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    Biodiversity and Environment

    Niranjanpur wetland 

    Syllabus : GS 3/Environmental Pollution & Degradation

    Context 

    Niranjanpur wetland   in Dehradun has lost most of its fishes

    Major Points 

    • Nearly 70 per cent of Uttarakhand’s wetlands have been destroyed over the years due to delayed conservation action. 
      • A majority of them (816 of 994) are small wetlands of less than 2.25-hectare area.
      • They are undervalued for their small size despite their substantial numbers and environmental benefits. 

    About Niranjanpur wetland 

    • Niranjanpur wetland lies in a coveted real estate area of Dehradun city. 
    • It is home to flocks of birds, insects, tadpoles, small fishes and mammals.
    •  It attracts tiny local birds to big migratory birds in winters.
    •  Common moorhen (jal murgi) swims in its water-pools, while the black kite preys across its waters.
    • It also helps in groundwater recharge. 
    • Threat /Challenges : 
      • The left-over construction material is dumped carelessly around the open pond.
        • After rainfall, the runoff water mixes with the concrete and sweeps directly into the pond, increasing siltation on its base.
      • Nutrient-rich wastewater from nearby areas gets channelised into the pond. It causes dense overgrowth of water hyacinth and algae (eutrophication), worsening the water quality and killing its fish.
      • Reduced rainfall and climate change have accelerated the rate at which the small wetland is drying up. 
        • The parts that have dried up are being treated like a wasteland.
      • Niranjanpur pond also lacks a strongly defined boundary, paving the way for its encroachment 
    • Measures /Intiatives 
    • In 2007, Dehradun’s city development plan decided to rejuvenate the pond as a Water Park to attract tourists. Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, the plan proposed releasing Rs 0.88 crores in Phase I (2006-13). 
      • But the plan did not translate into action. 
    • The wetland rules notified the setting up of the state wetland authority (SWA) in each state. 
      • The SWA needs to prepare a comprehensive digital inventory of its wetlands to prioritise them for conservation.
    • More suggestions
    • All land records, including wetlands, should be digitally inventoried.
      • Once digital data on wetlands and their buffer zones are available to planners and the public, encroachment becomes difficult, 
    • The wetland’s eutrophication can be checked by cutting off the excess nutrient sources.
    •  This can be followed by de-siltation, weeding and then aeration into the water.
    • The revived wetland by development authorities must be handed over to a citizen’s group so that they can maintain and benefit from it

    What are the Wetlands?

    • Wetlands are land areas, which are seasonally or permanently flooded with water.
      • The Ramsar Convention’s definition for wetlands includes “areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which, at low tides, does not exceed six meters”.
    • Fishponds, rice paddies, and saltpans are human-made wetlands.

    Wetlands in India

    • India has nearly 4.6% of its land as wetlands, covering an area of 15.26 million hectares and has 42 sites designated as Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Sites).
    • Wetlands are regulated under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017.
    •  The 2010 version of the Rules provided for a Central Wetland Regulatory Authority but the 2017 Rules replaced it with state-level bodies and created a National Wetland Committee, which functions in an advisory role.
    • The newer regulations removed some items from the definition of “wetlands” including backwaters, lagoons, creeks, and estuaries.

    Source: DTE

     

    Indian Economy

    Index of Industrial Production (IIP)

    Syllabus :GS 3/ Indian Economy & Related Issues

    In News 

    The index of industrial production (IIP) grew 11.5% in July, driven by a contracted base.

    What is the Index of Industrial Production (IIP)?

    • The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is a composite indicator that measures the short-term changes in the volume of production of a basket of industrial products during a given period with respect to that in a chosen base period. 
    • In India, the first official attempt to compute the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was made much earlier than the first recommendation on the subject came at the international level. 
    • With the inception of the Central Statistical Organization (now known as the National Statistics Office (NSO)) in 1951, the responsibility for compilation and publication of IIP was vested with it.
    • Base year: 2011-2012
    • Sources of data: The CSO uses secondary data to reach the monthly IIP number.
      • The data is sourced from various agencies in different ministries or departments of the government. 

    The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is the source for the major chunk of data for the calculation.

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