Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Environment) – August 22, 2020

For over 30 years, the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge has welcomed the greatest minds from around the world to Australia to push the limits of technological innovation and travel the outback in a vehicle powered only by the energy of the sun.

• Traversing 3,000km from Darwin to Adelaide, teams comprise of tertiary and secondary students from over 30 countries.
• These students and their support team have achieved greatness by engineering and building a vehicle with their own hands and powering it across some of the world’s most challenging landscape.
• In 2017, the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge celebrated its 30th Anniversary. The 2021 competition marks the 16th journey from the Top End to Adelaide.
• Based on the original notion that a 1000W car would complete the journey in 50 hours, solar cars are allowed a nominal 5kW hours of stored energy, which is 10% of that theoretical figure.
• All other energy must come from the sun or be recovered from the kinetic energy of the vehicle. These are arguably the most efficient electric vehicles.

There has been a sharp decline in the population of vultures in the country which has come down from 40 million to 19,000 in a span of over three decades, the Environment Ministry told the Parliament.

• Responding to a query on the status of vultures in the country, Union Environment Minister said there are three species of critically endangered resident Gyps vultures – white-backed vulture, long-billed vulture and slender-billed vulture – whose population as per the latest figures is 6,000, 12,000 and 1,000, respectively.
• The Minister said nationwide vulture surveys are being carried out by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) every four years sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and Forest Departments of various States since 1990.
• The major cause of mortality of vultures was found to be the veterinary non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ‘Diclofenac’, given to cattle in pain and inflammation.
• It said that for protection and conservation of vultures in the country, the government has also upgraded the status of White-backed, Long-billed and Slender-billed vultures from Schedule IV to Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

NOTE: Indian Griffon vulture – Least Concerned and Bearded vulture – Near Threatened.

Prescribed burning is the process of planning and applying fire to a predetermined area, under specific environmental conditions, to achieve a desired outcome.

• Prescribed, controlled and planned burns are the same thing.
• Prescribed burning was experimentally introduced in the Eravikulam National Park (ENP) and Parambikulam Tiger Reserve (PKMTR)  recently.

Ahead of the upcoming 2019 Climate Action Summit, the United Nations, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and Climate and Clean Air Coalition announced today the “Clean Air Initiative”, calling on governments at all levels to join the Initiative.

• The “Clean Air Initiative” calls on national and sub national governments to commit to achieving air quality that is safe for citizens, and to align climate change and air pollution policies by 2030.
• According to WHO, each year, air pollution causes 7 million premature deaths, of which 600,000 are children.
• According to the World Bank, air pollution costs the global economy an estimated US$5.11 trillion in welfare losses and in the 15 countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions, health impacts of air pollution are estimated to cost more than 4 per cent of GDP.
• Meeting the Paris Agreement on climate change, however, could save over 1 million lives a year by 2050 and yield health benefits worth an estimated US$54.1 trillion – about twice the costs of mitigation – through reduced air pollution alone.

Assam has added to India’s botanical wealth a plant that yields dragon’s blood — a bright red resin used since ancient times as medicine, body oil, varnish, incense and dye.

• A trio of researchers led by Assam forest officials has discovered Dracaena cambodiana, a dragon tree species in the Dongka Sarpo area of West Karbi Anglong.
• This is for the first time that a dragon tree species has been reported from India.
• Dracaena cambodiana is an important medicinal plant as well as an ornamental tree.
• It is a major source of dragon’s blood, a precious traditional medicine in China.
• Several antifungal and antibacterial compounds, antioxidants, flavonoids, etc., have been extracted from various parts of the plant.

Tiger census is conducted for once in four years.

• Since 2006, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) — an Environment Ministry funded body — has been tasked with coordinating the exercise.
• That year, the once in four years exercise calculated that India had only 1,411 tigers.
• This rose to 1,706 in 2010 and 2,226 in 2014 on the back of improved conservation measures and new estimation methods.
• India accounts for most of the 3,500-odd tigers that are scattered among Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russian Federation, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• As part of an agreement in 2010 among these countries, there is a goal to double the global tiger count by 2022.

Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR) has released its latest variety, Arka Suprabath, much to the delight of fruit connoisseurs.

• Mango is a highly cross-pollinated and heterozygous crop, which means it is difficult to get all the desired characters/traits in a single variety.
• So, it was developed by, to combine the best of Amrapali (for pulp, colour, taste and bearing) and Arka Anmol (for size and colour).
• It is a double-cross hybrid developed by using parents Amrapali (which is a cross of Dashehari and Neelam) and Arka Anmol (which is a cross of Alphonso and Janardhan Pasand).
• Arka Suprabath is a rare variety as it has got Alphonso shape with the pulp colour of Amrapali.
• Tastewise, it is sweet with less acidic properties (0.12%). Its deep orange firm pulp is less fibrous than other varieties.
• Alphonso tends to show irregular bearing after 15 to 20 years of cultivation, but Arka Suprabath grows consistently in bunches.

Mexico’s prickly pear cactus, which is emblazoned on the country’s flag, could soon play a new and innovative role in the production of biodegradable plastics.

• A packaging material that is made from the plant has been developed by a Mexican researcher and is offering a promising solution to one of the world’s biggest pollution conundrums.
• That substance is then mixed with non-toxic additives and stretched to produce sheets that are coloured with pigments and folded to form different types of packaging.

The objective of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Project is to assist Government of India (GoI) in building national capacity for implementation of comprehensive coastal management approach in the country, and piloting the integrated coastal zone management approach in states of Gujarat, Orissa and West Bengal.

• There are four components to the project, the first component being national ICZM capacity building. The national component will include mapping, delineation and demarcation of the hazard lines, and delineation of coastal sediment cells all along the mainland coast of India.
• The second component is the piloting ICZM approaches in Gujarat. This component will support capacity building of the state level agencies and institutions, including preparation of an ICZM plan for the coastal sediment cell that includes the Gulf of Kachchh, and pilot investments.
• The third component is the piloting ICZM approaches in Orissa. This component will include capacity building of the state level agencies and institutions, including preparation of an ICZM plan for the coastal sediment cells that include the stretches of Paradip-Dhamra and Gopalpur-Chilika, including a regional coastal process study, and pilot investments.
• Finally, the fourth component is the piloting ICZM approaches in West Bengal.

A long-term research has revealed that reed canary grass can be turned into an excellent ‘green’ fuel for biomass power stations and, on a smaller scale, boilers in buildings like schools.

• The five-year research project was carried out by researchers from Teesside University’s Contaminated Land and Water Centre.
• Reed canary grass, which is native to Britain, is turned into bricks and pellets. These not only burn well but also don’t add to greenhouse gases or contribute to global warming.
• The research team experimented with four types of plant, willow trees, the current favourite for biomass power stations, and the miscanthus, reed canary and switch grasses.