Centre for Science and Environment masthead Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Donate

Cse In News

Cse In News

E-buses to replace diesel-run fleet to curb rising air pollution levels

Telegraph |Calcutta | June 8, 2021 According to senior officials of West Bengal Transport Corporation, electric vehicles are both cost effective and helpful in reducing automobile emission The fleet of diesel-powered government buses in Calcutta will be replaced by electric buses to curb the rising levels of air pollution, transport minister Firhad Hakim said on Monday. “From now on we will focus on electric buses to battle the rising levels of pollution in Calcutta. The replacement will be carried out in phases,” Hakim said. A little over 1,200 government buses ply in and around Calcutta and all of them are oil guzzlers, transport department officials said. Last year, the state government had replaced 75 of them with electric vehicles, which are powered by rechargeable lithium ion batteries. To begin with, 400 buses will be replaced by electric buses and the remaining fleet of nearly 800 buses will be replaced subsequently in phases. Growing levels of air pollution in the city remains one of the biggest causes of concern for residents. Calcutta had suffered its worst air pollution in two years in the first week of December 2020, a study by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) revealed. Senior officials of the West Bengal Transport Corporation said electric buses were cost effective and would help reduce automobile emission considerably. “The cumulative cost of running non-AC buses is around Rs 35 a kilometre and close to Rs 50 for an AC-bus. For an electric bus, it is around Rs 12 a kilometre,” said an official. “We have set up a separate cell in the transport department to look into the challenges for charging batteries....,” said Hakim. Hakim said apart from converting buses, the government has decided that while offering new permits to autorickshaws preference would be given to those who would opt for either CNG or electric autorickshaws. Fresh permits would be issued to autorickshaw operators on the fringes where urbanisation was taking place particularly along the proposed Metro rail routes.

देश में बढ़ता जा रहा है अन्नदाता का गुस्सा, बीते 3 साल में 5 गुना बढ़ गए किसान आंदोलन, सीएसई के आंकड़ों से हुआ खुलासा

देश का पेट भरने वाले अन्नदाता किसानों का गुस्सा बढ़ता जा रहा है। बीते करीब एक साल से किसान विवादित कृषि कानूनों के खिलाफ आंदोलन कर रहे हैं, वहीं सीएसई के एक अध्ययन में सामने आया है कि बीते तीन साल में किसान आंदोलन में 5 गुना बढ़ोत्तरी हुई है। केंद्र की मोदी सरकार ने भले ही अपने सात साल के शासन की उपलब्धियां गिनाने वाले दस्तावेज में किसानों की समृद्धि को देश की समृद्धि का मंत्र बताया हो, लेकिन हकीकत यह है कि बीते तीन साल के दौरान किसानों के आंदोलन में 5 गुना बढ़ोत्तरी हुई है। यह दावा सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड इन्वायरेंमेंट (सीएसई) ने किया है। सीएसई द्वारा जारी आंकड़ों के मुताबिक 2017 के दौरान भारत के 15 राज्यों में किसानों के कुल 34 आंदोलन दर्ज हुए थे, जबकि अब यह 22 राज्यों और केंद्र शासित प्रदेशों में फैलकर इनकी संख्या 165 पहुंच गई है। सीएसई का कहना है कि देश में हर दिन 28 खेतिहर मजदूर और किसान आत्महत्या करते हैं। अकेले 2019 में ही 5,957 किसानों ने आत्महत्या की है। वहीं 4,324 खेतिहर मजदूरों ने भी जान दी है। सीएसई का कहना है कि, “भारत में किसानों से ज्यादा खेतिहर मजदूर हैं जिससे देश के कृषि क्षेत्र की बदहाली का पता चलता है।” सीएसई ने कहा है कि “भारत कृषि संकट और किसानों की नाराजगी के एक बहुत बड़े टाइम बम पर बैठा है और समय धीरे-धीरे खत्म हो रहा है।” सीएसई की डायरेक्टर जनरल सुनीता नारायण ने कहा है कि, “आंकड़ों में एक नाटकीयता दिखती है, इन आंकड़ों से एक ट्रेंड का पता चलता है कि हालात कितने खराब होते जा रहे हैं। अगर इन आंकड़ों को और रुझान को संकट को समझने के लिए इस्तेमाल करते हैं तो इसका फायदा मिल सकता है। इसमें अवसर और चुनौती दोनों ही हैं।” सुनीता नारायण ने आगे कहा कि, “आंकड़े जमा करना महत्वपूर्ण है, और यह शासन का हिस्सा है, लेकिन इसके साथ ही यह भी महत्वपूर्ण है कि इन आंकड़ों को साझा किया जाए और काम किया जाए ताकि संकट को संभालने और हालात को बेहतर बनाने का काम हो सके।” वहीं सीएसई द्वारा प्रकाशित पत्रिका डाउन टू अर्थ के प्रबंध संपादक रिचर्ड महापात्र ने कहा कि, “अगर आप जमीनों के रिकॉर्ड की हालात देखेंगे तो स्थिति और साफ हो जाएगी कि किस तरह इनका रखरखाव हो रहा है।” उन्होंने कहा कि उनके विश्लेषण में सामने आया है कि देश के कम से कम 14 राज्यों में जमीनों के रिकॉर्ड्स की हालत धीरे-धीरे खस्ता होती जा रही है।

