Environment

At least 85% of the earth’s wetlands are already lost and freshwater species are at highest risk compared to forest or marine species, the report released on Thursday has underlined. The population of freshwater species including fish, birds, amphibians and mammals have declined by 84% globally since 1970, threatening one in three freshwater or riverine species with extinction, the Living Planet Report 2020 has said.

At least 85% of the earth’s wetlands are already lost and freshwater species are at highest risk compared to forest or marine species, the report released on Thursday has underlined.

The Living Planet Report which is released biannually by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London shows an average 68% decline in population of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish since 1970. The report tracks the abundance of 20,811 populations representing 4,392 species based on a number of data sets available globally.

These population trends are brought together in what is called the Living Planet Index (LPI), which calculates the average percentage change in population sizes since 1970.

There is a 94% decline in the LPI in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is also facing massive losses in freshwater species due to fragmentation by hydropower projects and abstraction of water and a 45% decline in LPI in Asia and Australia.

Riverine ecosystems in India are also under threat. The size of wetlands in India has shrunk — to only 0.03% area of the total geographic area. In 2018, there were 351 polluted stretches of rivers , according to the Central Pollution Control Board, up from 302 in 2016. And there has been a reduction in the population of endangered species such as the rare Gangetic Dolphin.

Experts said that such degradation imbalances ecosystems, which can in turn lead to bigger problems. “Intact ecosystems with diverse assemblages of species can buffer the emergence of disease causing pathogens. When populations decline or transmission dynamics are altered, it increases the chance of spillover of pathogens to humans and associated domestic animals. Given the rates of change in natural ecosystems due to globalised economic activities, it is inevitable that new pathogens with the pandemic potential will emerge,” said Abi Tamim Vanak, Fellow, Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Program (Intermediate Clinical and Public Health Fellowship) and Senior Fellow (Associate Prof) and Convenor, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment.

Globally, habitat degradation through pollution or flow modification, overexploitation, invasive species and sand mining in rivers are among the biggest threats facing freshwater species. Freshwater megafauna—those that are large and grow to over 30 kg such as river dolphins, otters, beavers, hippos, the Chinese sturgeon and the Mekong giant catfish have recorded strong population declines. Large fish are also heavily impacted by dam construction, which blocks their migratory routes to spawning and feeding grounds.

Sand mining is a huge problem in Indian rivers. It is illegal to mine for sand from rivers in many states, but it goes on unabated, even in river stretches within protected areas.

“Free flowing stretches of rivers in India are the last bastions of aquatic biodiversity including fish, turtles, crocodilians, waterfowl and river dolphins. Unfortunately, we are still in denial about the irreplaceable ecosystem services of these rivers,” said Jagdish Krishnaswamy, a senior fellow at the Suri Sehgal Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment. “We need to revisit the plans for large dams in the Himalayas and inter-linking of rivers which may destroy the last remaining free-flowing stretches of rivers and their aquatic biodiversity. The Gangetic river dolphin, for example, is threatened by both reduced flows, barriers and dams as well as the under-water noise from increased vessel traffic in inland waterways,” he added.

The 164-page report drafted by 134 authors from 25 countries has also tracked how the global landscape has transformed over the years with satellite data which shows that only Russia, Canada, Brazil and Australia contain most of the places without a human footprint while all of India’s geographical area is highly modified by humans. About 58% of the earth’s land surface is under immense human pressure and only 25% can be considered wilderness, according to the report. The map in the report indicates there is no wilderness left in India, but it doesn’t say so explicitly.

The global land-use projections in the report show that without changes in diet — food production (including food loss and waste) is a major driver — the issue of land-use cannot be addressed. Food production causes 70% of terrestrial biodiversity loss and 50% of freshwater biodiversity loss. This is critical for India because it is the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses and jute, and ranks as the second-largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane and groundnut, WWF’s India factsheet said.

Overall the biggest threats to biodiversity according to the report is land use change followed by overexploitation of species; invasive species; pollution and climate change. “Covid 19 is nature sending us a message. In fact, it reads like an SOS signal for the human enterprise, bringing into sharp focus the need to live within the planet’s ‘safe operating space’. The environmental, health and economic consequences of failing to do so are disastrous,” the report warns.

