Renewable energy, combined with efficiencies from the ‘smart use’ of energy, can deliver half of India’s primary energy needs by 2050, according to the report: ‘Energy Revolution: A sustainable Energy Outlook for India’ launched on Monday. Commissioned by the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and Greenpeace, it provides a blueprint for reducing India’s carbon dioxide emissions by 4% in the next 43 years, while providing secure, affordable energy supply, maintaining steady economic development and without relying on hazardous nuclear technologies. The 100-page report has been developed by specialists from the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and is part of their global energy outlook which offers solutions to reduce global CO2 emissions by 50% by 2050. “We have been able to provide a blueprint for action at the right time. We have shown that the world can have safe, robust renewable energy and can achieve the efficiencies needed while enjoying economic growth and phasing out damaging and dangerous sources such as coal and nuclear energy, said Greenpeace India executive director Ananthapadmanabhan. K Srinivas, a climate and energy campaigner said, “The scenario up to the year 2050 was developed to address how India could combat climate change while maintaining development. Assuming an average economic growth of 3.9% for the following decades in a business as usual scenario, CO2 emissions will increase three-folds by 2050. The energy revolution scenario provides practical solutions to increase renewable energy usage and decrease energy consumption by 50% by incorporating energy efficiency measures. The combination will reduce our CO2 emissions to around 1,000 million tonne, stabilising it”. SOURCE : The Financial Express, Tuesday, April 10, 2007

World Wide Fund for Nature, India, is planning to commission an otter conservation programme in the National Chambal Sanctuary. Speaking to The Pioneer, WWF-India secretary general Ravi Singh said that the otter conservation programme would be in addition to the gharial and riverine dolphin conservation programmes being executed by the WWF in the National Chambal Sanctuary. Elaborating on the activities of the WWF in Madhya Pradesh, Singh - on a visit to the city to attend a seminar on environment protection - said that the otter conservation programme was the need of the hour as the mammal is facing a severe threat in the Chambal. He said that otter skins are prized all over the world , thus making the smooth coated otter a target of poaching. Illegal sand mining in the Chambal has also contributed to enhancing the threat to the species. Associated with the banking industry for three decades, Ravi Singh joined WWF India in 2003. He said that WWF India was supporting tiger conservation in the state through the Satpura Maikal Landscape programme. The Satpura Maikal Landscape programme is one of the five programmes being executed by the WWF in the country. Under the programme, a field site is operated in Mandla district where inhabitants of about 15 villages are sensitised towards conservation. The WWF also operates an income generation programme that aims to reduce the dependence of the villagers on forests. Singh also said that the Gharial conservation programme being implemented in the National Chambal Sanctuary with the help of the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and the Jiwaji Rao University would also be strengthened. On the support extended by the WWF to Madhya Pradesh vis-à-vis other states, Singh said that the state has a bank of bright forest officers and is also well endowed with forests and wildlife. "However, resources in Madhya Pradesh like other states are also facing population pressure which is taking a toll on the environment," he said. SOURCE : The Pioneer, Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Waking up to reports that after decimating tigers at Sariska in Gujarat poaching gang are now targeting Gir lions, Ministry of Environment and Forests has set up a probe panel to assess threat to the king of the jungle. The announcement follows Gujarat Government's decision to set up a probe panel headed by the State Chief Secretary. The National Tiger Conservation Authority on Monday set up an appraisal committee to look at causes of death of Gir lions, whose population has been stable in the past decades. Gir is the last home in the wild for Asiatic lions. The probe committee comprises Environment Ministry's Joint Director Pramod Krishnan and regional deputy directors Meeta Banerjee and Santosh Tiwari. It is expected to look at natural or otherwise factors leading to death of lions. It will also suggest strategy of lion protection considering the dependency of maldharis (nomads) on the forests. The committee will also look at possibilities of restoring crucial corridors linking Gir to nearby forests to ensure that the lion population in Gir is not insulated. Studies have shown that overpopulation in Gir is leading to fights among the males for territory and prey. Younger lion are often pushed to the periphery of the forests and often foray into what was once lion territory but now human habitation. The committee, together with State officials, expected to submit its report within a month. The Pioneer on Sunday reported that investigation by State official revealed that poachers operating in Sariska were also behind the poaching of three lions in Gir last month. After an on-the-spot assessment of the park, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs 40-crore project to protect the endangered wild cats. SOURCE : The Pioneer, Tuesday, April 10, 2007