Harmful ingredients in bread

Bread sales have increased during the pandemic in Bangladesh. The market for bread was growing at 12 per cent by the year since 2014. Bangladesh Auto Biscuit and Bread Manufacturers Association’s data suggests that annual sale of bread increased by 20 per cent in 2020 when coronavirus hit the country. However, some study reports find that quality of the bread has not improved despite the increased sales. For long, chemicals hazardous to health, including unsaturated fat, artificial colours and sweetener sodium cyclamate, have been used as the ingredients in bread and other bakery products. A study, published on 24 May in an international science journal Food Science and Nutrition, says that most of the bread marketed across Bangladesh contain another hazardous additive, potassium bromate. A team of three teachers from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and North South University initiated the study. The researchers conducted laboratory tests on 21 bread samples collected from four districts. Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) permits 5 milligram potassium bromate maximum in 1 kilogram of bread. The study finds excessive potassium bromate in 67 per cent of the bread samples. The additive is applied to make the bread rise and easy to shape. Many countries in the world have already banned use of this chemical agent in food manufacturing. BSTI director (license) Md Sajjadul Bari told Prothom Alo that BSTI cancels license of a bread factory and fines it with Tk 100 thousand (one lakh) for using excessive potassium bromate. “Actually BSTI examines bread samples before renewal of the license. So far, we have not traced excessive potassium bromate in any bread brand registered with BSTI. We will take legal action if there is any violation of law,” Sajjadul said. Bangladesh, along with the global community, has observed World Food Safety Day today, Monday. Although the government did not host any event, several non-government organisations held virtual seminars to mark the day. The research team collected bread samples from Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Rampura, Kalabagan, Keraniganj, Siddheswari, Purana Paltan, Dhanmandi of Dhaka; Narayanganj, Jhenaidah and Mymensingh districts. The samples were tested at the BUET lab. Member of the research team, Abu Bin Imran, also a chemistry teacher at BUET, told Prothom Alo, “Bread is popular food among all people. This food needs to be safe. Quality of bread is strictly maintained in most of the countries. Persistence of the cancerous potassium bromate in breads now has become a concern in Bangladesh.” The study report says that bakers in the developed countries use particular yeast to make bread the bread rise. The expensive yeast is mixed with flour and the dough kept to rise for few hours. Previously in Bangladesh, India and some other countries, bakers used baking soda to make the bread rise. The bakers, however, started adding potassium bromate to the dough since 1990s. The toxic agent is cheap and effective to make soft and give it a nice colour. Professor of food technology and rural industries at the Bangladesh Agricultural University, Md Abdul Alim, also a member of Bangladesh Food Safety Authority, told Prothom Alo, “We have found persistence of potassium bromate and unsaturated fat in breads and other bakery products. A strict law will be enacted to control use of such hazardous chemicals in the popular food like bread.” In last two decades, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and other developed countries banned use of potassium bromate in baking bread. In 2016, private-run Centre for Science and Environment in India found presence of potassium bromate in breads of 25 popular brands. Later, the Indian government intensified surveillance over the bread factories. A Nigerian research organisation has also found that 82 per cent of the country’s bread factories use potassium bromate. The Bangladeshi research team has recommended that the BSTI monitor the bakeries in regular basis to check use of potassium bromate and fine the law violators. Therefore, they suggested the bakers to use Vitamin C powder, egg, sauces and other organic agents as the best alternative to potassium bromate. Talking about the issue, Dhaka University’s food and nutrition science professor Nizamul Hoque Bhuiyan told Prothom Alo that use of hazardous chemicals in baking bread is a serious crime. “This crime goes on unabated thanks to some greedy officials of BSTI and bakery owners. The government must be strict in this regard,” he said.

