'Celebrate Biodiversity' ?: World Environment Day 2020

In the year 1972, the world level seminar on the subject of development and environment was held in Stockholm for the first time in the world as a result of overall thinking on environment and development. On this day, through many programs around the world, the state of the world environment and various efforts being made for its protection are contemplated. In India too, many types of events are organized on this day. In fact, only after the year 1972, the worldwide thinking about environment has gained a new momentum.

Probably the annual theme of the WED for the year 2020 was declared by the United Nations Environment Program as 'celebrate biodiversity' that preceded the Corona epidemic. It is a happy coincidence that the adoption of lock-down to prevent the crisis arising out of the corona, has limited human activities, due to which, as if a pleasant gift to wildlife and virtually became a celebration for them. In this period of corona infection, the earth is giving a clear signal that humans should control their undesirable activities, as these days due to the lock down, human activities have become relatively limited. As a result, in South India, wild cats, considered endangered, were seen in cities, while dozens of lions were seen on the highways of Africa. The water of many rivers of the country, especially the Ganges-Yamuna and other rivers, has become naturally clean. Millions of birds like flamingos, continued to roam free in the watershed area near Navi Mumbai, while the air quality indexes in other more horribly air-polluted cities have been unexpectedly changed and improved. All these changes are happening by controlling human activities.

We all know that Mother Earth has worked tirelessly for millions of years, as a result of which millions of flora and fauna varieties have developed on planet earth. It is believed that millions of the total available species have become extinct till now due to many natural reasons. We have vitnessed that during recent past there was a huge fire in the forests of California, Australia and Amazon, due to which premature death of millions of animals occurred, many of them were very rare and precious.

Biodiversity is being irreparably harmed due to excessive exploitation of natural wealth mainly due to our erratic developmental activities like road construction, urbanisation, deforestation, poaching etc. But in addition to this, excessive exploitation of animals is being done globally to fulfil the excessive greed and daily needs of human beings and to fulfil ever increasing demand for the resources for luxury consumption. Apart from all this, illegal felling of trees and hunting of wildlife is a big reason, which is causing huge damage to biodiversity. According to scientific belief, so far, the possibility of having three to 30 crores different species has been presumed in the world, but out of these, it has been possible to identify only 1.75 lakhs species by the scientists, moreover, even before some species are identified, they are getting destroyed which is a serious concern.

Kerala is considered as the most literate state in our country, but in the recent past, the brutal killing of a pregnant elephant has caused worry to a lot of people. In fact, our wildlife laws need to be reviewed again to get rid of such incidents. Our current laws for conservation of wildlife are proving very weak. According to experts, there is a provision of maximum fine of 25 thousand rupees and 7 years punishment for killing wild animals, while there is need for more stringent punishment now. Anyway, we see that along with the illegal felling of trees in and around the protected forest areas, smuggling wildlife by hunting them illegally has also been done uninterruptedly. Unfortunately, even in this period of corona lockdown, these incidents were not completely controlled but rather increased to some extent. It is clear from all these developments that it is doubtful that under the current laws the wildlife could be saved fully.

Due to the changing land use and our development programs, forests are being rapidly wiped out, in one second, equal to an entire football ground in the world, which is a concern. Certainly, along with the destruction of forests, the life of the animals that depend on them is also in danger, they have only two options, either premature death or migration.

In this period of corona pandemic, when human activities were interrupted and at the time of lock download, nature has breathed a sigh of relief and wildlife, animals and birds are moving freely and now their habitat has expanded. Many a times animals are freely coming towards city, Birds are also roaming around the natural environment around the reservoirs, this is a good sign that nature is repairing the damage caused to it in the past. Thus, now the air is relatively more clean and due to which the snowy hills of the north are visible from the far away urban areas.

The global environmental challenges are also not less, the pollution caused by human is increasing day by day, but above all, undesirable changes in the environment are emerging as a serious threat to the environment of the entire earth.

The report given by the IPCC on Climate Change states that the Earth's environment is warming year by year and due to this many undesirable changes are taking place in the Earth's environment such as rapid melting of ice glacier and rise in sea water level. Along with this, the increasing temperature is likely to adversely affect agricultural production and other natural processes. The International Panel on Climate Change was made by the World Meteorological Institute in 1986. According to the forecast made by this in the year 2013, further increase in temperature has been suggested.

There are several reasons for increasing the temperature globally. Data collected by the IPCC showed that between 1880 and 2012, the global temperature showed a 0.9 degree centigrade increase. It is estimated that by the end of the 21st century, this increase in temperature can range from 0.3 to 5.4 degree centigrade. Scientific validation also suggests that a 2 degree centigrade increase in temperature can lead to many undesirable changes in the global environment, which further increases the risk of extinction of biodiversity because this increase in temperature has an adverse effect on flora, fauna and agriculture. Along with this, the sea level is expected to rise from 19 to 21 cm and by the end of the century the sea water level can increase by about 1 meter, which means that many coastal cities and islands from this sea level floods will hit these areas to submerge.