HIGHLIGHTS
• 68% fall in monitored populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish between 1970 and 2016
• More than 85% of area under wetlands is lost
• The Living Planet Index (LPI) tracks the abundance of 21,000 populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians around the world
• There is a 94% decline in the LPI for the tropical subregions of the Americas
• There is a 65% decline in LPI for Africa and 45% for Asia and Australia
• 3,741 monitored populations – representing 944 freshwater species of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fishes have recorded an 84% decline since 1970
India’s rivers on the edge:

• There are 351 polluted river stretches in India as per Central Pollution Control Board’s 2018 assessment, up from 302 in 2016

• 45 out of the 351 polluted stretches are critically polluted

• Yamuna in Delhi; Damanganaga in Silvassa and Daman; Mithi in Mumbai; Ghaggar in Haryana; many stretches of Ganga are among critically polluted

• There are at least 1000 dams on the Ganga river basin obstructing the flow of various tributaries, according to a recent assessment by INTACH

• India ranks third in the list of countries with the largest number of threatened turtle and tortoise species in the world after China and Vietnam according to Turtle Conservation Coalition.

• Indian wetlands have altogether only 0.03% area of the total geographic area

• Only 1272 Gangetic dolphins were recorded in 3350 km of riverine stretch surveyed by WWF India in Uttar Pradesh, covering Ganga, Yamuna, Chambal, Ken, Betwa, Son, Sharda, Geruwa, Gahagra, Gandak and Rapti.

• Environment ministry estimates there are only 2500 endagered Gangetic dolphins left in India’s river systems. —–By Jayashree Nandi, Hindustan Times

By Helen Briggs
Wildlife populations have fallen by more than two-thirds in less than 50 years, according to a major report by the conservation group WWF.

The report says this “catastrophic decline” shows no sign of slowing.

And it warns that nature is being destroyed by humans at a rate never seen before.

Wildlife is “in freefall” as we burn forests, over-fish our seas and destroy wild areas, says Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF.

“We are wrecking our world – the one place we call home – risking our health, security and survival here on Earth. Now nature is sending us a desperate SOS and time is running out.”

What do the numbers mean?
The report looked at thousands of different wildlife species monitored by conservation scientists in habitats across the world.

They recorded an average 68% fall in more than 20,000 populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish since 1970.

BBC graphic
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The decline was clear evidence of the damage human activity is doing to the natural world, said Dr Andrew Terry, director of conservation at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which provides the data.

“If nothing changes, populations will undoubtedly continue to fall, driving wildlife to extinction and threatening the integrity of the ecosystems on which we depend,” he added.

The report says the Covid-19 pandemic is a stark reminder of how nature and humans are intertwined.

Factors believed to lead to the emergence of pandemics – including habitat loss and the use and trade of wildlife – are also some of the drivers behind the decline in wildlife.

BBC graphic
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New modelling evidence suggests we can halt and even reverse habitat loss and deforestation if we take urgent conservation action and change the way we produce and consume food.

The British TV presenter and naturalist Sir David Attenborough said the Anthropocene, the geological age during which human activity has come to the fore, could be the moment we achieve a balance with the natural world and become stewards of our planet.

“Doing so will require systemic shifts in how we produce food, create energy, manage our oceans and use materials,” he said.

“But above all it will require a change in perspective. A change from viewing nature as something that’s optional or ‘nice to have’ to the single greatest ally we have in restoring balance to our world.”

Sir David presents a new documentary on extinction to be aired on BBC One in the UK on Sunday 13 September at 20:00 BST.

Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Eastern lowland gorilla
Image caption Gorillas in the mountains of DRC face threats from illegal hunting
How do we measure the loss of nature?
Measuring the variety of all life on Earth is complex, with a number of different measures.

Taken together, they provide evidence that biodiversity is being destroyed at a rate unprecedented in human history.

