Uranium concentration in groundwater in Bihar (GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- The high concentration of uranium in groundwater in certain districts in Bihar has left the authorities worried and 100 water samples from ten districts have been sent to Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) center in Lucknow for scientific analysis.
ICP-MS Method:
- The water samples have been sent for isotopic uranium analysis through Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) method which measures isotopic ratios at a reasonably high accuracy.
- Districts from where the groundwater samples have been recently collected are Nalanda, Nawada, Katihar, Madhepura, Vaishali, Supaul, Aurangabad, Gaya, Saran and Jehanabad.
Permissible Limit by WHO:
- The Bureau of Indian Standard has not mentioned any standard for uranium in drinking water, while the World Health Organisation have set drinking the water standards for uranium in drinking water as 30 g/L.
- Uranium concentrations are elevated mostly in the north west-south east band along and to the east of Gandak river and south of the Ganga river towards Jharkhand, particularly in GopalganjSiwan, Saran, Patna, Nalanda and Nawada districts
Affected districts:
- During 2019-20 the CGWB had collected a total 14377 groundwater samples from shallow wells water sources across the country for the quantification of presence of uranium.
- From Bihar 634 samples were analysed and it was found that concentration of the heavy metal in 11 samples was beyond the permissible limit set by WHO.
- The analysis found that districts where groundwater had high uranium are Saran, Bhabhua, Khagaria, Madhepura, Nawada, Sheikhpura, Purnea, Kishanganj and Begusarai.
Health Hazard:
- Uranium contamination in groundwater is a matter of serious concern as it is hazardous to the health of those exposed.
- High exposure may cause bone toxicity and impaired renal function and cancer.
- Uranium is a chemo-toxic and nephrotoxic heavy metal. This chemotoxicity affects the kidneys and bones in particular.
Madhya Pradesh to generate extra 20,000 MW of green power by 2030
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Madhya Pradesh has set an ambitious target of generating an additional 20,000 Megawatt (MW) of green power by 2030 through renewable energy sources, including setting up of a solar plant in the Chambal region once notorious for dacoits, and supplying it to other states.
Details:
- The state currently produces 5,500 MW of green energy through various renewable power sources and a major part of it is sourced through solar power.
Hybrid facility:
- Besides, in the next three-four years, the government has set a target to generate 10,000 MW of green power by establishing the 1,500 MW capacity Agar-Shajapur-Neemuch solar park, 600 MW Omkareshwar floating solar power plant, which is among the world's biggest such facility, 750 MW hybrid project, 950 MW hybrid storage Chattarpur project, 500 MW Kusum-A and 1,250 MW Kusum-C projects will be implemented among others.
- Under a hybrid facility, both solar panels and windmills are established to generate green energy by taking advantage of Sun rays as well as wind velocity by taking the advantage of both mediums.
- Similarly, under the Kusum Scheme, small renewable energy plants are being set up by farmers and others for generating 2-3 MW of green power.
- This will turn farmers from producers of traditional food grains into developers of clean energy which will also supplement their income.
Chambal region:
- The state government is setting up a 1,400 MW solar energy power plant in the Chambal region in the Morena district. This region was earlier ill-famous for bandits, but now the Chambal expressway and the solar power plant are coming up in this area as part of the government's development plans.
- The government is also planning to establish a solar power plant in the vast Chambal ravines which will be implemented in the next few years.
Omkareshwar Floating Solar Project:
- The Omkareshwar Floating Solar Project, was Madhya Pradesh's first, India's largest and one of the biggest floating solar power plants in the world.
- Under the first phase, 278 MW of power will be generated for which a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was inked recently.
- The floating solar project is being implemented under the 'Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Power Parks Scheme (UMREPP).
- The entire 600 MW of power generated from the Omkareshwar Floating Solar Project will be procured by the state discoms (distribution companies) through the Madhya Pradesh Power Management Company (MPPMCL).
- The first phase of the 278 MW capacity of this project is proposed to be completed by September 2023.
Advantages of Omkareshwar project:
- The Omkareshwar project would be one of the multi-purpose projects in India wherein apart from the existing utilities such as irrigation and hydropower generation, solar energy will also be generated along with the promotion of tourism.
- In addition, the project will bring many benefits to the people of Madhya Pradesh such as a reduction of about 12 lakh tons of carbon emission in meeting the energy demand, saving of about 1200 hectares of precious land that may find utility in agriculture or other industry for boosting the state economy.
- No need for land has effectively eliminated the requirement of displacing the people from their natural habitat, which is quite pleasant from the social point of view.