Population of farm labourers is higher than that of cultivators in over half of India’s districts: Report

NEW DELHI: Farmer protests in India have registered an almost five-fold increase since 2017, said the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in its new report that also factored in the ongoing protests against the three central farm laws around Delhi borders. The report also shows that the population of farm labourers has outstripped that of cultivators in 52% of the country’s districts. The number of major farm protests increased from 34 across 15 states in 2017 to 165 protests across 22 states and Union Territories in 2021, the CSE’s compendium of statistics on key issues of development shows. Farmer protests’ figures, mainly compiled from different media reports till May, show that the majority of the protests in 2020 and 2021 were directly or indirectly related to the ongoing agitation demanding repeal of the three central farm laws and pressing for legal guarantee to procurement at minimum support price (MSP). Issues on farm laws and MSP had led to 12 pan-India protests and multiple smaller standalone protests in different states ever since the farmers of Punjab and Haryana launched their current agitation in June last year. The other farmer protests in different states were related to farm infrastructure, crop insurance, loan waiver, fertilizer, land acquisition and irrigation (water-sharing disputes). Besides Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, the other states which saw farmers’ protests during 2020-21 (up to May) include Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Kerala and others. The CSE e-report ‘State of India’s Environment in Figures 2021’, released on World Environment Day last week, also compiled other key data on farmers which may help policymakers guide their intervention in the farm sector. Sourcing the data from publicly available reports, the compendium shows that India has more farm labourers than the landholder cultivators, noting that the population of farm labourers has outstripped that of cultivators in 52% of the country’s districts. Two states – Bihar and Kerala - and UT of Puducherry have, in fact, more farm labourers than landholder cultivators in all their districts. The report shows that the population of farm labourers was quite high compared to that of cultivators in percentage term in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala and Odisha. The CSE also analysed the land records data and said Odisha, Maharashtra and 12 other states have seen a deterioration in the quality of their land records in 2020-21. “The performance of 10 other states/UTs have remained unchanged since 2019-20,” it said while referring to states’ performance in terms of digitisation, map, survey, registration process and land use records among others.

