Community perception towards biodiversity conservation and eco-tourism in imperiled landscapes of erstwhile Closed Areas of western Rajasthan, India.

Indian endangered biodiversity was protected under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 (WPA 1972) by transforming the natural habitats into Protected Areas – National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries. However, a large number of diverse wildlife populations occurred beyond these Protected Areas as is evident in the arid zone of western Rajasthan. During 1980’s, Rajasthan State Government issued a gazetted notification to protect unprotected wildlife-rich areas such as “Closed Areas”. An amendment of WPA 1972 in 2002 abolished the protection priorities of Closed Areas making them susceptible to local extinction of several species. The current study, aimed to assess the community Indian endangered biodiversity was protected under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 (WPA 1972) by transforming the natural habitats into Protected Areas – National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries. However, a large number of diverse wildlife populations occurred beyond these Protected Areas as is evident in the arid zone of western Rajasthan. During 1980’s, Rajasthan State Government issued a gazetted notification to protect unprotected wildlife-rich areas such as “Closed Areas”. An amendment of WPA 1972 in 2002 abolished the protection priorities of Closed Areas making them susceptible to local extinction of several species. The current study, aimed to assess the community perceptions towards conservation of such dwindling biodiversity. Awareness and attitude of the local communities towards biodiversity conservation was thus assessed by use of a semi-structured questionnaire-based interview among 3357 people in 2470 households across seven erstwhile Closed Areas in western Rajasthan so as to explore the possibilities of bringing these areas under the recently introduced protective regime of “Conservation Reserves” or “Community Reserves”. Anthropogenic offences in the absence of designated protection mechanism were held responsible for biodiversity degradation by government reports. Eco-tourism shows immense potential in other Indian Protected Areas for biodiversity conservation and economic growth for the local communities. Currently, 31.1% of the total interviewed population were willing to support the future eco-tourism initiatives in the region. Such positivity should be encouraged by the authorities following successful examples of eco-tourism projects in other Indian Protected Areas before the cessation of social enthusiasm for protecting biodiversity. perceptions towards conservation of such dwindling biodiversity. Awareness and attitude of the local communities towards biodiversity conservation was thus assessed by use of a semi-structured questionnaire-based interview among 3357 people in 2470 households across seven erstwhile Closed Areas in western Rajasthan so as to explore the possibilities of bringing these areas under the recently introduced protective regime of “Conservation Reserves” or “Community Reserves”. Anthropogenic offences in the absence of designated protection mechanism were held responsible for biodiversity degradation by government reports. Eco-tourism shows immense potential in other Indian Protected Areas for biodiversity conservation and economic growth for the local communities. Currently, 31.1% of the total interviewed population were willing to support the future eco-tourism initiatives in the region. Such positivity should be encouraged by the authorities following successful examples of eco-tourism projects in other Indian Protected Areas before the cessation of social enthusiasm for protecting biodiversity

Evaluating the quality of environmental impact reporting for proposed tourism-related infrastructure in the protected areas of South Africa: a case study on selected EIA reports.

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is an important planning tool to strengthening environmental policy decisions by encouraging the sustainability of development projects that may lead to adverse environmental impacts and large-scale environmental degradation. The South African National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) (Act No. 107 of 1998) and the 2010 EIA Regulations (GNR 543 and 546) provide minimum requirements for environmental assessment that is classified as basic environmental impact assessment, amongst other instruments. In this case study, the quality of Basic Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (BEIARs) compiled for planned tourism-related infrastructure in and around the Protected Areas (PAs) of the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces of South Africa was examined. To achieve this goal, the case study adopted a modified Lee and Colley Review Package. The findings of this case study showed that 92% of the BEIARs performed satisfactorily in terms of overall quality while only 54% attained ‘exceptionally good’ quality meanwhile a high proportion of BEIARs were of borderline quality. Moreover, although the degree of legal compliance was relatively high as compared in other EIA studies in South Africa, the more descriptive assessment tasks were conducted typically well as compared to other tasks that required more analytical capabilities. The case study also pinpointed other areas in need of further improvement and refinement so that planned tourism-related facilities do not cause long-term environmental damage in the protected areas of South Africa

Glucocorticoid stress responses of reintroduced tigers in relation to anthropogenic disturbance in Sariska Tiger Reserve in India