This particular report uses an index of whether populations of wildlife are going up or down. It does not tell us the number of species lost, or extinctions.

The largest declines are in tropical areas. The drop of 94% for Latin America and the Caribbean is the largest anywhere in the world, driven by a cocktail of threats to reptiles, amphibians and birds.

“This report is looking at the global picture and the need to act soon in order to start reversing these trends,” said Louise McRae of ZSL.

The data has been used for modelling work to look at what might be needed to reverse the decline.

Research published in the journal Naturesuggests that to turn the tide we must transform the way we produce and consume food, including reducing food waste and eating food with a lower environmental impact.

Image copyright GETTY IMAGES The African grey parrot is endangered due to habitat loss and wildlife trade
Image caption The African grey parrot is endangered due to habitat loss and wildlife trade
Prof Dame Georgina Mace of UCL said conservation actions alone wouldn’t be sufficient to “bend the curve on biodiversity loss”.

“It will require actions from other sectors, and here we show that the food system will be particularly important, both from the agricultural sector on the supply side, and consumers on the demand side,” she said.

What do other measures tell us about the loss of nature?
Extinction data is compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which has evaluated more than 100,000 species of plants and animals, with more than 32,000 species threatened with extinction.

Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Forest elephants
Image caption Elephants are under threat from poaching and habitat loss
In 2019, an intergovernmental panel of scientists concluded that one million species (500,000 animals and plants, and 500,000 insects) are threatened with extinction, some within decades.

Humans ‘threaten 1m species with extinction’
The WWF report is one of many assessments of the state of nature being published in the coming weeks and months in the build-up to a major summit next year.

The UN will reveal next Tuesday its latest assessment of the state of nature worldwide

By Sayan Banerjee:

The north-eastern region continues to face a violent extractive regime by the Indian state. Photo: RK Srinivasan
India’s northeastern region — comprising Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura — is a unique biodiversity hotspot. The region, however, faces many environmental problems.

Successive Indian forest surveys in 2015, 2017 and 2019 reported net deforestation of 628, 630 and 765 square kilometres in the region respectively.

This gradual decline in general and decrease of very dense forests — with canopy cover greater than 70 per cent — is particularly alarming. During 2001-2018, 75 per cent of the total tree cover loss outside the recorded forest area in India occurred in this region.

The region is prone to multiple cycles of heavy floods, grade-V earthquakes and landslides due to hydrological and seismic fragility.

In 2020, almost 28 of 33 districts at the Barak and Brahmaputra valleys in Assam reeled under floods, 23 small-scale earthquakes hit Mizoram within five weeks and multiple causalities due to landslides occurred in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and other hilly areas.

A recent government report presented in the climate summit at Katowice, Poland found the north-eastern states to be highly vulnerable to climate change due to low adaptive potential of demographic and livelihood factors.

The development of this region, thus, requires sound socio-ecological planning with proactive mitigation strategies to control the damage to the region’s ecology and society.

The environmental impact assessment (EIA), in this regard, becomes a mandatory exercise for ecologically sound development projects envisaged for the region.

Draft EIA notification 2020

In order to ensure ‘ease of doing business’, the draft EIA notification 2020 weakens the basic vision of EIA, that is, a proactive analysis of impacts on the environment by development projects and providing risk-mitigation strategies.

The proposed changes grant post-facto environmental clearance to industries that operate and pollute without consent from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

The participation of affected communities and the public in general was further limited by reducing the notice period for public hearing to 20 days from 30 days.

Several large-scale projects were re-categorised as B2 (projects that do not require EIA) and thus exempted from it. Given the environmental fragility of the North East, these changes can usher irreversible damage to the region.

Development outlook at north-eastern states

The northeastern region continues to face a violent extractive regime by the Indian state. Following Dolly Kikon’s work on extractive regimes at the Assam-Nagaland border, the entire northeastern region can be described as a “militarised hydro / carbon frontier”.

Successive governments visualised Arunachal Pradesh as the cradle of India’s hydropower, with there being a plan to develop almost 170 hydro-electric projects that provide around 70,000 megawatts (MW) of power, more than a third of India’s total hydro potential.