Delhi NCR Pollution: 2021 की शुरुआत ही नहीं, बल्कि वसंत ऋतु भी खासी प्रदूषित रही

नई दिल्ली [संजीव गुप्ता]। 2021 की शुरुआत ही नहीं, बल्कि वसंत ऋतु भी खासी प्रदूषित रही है। वर्ष के शुरुआती तीन माह 2019 के बाद से सर्वाधिक प्रदूषित रहे। यह सामने आया है सेंटर फार साइंस एंड एन्वायरनमेंट (सीएसई) के एक अध्ययन में। यह अध्ययन बताता है कि इस बार के लॉकडाउन ने दिल्ली-एनसीआर की वायु गुणवत्ता में सुधार तो किया है, लेकिन पिछले साल की तरह प्रभावी ढंग से नहीं। वजह, 2021 के प्रतिबंध छोटे और कम कड़े होना। इस साल दिल्ली में प्रतिबंध छह अप्रैल को Night Curfew और सप्ताहांत के लॉकडाउन के रूप में शुरू हुए, जिसमें 19 अप्रैल को पूर्ण लॉकडाउन लगाया गया था। आंशिक-लॉकडाउन लागू करने से पीएम 2.5 प्रदूषण स्तर 20 फीसद तक कम हो गया। पूर्ण लॉकडाउन ने इस औसत को 12 फीसद और नीचे ला दिया। दूसरी तरफ 2020 में आंशिक लॉकडाउन 12 मार्च को, 25 मार्च को पूर्ण लॉकडाउन के साथ शुरू हुआ, जिसे 18 मई से चरणबद्ध तरीके से हटा लिया गया। आंशिक लॉकडाउन पीएम 2.5 के स्तर को 20 फीसद तक नीचे लाया, लेकिन पूर्ण लॉकडाउन ने इसे 35 फीसद कम कर दिया। 18 मई से प्रतिबंध हटाने पर पीएम 2.5 के स्तर में 28 फीसद की वृद्धि हुई।सीएसई ने यह भी कहा कि 2020 और 2021 में लाकडाउन ग्रीष्मकाल 2019 की गर्मियों की तुलना में 25 से 40 फीसद स्वच्छ रहा है। 2021 के वसंत (जनवरी-मार्च) ने 2019 के बाद से सीजन के लिए उच्चतम प्रदूषण स्तर दर्ज किया है। आमतौर पर पीएम 2.5 के स्तर में एक बड़ी वजह मौसमी चक्र होता है। सर्दी सबसे अधिक प्रदूषित होती है और मानसून का मौसम सबसे साफ होता है। वसंत (जनवरी से मार्च) दो चरम सीमाओं के बीच एक संक्रमणकालीन अवधि के रूप में कार्य करता है।पीएम 2.5 के स्तर में एक महत्वपूर्ण गिरावट तब होती है जब मौसम गर्म होता है और वसंत के दौरान हवा तेज हो जाती है। 2018 की सर्दियों और 2019 के वसंत के बीच 26 फीसद की गिरावट आई थी। बता दें कि 2020 में प्रदूषण नियंत्रण उपायों के कारण और मार्च 2020 में आंशिक लाकडाउन लागू होने के कारण यह गिरावट बढ़कर 36 फीसद हो गई। इस साल प्रदूषण जारी नहीं रहा, मौसमी गिरावट 18 फीसद तक सीमित रही। वास्तव में इस साल वसंत 2020 की तुलना में 31 फीसद और 2019 की तुलना में आठ फीसद अधिक प्रदूषण था। अध्ययन ने यह भी दिखाया कि इस फरवरी-मार्च में वायु गुणवत्ता के मामले में 27 दिन बहुत खराब श्रेणी वाले थे जबकि 2020 में 17 और 2019 में 12 दिन थे। वायु गुणवत्ता मानक को पूरा करने वाले दिनों ने भी इस वसंत ऋतु को केवल दो तक गिरा दिया। वर्ष 2020 में 16 और 2019 में छह दिन थे जब मानक पूरा हुआ। मौसम विभाग के सभी वायु गुणवत्ता निगरानी स्टेशन आफलाइन\Bदिल्ली में मौसम विज्ञान विभाग (आइएमडी) के आठ वायु गुणवत्ता निगरानी स्टेशनों (एक्यूएमएस) में से किसी ने भी पिछले दो महीनों में केंद्रीय सर्वर को डेटा नहीं दिया है। सीएसई के मुताबिक भले ही दिल्ली का निगरानी नेटवर्क 2020 के अंत तक 40 स्टेशनों तक बढ़ गया हो, लेकिन सक्रिय स्टेशनों की संख्या 32 रह गई है। वजह, मौसम विभाग के सभी स्टेशन ऑफलाइन हो गए हैं। बुराड़ी क्रॉ¨सग पर आइएमडी का स्टेशन पिछले साल दिसंबर से आफलाइन है जबकि आयानगर, सीआरआरआइ मथुरा रोड, आइजीआइ एयरपोर्ट, लोधी रोड, नॉर्थ कैंपस डीयू और पूसा स्टेशन 10 मार्च को ऑफलाइन हो गए थे। सीएसई के मुताबिक आइएमडी के दो अन्य स्टेशन - ग्वाल पहाड़ी, गुरुग्राम और नोएडा सेक्टर 62 भी आफलाइन हो गए हैं। मालूम हो कि दिल्ली में 40 एक्यूएमएस में से 24 दिल्ली प्रदूषण नियंत्रण समिति के हैं, छह सीपीसीबी के हैं और दो भारतीय मौसम विज्ञान संस्थान, पुणे के हैं।

Editorial: Two views

The Centre must work in tandem with the worse-off states to help them meet the goals and bridge yawning gaps The slide continues. The State of India’s Environment 2021 report, which assessed 17 crucial Sustainable Development Goals for 193 countries, has found that India has slipped two places to occupy a pitiful rank of 117 this year. The SDGs were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 to serve as a universal call to action for governments, big businesses and civil society in order to ensure the protection of the planet and provide a life of dignity for all people by the year, 2030. These targets not only recognize that forward movement in one area affects outcomes in others — be they social, economic or environmental sustainability — but also serve as important parameters for assessing the progress made by nations on each of these fronts. Curiously, it appears that appraisals of the same subject need not correspond with one another. For instance, the State of India’s Environment report says that India’s poor performance can be largely attributed to worsening hunger and food security (SDG 2), gender inequality (SDG 5) and the failure to build resilient infrastructure, among other lapses. Strangely, while acknowledging the deficiencies in some of these areas, the third edition of the Niti Aayog’s 2020-21 index on India’s progress on its SDGs speaks, a wee bit cheerfully, of the strides taken in such areas as health, clean energy and urban development. But naysayers have reason to believe that there is more than what meets the eye in this analysis. For example, the Niti Aayog’s register has spotted an improvement in the SDG on inequality over 2019. This perhaps has been possible on account of a shift in methodological goalposts that arguably led to the elimination of several key economic indicators, such as the Gini coefficient that measures the distribution of income, and the growth rate for per capita household expenditure among 40 per cent of rural and urban populations. The dropping of these parameters is likely to provide a skewed picture of wealth inequality in India at a time when such disparities are rising owing to the pandemic. There are, admittedly, points of convergence between the two reports. Among these are the uneven performances of different states on similar parameters. Kerala and Himachal Pradesh have been the consistent performers, with Bihar and Jharkhand bringing up the rear. These stark disparities point to large gaps in governance and investments and the anomalies must be addressed. As such, the unfavourable performances of a handful of states could impede the progress and even the future of India’s federal architecture. The Centre must work in tandem with the worse-off states to help them meet the goals and bridge these yawning gaps.