The wild fire raging in parts of Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary and the adjoining Nelliampathy forests has destroyed hundreds of acres of forest tracts and plantations. The fire that broke out in the Thuthampara forest area of Parambikulam sanctuary, bordering Nelliampathy forests, on Saturday is still continuing and the fire that broke out couple of days ago at Thenmala Valley and Pothundy areas at the foothills of the ecologically fragile Nelliampathy Hills too was raging. The efforts to douse the fire were yet to succeed in Thenmala valley even on Sunday evening. However, the fire that engulfed acres of forest and some plantations in Thuthumpara area in Parambikulam sanctuary was put down due to the efforts of 100 labourers of Thuthampara Estate of Poab's Group and the forest firewatchers under the Nemmara Forest Division. Nenmara Divisional Forest Officer K. Babu told The Hindu that the department was trying its best to control the fire in Parambikulam and Nelliampathy forests. One of the reasons for the fire was the lack of pre-monsoon rain in the area. Mr. Babu said that forest fire could be prevented only with the cooperation of the people. There were cases when some people set the forest on fire, while some were accidents. Sometimes, negligence on the part of those who go to collect forest produce and honey also caused fire. The DFO said some of the retrenched forest firewatchers were also allegedly to behind such forest fire. One person was arrested on Saturday in connection with the fire in Thenmala valley in Nelliampathy. He said that the department had spent Rs.10 lakh for anti-fire measures in Nemmara division this year. Daily wage firewatchers whose services were terminated in March were taken back due to the incidents of forest fire this time. Since the area used to get summer rain during March-April, the services of firewatchers were not commissioned after February, he said. Meanwhile Thomas Jacob, director of Poabs Organic Farm in Nelliampathy, said that there was no proper management by the Forest Department. The department had taken over the fire and wind belts of his estate at Karuna Plantations but had not managed it properly, he alleged Tourists coming to Nelliampathy had also become a threat to the forests and plantations. The Forest Department was unable to control the tourist flow. Some of the tourists indulged in activities that destroyed the forest and plantations. Uncontrolled tourism activity in Nelliampathy, known as the `poor man's Ootty,' was threatening its very existence, Mr. Jacob said. He said that due to the fire, wild animals such as elephant, wild pig, bison, deer etc., had entered into the plantations and were destroying the crops. K. Baby, manager of Karuna and Thuthampara Estates, said Nelliampathy was facing an unprecedented drought this summer. The temperature had touched 34 degree Celsius in April. He said that average temperature in Nelliampathy was between 14 degree Celsius and 26 degree Celsius. The area used to get rain in during January, February, March and April. But this year, there was only 4 mm rain in January and after that there was no rain. Crops such as cardamom, tea, coffee, pepper, etc., had dried up and if there was no rain within a week the majority of the plantations would be destroyed, he said. SOURCE : The Hindu, Monday, April 09, 2007

The Jammu and Kashmir government has formulated a Rs 300-crore comprehensive plan for Wullar lake to develop it on modern lines and make it an attractive tourist destination. Peoples Democratic Forum leader Usman Majid said the plan had been submitted to the Centre for approval. Addressing a public meeting at Bandipora, 55 kms from here today, he said the state government had sanctioned six more water supply schemes. SOURCE : The Tribune, Monday, April 09, 2007

Glaciers that feed the seven great rivers of Asia — Ganga, Indus, Brahmaputra, Salween, Mekong, Yangtze, and Huang Ho — are under threat. AS THE world warms inexorably, glaciers in the Himalayas are melting away, putting at risk freshwater supplies for millions of people in Asia. The 33,000 sq km of glaciers amidst some of the world's highest mountains form the largest concentration of glaciers outside the polar ice caps. These glaciers, which release an estimated 8.6 million cubic metres of water annually, have nourished seven great rivers of Asia — Ganga, Indus, Brahmaputra, Salween, Mekong, Yangtze, and Huang Ho. Ancient civilisations sprang up and thrived along the shores of these rivers. But now the pace of global warming is threatening the very existence of the Himalayan glaciers. Since the mid-1970s, the average air temperature measured at 49 stations of the Himalayan region rose by one degree Celsius, with high elevation sites warming the most, noted a report compiled in 2005 by WWF, the global conservancy organisation. "This is twice as fast as the 0.6 degrees Celsius average warming for the mid-latitudinal northern hemisphere over the