Biodiversity

Guest post by Priya Desai

Background

This was organised by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). Held on May 26th 2011, we were joined by around 150 to 200 student volunteers from various higher educational institutions in Kerala, such as the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, St. Albert's College in Ernakulam, School of Applied Life Sciences in Chuttippara and the School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University.

Aaranyak is a registered society working in the field of biodiversity conservation in North East India since 1989. Its strength lies in applied research in biological and social field and its thrust area of work is the North Eastern India and Eastern Himalayas.

Dakshin Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation based at Bangalore, with a mission to inform and advocate conservation and natural resource management, while promoting and supporting sustainable livelihoods, social development and environmental justice.

The Coastal and Marine Programme (CMP) at Dakshin works towards supporting coastal networks of community organisations, fishworker unions and associations and civil society groups interested in conservation and development issues in coastal India. The broad goals of CMP are natural resource management and biodiversity conservation involving communities.

CMS Environment is a visionary initiative of CMS, a Delhi-based, nationally- functioning independent multidisciplinary organization, engaged for the past 20 years in research, policy advocacy, advisory services and programme evaluation in the domain of environment, social issues, public health, governance, development communications and transparency. CMS is also responsible for the internationally reputed CMS VATAVARAN: Environment and Wildlife Film Festival & Forum.

Beginning in 2005, WWF-India has conducted dozens of personal interviews to record how climate change impacts people's lives here and now. These perceptions demanded that s

 It was found in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Bhutan, but is now extinct in these countries. Today, it is seen in a few places in Nepal. In India the major population of Gharials is found in the Girwa and Chambal rivers. It faces many threats to its survival which include fishing, linking of rivers, large irrigation canals etc.

This report on a round table held in November 2009 by a cross section of activists, policy analysts and academics deals with a move by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to restructure the environmental governance structure of the country through the proposed National Environmental Protection Agency.

Indigenous knowledge is the basis for local level decision making in agriculture, healthcare, food preparation, education, natural resource management, and a host of other activities in rural communities.

Dear friends,

We are all aware of the immense ecological, cultural and social significance of rivers originating and flowing through the Western Ghats. This includes source regions of East flowing rivers like Krishna, Godavari and Cauvery and the source, riparian and estuarine region of all West flowing rivers.

We are lucky to still have some of the very few and very rare 'free flowing rivers' in the country. Most of the rivers in our country have been dammed and diverted. This has changed the ecological and physical characteristics of these rivers completely. Today, it is difficult for us to visualise the amazing range of ecological goods and services that an undammed, free flowing river can provide. Some such rivers in the Western Ghats are Shastri, Aghanashini, Gargai and Seetha Nadi.

This study by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute published in Current Science was carried out to identify Pteris vitta and test its hyper-accumulating properties. The plant is commonly known as the Ladder brake fern or Chinese brake fern plant in India, and had been reported elsewhere as an arsenic hyper-accumulator.

.The remediation of arsenic and chromium contaminated soil and water has become an important environmental issue. It is in this context that the discovery of hyper-accumulator plant species, which have the unusual ability of accumulating metals such as arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni) and copper (Cu) to very high concentrations, has further boosted technologies based on this property.

This is the first report of characterization of arsenic accumulation in an Indian ecotype (plant), which also shows chromium hyperaccumulation in addition to arsenic. Intact plantlets were grown in 20 per cent Hoagland solution amended with up to 200 mg arsenic or chromium medium. Plants absorbed and accumulated a significant amount of arsenic and chromium in their biomass with high bio-enrichment factor. Arsenic and chromium tolerance by spores and gametophytes under in-vitro was also assessed.