“Breathing in the Indian capital this month was like smoking 50 cigarettes a day”

Cancelled flights, car crashes and delayed trains are only a few problems faced by the locals in Delhi.

The concentration of the 2.5 PM airborne particles had increased so much that merely breathing the air in Delhi, was at its worst, like smoking 50 cigarettes a day. 

Much of the pollution in Delhi comes from farms in the nearby states of Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. With the harvest season over, farmers resort to burning crop stubble – a practice which has given Delhi its notorious reputation for being the most polluted city in the world. 

Smoke from the stubble burning is mixing with the pollution from inside the city – from vehicles, fires the lower class families use to keep themselves warm, construction dust and dust arriving from sweeping. The mix of rural and urban pollution strengthens in the winter allowing the dirty air to linger. 

In conjunction with stubble burning, the topology of Delhi serves as a disadvantage. Delhi is trapped by the Himalayan mountain range which prevents the smooth movement of air. Moreover, in winters, the mist traps the particles close to ground level, making the air heavy and polluted. 

There are several other reasons Delhi is a victim to air pollution, and it is absolutely imperative for us to collectively take action and encourage the government to do so too.

#pollution #delhi #air #pollutedair #savetheplanet #environment #planetearth 

water conservation 

After reading about the suffering people in South Africa and Yemen were facing due to water scarcity in their area, I decided I want to work towards water conservation in my city. 

Water is a precious resource and most of us are blessed to be getting a supply of it in our homes every day. According to the United Nations website, water scarcity already affects every continent and an increasing number of places are reaching the limit at which water services can be substantially delivered. 

They report that over 2 billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress. With the growing population, it is becoming increasingly important for us to conserve this precious resource to the best of our ability. Hence, as a part of my summer internship I decided to volunteer at a water management firm in Gurgaon, India.

My goal for the project is to see how we can minimise the water usage in my apartment complex by carrying out thorough research on how and where the water in my colony is most used. I am also looking at the utilisation of waste water after it has been treated by the STP (sewage treatment plant) installed in my colony.

On my first day at the internship, I was introduced to my mentors. They briefed me on how I would approach my research project and made sure I understood the logistics behind the work that lay ahead of me.

I was then asked to do research on the various STP technologies that exist in India. They included:  SP, SBR, MBBR, MBR and SBT.  After doing some research, I made a detailed mini – report on the technologies in order to understand the process behind water management better. Even though all technologies primarily have the same function, their mechanisms are very different.

After doing the research, I was given a sheet with a plan of the total water management scheme in housing society’s and I studied it with thoroughness. There were a few terms I didn’t understand, but after a quick google search, everything  ‘flowed’ smoothly 😉 

Following lunch, my mentors and I discussed the data which I need to collect in order for me to make the report. We finally came to a conclusion and I noted down all the necessary statistics that I needed to retrieve from my colony.

Finally, at the end of the work day, my mentor showed me a project similar to mine he had been working on for 2 hotels very near to my school. It was astonishing to see the level of detail and precision with which the report was written. I knew at the end, it would be a major accomplishment and a moment of pride for helping save the planet. I was excited and ended the day eager to get moving! 

India consumed an estimated of 15.5 million tonnes of plastic between 2016 – 2017, a number which is expected to rise by around 5 million by the end of 2019/2020.

India’s plastic pollution is a growing concern. India consumed an estimate of 15.5 million tonnes of plastic between 2016 – 2017, a number which is expected to rise by around 5 million by the end of 2019/2020.

India is a developing nation, with higher salaries and more opportunities offered to the middle class by day, the amount of disposable income available for people to spend on online shopping and fast food is increasing rapidly. This monumental increase in deliveries, increases the amount of plastic used by every family by a great amount. In conjunction with a high population growth and urbanisation, economic development plays a very large role in the increase in the amount of plastic used in.  This is also replicated at a larger scale, where 1/4th of the plastic is used for packaging. 

India, however, is more prone to face the consequences due to the production of plastic.  Plastic often “leaks into the environment due to the limited availability of formal waste management systems.” The Ganges and the Indus rivers which originate in the western Himalayas and Tiber respectively, both flow through India and are 2 out the 10 rivers in the world which deposit 90% of the world’s plastics that reach the Oceans. 

The main reason for leakage is the lack of segregation of municipal solid waste at source. It is estimated that only about 0.033 MT out of 0.143 MT of waste generated daily is treated and disposed of in a proper manner. Even though the government is encouraging waste segregation at a household and commercial level through the ‘Clean India Mission’ it is important that stricter rules and fines are enforced in order to avoid pollution. 

Another, important, but obvious solution to the plastic pollution is India is the lack of opportunity to dispose plastic off in a sensible way. The lack of recallable bins, or even general trash disposable bins across the country has made solid waste management very difficult. In turn, people often end up dumping the trash on the roads which leads to hazards such as environmental degradation, water pollution, soil pollution and air pollution. Therefore, by placing more bins in the city’s and rural area people will have an incentive to carry the garbage and extra mile and not trash it whenever they like. 

The packing industry is very important in India. It provides jobs to over 4 million people and ensures things are delivered and kept in a safe and unharmed way. However, if the government and citizens do not come together to solve plastic pollution that India faces it will continue to threaten the  basic evolution of mankind

Taking off my “tigress cap” for the moment, I wish to talk about my visit to the Wildlife SOS bear rescue center in Agra many years back. It was an eye opening and heart wrenching experience.

Certain tribes in India have traditionally used bears for their livelihood by making them “dance” on the streets. This was prohibited by a 1998 amendment to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. After a sustained effort by conservationists, this practice has now completely stopped. The last dancing bear was set free in 2009.

