National Dolphin Day is celebrated across India on April 14, a day dedicated to raising awareness about the ecological importance of dolphins, their conservation, and the protection of their natural habitats.

This year, the spotlight is on the western coast of the country, where Gujarat – home to India’s longest coastline – has emerged as a significant hub for dolphin conservation. With its 1,600 km-long coastline, Gujarat has a rich marine biodiversity. In the latest Dolphin Census conducted by the Gujarat Forest Department, approximately 680 dolphins were recorded across a 4,087 sq. km marine stretch – a promising outcome of sustained conservation efforts, as per government data shared today.

The coastal expanse from Kutch to Bhavnagar has been identified as a thriving habitat for dolphins. The Marine National Park and Marine Sanctuary located in the southern part of the Gulf of Kutch, between Okha and Navlakhi, recorded the highest dolphin population: 498 dolphins in 1,384 sq. km. The northern Gulf of Kutch saw 168 dolphins in 1,821 sq. km, while 10 were spotted in Bhavnagar and 4 in Morbi.

Experts highlight that dolphins are top predators in the marine food chain and play a crucial role in maintaining ecological balance. Their presence is often an indicator of a healthy ocean ecosystem.

Conservationists also credit coastal fishing communities, particularly from Kutch to Bhavnagar, for their growing awareness and cooperation in dolphin protection. Among the species sighted along Gujarat’s coast, the Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphin is the most prominent. Recognised by its distinctive hump and elongated dorsal fin, this dolphin species is known for its acrobatic displays and friendly nature.

Found in shallow waters near estuaries, these dolphins feed primarily on fish, crabs, and shrimp. India officially declared the dolphin as its National Aquatic Animal in October 2009, with the Ganga Dolphin symbolising the purity of the Ganges River. Known for their intelligence and playfulness, dolphins continue to capture the imagination of tourists and researchers alike.

–IANS

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.

The post Dolphins Find Safe Haven Along Gujarat’s Coastline; 680 Sighted In Latest Census appeared first on The Commune.

In a boost to the National Green Hydrogen Mission, the government has initiated five pilot projects for using hydrogen in buses and trucks. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had issued guidelines for implementing oilot projects in the transport sector under this Mission.

After detailed scrutiny, the Ministry has sanctioned five pilot projects consisting total of 37 vehicles (buses and trucks), and 9 hydrogen refuelling stations. The vehicles that will be deployed for the trial include 15 hydrogen fuel cell-based vehicles and 22 hydrogen internal combustion engine-based vehicles.

These vehicles will run on 10 different routes across the country — Greater Noida–Delhi–Agra; Bhubaneshwar–Konark–Puri; Ahmedabad–Vadodara–Surat; Sahibabad–Faridabad–Delhi; Pune–Mumbai; Jamshedpur–Kalinga Nagar; Thiruvananthapuram–Kochi; Kochi–Edappally; Jamnagar–Ahmedabad; and NH-16 Visakhapatnam–Bayyavaram. “The above projects are awarded to major companies like TATA Motors Ltd, Reliance Industries Limited, NTPC, ANERT, Ashok Leyland, HPCL, BPCL, and IOCL,” said the ministry.

The total financial support for selected projects made available will be around Rs 208 crore from the government. These pilot projects are likely to be commissioned in the next 18-24 months, paving the way to the scale-up of such technologies in India.

According to the Ministry, the thrust area for providing support under the scheme is the development of commercially viable technologies for the utilisation of hydrogen in the transport sector as fuel in buses and trucks and Supporting infrastructure like Hydrogen refuelling stations. One of the objectives of the Mission is to support the deployment of Green Hydrogen as fuel in buses and trucks, in a phased manner on a pilot basis. The National Green Hydrogen Mission was launched on January 4, 2023 with an outlay of Rs 19,744 crore up to FY 2029-30.

—IANS

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.

The post Centre Sanctions 5 Pilot Projects For Using Hydrogen In Buses, Trucks appeared first on The Commune.

African female cheetah, Neerva, delivered her cubs at Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh, said a senior Wildlife official in Bhopal on Monday.

However, Kuno authorities and the Wildlife Department have not disclosed the number of newborn cubs. Sources said two cubs have been spotted so far. The birth of the new cubs at Kuno has come as a major boost for India’s Cheetah Reintroduction Project introduced in Madhya Pradesh’s Sheopur district in September 2022.

Neerva’s successful delivery has reaffirmed the KNP’s potential as a breeding ground for the reintroduced cheetahs, which has been under the global spotlight. Neerva was brought from South Africa in the phase on February 18, 2023. This is the fifth female cheetah to successfully deliver her cubs after 20 cheetahs were released at KNP in Madhya Pradesh.

Previously, female cheetahs Aasha, Jwala, Siyaya and Jamini have delivered a total of 17 cubs at KNP, out of which 14 have survived. With these, the surviving cheetahs at the KNP are reported to be 24.

On September 17, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released eight cheetahs – five females and three males – brought from Namibia into enclosures at the KNP as part of the world’s first intercontinental translocation of the big cats. In February 2023, another 12 cheetahs were translocated to the national park in MP from South Africa as part of the Indian government’s project to reintroduce cheetahs into the country.

–IANS

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.

The post MP: African Cheetah Neerva Gives Birth To Cubs, 5th Successful Delivery At Kuno appeared first on The Commune.

In a significant achievement in wildlife conservation, India’s tiger population has grown to 3,682 in 2022, up from 2,967 in 2018, showing a 6 per cent annual increase in consistently monitored areas, the Parliament was informed on Monday.

The rise in tiger numbers is due to efforts by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), which focuses on three main strategies — material and logistical support, restricting habitat interventions, and following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shri Kirti Vardhan Singh told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

The Central Indian Landscape Complex and Eastern Ghats Landscape Complex, spanning Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Jharkhand, saw the numbers rise from 1,033 in 2018 to 1,439 in 2022, while the Shivalik-Gangetic Plain landscape complex, encompassing Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, registered a rise from 646 to 819, including from 442 to 560 in Uttarakhand.

Other complexes also registered significant growth, such as Sundebans where the population increased from 88 to 101. However, within the Central Indian Landscape Complex and Eastern Ghats Landscape Complex, the tiger population has declined in Odisha, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand. Apart from this, the tiger population has also decreased in Arunachal Pradesh where it has come down from 29 to 9 in 2022.

However, in Madhya Pradesh, tigers increased from 526 in 2018 to 785 in 2022, and in Maharashtra, from 312 to 444. India’s tiger population has more than doubled since 2006, when it was 1,411. This growth has been supported by Project Tiger, a government initiative that funds conservation activities through annual plans prepared by tiger reserves. These plans are based on broader Tiger Conservation Plans, as mandated by the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the reply said.

Funding is provided to tiger reserves for acquiring capacity in terms of infrastructure and material, to deal with tigers dispersing out of source areas. These are solicited by tiger reserves through an Annual Plan of Operation (APO) every year which stems from an overarching Tiger Conservation Plan (TCP), mandated under Section 38 V of the Act. Based on the carrying capacity of tigers in a tiger reserve, habitat interventions are restricted through an overarching TCP.

In case tiger numbers are at carrying capacity levels, it has been advised that habitat interventions should be limited so that there is no excessive spillover of wildlife including tigers thereby minimising man-animal conflict. Further, in buffer areas around tiger reserves, habitat interventions are restricted such that they are sub-optimal vis-a-vis the core/critical tiger habitat areas, judicious enough to facilitate dispersal to other rich habitat areas only, the reply said.

As per Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs), the National Tiger Conservation Authority has issued three SOPs to deal with human-animal conflict — the issue of managing dispersing tigers, managing livestock kills so as to reduce conflict as well as relocating tigers from source areas to areas where the density of tiger is low, so that conflict in rich source areas does not occur.

Also as per Tiger Conservation Plans, need-based and site-specific management interventions are undertaken by the tiger reserves to improve the quality of wildlife habitat and funding support for these activities is provided under the Project Tiger Component of the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats, the Minister said in the reply.

–IANS

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.

The post India’s Tiger Population Rises To 3682, Doubles Since 2006 appeared first on The Commune.

The Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate), the largest global coalition at the intersection of food security and climate change, spearheaded by the UAE and the US, on Monday announced nearly double the investments, partners, and Innovation Sprints in transformative climate-smart agriculture and food systems’ innovation.

The announcements were made at the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 29), hosted in Baku in Azerbaijan under the theme ‘In Solidarity for a Green World.’ The investment increase comprises $16.7 billion from 56 government partners, including India, and $12.5 billion from the accelerated investments of 129 Innovation Sprint Partners, driving change in climate-smart agriculture and food systems. AIM for Climate partners turn ambition into action, driving climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation to tackle the climate crisis, build resilience, and deliver co-benefits for people and the planet. Building on a record year at COP28, investments have surged from $17 billion to an unprecedented $29.2 billion, over a 2020 baseline. The addition of 52 new Innovation Sprints, bringing the total to 129, further underscores AIM for Climate’s transformative impact. With AIM for Climate expanding from 600 to over 800 partners worldwide, the initiative reflects the urgency and strength of its mission.

The growing number of high-impact, private-sector, and public-private partnership-led projects deliver solutions to today’s climate and food challenges. Aligned with COP 29’s priorities of climate finance, emission reduction, and developing adaptive solutions for climate-related loss and damage, these initiatives focus on one or more of AIM for Climate’s focal areas: smallholder farmers in low and middle-income countries; emerging technologies; agroecological research; and methane reduction.

AIM for Climate’s India impact is substantial, with $500 million alone being directed toward climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation in India. These investments demonstrate AIM for Climate’s commitment to supporting climate resilience and food security in India and beyond. AIM for Climate Innovation Sprint Partners in India Varaha’s initiative aims to deliver $500 million in benefits to smallholder farmers in developing countries by 2025. By integrating farmers into the global carbon market, Varaha supports sustainable agriculture, improves livelihoods, and plans to remove 18 million tonnes of CO2 across four million acres.

Using remote sensing, Machine Learning, and biogeochemical models, Varaha promotes regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, and nature-based solutions, advancing India’s climate resilience and carbon sequestration. Phyla sprint scales ecosystem restoration through climate-resilient agroforestry, with a focus on establishing pongamia and biodiverse agroforestry systems across Sub-Saharan Africa and India. The initiative will regenerate degraded lands while producing feedstock for biofuel, plant-based proteins, and sustainable food and fiber crops.

Phyla aims to catalyse $400 million in new investments through strategic collaborations, fostering a regenerative finance model that unites food security with energy sustainability. As AIM for Climate approaches sunset in 2025, its partners are urged to build on achievements by institutionalising progress for a resilient, food-secure future.

–IANS

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.

The post Baku Climate Talks: India Part Of US-UAE Co-Led $29.2Bn Fund For Climate-Smart Agriculture appeared first on The Commune.

The COP29 Presidency on Friday launched the Baku Call on Climate Action for Peace, Relief, and Recovery (BCCAP), a milestone initiative aimed at addressing the urgent nexus of climate change, conflict, and humanitarian needs, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP29. This initiative responds to the growing recognition that the adverse effects of climate change, such as water scarcity, food insecurity, land degradation and human displacement, can act as catalysts for conflict and instability, especially in the most climate-vulnerable regions.

The Call was launched by Azerbaijani Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov at the high-level panel, “Climate and Peace: Enabling Joint Action to Leave No One Behind”, to inaugurate the COP29 Peace, Relief, and Recovery Day. The event brought together ministers and governmental envoys from a wide range of countries across both the Global North and South to develop a strategy for preventing conflict-induced conflicts and scaling up support for climate and conflict-vulnerable nations with high humanitarian needs. Through multiple rounds of consultations over the past six months, the COP29 Presidency has developed, in collaboration with partner co-lead countries of Egypt, Italy, Germany, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, and the UK, which has already endorsed the Baku Call, the concrete, solution-oriented responses that build upon climate and peace initiatives championed by previous COP Presidencies.

It has established the Baku Climate and Peace Action Hub as a coordination platform to deliver on pledges to mitigate challenges on peace and climate nexus. The COP29 Presidency will host the Secretariat of the hub in Baku. The hub will drive results-oriented synergy and foster joint peace-sensitive climate action of ongoing peace and climate initiatives, namely the COP27 Climate Responses for Sustaining Peace (CRSP) Initiative, the COP28 Declaration on Climate, Relief, Recovery, and Peace (CRRP), Germany-led Climate for Peace Initiative (C4P), and the climate dimension of Italy’s Mattei Plan for Africa to meet needs of the climate and conflict vulnerable countries.