Only five per cent of the proposed hydropower projects were established till now, with the ecological future of this state bleak if the remaining hydro-potential is realised. A recent campaign against the proposed 3,097 MW Etalin hydropower project showed such projects were cleared with a limited understanding of socio-ecological impacts.

Assam, Meghalaya and parts of other states have experienced extraction of coal, allied minerals and oil and gas since the occupation of the British. The current extraction by Coal India Ltd in Assam is at 465 million tonnes (MT), out of the total coal prospect of 525 MT.

A devastating blowout and fire at one of the gas wells owned by Oil India Ltd occurred at Baghjan, within the eco-sensitive zone of Dibru-Saikhowa. Photo: Vivek Menon / Twitter

The coal bearing region of Assam overlaps with the areas adjoining the Dihing-Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary and elephant reserve that harbour dense evergreen forests. Clearance for coal mining at the Saleki proposed reserve forest situated at the vicinity of the sanctuary recently caused a huge uproar from the state’s youth-led environmental groups.

Data from the Union Ministry of Coal suggested only 15 per cent and two per cent of the total coal prospect was established in Meghalaya and Nagaland respectively, with scope for further expansion. The total potential hydrocarbon reserve in the region was estimated to be around 5,040 MT, of which only 44 per cent was established, according to the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

This left considerable scope for further extraction, with the Hydrocarbon Vision 2030 for the northeastern region aiming to double the production of oil and natural gas.

The present extraction is concentrated in the Upper Assam Shelf Basin. This basin is adjacent to the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and the Dihing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary.

A devastating blowout and fire at one of the gas wells owned by Oil India Ltd occurred at Baghjan, within the eco-sensitive zone of Dibru-Saikhowa. Future oil and gas exploration in the region aims to exploit the Assam-Arakan Basin that comprises of the hilly areas in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, according to the Hydrocarbon Vision.

Bleak socio-ecological future of the North East

The recent Baghjan blowout and fire incident provides the greatest example to show how poor or no EIA of extractive development projects can impact the local ecology and society in future.

OIL was extracting oil and gas without proper environmental clearances and biodiversity impact assessment. It violated all environment-related acts and rules of the country during its operation.

The draft EIA 2020 aims to legalise such environmental violations through post-facto clearance without punitive action. Article 371 and the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution provides community ownership over resources in these states.

Each community has their own unique socio-political history, language, social structure and cultural belief system.

The draft EIA 2020 is subverting the Constitution by limiting the inclusion of local decision-making bodies and public participation in the region. The draft also takes away power from affected communities to report environmental violations.

These changes foreground an attitude of profit over people and wildlife, which treats the region only as an extraction frontier that will feed the ‘national interest’.

The draft aims to set up industries within 100 km of the international borders without public consultation. This would affect large sections of all the north-eastern states.

The massive land requirement will lead to large scale displacement and disruption of livelihood of already marginalised communities. Indigenous cultures that evolved by living in the local ecology will likely be lost with the displacement and destruction of the local environment.

The Hydrocarbon Vision from the region will lead to huge land conversion, especially forested areas, increasing the deforestation rate and carbon footprint of the national economy.

This region, with eight per cent of India’s total geographical area, has 25 per cent of India’s forest cover.

If the staggering number of mining and dam building projects get a nod, the resulting deforestation and earth removal may lead to increased hydro-seismic fragility of the region, causing more intense floods, earthquakes and landslides.

Oil and gas exploration and highway expansion was exempted from the purview of EIA. Without proper environment impact assessments, such developments will increase the vulnerability of the region to climatic shifts.

Land-levelling or securing land through erection of walls or fences and land conversion in general will destroy terrestrial and aquatic habitats that fall under the Himalaya and India-Burma biodiversity hotspots and Central Asian and East Asia-Australian Flyway.

It will exacerbate the survival of various endemic species and impede movement of long-ranging animals like Asian elephants and tigers.

Given the fragile ecology of the northeastern region, there is a massive gap between the requirement of ecologically sound development policy and the actual development outlook of the region.