The method applied for “training” a sloth bear in India was the most ruthless and cruel practice that could ever exist. Poachers would track a mother bear with 2 to 4 months cubs and kill the mother using poisoned meat or traps. The cubs would then be smuggled in small bags, their teeth broken using hammers and their claws cut off. They would be kept in small cages with no space for movement and, without the use of anesthesia, hot iron rods inserted through their nose – one of the most sensitive parts of their body. The rod would then be tied with ropes and the wound always kept fresh and bleeding in order to control the bear.

As for the “dance”, a bear cannot be taught how to dance! The bears would be dragged on hot bricks so they jump up on their two hind legs to save themselves from burns while there would be loud music playing around them to make them associate the dance with music. Sheer torture!

While the bear torture in India is a story of the past, the reason of writing this blog is to bring out to the world at large that whether it is the bear dance in India, the circus games of the US and Europe, the display of the drugged lions and tigers in Thailand or the games played by the Orca killer whales in the Sea World – the story is that of a tortured and distressed animal. The animals are tortured into submission after their families are killed. Please raise this awareness and stay away from such gory displays. Support the cause of freeing these animals and motivate organizations like Wildlife SOS to continue the great work they are doing.

There are many questions asked about the efficacy of the various methods of performing the tiger census. This blog posts focuses on the methods of performing the census and the merits of each.

The age-old and method of counting the number of tigers in the wild which was followed is the pug-mark method. Each tiger has a unique set of footprints. Thousands of forest personnel were expected to fan out across the forests and take measurements / create casts of the paw-prints of the left hind leg of tigers. The method is the cheapest but has various lacunas. It is difficult for the forest officials to traverse all parts of a forest in the interior areas missing out on counting of some tigers. It is even more difficult to chance upon all 4-pug marks of the tigers (the imprints would depend on the soil and the terrain as well). In the absence of all 4-pug marks, imprints of different paws of the same tiger could be mistaken for different tigers. The skills of the person lifting and measuring the paw prints would also be crucial in determining the uniqueness of the same.

The poop method (or scat method as it is also referred to) has the forest officers fanning the forests to collect the tiger feaces for DNA matching and sampling to identify different tigers. The positive of this method is that it does not depend on the skills of the forest officer but, however, it still does not obviate the chances of missing out.

The radio collar method, as indicated by the name, relies on radio collars being fixed on the tigers. Apart from the census, it also helps in keeping track of the tiger through the year and in a quick search and rescue operation in case the tiger is ambushed or hurt and stops moving. This is an accurate report for all tigers that have been collared (unless the tiger tends to venture in a salt water body which spoils the radio on the collars).  However, not too many of the tigers across the national parks have collars fixed on them yet.

The camera trap method relies on the motion sensitive cameras installed in various parts of the national forests. These cameras capture the photos of all wild animals. The tigers captured on camera are identified by their unique stripes.

Empirical data like the increase (or decrease) of prey and vegetation in different parts of the forest also goes on to ratify the findings of the committee that is responsible for releasing the final population numbers.

The on-going census of 2018 has been designed to use a combination of all the above methods linked together with a more integrated use of technology – through an especially designed app M-STrIPES.

The Phase 1 of the exercise had all on-field personnel using the app to record data about the presence of the tiger through scat (poop), tree markings, pug marks etc and taking photos of the same. This would be uploaded along with the GPS coordinates of the location where the photo was clicked to a central server. Such photos combined with the coordinates made sure that the (intentional or unintentional) errors of reporting are removed from the data gathered.

The photos and data gathered also captures the flora and fauna in the area – which is the empirical data that is being used in the collation exercise.

The Phase 2 of the exercise utilizes the satellite data of the forest areas matching the empirical information collected in Phase 1

The Phase 3, which is the final phase under progress today, uses information from the camera traps (about 1500 nos in the wild) and pug marks/ DNA mapping through scat collected in the non-camera trap regions, to estimate the number of tigers. It will rely heavily on the information collated through the phase 1 and 2 as well to collate all information together.

In my view, there is no foolproof method of performing a census of wild tigers. All methods depend on human interventions. There are extremely high expectations from the participating individuals to go deep into the interiors of all jungles and capture data and information from inhospitable and dangerous conditions. Technology can only help reduce inadvertent (or, at times, deliberate) errors but cannot make this complex task accurate.

While I hope and pray that the efforts of all conservationists would have borne fruit and the tiger numbers would have climbed up in the last 4 years, I salute all forest officials for undertaking this difficult and challenging task at the risk of their personal safety and well-being.

My family and I have been environmentalists and wildlife enthusiasts from as long as I can remember. All my vacations and holidays were spent bouncing in innumerable safaris across various national parks (53 safaris on the last count), going bird watching with friends & family or reading about various ways in which one can influence the environment positively. There are various interesting stories that one would love to recount of my myriad adventures – I will try and talk about a few on my blog here.

Personally, I was more excited about animal conservation, particularly the conservation of the large cats. I worked on raising money for the snow leopard conservation at a young age and have been involved in raising awareness and funds for tiger conservation in India, through the highly motivating “Kids for Tiger” program.

The census of 2006 showed a total of 1411 tigers in all the national parks of India put together! The alarm bells rang in my mind as much as, fortunately, they did in the minds of the people who matter in the Government circles. Resources were allocated to stop poaching and also work with the villagers in the conflict zones of the forests (more on both of these later). The subsequent 2 censuses have, thankfully, shown a steady increase in the tiger population. The data collation of the census performed in 2018 is still on and we expect to hear about the results of the activity in the next couple of months.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton