In a strategic bid to create a safe and secured habitat for mighty cheetahs, a dozen of such spotty quadruples would be spotted at the selected places across India. From South Africa, these cheetahs would board a flight bound for India next month.
The underlying intent is to provide a safe pad to them and this imported strength would then grow to 20. Environment news updates in India are unplugged.
Earlier, 8 cheetahs were procured from Namibia in September 2022. We uncover environment news updates in India.
The Environment Ministry issued a statement to this effect on January 27th, “Following the import of 12 cheetahs in February, the plan is to translocate a further 12 annually for the next eight to 10 years”.
Keeping the noble conservation objectives in mind, the present government has set this as a priority. Such four-legged, candid and stately creatures will get to KNP, translocation. Environment news updates in India.
To this effect, an MoU is already inked, between India and South Africa about which environment minister Bhupender Yadav tweeted,”Restoring cheetahs is a proority for the government led by PM Modi with far-reaching consequences. India looks forward to welcoming the cheetahs from South Africa.”
MoU binds the two countries for best practice to proliferate in mega carnivore conservation and to exchange technology and to enable a bilateral custodianship system for such cunning cheetahs. Environment news updates in India.
A New Study Launched About Brain Drain To Bad Air: Environment news updates in India
Yet another study challenges our peace of mind now disclosing that even some hours of exposure to normal levels of pollution resulting from chaotic traffic, are enough to cause our brain impairment. Environment news updates in India
For the study to culminate, a well-planned experiment was conducted using the framework of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) which found that different areas of human brain get affected as one lies exposed to diesel particles.
Such findings got a place in the journal Environment Health, rustle out such dreadful fact that a few hours of outing amid diesel exhaust would impoverish our brain’s functional ability. Environment news updates in India
The study highlights the evidence in humans, which was actually an outcome of an experiment done in a controlled setting.
Clearly, brain compartments reflected a set deeply altered resulting from poor air quality. Environment news updates in India
Dr Chris Carlston who serves as professor and heads respiratory medicine and also occupies Canada Research Chair in occupational and environmental lung disease at UBC, co-authored the study report. Environment news updates in India
His claims,”For many decades, scientists thought the brain may be protected from the harmful effects of air pollution,”
Appreciating the study he said, “This study, which is the first of its kind in the world, provides fresh evidence supporting a connection between air pollution and cognition”. Environment news updates in India
To facilitate their study, the cunning researchers created a setting in which they exposed 25 healthy adults to diesel exhaust and filtered air. The exposure was of brief duration and this was done at different times during the day. Environment news updates in India
Then, the researchers analyzed the brain health and capability before and after such orientation and also relied upon functional magnetic resonance imaging technique. Environment news updates in India
Inside our brain there exists default mode network (DMM) which researchers focused upon. Such are the regions in the brain which are inter-connected and are critical to our sound memory and thought process. Environment news updates in India
This was appalling that the fMRI unplugged a horrible scenario as the functional connectivity worsened in numerous DMM parts following diesel exhaust exposure. Environment news updates in India
Dr Jodie Gawryluck who is the professor of psychology at the University of Victoria and is the prime author of the study, revealed, “We know that altered functional connectivity in the DMN has been associated with reduced cognitive performance and symptoms of depression, so it’s concerning to see traffic pollution interrupting these same networks,”
She concluded, “While more research is needed to fully understand the functional impacts of these changes, it’s possible that they may impair people’s thinking or ability to work.”
Elephants In Africa Feel Threatened: Environment news updates in India
Elephants are the grand creatures that are endangered and if we allow their extinction by callous attitude, it will lead to massive and widespread ecological turmoil. For instance, the ability of our rain-forests (Central and western Africa) to absorb atmospheric carbon, will be weakened drastically. Environment news updates in India
Researchers argue that the elephants are critical to creating forests which would collect atmospheric carbon and this helps in maintaining biodiversity in Africa. Environment news updates in India
If any imbalance occurs, this will simply amplify the warming of our planet. Environment news updates in India
The key mind behind the study is Stephen Blake who is assistant professor of biology at Saint Louis University. Not an overstatement but he has bedecked his life and thoughts with the study of elephants.Environment news updates in India
In this paper, he and Fabio Berzaghi, who sits at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences (LCES) France and a handful of other distinguished minds chase congruence between mega herbivores existence and carbon maintenance in the rain-forests of Africa.
