Environment Quiz:- Environment & Ecology | Nov18,2020

: Lichen is a peculiar combination of an alga and a fungus– the two live deriving mutual benefits.
•They are group of greyish green plants which grow on rocks, tree-trunks, dead wood, etc.
•The algae manufactures food which becomes available to the fungus, they absorbs and retains water and thus keeps the algal cells moist.
•An example of symbiosis. They are most common in wetlands, rare in rivers and streams and are not found in ground water.

Red Vanda, blue Vanda, kuth, pitcher plant, beddomes cycad and ladies slipper orchid are the list of plants listed in schedule 6.
Source: Shankar

Malabar Civet is considered to be one of the world’s rarest mammals.
•It is endemic to India and was first reported from Travancore, Kerala.
•It is nocturnal in nature and found exclusively in the Western Ghats.
•Habitat: Wooded plains and hill slopes of evergreen rainforests.
Source: Shankar

White – bellied heron extremely rare bird found in five or six sites in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, one or two sites in Bhutan, and a few in Myanmar.
•Himalayan Quail is presumed to be extinct since no reliable records of sightings of this species exist after 1876. Intensive surveys are required as this species is hard to detect due to its reluctance to fly and its preference for dense grass habitats. Possible sighting of this species was reported in Nainital in 2003.
•Sociable lapwing is a winter migrant to India. This species has suffered a sudden and rapid population decline due to which it has been listed as critically endangered.
Source: Shankar

Fire corals are more closely related to jellyfish than corals. On contact, one usually feels a burning sensation similar to a sting from a jellyfish.
•Habitat: Generally found in murky inshore waters and display a tolerance for siltation. They often are found in clear offshore sites.
•Distribution: Indonesia, Gulf of Chiriquí, Panama Pacific Province. Possibly extinct from Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Panama, Singapore and Thailand.
Source: Shankar

Purposely or accidentally, people often bring non-native species into new areas where the species have few or no natural predators to keep their populations in check.
•A new invasive gall forming insect of Eucalyptus in Southern India. Leptocybe invasa – a new insect pest detected from few pockets of coastal Tamil Nadu and it has spread to peninsular India. It is a tiny wasp that forms leaf and stem galls in Eucalyptus.
•Crazy ant
•Giant African snail
•Myna
•Gold Fish
•Pigeon
•Donkey
•House Gecko
•Tilapia
Source: Shankar

The Nalabana bird sanctuary is located on Nalabana Island in the Chilika lagoon area in Odisha.
•The Nalabana Bird Sanctuary is the core area of Chilika.
•The large Nalabana Island (Forest of Reeds) covering about 16 sq km was declared a bird sanctuary in 1987.
•Chilika Lake gets heavy inflow of water from rivers Bhargavi and Daya.
•Chilika Lake is Asia’s largest and world’s second-largest lagoon after the New Caledonian barrier reef in New Caledonia.
Source: The Hindu

Threatened by untamed dogs and stray cattle, the blackbuck, Punjab’s State animal, is fighting for survival at the Abohar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Fazilka district.
•Abohar is an open wildlife sanctuary, spreading across private land in 13 villages.
•The blackbuck was notified as State animal of Punjab in 1989, and its presence in the State is confined only to the Abohar Wildlife Sanctuary, with its unique habitat of semi-arid plains featuring agricultural fields, intermittent fallow-barren land, scattered sand dunes and mounds, and ridges.
•In the sanctuary, where land in mainly owned by the local Bishnoi community, there were 3,273 blackbucks, according to the 2017 census conducted jointly by the Punjab Biodiversity Board (PBB) and the Forest and Wildlife Department, against 3,500 in 2011.
Source: The Hindu

Dachigam National Park is located 22 km from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.
•The name literally stands for ‘ten villages’, which could be in memory of the ten villages that were relocated in order to create the park.
•The Park is only 141 sq. kms. and roughly rectangular in shape, approximately 23.5km by 6km.
•It is best considered as two sections – Upper and Lower Dachigam.
•Lower Dachigam, in the west, comprises approximately a third of the total area and is the area most accessible to a visitor.
•Upper Dachigam in the east extends over the higher reaches and is a good day’s trek from the nearest road head.
•Dachigam was initially established to ensure the supply of clean drinking water to Srinagar city.
•A protected area since 1910, it was declared as a national park in 1981.
•The park is best known as the home of the hangul, or Kashmir stag.
Source: The Hindu

: On January 30, 2019 the Indian Sundarban was accorded the status of ‘Wetland of International Importance’ under the Ramsar Convention.
•The Sundarbans comprises hundreds of islands and a network of rivers, tributaries and creeks in the delta of the Ganga and the Brahmaputra at the mouth of the Bay of Bengal in India and Bangladesh.
•Located on the southwestern part of the delta, the Indian Sundarban constitutes over 60% of the country’s total mangrove forest area.
•It is the 27th Ramsar Site in India, and with an area of 4,23,000 hectares is now the largest protected wetland in the country.
•The Indian Sundarban, also a UNESCO world heritage site, and it is home to the Royal Bengal Tiger.
Source: The hindu