western Ghats in the Peechi Wildlife Sanctuary in Thrissur.

Three entomologists, Kalesh Sadasivan, Vinayan P. Nair and Abraham Samuel of the Travancore Nature History Society (TNHS), have identified the species, Anamalai Reed-tail (scientific name: Protosticta anamalaica Sadasivan, Nair and Samuel, 2022). The discovery has been published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa.

The tiny insect was first spotted at Ponmudi hills in the Peechi Wildlife Sanctuary that forms part of the Nelliampathies–Anamalais sub-unit of the Munnar landscape in November 2021. The group later spotted the same species from Mankulam, Malakkappara and Edamalakudy. This is the second species belonging to the damselfly genus Protosticta to be described by the TNHS researchers after Ponmudi Reed-tail ( Protosticta ponmudiensis) that was described in 2015 from Ponmudi hills in Thiruvananthapuram.

The addition of Protosticta anamalaica to the checklist raises the odonata species diversity of the Western Ghats to 208 with 81 endemics. Kerala has 182 species with 69 endemics.

A.P.’s seafood exports exceed ₹20k crore, highest in country

3.24 lakh metric tonnes was shipped to the US, China and EU in 2021-22, according to officials

Andhra Pradesh stood top in the country in seafood exports by shipping 3.24 lakh metric tonnes of shrimp, fish and other items during the 2021-22 financial year. The total exports of seafood from India was about 13,69,264 metric tonnes.

The value of the seafood exports from the State was about ₹20,019 crore, said Marine Products Export Development Authority’s (MPEDA) Andhra Pradesh Joint Director A. Jeyabal.

The contribution of the State in the country’s overall exports was 23.66% in quantity and 34.76% in terms of value, the Joint Director said.

“In 2020-21, India had exported 11,49,510 metric tonnes of seafood worth ₹43,720 crore ($5,956 million). In 2021-22, marine products of about 13,69,264 metric tonnes, valued at ₹57,586 crore ($7.76 billion) were shipped,” Mr. Jeyabal told The Hindu on Wednesday.

According to overseas shipment data, the US continued to be the major importer of Indian seafood, followed by China, the European Union, South-east Asia and Japan as the other major customers.

“From Andhra Pradesh, frozen shrimp, frozen fish, squid, cuttlefish, dried items and other varieties were exported,” the JD said.

A teacher’s green mission in Odisha

Bijay Kumar Bhatt has singlehandedly planted 10,000 palm trees

As a teacher Bijay Kumar Bhatt has inspired scores of students to learn and succeed in life through his classroom teachings in Odisha’s Puri district over past two decades. But, he is eulogised as a role model for what he has achieved outside the classroom.

Mr. Bhatt has singlehandedly planted 30,000 trees in Astaranga area, a coastal pocket in Puri which has borne the brunt of cyclones, floods and tidal surge for years. The trees he has chosen to plant are palm, date palm and neem.

“It was the 1999 Super Cyclone that stirred me up. Lakhs of trees were uprooted while tidal surge had inundated vast stretches of cropland making it worthless for taking up crop in future. I could not imagine the green cover regaining its pervious shape in quick time,” he recollected.

New spider from Thar desert named after Malayali arachnologist

Pseudomogrus sudhii inhabits dry grass blades of the desert

A new species of spider discovered from the Thar desert of Rajasthan has been named after a Malayalee arachnologist.

The new species of jumping spider, Pseudomogrus sudhii, has been named after Sudhikumar A.V., Head, Department of Zoology, Christ College, Irinjalakuda, and founder of the Centre for Animal Taxonomy and Ecology (CATE) in recognition of his contributions to the field of Indian arachnology.

The jumping spider was discovered during a joint exploration by Dmitri Logunov (curator, Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, UK), Rishikesh Balkrishna Tripathi and Ashish Kumar Jangid of Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.

IIT Madras professor T Pradeep chosen PSIPW laureate

Thalappil Pradeep, institute professor, Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), has been selected as the laureate of the 10th edition of the ‘Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water’ (PSIPW). He was selected for the award under ‘Creativity Prize’ category given for ‘breakthrough discovery’ in any water-related field.

Pradeep developed environmentally-friendly ‘water positive’ nano scale materials for the affordable, sustainable, and rapid removal of arsenic from drinking water.

He was recognized earlier with the Padma Shri, and Nikkei Asia Prize, among many others and his technologies are delivering clean water to over 1.2 crore people.

India’s newest recorded snail named after Western Ghats

The Haploptychius sahyadriensis is endemic to the Vishalgad Conservation Reserve in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district

The Western Ghats of Maharashtra have yielded a carnivorous land snail new to the world of science.

The Haploptychius sahyadriensis, recorded from the northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra, is the third member of the genus Haploptychius. The other two – H. andamanicus and H. pfeifferi – were recorded in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the 1860s.

** Jharkhand to get WHO award for tobacco control

National Tobacco Control Programme was launched in Jharkhand in 2012 when the tobacco prevalence rate in the State was 51.1 per cent

Recognising its efforts in controlling tobacco consumption, the World Health Organization (WHO) has selected Jharkhand for the World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) Award-2022, an official said on Sunday.

Stata Tobacco Control Cell of the Health Department will receive the award on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day in New Delhi on May 31, Jharkhand’s nodal officer of National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) Lalit Ranjan Pathak told PTI.

India becomes largest producer, second largest exporter of sugar

The government on Wednesday claimed that India has become the largest producer of sugar in the world in the year 2022-23, more than Brazil, while it would be the second largest exporter of sugar.

Sugar production in 2018-19 was 332 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) after discounting diversion of 3 LMT for ethanol; in 2019-20, it was 274 LMT (after discounting diversion of 9 LMT for ethanol); in 2020-21, the production increased to 310 LMT (after discounting diversion of 22 LMT for ethanol) and for 2021-22, it is 335 LMT (after discounting diversion of 35 LMT for ethanol).

The production of sugar has increased and so has sugar exports. In sugar seasons 2017-18, 2018-19 & 2019-20, only about 6.2 LMT, 38 LMT & 59.60 LMT of sugar was exported. “In sugar season 2020-21 against target of 60 LMT, about 70 LMT have been exported. In the current sugar season 2021-22, against the projected 100 LMT exports, contracts for export of about 90 LMT have been signed, about 82 LMT sugar has been dispatched from sugar mills for export and approximately 78 LMT have been exported. Export of sugar in current sugar season 2021-22 is the historically highest,” Subodh Singh, Joint Secretary, Food, told media persons.

About 80 per cent of sugar is produced in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka and because the two states south of Narmada are nearer to the ports, export takes place more from these states.