Mr Blake contended,” Elephants have been hunted by humans for millennia. As a result, African forest elephants are critically endangered. The argument that everybody loves elephants hasn’t raised sufficient support to stop the killing. Shifting the arguments for elephant conservation toward the role forest elephants play in maintaining the biodiversity of the forest, that losing elephants would mean losing forest biodiversity, hasn’t worked either, as numbers continue to fall.
“We can now add the robust conclusion that if we lose forest elephants, we will be doing a global disservice to climate change mitigation. The importance of forest elephants for climate mitigation must be taken seriously by policy makers to generate the support needed for elephant conservation. The role of forest elephants in our global environment is too important to ignore.”
Light Wood And Heavy Wood Saga: Environment news updates in India
In forests exist two types of trees, the ones with light wood while others are made of heavy wood.
The light wood has low carbon density and the hard branches teem with heavy carbon. Low carbon density trees shoot up hurriedly and overshadow other trees and vegetation lying there to bag more sunlight. Environment news updates in India to make you smarter.
On the other hand, the trees with high carbon content, are slow in expansion and claim scanty sunlight too.Environment news updates in India.
Now here, elephants and other mega herbivores in the series, control the spread of such trees by munching low carbon density trees and such low density carbon trees happen to contain more nutrients than other high-density ones.
As seems more obvious now, such actions “trim” the forest just like a typical forester does to favour certain class of species.
As a fallout of such a thinning process, trees witness less competition among them and high-carbon density trees are able to fetch more soil nutrients and more light to flourish.
Mr Blake hailed the role of such mega beings, ”Elephants eat lots of leaves from lots of trees, and they do a lot of damage when they eat.”
He later shared, “They’ll strip leaves from trees, rip off a whole branch or uproot a sapling when eating, and our data shows most of this damage occurs to low carbon density trees. If there are a lot of high carbon density trees around, that’s one less competitor, eliminated by the elephants.”
Disperse The Seeds Well: Environment news updates in India
Elephants disperse the seeds excellently which help the high carbon density trees to blossom. These trees give big fruits which are rich in nutrients and elephants relish them. These seeds transit through their digestive tract and as these are expelled in dung, such get mixed with soil and later grow to become big trees and dominate the forest.
Mr Blake confirms,”Elephants are the gardeners of the forest. Environment news updates in India sourced from credible channels.
He observed, “They plant the forest with high carbon density trees and they get rid of the ‘weeds,’ which are the low carbon density trees. They do a tremendous amount of work maintaining the diversity of the forest.”
Environment news updates in India that you can trust.
Elephants Are Carbon Influencers: Environment news updates in India
This is quite obvious by now that the elephants have a huge role in influencing the carbon counts in the air. The trees with high carbon density stockpile a bigger carbon content in their wood than the other types of trees and therefore, such trees fuel our fight against global warming.
Environment news updates in India.
Mr Blake cleared the mist, “Elephants have multiple societal benefits.”
Environment news updates in India to make you familiarize with the ecology.
He added, “Kids all over the world play with stuffed elephants in bedrooms. African forest elephants also promote rainforest diversity in a multitude of ways.”
Inspired by such a positive phenomenon, Mr Berzaghi launches new studies in other avenues where he tries to unhide the role of other animals within the boundaries of rain-forests which would alter its biodiversity as similar to elephants. Environment news updates in India are right here.
Unable to contain his emotions, Mr Berzaghi added, The implications of our study extend beyond just forest elephants in Africa.”
“As we show that leaves from low carbon density trees are less palatable to herbivores, those findings imply that other large herbivores, such as primates or the Asian elephant, could also contribute to the growth of high carbon density trees in other tropical forests. Our aim is to expand on this by investigating those other species and regions.”
Well dear reader, clearly with such findings in order, voices have grown strong favouring conservation of forest elephants in Congo Basin and West Africa. In many parts of the forest, their strength has dwindled and such have been inactive functionally. Environment news updates in India to make you act responsibly.
As such, Mr Blake gives a shout out for the forest elephant protection, “The illegal killing of elephants and the illegal trade remains active,” Blake shared.
He went on, “Ten million elephants once roamed across Africa, and now there are less than 500,000, with most populations living in isolated pockets. These elephants range from endangered to critically endangered, with their numbers plummeting by more than 80 percent in the last 30-plus years. Elephants are protected under national and international law, and yet poaching continues. These illegal killings must stop to prevent forest elephant-extinction”>elephant extinction. Now we have a choice. As a global society, we can continue to hunt these highly social and intelligent animals and watch them become extinct, or we can find ways to stop this illegal activity. Save the elephants and help save the planet, it really is that simple.”
