sanctuary in Himachal Pradesh.
The drastic increase in the number of Barheaded Geese, which is the icon of the sanctuary.
The total increase in bird population - 83,555 people over and above what was recorded in the year 2024.
Dibru Saikhowa National Park- Oil Exploration.
The Environment Ministry Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) approved the R&D proposal but on the condition that it would be utilized solely to the purpose of conducting the research.
Based on OIL, the ERD (extended reach drilling) technology will be able to drill a depth of 3,500-4,000 metres without disturbing the surface.
In August last, the FAC turned down the proposal to drill seven wells within the Dibru Saikhowa National Park based on the ERD technology of the three existing wells of the Baghjan oil field.
In 2006, the Supreme Court decided that no mining (by whatever name) would be permitted in national parks, sanctuaries and forest lands.
It increased by one kilometre the no-mining area around the national parks and sanctuaries in 2023.
In September 2023, the Environment Ministry waived the need for the ERD projects to obtain forest clearance, with a few exceptions within the national parks and sanctuaries and the surrounding eco-sensitive areas.
New fishing fields in Arabian Sea.
The FSI (Fishery Survey of India) sent out a deep-sea expedition with a trawler and surveyed waters as deep as 540m, between Kollam in Kerala and Goa.
It has exposed some very productive, possibly unexploited fish-grounds in the Arabian Sea.
The new grounds are found about 100 -120 nautical miles on the western coast of India.
It has a very high average catch per unit effort (CPUE) of 150-300 kg/hr.
Climate Risk Index 2025
The Climate Risk Index (CRI) rank of India, which was ranked seventh worst affected country in the world in 2019 because of extreme weather events, is now ranked number 49 in 2022.
But historically it has been rated as one of the 10 most affected with a sixth-worse long-term (1993-2022) ranking.
The results are included in the CRI 2025, published by the environmental think tank Germanwatch.
In 30 years (1993- 2022), India has lost 80,000 lives and almost 180 billion of its wealth in 400 extreme weather events.
Over 7,65,000 individuals nationwide have died because of over 9,400 severe weather occasions during the 30 years up to 2022.
It had economic losses of up to $4.2 trillion (in real terms).
The greatest number of deaths occurred during 1993-2022 because of storms (35%), heat waves (30%), and floods (27%).
The three EU countries that are in the 10 most affected countries in the world in the last 3 decades are Italy, Spain, and Greece.
In the list of 1993-2022, Dominica, China, Honduras, Myanmar and Italy are the five most hit.
In India, there were disastrous floods in 1993, 1998 and 2013 and extremely hot heat waves in 2002, 2003, and 2015.
Intertidal BioBlitz
The first Intertidal Bioblitz of India reveals buried secrets of a beautiful belt of over 500 species along the coasts of Visakhapatnam, Mumbai, Goa and Andamans.
During the biobltiz, 80 species were recorded in Mumbai suburban and 120 species were recorded in metropolitan.
More than 70 species were discovered in three intertidal walks in various sites in the Andaman Islands.
The intertidal zone is the moving point between ocean and land.
It is a peculiar region which is at one time covered by water, and at the other by air as the tide recedes and rises.
They serve as an inherent shield towards coastal erosion, to absorb the wave energy and stabilize the shoreline.
Carbon sequestration of India 2025.
In India the green cover has captured more carbon than it has emitted in the past decade.
However, the sequestration decreases during the extreme climate conditions like drought.
Photosynthetic processes help the Green vegetation to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere and release it into the air through respiration.
Between 380 and 530 million tonnes of carbon per year are estimated by Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE).
As carbon sources, they (green vegetation) emitted 210m tonnes of carbon in a year.
Arctic boreal zone - Carbon source.
The Arctic Boreal Zone, where the treeless tundra is situated as well as the boreal forests and the wetlands spread over 26 million square kilometres, has changed tremendously.
Forty per cent of this area is now a source of carbon, taking more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than it is taking out.
It is changing its millennia-long role as a carbon sink.
The researchers indicate that the shift might have begun in the years prior to 1990.
Carbon source areas were spread over Alaska (44 per cent), northern Europe (25 per cent), Canada (19 per cent), and Siberia (13 per cent).
There has been extensive "greening of the Arctic Boreal Zone where more vegetation and longer growing