- In ground-mounted solar projects, underground water is used to clean the solar panel.
Water conservation:
- However, in the floating solar project, water from the reservoir will be used for cleaning purposes which would flow back into the reservoir, leading to virtually no loss of water besides saving the valuable groundwater, the official explained.
- In addition to saving groundwater, it will be possible to save the reservoir water from evaporation from the floating solar project.
- Due to low evaporation, there will be an annual saving of about 32.4 million cubic meters of water. This amount of water saving is almost enough to meet the daily demand of water for a city like Indore for up to 112 days.
Indian Virtual Herbarium
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- In the ‘Mann Ki Baat ‘ episode on July 31, 2022, the Prime Minister spoke about the novel initiative and said that Indian Virtual Herbarium is an interesting collection of plants and preserved parts of plants.
What is Indian Virtual Herbarium?
- Developed by scientists of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Indian Virtual Herbarium was inaugurated on July 1 in Kolkata.
- With details of about one lakh plant specimens, Indian Virtual Herbarium, the biggest virtual database of flora in the country.
- While herbarium specimens are considered important tools for plant taxonomy, conservation, habitat loss and even climate change, Prime Minister has recently described Indian Virtual Herbarium as an example of how digital tools can help us connect to our roots.
Features:
- Each record in the digital herbarium includes an image of the preserved plant specimen, scientific name, collection locality, and collection date, collector name, and barcode number.
- The digital herbarium also includes features to extract the data State-wise and users can search plants of their own States which will help them to identify regional plants and in building regional checklists.
- There are approximately three million plant specimens in the country which are with different herbaria that are located at zonal centers of BSI and at the Central National Herbarium located at Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden at Howrah in West Bengal.
Botanical history:
- The Indian Virtual Herbarium is also deeply linked with the botanical history of the country.
- The portal provides most valuable historical collections of botanists like William Roxburgh, Nathaniel Wallich, Joseph Dalton Hooker among others who are considered founding fathers of botany in India.
- The digital herbarium has some of the oldest botanical specimens dating as early as 1696.
- Cyperus procerus was collected between 15 and 20th June, 1696, near Chennai. The oldest type specimen Lepidagathisscariosa was collected in 1817 by Robert Wight.
- Type specimens are those collections which help in new discoveries and are considered of great significance by botanists and taxonomists. Researchers need to examine the types of the names in order to confirm their identities.
Way Forward:
- As a priority, the Indian Virtual Herbarium has digitized information with images of 29,615 type specimens on its platform.
- The herbarium provides information on plants in different categories such as Cryptogams (spore bearing plants), Phanerogams (seed bearing plants). Both the groups are again divided into two categories which includes genera; specimen and type specimens.
- By the end of 2022 the number of digitized species will increase to two lakh.
Study of rock agama gives insights into urbanisation, conservation
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Recently, a study was carried out by researchers from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, to characteriseurbanisation in the region and also to understand where the rock agama reside in and around Bengaluru specifically.
What is Peninsular Rock Agama?
- The Peninsular Rock Agama (Psammophilus dorsalis) which is a type of garden lizard has a strong presence in southern India.
- Habitat loss and other such features of urbanisation have affected the presence of the animal in urban centres.
Component of healthy ecosystem:
- This lizard is a large animal, strikingly coloured in orange and black. They do not generate their own body heat, so they need to seek warmth from external sources like a warm rock or a sunny spot on the wall.
- They are important in ecology from different aspects, they can indicate which parts of the city are warming, and their numbers show how the food web is changing.
- Since these lizards eat insects and are in turn eaten by raptors, snakes and dogs, they cannot live in places where there are no insects.
- Insects are critical components of a healthy ecosystem as they provide so many services, including pollination. So, while rock agamas are interesting in themselves, they are also a good model system to understand other aspects of the ecosystem.
Smaller fauna & flora:
- Usually, biodiversity conservation brings to mind large animals like tigers or elephants or even birds, but organisms like the rock agama play an equally important role in the ecosystem.
- In cities such as Bengaluru, there is a lot of flora and fauna that is rapidly disappearing. The rock agama is one such species which is dependent on rocky scrub habitats which are being converted into buildings and plantations.
- The study apart from characterising the way Bengaluru has grown, further underlines that smaller fauna and flora could be key indicators of the health of the ecosystem and need to be preserved, too.
Conclusion:
- The study examined several environmental factors that could affect the presence of the lizard and revealed that they are found mainly in rocky places and warm spots.
Thus, the inference is that conservation efforts must point towards retaining rocky patches even while reviving landscapes by planting trees.