Tiger (Panthera tigris), an endangered species, is under severe threat from poaching, habitat loss, prey depletion and habitat disturbance. Such factors have been reported causing local extermination of tiger populations including in one of the most important reserves in India, namely Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR) in northwestern India. Consequently, tigers were reintroduced in STR between 2008 and 2010, but inadequate breeding success was observed over the years, thus invoking an investigation to ascertain physiological correlates. In the present study, we report glucocorticoid stress responses of the reintroduced tigers in relation to anthropogenic disturbance in the STR from 2011 to 2013. We found anthropogenic disturbance such as encounter rates of livestock and humans, distance to roads and efforts to kill domestic livestock associated with an elevation in fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGCM) concentrations in the monitored tigers. In this regard, female tigers seem more sensitive to such disturbance than males. It was possible to discern that tiger’s fGCM levels were significantly positively related to the time spent in disturbed areas. Resulting management recommendations include relocation of villages from core areas and restriction of all anthropogenic activities in the entire STR.S1 Fig. Parallelism between pooled serial dilution of tiger’s fecal extract (square) and respective cortisol standard (circle).S2 Fig. Different levels of anthropogenic disturbance and ST2 tigress movements prior to scat deposition during the study period in Sariska Tiger Reserve (May 2011—January 2013).S3 Fig. Different levels of anthropogenic disturbance and ST3 tigress movements prior to scat deposition during the study period in Sariska Tiger Reserve (May 2011—January 2013).S4 Fig. Different levels of anthropogenic disturbance and ST4 tiger movements prior to scat deposition during the study period in Sariska Tiger Reserve (May 2011—January 2013).S5 Fig. Different levels of anthropogenic disturbance and ST5 tigress movements prior to scat deposition during the study period in Sariska Tiger Reserve (May 2011—January 2013).S6 Fig. Different levels of anthropogenic disturbance and ST6 tiger movements prior to scat deposition during the study period in Sariska Tiger Reserve (May 2011—January 2013).National Tiger Conservation Authority of India (NTCA), Central Zoo Authority of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Ministry of Science and Technology.http://www.plosone.orgam201

Governmental Support and Challenges for Growth of Wind Energy Generation in India

All the countries in the world depend mostly on exhaustible hydrocarbon energy sources for power generation. Limited reserves of these resources and associated environmental problems have emphasized the need for sustainable and clean alternatives. Wind energy is one of the most environment friendly, clean and safe energy resources. This paper presents the policies and an initiative adopted for growth of wind power generation in India and also explains the challenges in its development.

Evidences for the augmented Cd(II) biosorption by Cd(II) resistant strain Candida tropicalis XTA1874 from contaminated aqueous medium

Abstract Cadmium is one of the most dreadful heavy metals and is becoming a major toxicant in ground water with increasing concentration above the WHO Guidelines in drinking water (0.003 mg/L). The potential sources of cadmium include sewage sludge, phosphate fertilizers and ingredients like Ni–Cd batteries, pigments, plating and plastics. Cadmium levels are increased in water owing to the use and disposal of cadmium containing ingredients. Water draining from a landfill may contain higher cadmium levels. The authors have tried to evaluate the optimized nutritional conditions for the optimal growth and Cd(II) remediation capacity for a developed Cd(II) resistant yeast strain named Candida tropicalis XTA 1874 isolated from contaminated water-body in West Bengal. By analyzing the optimization conditions, a synthetic medium was developed and the composition has been given in the main text. The strain showed much better Cd(II) adsorption capacity under the optimized nutritional conditions (Mean removal = 88.077 ± 0.097%)

Optimal allocation of remote control switches in radial distribution network for reliability improvement

This paper presents differential search algorithm in order to solve reliability optimization problem of radial distribution network. Remote control switches have been optimally allocated to improve reliability at a compromised cost. A multi-objective problem has been formulated and solved using differential search algorithm. The test systems considered in this paper are an 8 bus radial distribution network and a 33 bus radial distribution network. Simulation results obtained using differential search algorithm when applied to the test cases, have been compared with those obtained by particle swarm optimization. Differential search algorithm has been found to provide superior results as compared to particle swarm optimization. Keywords: Differential search algorithm, Multi-objective function, Radial distribution system, Remote control switches, Repair time, Restoration tim