Big surprise: UP, Bihar do well on clean energy index — electricity in all homes, LPG in most

The Niti Aayog’s SDG index reveals that all states, barring Chhattisgarh, have achieved 100 per cent electrification of households. New Delhi: The heartland states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar may not have fared well on Niti Aayog’s sustainable development goals (SDG) index on crucial social indicators such as health, infant mortality or education. But they performed fairly well when it came to electrification of households as part of the goal of ‘affordable and clean energy’ — in line with the national trend. According to the report, these states have achieved complete electrification of households. They have also provided majority of the households with either piped natural gas (PNG) connections or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections. The Niti Aayog’s SDG index, released last week, looks at sustainable development goals set by the United Nations in 2015 to address key aspects of universal well-being across different socio-economic indicators. India developed its own index to track its progress. Prepared by Niti Aayog, the index was first launched in December 2018, and the latest index (3.0) covers 17 SDGs and 169 targets. Affordable and clean energy is among these goals, along with poverty eradication, good health, well-being, sanitation, economic growth, among others. VDO.AI Andhra Pradesh is the top performer on the index for clean energy, with a 100 per cent score. UP has also achieved the same score while Bihar has scored 78. The overall India score is 92. The latest report said all states, barring Chhattisgarh, have achieved 100 per cent electrification of households. The number varies among union territories. Out of the eight UTs, four have achieved universal access to electricity — Delhi, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir and Puducherry. However, the other four — Daman and Diu, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli — have reported “null” when calculating percentage of household electrification. Gujarat leads the states with 26 lakh PNG connections while West Bengal has no PNG connection yet, the report said. Among UTs, Delhi leads in both PNG and LPG connections, with 49.8 lakh LPG connections and 9 lakh PNG connections. Goa, Punjab, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana are among the other top performers. At the bottom is Meghalaya with only 47 per cent LPG and PNG connections. Madhya Pradesh with 85.24 per cent, Arunachal Pradesh (84.05 per cent), Bihar (76.55 per cent) and Jharkhand (75.79 per cent) also lag the others. Electrification of households can be faulty indicator, say experts Samrat Sengupta, programme director of the renewable energy team at the Centre for Science and Environment, explained that households with electricity is at times a faulty indicator of clean energy. “The Saubhagya Scheme on electricity does take into account erratic supply of electricity, quality of voltage and there have also been studies to show that in some villages there have been 12-15 hours of power cuts. Most of these households require a secondary source such as kerosene for lighting purposes,” said Sengupta. Speaking about LPG connections, Sengupta said there were many dropouts in the LPG rollout due to the weak purchasing power capacity and gaps in supply for the second cylinder connection. While LPG was certainly cleaner than biomass or kerosene that was used in villages, not enough people were converting to it, he said. “LPG requires a lot of infrastructure and is difficult to store and transport,” said Sengupta. He called for pushing electricity as end use for cooking as well — induction cooking. “It is a lot more efficient than a stove and feasible as well,” he explained. By 2030, he said, India should target full electrification in rural cooking and household energy.

