Environment Current Affairs August 2016

WII to house India’s first tiger repository

India’s first tiger cell was set up at the WII campus in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. It will be the country’s first repository on tigers. The repository will consist of huge database on tiger conservation and population estimation which has been prepared by WII in collaboration with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). The cell will house a database of tigers as well as DNA and stripes samples of the big cats from over 50 tiger reserves. It will aid conservation efforts by preventing poaching and providing an update on tiger numbers. The Tiger Cell will be funded by the NTCA, a statutory body under the Environment Ministry. In this regard, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the NTCA and WII.

WII is an autonomous institution under the Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change. It is based in Chandrabani, Dehradun.

Endosulfan causes DNA damage in animals: Study

Researchers in India for the first time have found that mice and rats exposed to endosulphan suffer from DNA damage and genomic instability as wellas from impaired DNA damage response. This breakthrough discovery was discovered team of researchers led by Prof. Sathees Raghavan from the Bengaluru based IISc (Department of Biochemistry).

Endosulfan
Endosulfan is an organ chlorine pesticide that induces breaks in DNA strands and disturbs the damage response mechanism found in cells and thus leads to compromised DNA strand repair. Open spraying of Endosulfan results in the biodiversity loss in a given area.

New species of eel found in Bay of Bengal

Scientists from have discovered Gymnothorax indicus (proposed name Indian unpatterened moray), a new species of eel (a snake-like fish) in the northern Bay of Bengal region along the West Bengal coast. The eel species Gymnothorax indicus is slender-bodied. It is found at a depth of 35 metres in the sea and is about one feet-long and edible. It has 194 vertebrae. Its dorsal fin has a black margin. The body of the eel is uniformly pale brown without spots or patterns.

Scientists to save an endangered aquatic plant

Scientists at the Malabar Botanical Garden and Institute for Plant Sciences, Kozhikode have teamed up to save an endangered aquatic plant called Crinum malabaricum and known locally as Kanthanga. The institute has requested a Rs. 15.5 lakh financial assistance from the IUCN for promoting the ex-situ conservation efforts. The plant is facing extinction with an approximate population of 1,000 and is found in its only known natural habitat in Periya village, Kasaragod. The plant has been classified by the IUCN Red List of Species as critically endangered.

The report “Fierce but Fragile: Coexistence in a changing world” by IUCN

Some of the key observations of the report are:

• Though growth in population of tigers have been registered everywhere, the report says that the tigers are still not out of danger due to shrinking forest land.
• Report identifies human-wildlife conflict to be the key problem in the Terai regions of India and Nepal. It says the growth in human population would increase man-animal conflict.
• The report calls for well-developed conservation programme for tigers and wants it to breed and hunt in relatively undisturbed core areas.
• Apart from tiger, the same problem is faced by many wildlife species including elephants, rhinos, and lions.