The Baku Call reiterates global pledges and introduces innovative recommendations addressing critical issues such as water scarcity and enhancing sustainable water management practices, food insecurity and promoting climate-resilient agricultural solutions, and land degradation and supporting land rehabilitation and ecosystem restoration. COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev said: “With a disproportionate impact on the most at-risk communities, particularly in developing, lower-income, climate-vulnerable, and conflict-affected states, the Baku Call emphasises the importance of peace-sensitive climate action.” “It also prioritises support for the most vulnerable groups, including women, children, and youth, who bear the brunt of these intersecting crises.”

The development of the Baku Call has been a highly inclusive process, informed by consultations with a diverse range of international partners, think tanks, governments, UN agencies, development banks, civil society, and the private sector and represents an opportunity to collectively amplify commitments to peace-sensitive climate action, while scaling up support for the most vulnerable communities worldwide.

–IANS

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.

The post COP29 Presidency Launches Initiative To Address Climate Change, Humanitarian Needs appeared first on The Commune.

A project for the conservation of the Ganga River Dolphin and another for assessing the environmental flow of the Chambal, Son, Damodar and Tons rivers were approved at the 58th Executive Committee meeting of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), an official said on Thursday. The Ganga River Dolphin project titled ‘Advancing Rescue System for the Protection of Stranded Ganges River Dolphins’ aims to develop a specialised rescue vehicle, the ‘Dolphin Ambulance’, to assist dolphins in distress.

Additionally, the project will focus on raising awareness for dolphin conservation and community capacity building through training and have an estimated budget of Rs 1 crore. The Executive Committee meeting was chaired by Rajeev Kumar Mital, Director General of the NMCG. The Chambal, Son, Damodar and Tons rivers project will have an estimated budget of Rs 11 crore. The objective of this project is not only to evaluate the environmental flow of these rivers but also to prepare hydrological and hydrodynamic models that allow scientific evaluation of flow systems. The project is a step towards the conservation of the Ganga and its aquatic life. The project will involve studying the existing water stream and natural flow patterns, which will not only improve water quantity and quality but also document the biodiversity within these river systems, ensuring that their ecosystems remain balanced, said a statement. An innovative and highly significant project for the conservation of endangered turtles in the Ganga basin in Uttar Pradesh has also been approved, as per the statement.

The objective of this initiative is not only to rehabilitate endangered turtle species but also to reintroduce three highly threatened species, alongside establishing a Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool at the National Chambal Sanctuary. This project is estimated to cost Rs 78.09 lakh. The rehabilitation of the 50 MLD STP (Million litre per day Septage Treatment Plant) at Keorapukur in Kolkata has been approved with a revised budget of Rs 114.27 crore, up from the initial Rs 67.06 crore. This project is a major step towards improving water purification processes in Kolkata and ensuring strict adherence to environmental standards. The project includes provision for 15 years of operation and maintenance, ensuring its long-term success.

In Bardhaman, West Bengal, a significant step has been taken with the revised approval of the Integrated Septage Treatment Plant project. This project has now been sanctioned with a revised budget of Rs 10.35 crore, up from the previous Rs 6.46 crore. Under this project, a 50 KLD (Kilo litre per day) capacity FSTP (Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant) will be constructed, which includes not only the establishment of the plant but also provisions for its operation and maintenance for five years. During the meeting, a proposal for the third season of the travelogue series ‘Rag-Rag Mein Ganga – Ek Jeevan Dhara’ was approved. This new season will present the importance of the Ganga and the conservation efforts from a fresh perspective. Viewers across the nation will be able to watch the series on Doordarshan.

–IANS

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.

The post Project To Conserve Gangetic Dolphin Gets Nod appeared first on The Commune.

Residents of a town in the Australian state of Queensland have been evacuated due to a threat posed by a fast-moving bushfire. Queensland Police on Tuesday night declared an emergency situation for the town of Dirranbandi, 500 km southwest of the state capital of Brisbane, and ordered the approximately 600 residents of the town to leave immediately at 8 p.m. local time.

As of Wednesday morning, a “Watch and Act” warning remained in place and it was not safe for the residents to return to the town, Xinhua news agency reported. The evacuation was ordered on Tuesday as two bushfires burning to the southeast and northeast of the town were moving north.

An evacuation centre was set up 80 km north of Dirranbandi and evacuees were told to take bedding and essential items. “This is a very extraordinary circumstance and not something that we would normally be experiencing,” Samantha O’Toole, the local mayor, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday night.

