EQ: Read About All Things Green, Build Your Environment Quotient

EQ: The Quint’s green newsletter. Read about climate change, wildlife, raise your environment quotient.

Rs 38,000 crore from the Compensatory Afforestation Fund  will be used to finance several biodiversity projects. (Photo: iStock)

E-India

A deer walks among the mangroves of the Sunderbans tiger reserve. (Photo: Reuters) 

• The Centre has announced its plans to use INR 38,000 crore from the Compensatory Afforestation Fund to finance several biodiversity projects. These include urban forestry, school nurseries, monitoring coral and mangrove health and a special conservation programme for the Gangetic Dolphin, Manipuri deer (Sangai), Great Indian Bustard, Dugong and Wild Water Buffalo.

• Consumer preferences, climate change resilience and low input costs are driving a return to indigenous varieties of rice in West Bengal. Reports suggest that local rice variants like Gobindobhog, Radhatilak and Tulsimukun are gaining in popularity after losing ground to high-yielding varieties since the 196os and 1970s.

E-Mage

A two-and-a half year old tigress named ‘T-17’ is seen at the Ranthambhore National Park in the Sawai Madhopur district of Rajasthan. (Photo: Reuters)

• Here’s what happens when the public and wildlife experts find themselves on opposite sides of the conservation debate. Many people have objected to the removal of the tiger ‘Ustad’ from the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve after he apparently killed a forest guard in May.

E-Video

Watch this amusing video of a giant panda entertaining crowds at a zoo in Taiwan.

Why You Should Care

A devotee takes a dip in the much polluted river Ganga . (Photo: Reuters)  

• Citizen action works! A recent example from Coimbatore saw residents forcing a private company which was dumping waste into the local river to clean up the mess. The residents tracked the pollution to its source and the company is now cleaning up the river from the point where it dumped its waste.

Resource & Waste

A heap of plastic bottles is seen at a compression plant in Srinagar. (Photo: Reuters) 

• Indian scientists have developed an eco-friendly plastic substitute using seaweed as raw material. Their invention could become a game-changer if it becomes commercially viable. Plastic pollution is getting worse by the day but restricting its use has proved difficult in practice.

E-Law

Fuel pumps at a Bharat Petroleum gas station in Mumbai. (Photo: Reuters)

• The National Green Tribunal’s Eastern Zone Bench in Kolkata indicated its intention to direct petrol pumps not to sell fuel to vehicles without a “Pollution Under Control” certificate and asked the West Bengal government to respond to this issue. Such steps are already in place in cities like Bengaluru.

E-International

Solar Impulse 2 is on its way around the world seeking to prove that flying is possible without fossil fuels. On its five-month journey of 35,000 km (22,000 miles), the engines are being powered only by solar energy.  (Photo: Reuters)

• The International Atomic Agency’s new chief warned global fossil fuel companies that they risked wasting “billions of dollars of investment” by underestimating the impact of climate change mitigation policies on their businesses.

E-Quiz

What is your state animal? Elephant or Blackbuck or Squirrel or Wild Buffalo or any other species? Tell us in the comments section below.