A strong EIA can bridge this gap with mandatory identification of sustainable development initiatives.

The draft EIA 2020, however, brought forward changes that are both anti-environment and anti-people. It should, thus, be rejected to secure the socio-ecological future of the north-eastern states.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.

The Draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020 has become a hot potato for the ministry of environment, forest & climate change (MoEF&CC). First, the Delhi high court overruled the ministry’s decision on the time limit for public comments and increased it till August 11. Then, in response to a formal complaint of the environment minister for spamming his email account, the cybercrime unit of the Delhi police invoked a terrorism-related law to shut down the website of young environmental campaigners, who were running an online campaign against the draft notification.

Though the police have now withdrawn the notice, the public uproar against the draft notification continues. Reportedly, lakhs of people have written to MoEF&CC to scrap the draft. So why is there such a hullabaloo around this subordinate legislation?

Chad Crowe

The draft EIA notification 2020 seeks to replace the existing law – the EIA notification 2006 – which grants Environment Clearance (EC) to projects. The major criticisms against the new draft are that it dilutes scope of public participation, legalises post-facto EC, removes the requirements of EIA study for several categories of projects, and weakens the provisions of reporting by companies. To understand the significance of these changes, let’s look at the 2006 law.

The EIA notification 2006 is possibly the most amended piece of environmental law. It has been amended 43 times, and at least 50 office memorandums (worth 350 pages) have been issued to tweak this law. Many of these changes have diluted the original version for some or other industry. The 2020 draft, in large part, brings together several of these revisions.

Therefore, effectively the 2020 version is a little worse than the existing one. So, while I appreciate the criticism of the proposed draft, keeping the 2006 version or even improving it is not going to solve the environmental problems in the country either. Let me explain why.

First, the approach of conducting EIA of individual projects is bad science. The environment is affected by the cumulative impacts of all activities, which project-specific EIAs fail to capture. Even if individual projects meet all benchmarks, their cumulative effects may still destroy the environment. This is evident in most mining and industrial areas of the country – from Singrauli to Korba and from Vapi to Patancheru.

Second, the EIA report, which forms the basis for EC decisions, is prepared by a consultant paid by the project proponent. This creates an apparent conflict of interest, and therefore most EIA reports are not worth the paper they are written on. I am yet to come across an EIA report that says that a project is likely to have significant ecological impacts.

Third, the process of the public hearing, which is mandated to take into account the concerns of the project-affected people, is a sham. Public hearing as practised in India is neither an informed consultation nor an informed consent. Most times, it is organised in the presence of police force, and physical violence is not uncommon.

Worse still, concerns of the community are most often dealt with in a cursory way by the expert appraisal committees (EACs). EACs typically ask companies to make some investments like building schools or providing drinking water to appease the community. MoEF&CC has even formalised this by calling these expenditures as ‘corporate environment responsibility’ (CER) and directing companies to earmark 0.125-2% of the capital investment on CER.

Finally, the environmental conditions imposed on the companies are rarely monitored by authorities. Monitoring is based on self-certified half-yearly reports submitted by companies; this has been reduced to yearly report in the 2020 draft.

The fact is that the current EIA and EC process in India is defunct. While it involves a lot of paperwork, there is little improvement on the ground. 99.9% of the projects are cleared, and non-compliance of the safeguards is rampant. The paperwork and transaction costs, on the other hand, gives legitimacy to industries to argue for watering down the process further.

It is, therefore, time that we demand a new EIA law based on sound science, and robust and transparent decision making processes to safeguard environment and community rights as well as to reduce investment risks of industries. This can be achieved by integrating three environmental concepts.

The first is the strategic environmental assessment (SEA). SEA will help to evaluate the ecological ramification of policies and plans and address concerns at the earliest stage of the decision making process. Many countries have adopted SEA to integrate environmental concerns in policy making.

The second is the regional planning approach. This involves conducting carrying capacity studies and developing regional plans based on them. This will allow us to take into account cumulative impacts and also provide information to project proponents to decide the location of the projects beforehand.