देश के 5 बड़े शहरों में व्हीकल रिसायकलिंग प्लांट खोलेगी यह कंपनी

वाहन स्क्रैपेज पालिसी लागू होने के बाद अब कई कपनियों ने स्क्रैपिंग फर्म में निवेश करना शुरू कर दिया है। हाल ही में हैदराबाद स्थित रैमकी एनवायरो इंजीनियर्स लिमिटेड (REEL) ने देश के पांच बड़े शहरों में व्हीकल रीसाइकलिंग प्लांट लगाने की घोषणा की है। कंपनी पहले चरण में दिल्ली-एनसीआर, मुंबई, बेंगलुरु और चेन्नई में रीसाइक्लिंग प्लांट लगाएगी। अगले चरण में, रीसाइकलिंग नेटवर्क पूरे भारत में 25 से ज्यादा स्थानों तक विस्तारित होगा। कंपनी इस पहल के हिस्से के रूप में यात्री और वाणिज्यिक वाहन दोनों क्षेत्रों में अग्रणी ऑटोमोटिव कंपनियों के साथ साझेदारी करना चाहती है। एक रिपोर्ट के अनुसार देश में 2025 तक लगभग 2 करोड़ से ज्यादा वाहनों की तय समय सीमा समाप्त हो जाएगी। सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट की एक रिपोर्ट में बताया गया है कि अगर पुराने वाहनों के लिए स्थायी समाधान नहीं ढूंढा गया तो ये वाहन भविष्य में प्रदूषण का महत्वपूर्ण कारण बनेंगे।

REEL to set up vehicle recycling facilities

In the first phase, recycling facilities will be developed near Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. In the next phase, the network will expand to over 25 locations across India. Hyderabad-based Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited (REEL) on Monday said it will be setting up a network of ‘end of life’ vehicle recycling facilities across the country. These facilities will deploy automated technologies towards dismantling, depolluting and shredding to maximise recycling and resource recovery. In the first phase, recycling facilities will be developed near Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. In the next phase, the network will expand to over 25 locations across India. The company also intends to partner with leading automotive companies in both the passenger and the commercial vehicles segments as part of this initiative. As per industry estimates, by 2025, India is expected to have over two crore vehicles nearing the end of their lives. These, along with other unfit vehicles, if not recycled and managed sustainably, can cause significant pollution and environmental damage, said a report by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Serious shortage of healthcare professionals in rural India amid 2nd wave

The pandemic has exposed the healthcare system in rural India, where the crisis of COVID-19 is largely a silent one. In May, six districts in rural India accounted for over 52 per cent of deaths due to COVID and 53 per cent of all new cases of infection. "While the abysmal state of preparedness in urban India has been in the limelight, a more distressing scenario is emerging from the rural hinterland," says a new statistical report released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). As per the report, the community health centres in rural India need 76 per cent more doctors, 56 per cent more radiographers and 35 per cent more lab technicians, underscoring the serious shortage of healthcare professionals in primary healthcare setups. Watch the video for more.

India has lost 90 per cent of the area under its biodiversity hotspots, says CSE’s new statistical analysis

More than 12 per cent of India’s IUCN Red List animal species are endangered There has been a huge jump in forest fires this year 14 states/UTs have registered a drop in carbon retention services New Delhi, June 8, 2021: India has lost 90 per cent of the area under its four biodiversity hotspots. The Indo-Burma hotspot is the worst hit — the extent of vegetation in the region has been reduced from 2,373,057 sq km to a mere 118,653 sq km, a loss of 95 per cent. Twenty five species have also gone extinct in these hotspots. The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List monitors 1,212 animal species in India – the IUCN says over 12 per cent of them are endangered. Of the 148 endangered species, 69 are mammals, 456 amphibians and 23 reptiles. These ominous statistics have been brought to light in an e-publication released here on World Environment Day by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). State of India’s Environment in Figures 2021, as the e-publication is titled, is an annual compendium of data and statistics on key issues of environment and development. Releasing the e-book, CSE director general Sunita Narain said: “There is drama in numbers, especially when these numbers give you a trend—are things getting better or worse. It is even more powerful when you can use the trend to understand the crisis, the challenge and the opportunity.” India’s forests could certainly use a better understanding of the crisis they are facing. Says Richard Mahapatra, managing editor of Down To Earth, “At a time when we are witnessing an alarming fall in the timber and non-timber forest produce services in Indian forests — implying overuse of resources — climatic cycles are combining with other factors to result in a dramatic rise in forest fire alerts. We must learn to connect the dots.” The CSE report points out that 16 states – including Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand – have witnessed a significant rise in number of forest fire alerts. It says: “India has seen a drastic rise in forest fires since the start of 2021. As of May 1, the number of fire alerts recorded by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is 433,581. This is quite a jump, even though the official forest fire season of the country is from February to June. Forest fires are influenced by temperature and rainfall in the preceding monsoon. The year 2016, the hottest on record when India’s annual temperature rose 0.71oC over the annual average of 25oC, saw 541,135 forest fires — the most in a decade.” The report adds: “Rainfall during the 2015 monsoon was 765.8 mm, 14 per cent less than the normal 880 mm, as per the India Meteorological Department. In 2021, too, India sees unusually warm weather along with 8.7 per cent surplus rainfall last monsoon that leaves adequate humidity for fires to spread.” Says Narain about the publication: “In an age when the quality of data available to us is usually poor—it is either missing, unavailable publicly or of questionable quality—a collection like this can be immensely helpful, especially for journalists. Improving the quality of data can only happen when we use it for policy. Take the case of the ongoing pandemic. Just consider how we have suffered in this past year because we do not have sufficient or accurate data on tests, or the number of deaths, or serological surveys, or genomic sequencing of the variants. In each case, data would have been (and is) critical for policy making.” She adds: “Data collection is important—it is part of the art of governance—but it is equally important that entire data sets are shared and worked upon so that they can be critiqued and through this process used and improved upon.”