Fire crews from Queensland and the neighbouring state of New South Wales, including aerial water-bombing crews, fought the fires through the night and were expected to return on Wednesday.

The Queensland Fire Department said that crews would work to establish a state of containment. Power lines in the area were down and O’Toole said that Dirranbandi has been without telecommunications since 1 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

The maximum temperature in Dirranbandi was forecast to reach 42 degrees Celsius on Wednesday as a heatwave hit the state. The Bureau of Meteorology has issued an official heatwave warning for much of Queensland, with temperatures up to 10 degrees higher than the long-term November average.

–IANS

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.

The post Bushfire Threat Forces Evacuation Of Australian Town appeared first on The Commune.

The apprehensions of Cyclone Dana playing havoc in the coastal Sundarbans area scattered over South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal was allayed to a great extent because of the mangrove belt barrier there which acted as a vital speed breaker and mitigated the impact.

Experts pointed out that the mangrove belt barrier enabled wind reduction, just minimising the impact of the cyclone and also acted as a “storm surge protection” meaning absorption of the wave energy, thus shielding the coastal communities there. At the same time, according to experts, the mangrove belt barrier acted as the “shoreline stabiliser” where roots holding soil in place prevented erosion.

The barrier also resulted in “carbon sequestration” resulting in absorption of carbon dioxide thus mitigating climate change. Explaining how mangroves reduce cyclonic impact, acclaimed green-technologist and environment activist Somendra Mohan Ghosh said that the first important factor is that mangrove vegetation creates friction which slows down wind-speed substantially and this minimises the impact. “At the same time, the mangrove forests play an important role both in ‘water attenuation’ and ‘water filtration’.

While ‘water attenuation’ helps in reducing the storm surge through absorption of water energy, ‘water filtration’ becomes instrumental in filtering out sediment, pollutants, and excess salts,” Ghosh explained.

Understanding that a series of cyclonic storms hitting the coastal belts of West Bengal make Sundarbans area most vulnerable on this count, a group of environment activists and protectionists under the aegis of Nature Environment & Wildlife Society (NEWS) in 2007 started a mission to achieve a permanent and concrete protection from the cyclone ravages.

NEWS, involving the local women, started ‘Project Green Warriors’, a mission for large-scale mangrove forestation in the Sundarbans region. The project started in 2007 with just around 50 hectares of land spread over three small local villages of Dulki-Songaon, Amlamethi and Mathurakhanda. Then in the month of May in 2009 came Cyclone Aila, whose tail only touched Sundarbans and moved to Bangladesh. While the rest of the Sundarbans was severely affected by the touch of the tail, the patches of land where the mangrove forestation was done under the project was absolutely untouched. That was the eye-opener.

NEWS started fund mobilising, doing risk-mapping and between 2010 and 2015 over 18,000 local women involving over around 4,600 hectares of land scattered over 183 villages in 14 community development blocks in the Sundarbans areas were brought under this large-scale mangrove forestation.

–IANS

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.

The post Cyclone Dana: Mangrove Belt Acting As Natural Speed Breaker Minimised Impact In Coastal Sundarbans appeared first on The Commune.

The ‘Mekong ghost’ fish has resurfaced in Cambodia after nearly two decades without a trace.

According to the news release, the elusive giant salmon carp (Aaptosyax grypus) was spotted once again on Tuesday in Cambodian waters by a team of international scientists led by the Fisheries Administration under the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The unusual fish, a carp with a hooked jaw and salmon-shaped body, had not been documented since 2005. An international team of scientists has confirmed the existence of three giant salmon carp caught between 2020 and 2023, a significant finding for a fish previously feared extinct, reports Xinhua, quoting the news release.

“The rediscovery of the giant salmon carp is a reason for hope, not just for this species but for the entire Mekong ecosystem,” said Bunyeth Chan, lead researcher from Svay Rieng University in Cambodia.

“The Mekong ecosystem is the most productive river on Earth, producing over 2 million tonnes of fish per year worth over $10 billion,” he added.

As a result of the rediscovery, the Cambodian Fisheries Administration has added the giant salmon carp to its list of protected species.

–IANS

Subscribe to our Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram channels and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.

The post Rare Fish Rediscovered In Cambodia After Disappearance For Nearly Two Decades appeared first on The Commune.