The third is project specific EIAs. In this, EIAs should be done for major projects and not for all. The focus here should be to improve environmental management plans and post-clearance monitoring. To ensure quality EIA reports, an environment information centre should be established to provide independent data to consultants and the EACs. In all the three processes, public participation should be ensured to improve assessment and scrutiny.

The EIA process is the most important piece of environmental law as it has the scope to decide the development trajectory of the country. But this powerful piece of legislation has never been discussed or legislated by the Parliament. Time to take the EIA discourse to the Parliament floor and develop a new law suitable for the 21st century.

AUTHOR
Chandra Bhushan:
The writer is CEO, International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology (iFOREST)

The researchers trained the AI models to recognise images of individual birds in wild populations of great tits and sociable weavers and a captive population of zebra finches, some of the most commonly studied birds in behavioural ecology. After training, the AI models were tested with images of the individuals they had not seen before and had an accuracy of over 90 per cent for the wild species and 87 per cent for the captive zebra finches.

According to the researchers, for AI models to be able to accurately identify individuals they need to be trained with thousands of labelled images. Companies like Facebook are able to do this for human recognition because they have access to millions of pictures of different people that are voluntarily tagged by users. But, acquiring such labelled photographs of animals is difficult and has created a bottleneck in research.

The researchers were able to overcome this challenge by building feeders with camera traps and sensors. Most birds in the study populations carried a passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag, similar to the microchips implanted in pet cats and dogs. Antennae on the bird feeders were able to read the identity of the bird from these tags and trigger the cameras.

AI methods like the one shown in this study use a type of deep learning known as convolutional neural networks, these are optimal for solving image classification problems.

In ecology, these methods have previously been used to identify animals at a species levels and individual primates, pigs and elephants. However, until now it hasn’t been explored in smaller animals like birds. This model is able to identify birds from new pictures as long as the birds in those pictures are previously known to the models,” said the study authors wroteScientists Develop Artificial Intelligence to Identify Individual Birds So Humans Don’t Have to
In the study, published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, the research team describes the process of using AI to individually identify birds. This involves collecting thousands of labelled images of birds and then using this data to train and test AI models.

Scientists Develop Artificial Intelligence to Identify Individual Birds So Humans Don’t Have to
Researchers have demonstrated that artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to train computers to recognise individual birds, a task that humans are unable to do.

“We show that computers can consistently recognise dozens of individual birds, even though we cannot ourselves tell these individuals apart,” said study lead author Andre Ferreira from the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE) in France.

“Our study provides the means of overcoming one of the greatest limitations in the study of wild birds – reliably recognising individuals,” Ferreira added.

In the study, published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, the research team describes the process of using AI to individually identify birds. This involves collecting thousands of labelled images of birds and then using this data to train and test AI models.
The researchers trained the AI models to recognise images of individual birds in wild populations of great tits and sociable weavers and a captive population of zebra finches, some of the most commonly studied birds in behavioural ecology. After training, the AI models were tested with images of the individuals they had not seen before and had an accuracy of over 90 per cent for the wild species and 87 per cent for the captive zebra finches.

According to the researchers, for AI models to be able to accurately identify individuals they need to be trained with thousands of labelled images. Companies like Facebook are able to do this for human recognition because they have access to millions of pictures of different people that are voluntarily tagged by users. But, acquiring such labelled photographs of animals is difficult and has created a bottleneck in research.

The researchers were able to overcome this challenge by building feeders with camera traps and sensors. Most birds in the study populations carried a passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag, similar to the microchips implanted in pet cats and dogs. Antennae on the bird feeders were able to read the identity of the bird from these tags and trigger the cameras.

AI methods like the one shown in this study use a type of deep learning known as convolutional neural networks, these are optimal for solving image classification problems.

In ecology, these methods have previously been used to identify animals at a species levels and individual primates, pigs and elephants. However, until now it hasn’t been explored in smaller animals like birds. This model is able to identify birds from new pictures as long as the birds in those pictures are previously known to the models,” said the study authors wrote.