Carbon dioxide gas plays a major role in increasing the global temperature. It is believed that the amount of carbon dioxide has increased almost 2 times in the last 300 years as its volume increased to 280 ppm in the middle of 18th century, which further increased to 400 ppm by 2014.

Climate Change and Fisheries Industry: Fishes worldwide are the main source of protein for 300 crore people through which people are also supplied with protein as well as minerals. In total, millions of people around the world are directly or indirectly directly connected to fisheries or aquaculture operations. Anyway, fisheries is a fast growing enterprise in the world, which has seen annual growth rate of 7%.

Effects of global temperature rise: Most part of our earth is covered by oceans water, so the sea is not untouched by the changes occurring in the atmosphere. Due to global temperature rise, the temperature of sea water is also increasing gradually due to which there is a possibility of seawater expansion. With such a spread, the sea water will gush towards the coastal land areas. Along with it there is a possibility of increasing the acidity in the seawater as the main reason for increasing global temperature due to the unexpected increase in the amount of carbon dioxide gas. The combined result of all this will be that there will be anomalies in the distribution of fish biodiversity in the sea. Similarly, it will also have an impact on the sustainability of the fisheries industry. In such a situation it is inevitable to have an adverse impact on the communities earning their livelihood through fisheries industry. The ocean has been considered a major biological pump for absorbing toxic gases such as carbon dioxide, but increasing acidity is likely to reduce capacity of this major sink as a biological pump.

Due to increasing temperature in the environment, many types of anomalies are also seen in the climate, due to which the order of rainfall is becoming crumbling due to this, depending on inland water sources such as rivers, ponds, lakes, reservoirs and the aquaculture industry that depends on them are also likely to face effects.

Furthermore, the sea has an important contribution to run the carbon cycle on a global scale, because a large part of the total carbon emitted by human activities is absorbed by the sea and the increase in the temperature of the ocean. Acidity would mean that the sea would reduce its importance as a large sink containing carbon dioxide, as we see, the balance of the ocean environment plays an important role in combating global weather changes.

The biggest threat due to the rise in sea temperature is the coral reefs present in the coastal belts with which the life of many other animals is dependent. Changes in temperature can lead to their premature death.

Due to increasing acidity in the sea, the lives of shrimps and mussels can also be endangered as the supply of calcium carbonate needed to make their exoskeleton is hampered. Similarly, animal plankton having very important contribution in the food chains of the sea may also be affected adversely. Due to the increase in water temperature, the life of zooplankton may be in danger due to which there is a possibility of breakdown in the food chains, then the life of some organisms is automatically endangered by cracks in such food chains. This may affect the distribution and organization of fisheries and other aquaculture as well as their productivity. Areas areas like estuaries, Mangrove, sea grasslands and coral reefs are likely to suffer significant damage.

Due to change of rainfall cycle, water scarcity can occur which can have a bad effect on fisheries and fisheries business, especially in rivers and lakes. One effect of increasing temperature in the sea will also be that the saline water of the sea will move towards the coastal areas thus affecting the ground water quality. Apart from this, one effect of increasing temperature will also be that the oxygen carrying capacity of the sea will decrease, which will endanger the life of many sensitive animals and reduce the biodiversity.

On the occasion of World Environment Day, we need to learn from the new circumstances arising out of the Corona pendemic. We must think afresh about the conservation of natural sources of the earth by adopting sustainable development and environment friendly systems. On this occasion, we should also review the entire development system carried out so far especiaaly to assess the damage caused to ecology and economy. There is also a need to bring a change in our thinking towards the environment. The entire efforts by us for environmental protection need to be implemented more effectively. So far we have come to believe that human's total dominance over nature has been established, but Corona has taught us that human is only one component of environment and we should behave with nature in a more respectful manner before it is too late.

We should adopt our traditional wisdom on conservation of nature andits precious resources. The concept of mata bhumi putro aham prathviya' needs to be broadened and adopted in a meaningful way. From this point of view, the ancient traditions of Indian ancient culture have become more relevant in the present context.

Today, on the occasion of World Environment Day, in the time of global disaster, we become part of the campaign to protect the resources of our earth and its organisms properly, so that we can make an active contribution in sustaining the life of human community and other organisms of the earth intact. Governments, voluntary institutions and common citizens have their respective constitutional obligations in the extensive work of conservation of the mother earth. On this day, let us pledge what we can contribute to the comprehensive conservation work of the earth, only then will this day be meaningful and the conservation of the enormous biodiversity available on the earth will be ensured.

Dr L.L.Sharma

(Retd. Dean, College of Fisheries,MPUAT, Udaipur)