EQ: Ganga Pollution, Deep Sea, Arctic Death Spiral and More

EQ: Your weekly environment quotient.

(Photo: iStockphoto)

E-India

• “Loss of biodiversity”: A NGT appointed expert panel has strongly criticised Art of Living for causing extensive damage to the fragile Yamuna floodplains in their March event. The panel noted that some areas of the floodplain had been “completely destroyed”.
  

The World Culture Festival drew more than 3 lakh people to the banks of the Yamuna. (Image altered by The Quint)

• Biodiversity Act ineffective? Even fourteen years after India enacted her biodiversity law, an RTI enquiry has revealed that only 3 percent of the required People’s Biodiversity Registers have been prepared.
  

The first step to protecting diverse plants and animals is to register their locations. (Photo: iStock)

• Save our elephants: In a month where we celebrated World Elephant Day, take a look at some of the biggest threats facing these beautiful animals.
  

Baby elephant chasing swallows. (Photo: YouTube screengrab)

E-Pollution

• Zero tolerance for tannery pollution: As pollution levels in the Ganga continue to rise, the environment minister has announced “zero tolerance” for tannery waste discharge into the river.
  

Tanneries release a lot of chemicals into rivers. (Photo: iStock)

E-Movie

• Green Movie festival in Kolkata: The city is set to host the second edition of its International Environment and Wildlife Movie festival this December — over 600 movies are to be screened in addition to a host of other green initiatives.
  

Kolkata will host the environmental movie fest. (Photo: iStock)

E-Food

• Could meal supplements ever replace “real” food? A new article questions whether we can ever engineer a replacement for food that truly reflects its nutritional, cultural and emotional impact on our lives.
  

What would it mean for humans to rely only on supplements? (Photo: iStock)

E-Law

• Big diesel cars return: Months after a ban on registering new diesel cars, the Supreme Court has allowed these cars to re-enter Delhi’s roads after paying a 1 percent cess.
  

National Green Tribunal initially banned diesel vehicles over 10 years old in Delhi and the National Capital Region. (Photo: Reuters)

E-Stat

• 0.0001: The percentage of deep ocean that has been explored
  

The deep sea has many undiscovered species. (Photo: iStock)

E-International

• Arctic ice “Death Spiral”: Arctic ice is vanishing by 13 percent every decade and scientists are predicting that the entire summer ice cover may collapse in the coming years.
  

Arctic sea ice declines by 13 percent every decade. (Photo: NOAA)

E-Nature

• What’s killing our bees? A new study has revealed that a common class of insecticides called neonicotinoids is causing a mass decline in bee populations. This is worrying since bees are responsible for pollinating many of the plant species that we depend on for our daily existence.
  

Beekeepers check colonies of honey bees in Panzoo, about 45 km south of Srinagar. (Photo: REUTERS/Danish Ismail)

E-Video

• Take a look at the deep sea paradise in Bermuda’s waters here:
  

E-Quiz

• Which of the following countries is home to Europe’s first vegetarian city?
  (a) France (b) Italy (c) Spain (d) Portugal
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(Shalini Iyengar is a lawyer and Research Associate at the International University College of Turin)