India lose 90 pc of area under its biodiversity hotspots, says CSE

More than 12 percent of India’s IUCN Red List animal species are endangered; There has been a huge jump in forest fires this year; 14 states/UTs have registered a drop in carbon retention services NEW DELHI, June 8: India has lost 90 percent of the area under its four biodiversity hotspots. The Indo-Burma hotspot is the worst hit — the extent of vegetation in the region has been reduced from 2,373,057 sq km to a mere 118,653 sq km, a loss of 95 percent. Twenty-five species have also gone extinct in these hotspots. The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List monitors 1,212 animal species in India – the IUCN says over 12 percent of them are endangered. Of the 148 endangered species, 69 are mammals, 456 amphibians, and 23 reptiles. These ominous statistics have been brought to light in an e-publication released here on World Environment Day by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). State of India’s Environment in Figures 2021, as the e-publication is titled, is an annual compendium of data and statistics on key issues of environment and development. Releasing the e-book, CSE director general Sunita Narain said: “There is drama in numbers, especially when these numbers give you a trend—are things getting better or worse. It is even more powerful when you can use the trend to understand the crisis, the challenge, and the opportunity.” India’s forests could certainly use a better understanding of the crisis they are facing. Says Richard Mahapatra, managing editor of Down To Earth, “At a time when we are witnessing an alarming fall in the timber and non-timber forest produce services in Indian forests — implying overuse of resources — climatic cycles are combining with other factors to result in a dramatic rise in forest fire alerts. We must learn to connect the dots.” The CSE report points out that 16 states – including Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand – have witnessed a significant rise in the number of forest fire alerts. It says: “India has seen a drastic rise in forest fires since the start of 2021. As of May 1, the number of fire alerts recorded by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is 433,581. This is quite a jump, even though the official forest fire season of the country is from February to June. Forest fires are influenced by temperature and rainfall in the preceding monsoon. The year 2016, the hottest on record when India’s annual temperature rose 0.71oC over the annual average of 25oC, saw 541,135 forest fires — the most in a decade.” The report adds: “Rainfall during the 2015 monsoon was 765.8 mm, 14 percent less than the normal 880 mm, as per the India Meteorological Department. In 2021, too, India sees unusually warm weather along with 8.7 percent surplus rainfall last monsoon that leaves adequate humidity for fires to spread.” Says Narain about the publication: “In an age when the quality of data available to us is usually poor—it is either missing, unavailable publicly or of questionable quality—a collection like this can be immensely helpful, especially for journalists. Improving the quality of data can only happen when we use it for policy. Take the case of the ongoing pandemic. Just consider how we have suffered in this past year because we do not have sufficient or accurate data on tests, or the number of deaths, or serological surveys, or genomic sequencing of the variants. In each case, data would have been (and is) critical for policymaking.” She adds: “Data collection is important—it is part of the art of governance—but it is equally important that entire data sets are shared and worked upon so that they can be critiqued and through this process used and improved upon.