MUBINA AKHTAR:

One-horned rhinoceroses move to higher ground in the flood-affected area of Kaziranga National Park in Nagaon district, Assam, July 16, 2020. Photo: Reuters/Anuwar Hazarika.

Guwahati: Prabin Saikia’s family couldn’t believe what it saw last week. A juvenile tigress was resting inside their warm home at Baghmari, in the Bagori range of Kaziranga National Park (KNP). The family stayed out of the house while a team from the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation tranquilised the tiger and transported her to the centre, to be released in the wild two days later. The team had also moved another tiger a few days earlier, from a goat shed in Kandulimari village in the park’s Agoratoli range.

On July 18, a rhinoceros had been spotted trying to cross National Highway 37 near KNP, but it moved slowly, probably exhausted after many days of navigating surging waters and hunger. At one time it sat down on the road, stalling traffic for hours.

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“I found it has seeing difficulties that made it extremely difficult for the animal to find safe refuge,” K.K. Sarma, a veterinarian and wildlife expert, said. “When ultimately it climbed [back up], it was not willing to move away.” Fearing the animal might collapse, park authorities treated it near the highway instead of risking its life with transportation.

Rare and endangered wildlife strayed out of the protected area to escape the floodwaters and were also seen taking refuge in tea plantations.

Heavy monsoon rains lashed Assam since the third week of June, leaving most protected areas in the state inundated.

According to KNP authorities, about 120 animals, including 11 one-horned rhinoceroses, have died in the current flood. However, according to Hari Gogoi, a member of a local NGO, “There can be no full count of the animals until floodwaters have receded,” he said, adding that the final count may thus be higher.

The Central Water Commission had issued a severe flood alert at 11 pm on July 20 for the Brahmaputra near Tezpur, which lies across the river from the park.

On June 29, forest guards in KNP’s Bagori range reported the first rhinoceros casualty in this year’s floods, to be followed hours later with a report of another death from Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary. Pobitora has Assam’s highest density of rhinoceroses, and currently about 90% of its land is under water, according to authorities.

Toll on wildlife

The situation isn’t very different at KNP, especially since the Brahmaputra river rose past the danger level at Dhansirimukh on July 12. With most highlands submerged as well, animals attempted to cross NH 37 to take shelter on the Karbi Anglong hills. NH 37 cuts through KNP, and the district administration has imposed a speed limit of 40 km/hr to try and keep animals from being run over. Even so, there were reports that dozens of hog deer have been run over by speeding vehicles.

As the floods push many animals closer or into safer ground, they become easy targets for poachers. Authorities in charge of protected areas had set up camps to look out for the animals, but the floods didn’t spare many of them either. Camps on KNP’s northern boundary, said to be most vulnerable to poachers, remained unmanned. In previous years, authorities have often spotted rhinoceros carcasses with their horns hacked, off after floodwaters receded.

Three weeks ago, the flood swept an elephant away from her calf. People in the area noticed her on July 2 near the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park, and reported she seemed tired and unwilling to move. The pachyderm, tired, weak and partially blind, had been tranquilised before it was moved to a forest nearby.

The rescue team with the rescued elephant (centre). Photo: Bhaskar Choudhury
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“Forest officials kept track and ultimately we could manage to dart it with tranquilisers at Dakhola, under the Palasbari revenue circle, some 200 km from where she was first seen,” Bhaskar Choudhury, who led a rescue team of veterinarians and forest officials from Kamrup district, said.

Similarly, in Majuli, a juvenile elephant had become separated from its herd and was spotted in Harmuti, near Lakhimpur, some 50 km away.

Almost every year, the number of animals that perish in the floods is much higher than the number of animals that are rescued and/or rehabilitated.

The riparian flats typically flooded by the Brahmaputra are largely grassland, savannah and swamp forest, and these lands are home to many of the world’s great one-horned rhinoceroses, elephants, tigers, swamp deer and Asiatic buffaloes.

(Mubina Akhtar is a journalist and activist based in Guwahati.The report first puublished in the Wire)

In the past, action taken by the court to protect the environment has faced criticism, for instance its decision to ban diesel vehicles to curb air pollution.

