State Of India’s Environment Report

In Context Of

• The Center for Science and Environment (CSE) and Down to Earth (DTE) Magazine has released the State of India's Environment report 2023, which assesses a wide range of topics including water, plastics, forests, and biodiversity in addition to climate change, agriculture, and industry.
• The report, an annual publication, emphasises migration, health, and food systems. Additionally, it addresses topics like biodiversity, forestry and wildlife, energy, industry, habitat, pollution, trash, and rural development.
• CSE is a New Delhi-based organisation that does research and advocates for the public good.

Highlight of the Report

• In addition to the over 30,000 water bodies that have been encroached upon, India produces 150,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) per day, more than half of which is either disposed of in landfills or goes neglected.
• In India, the average amount of time lost to air pollution is 4 years and 11 months.
• More years are lost in Rural India than in the urban core due to health problems brought on by air pollution.
• India's rural areas require 35% more community health facilities.
• Environmental crimes persist unabatedly; to reduce the backlog, courts must resolve 245 cases daily.
• India had harsh weather on 271 days between January and October 2022.
• More than 2,900 people died as a result of the harsh weather.
• India has fallen nine places in the last five years in the worldwide standing for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the UN, placing 121 in 2022. India is in last place below Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal in South Asia. The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment is implementing the Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Entrepreneurship (SMILE) initiative and the Scheme for Residential Education for Students in High Schools in Targeted Areas (SHRESHTA).
• In agriculture, there is mounting proof of the effectiveness of traditional and regenerative farming practises.
• There is growing data supporting the effectiveness of conventional and regenerative farming techniques.
• Regarding the subject of forests and biodiversity, it is a sad fact that forests are disappearing, but at the same time, more and more people are asking for rights to their woods, and these requests are even being granted.
• While the size of the plastic waste problem continues to be enormous, numerous policies and urgency are in the correct direction.
• Cities are becoming more waste-aware, learning to separate waste at the source, reduce the use of plastics, and repurpose waste to create profit.

India's Performance in SDG

• India dropped three points to number 120 (2021) on the 17 Sustainable The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment is implementing the Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Entrepreneurship (SMILE) initiative and the Scheme for Residential Education for Students in High Schools in Targeted Area (SHRESHTA). Development Goals (SDG) that 192 United Nations member nations adopted in 2015 as part of the 2030 agenda.
• In 2021, India was rated 117th out of 192 countries.
• The total SDG rating for India was 66 out of 100.
• India's ranking fell mostly as a result of significant difficulties in achieving 11 SDGs, such as achieving zero hunger, overall health and wellbeing, gender equality, and sustainable cities and communities.
• In terms of living on the land and high-quality education, India likewise ranked poorly.

India struggled in 2021 to eradicate hunger and achieve food security, achieve gender equality and construct resilient infrastructure, encourage inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.

Marine Protected Areas

• India's exclusive economic zone encompasses 8118 km of coastline, approximately 2.02 million square kilometres. Nine states and seven union regions make up India's 372,424 square The National Portal & Helpline will provide necessary information and solutions to the Transgender community and the people engaged in the act of begging when needed.kilometre continental shelf. It faces significant challenges in maintaining its biodiversity as one of the world's 17 mega-biodiverse countries.
• India will support the establishment of two Marine Protected Areas (MPA) in Antarctica to preserve marine life and the ecosystem services it provides, according to a recent announcement from the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Indian Government.

About Marine Protected Area

• A marine protected area is a section of the ocean or the littoral where human activities are subject to tougher rules than those that apply to the nearby seas. Marine species have been given additional protection in these places by the federal, state, local, and regional governments.
• India's maritime biodiversity has been named one of the top twenty biodiversities in the world by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. As a result, strict laws have been put in place to safeguard wildlife in nine states' worth of national parks and marine water bodies as well as all of the union territories.
• There are limitations on human activities in an area of the ocean designated as a Marine Protected Area (MPA). Several MPAs allow locals to utilise the area in environmentally friendly ways. Others forbid fishing. Some refuse to permit anyone in their neighbourhood at all.

The Necessity of Creating MPAs in Antarctica

• Almost 10% of the world's water is made up of the Southern Ocean, which is home to around 10,000 distinct polar species.
• Climate change is affecting habitats that are home to a range of species, including sea ice and the protected seafloor beneath ice shelves.
• Krill are caught commercially and used to make fish meal, which is fed to farmed fish, as well as dietary supplements for people.
• Animals that consume krill are threatened by increased krill harvesting. Fish, whales, seals, penguins, and other seabirds are among them.
• According to a 2022 study that examined data from the krill fisheries spanning more than 40 years, krill fishing was most active in the areas close to the South Orkney Islands and the Western Antarctic Peninsula.

Creating the Maritime Protected Areas

• These are the several types of Maritime Protection Areas (MPAs).
• Category I includes National Parks and Sanctuaries with extensive expanses of mangroves, coral reefs, creeks, seagrass beds, algal beds, estuaries, and lagoons.
• Islands fall under Category II and have a significant role in both marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
• Sand beaches that are outside the intertidal zone but occasionally come into contact with the ocean are included in Category IIIA.
• Islands with evergreen or semi-evergreen woods are under category IIIB.

Status of MPAs in Antarctica

• Two MPAs exist in the Southern Ocean, one in the Ross Sea and the other on the southern shelf of the South Orkney Islands. Only 5% of the ocean is entirely protected by these.
• Except for scientific study, no fishing is allowed on the southern shelf of the South Orkney Islands MPA. Also prohibited are discharges and dumping from fishing vessels.
• 72% of the seas in the Ross MPA are off-limits to commercial fishing.
• Australia and the European Union have been advocating for an MPA in East Antarctica since 2012. The EU, Norway, Chile and Argentina each put up MPA proposals for the Weddell Sea and the waters surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula.
• India continued to support the designation of the Weddell Sea and East Antarctica as MPAs in 2021.
• At the Commission for the Protection of Antarctic Marine Living Resources' 41st annual conference, China and Russia reportedly opposed these measures (CCAMLR).

The National Portal & Helpline will provide necessary information and solutions to the Transgender community and the people engaged in the act of begging when needed.

Daylight Savings Time

In Context Of

• The beginning of Daylight Saving Time (DST) was recently postponed by the Government of Lebanon by one month. Greenland has opted to continue using DST indefinitely, meanwhile.
• On the final Sunday in March, Lebanon normally springs forward an hour. The clocks will be changed this year on April 21 without providing a reason, the Country's Prime Minister announced.

How Does Daylight Saving Time work?

• The practise of moving the clocks one hour ahead of standard time during the summer and back again in the fall is known as DST, according to Norway-based Time and Date.
• To maximise the usage of natural light, this is done. Since countries near the equator do not have significant seasonal fluctuations in day length, India does not observe daylight saving time.

What is the Significance of DST?

• DST proponents contend that it results in extended daylight hours in the evening. People will finish their daily tasks an hour sooner, which results in less energy use due to the additional hour of daylight.
• To reduce the usage of artificial illumination, Germany and Austria implemented DST in April 1916, during World War I. Many nations adopted it gradually.
• The last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October are when the 28 EU member nations' clocks advance and fall back, respectively.

What Drawbacks Come with DST?

• In the US, one hour of missing sleep increases the fatal crash rate by 5.4% to 7.6% for the six days after the change, according to a study published in Popular Science magazine.

Additional research discovered increased workplace accidents following the move that resulted in lost workdays, a minor decline in stock market performance, and health issues brought on by the disturbance of the Circadian Rhythm.