Biodiversity loss: India has lost 90% of area under four biodiversity hotspots, 25 species extinct, finds study

A key issue that has put fires at risk is the forest fires, which have been quite high since the beginning of the year Biodiversity in India: Over 90% of the area under the biodiversity hotspots in India have been lost. India has four biodiversity hotspots and 90% of this area has been lost, according to the Centre for Science and Environment’s (CSE) new report entitled ‘State of India’s Environment in Figures 2021’. As per the data compiled in the report, the Indo-Burma hotspot is the worst affected and has lost 95% of its vegetation area, going from 23.73 lakh sq km to 1.18 lakh sq km. Another worrying aspect is that in these four hotspots, 25 species have also become extinct. Also read | Bad air quality, non-biodegradable waste biggest threats for environment; Dhruv Bhatnagar, DB Life Sciences In India, 1,212 animal species are monitored by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its Red List, and over 12% of these species – 148 – are endangered. Among the endangered species are 69 mammals, 23 reptiles as well as 56 amphibians. A key issue that has put fires at risk is the forest fires, which have been quite high since the beginning of the year, the report said. Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh are among the 16 states that have witnessed an increase in this aspect. By May 1 this year, as many as 4.33 lakh forest fires had been recorded, even though the season for forest fires still had another month remaining. To put this in perspective, 2016 was the hottest year on record and India’s annual temperature that year rose 0.71 degrees Celsius above normal. That year, the country witnessed 5.41 lakh forest fires, the maximum recorded in the decade. What adds to the worry is that this year, the weather has been unusually warm, and last monsoon had seen 8.7% surplus rainfall leaving the weather adequately humid for forest fires to spread. Not only that but 14 states or UTs in the country have also registered a drop in carbon retention services or carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration refers to the long term removal or capturing of carbon from the atmosphere to control or mitigate global warming, and this is done naturally using biological, physical and chemical processes. A decline in these services means a decline in the capturing of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Keeping such services in place is important to minimise the impact of human activities on the environment.

CSE Says India To Lose 90 Percent Of Area Under Its Biodiversity Hotspots

India has lost 90 per cent of the area under its four biodiversity hotspots. The Indo-Burma hotspot is the worst hit - the extent of vegetation in the region has been reduced from 2,373,057 sq km to a mere 118,653 sq km, a loss of 95 per cent. Twenty five species have also gone extinct in these hotspots. The International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List monitors 1,212 animal species in India - the IUCN says over 12 per cent of them are endangered. Of the 148 endangered species, 69 are mammals, 456 amphibians and 23 reptiles. These ominous statistics have been brought to light in an e-publication released here on World Environment Day by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). State of India's Environment in Figures 2021, as the e-publication is titled, is an annual compendium of data and statistics on key issues of environment and development. Releasing the e-book, CSE director general Sunita Narain said: "There is drama in numbers, especially when these numbers give you a trend - are things getting better or worse. It is even more powerful when you can use the trend to understand the crisis, the challenge and the opportunity." India's forests could certainly use a better understanding of the crisis they are facing. Says Richard Mahapatra, managing editor of Down To Earth, "At a time when we are witnessing an alarming fall in the timber and non-timber forest produce services in Indian forests - implying overuse of resources - climatic cycles are combining with other factors to result in a dramatic rise in forest fire alerts. We must learn to connect the dots." The CSE report points out that 16 states - including Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand - have witnessed a significant rise in number of forest fire alerts. It says: "India has seen a drastic rise in forest fires since the start of 2021. As of May 1, the number of fire alerts recorded by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) is 433,581. This is quite a jump, even though the official forest fire season of the country is from February to June. Forest fires are influenced by temperature and rainfall in the preceding monsoon. The year 2016, the hottest on record when India's annual temperature rose 0.71oC over the annual average of 25oC, saw 541,135 forest fires - the most in a decade." The report adds: "Rainfall during the 2015 monsoon was 765.8 mm, 14 per cent less than the normal 880 mm, as per the India Meteorological Department. In 2021, too, India sees unusually warm weather along with 8.7 per cent surplus rainfall last monsoon that leaves adequate humidity for fires to spread." Says Narain about the publication "in an age when the quality of data available to us is usually poor - either it is either missing, unavailable publicly or of questionable quality - a collection like this can be immensely helpful. Improving the quality of data can only happen when we use it for policy. Take the case of the ongoing pandemic. Just consider how we have suffered in this past year because we do not have sufficient or accurate data on tests, or the number of deaths, or serological surveys, or genomic sequencing of the variants. In each case, data would have been (and is) critical for policy making." She adds that "data collection is important - it is part of the art of governance - but it is equally important that entire data sets are shared and worked upon so that they can be critiqued and through this process used and improved upon." With the UN having declared the coming decade as the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), India must take serious note of this CSE report and buckle up to restore the ecosystem. pic courtesy: upsccolorfullnotes.com