EQ: Sinking Islands, Noise Pollution Fine, Ganga Hydro and More

EQ: Your weekly environment quotient.

E-India

• Illegal wildlife trade moves online: Illegal trade in animals and animal parts is thriving on popular e-portals. The new environment minister announced that authorities are monitoring these websites in an effort to curb such crimes.
  

• More Transparency Needed: India has called for clear and transparent guidelines to phase out HFCs under the Montreal Protocol. HFCs are potent green-house gases which are commonly used in fridges and ACs.

• Central Pollution Control Board finally gets a chief! India’s apex pollution authority finally has a full-time chairperson after 4 years.
  

E-Energy

• Minister versus minister: The Ministry of Water Resources and the Environment Ministry have gone head-to-head before the Supreme Court on the issue of hydropower projects along the Ganga basin in Uttarakhand. The former is calling for a review of the 24 proposed projects which includes 6 that have been approved by the environment ministry.

E-Law

• No horn please! In an effort to curb noise pollution, the NGT came down heavily on those using pressure horns and removing silencers from their cars. Errant persons will be fined Rs. 5000 and the police were asked to take action against those causing “undue and intolerable” noise.

E-Stat

• 40,000 MW: Estimated available potential wave energy in India.

E-International

• Climate deal in force by November? France has called upon the Paris Agreement’s 170 signatory countries to ratify the agreement at the earliest. The agreement will only come into force when 55 countries representing 55% of global emissions ratify the deal.

E-Nature

Sinking islands in Kerala: “Rising sea levels and erosion” is causing small islands in Kerala’s backwaters to slowly sink underwater. Authorities are attempting to arrest the immersion through a number of measures including planting mangroves.

E-Tech

• Clone trees to cope with climate change? A group of activists believes that cloning and re-planting California’s giant sequoia and redwood trees around the world could effectively soak up more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

E-Video

• What does a year on earth look like from a million miles away? Watch this incredible NASA video to find out:

E-Quiz

• Which of the following animals is now extinct in India? (a) Pink-headed duck (b) Mithun (c) Lion-tailed macaque (d) Snow leopard
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Shalini Iyengar is a lawyer and Research Associate at the International University College of Turin.