same period and illustrates the high sensitivity of mountain regions to climate change," added the report. The Himalayan glaciers could disappear in the coming decades and the once perennial rivers turn into seasonal ones, noted the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the final draft of its report on the impact, adaptation and vulnerability produced by global warming. "In the course of the century, water supplies stored in glaciers and snow cover are projected to decline, reducing water availability in regions supplied by meltwater from major mountain ranges, where more than one-sixth of the world population currently lives," according to a summary of the report that the IPCC released on April 6. Waters from the melting glaciers would also contribute to rising sea levels, which the IPCC warns would devastate many coastal areas and affect millions of people around the world by 2080. Longer ablation periods Himalayan glaciers are very vulnerable to climate change, says Syed Iqbal Hasnain, a leading glaciologist who is currently with the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. It is not just that higher temperatures lead to more ice turning to water. The "ablation period" when the glaciers melt in summer has lengthened. Earlier, by October-November it would start snowing. In recent years, it is still often quite warm during those months and the snows set in only later in winter, he remarked. The late snows produce another problem. The snowflakes need several months to turn into hard ice crystals. Without the time needed for such transformation, more of the glacier is liable to melt when summer comes, Dr. Hasnain told this correspondent. The south-west monsoon that brings torrents of rain to the plains of India deposits snow on the upper reaches of mountains in central and eastern Himalayas. But climatic changes have led to rain, rather snow, falling even at higher elevations during the monsoon and this could accelerate the melting of glaciers, he added. In the face of these threats, the Himalayan glaciers are receding alarmingly. Several studies have indicated that the rate at which these glaciers are retreating has accelerated in recent decades. The Gangotri glacier, whose melted waters feed the river Ganga, has, for instance, been receding since 1780 but its rate of retreat has tripled in the last three decades. Anil Kulkarni of the Indian Space Research Organisation's Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad and fellow researchers used satellite pictures to study 466 glaciers in the Chenab, Parbati, and Baspa basins. These glaciers had covered 2,077 sq. km in 1962. But by 2001-2004, the area occupied by these glaciers had shrunk by 21 per cent, reported the scientists in a paper published earlier this year. As the glaciers retreated, they also became more fragmented and therefore more vulnerable to the affects of global warming. French and Indian scientists have been studying glaciers in the Spiti-Lahaul region of Himachal Pradesh. In a paper published recently, the scientists found that the glaciers, which occupied some 900-odd sq. km., had experienced "significant thinning at low elevations" between the fall of 1999 and November 2004. Worse still, the rate of ice loss in the glaciers during that time was about double the average for the Himalayas between 1977 and 1999. This indicated "an increase in the pace of glacier wastage," observed the scientists in their paper. However, in an email, Etienne Berthier, the first author of the paper, noted that the survey period had been short and further monitoring was required to assess a long-term trend. A modelling exercise carried out by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Britain found that as the Himalayan glaciers melted in the face of global warming, there would initially be an increase in river discharges, which could produce widespread flooding, and then the river flows would decline. The model studies indicated that flows in rivers originating in the western Himalayas could peak in 2050 and in 2070 for rivers originating in eastern Himalayas, according to Rajesh Kumar of the Birla Institute of Technology extension centre in Jaipur, who was involved in the study. "Glacier melt in the Himalayas is projected to increase flooding, rock avalanches from destabilised slopes and affect water resources within the next two to three decades," according to the latest IPCC summary report. This would be followed by decreased river flows as the glaciers receded, it added. Scientists have estimated that melting snow and glaciers provides up to 80 per cent of the dry season flows of the Indus, Ganga, and Brahmaputra rivers in the lowlands. As these river flows fall, agriculture, water supplies on which millions of people depend, and power generation will be badly affected. Glacial retreat in the Himalayas, along with possible changes in monsoon rainfall as a result of climate change, would have far-reaching consequences for water availability in the South Asian region, points out Prakash Rao, senior coordinator for the climate change and energy programme at WWF India. Water-sharing disputes within and between countries in the region, that were already proving troublesome, could worsen as a result, he told The Hindu. SOURCE : The Hindu, Tuesday, April 10, 2007