Saving the environment should not come at the cost of economic development, the Supreme Court said on Friday, adding that a balance should be struck between the two.

The observation by the top court came on a plea filed by a lawyer, Abir Phukan, seeking a ban on mining in the Saleki forest reserve, situated close to the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam.

The area falls in the elephant corridor and in this region, state-owned Coal Indian Limited (CIL) has obtained approval for mining from the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) in April this year.

The Centre, represented by additional solicitor general (ASG) Vikramjeet Banerjee, opposed the plea ,claiming that the environmental impact had already been assessed by the NBWL.

Faced with conflicting positions, the bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde and justices AS Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy said, “We are conscious of the fact that our orders in favour of environment affect economic development adversely. There has to be some method by which economic development is not retarded as this has a direct impact on poverty in the country.”

In the past, action taken by the court to protect the environment has faced criticism, for instance its decision to ban diesel vehicles to curb air pollution.

Walking the tightrope, the bench said that it was aware of the constitutional duty to protect the environment but at the same time, it cannot be oblivious to the economic impact.

The court issued notice on the application moved by Phukan and directed ASG Banerjee to come out with a proposal for an alternative site in three weeks.

The petitioner was asked to add North Eastern Coalfields,a unit of Coal India, as a party to the case. The standing committee of NBWL gave approval to North Eastern Coalfields on April 7 at a meeting conducted through videoconferencing. The total lease area of 98.59 hectares is situated within a 10-kilometre radius from the boundary of Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary.

The petition pointed out that on August 29, 2019, the standing committee of NBWL had advised a cautious approach, suggesting that the views of wildlife experts be to sought to assess the impact of the proposed mining in the elephant corridor, considering the area’s rich biodiversity.

The petitioner claimed: “While several measures would be warranted to create jobs and lift the economy, it is submitted that all such measures should be premised on principles of sustainable development highlighted time and again by this Court.”

Thousands protest closure of North Eastern Coalfield
On the other hand housands gathered at Margherita town in Assam’s Tinsukia district and demanded to protect North Eastern Coalfields (NEC), Coal India and Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary.

The North Eastern Coalfields (NEC), a Coal India Limited (CIL) subsidiary, has announced the temporary suspension of all its mining operations. This comes following the ongoing protests against the Centre’s decision to allow coal mining in Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary.

In an order issued by the office of the General Manager, NEC said, “All mining operations in North Eastern Coalfields, Coal India Limited, Margherita are hereby temporarily suspended with effect from June 3″.

Opposing the decision, NEC employees and thousands of locals staged protests on Friday in front of the NEC office in Margherita.

The protesters raised slogans against the NEC, demanding that it resume its operations. They also called for the government to protect Dehin Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary.

Various industries in the region are severely hit following the suspension of operations in coalfields.

In a statement, NEC said, “Coal mining operations in Tikak Open Cast Project (OCP), falling under Saleki Proposed Reserve Forest of Digboi, have been suspended since October 2019 on the directive of Department of Forest, Government of Assam and it is awaiting the Stage II clearance from Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC). Currently, production is on hold in Tikak OCP”.

It further said, “…Final clearance, which is Stage II for this project is to be granted by MoEF&CC after fulfillment of certain conditions by the project proponent, North Eastern Coalfields, and only then extraction of coal can be done. Following a meeting in April 2020, the principal conditions were that a site-specific mine reclamation plan in consultation with Assam Forest Department has to be submitted by NEC for whatever forest area has been broken up- of around 57 Hectares out of a total 98.59 Hectares. The other condition being- for the rest of the unbroken area for the user agency, NEC needs to submit a feasibility report for exploring underground mining”.

“North Eastern Coalfields has not yet submitted the report for consideration of MoEF&CC. Green signal from NBWL and Forest Clearance for the project is yet to be received for starting coal mining activity in Tikak OCP. It is clarified that the nearest distance of Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary from the project is 9.19 km and the nearest Elephant Corridor, Golai-Powai is located at a distance of more than 10 km from the project,” NEC said.