As a part of environmental management programme, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), New Delhi, has identified 24 problem areas in the country where environmental pollution is critical.

Anyone who has walked over slippery rocks along limped pools will be aware of group of organisms known as algae. Algae are simplest photosynthetic plants dwelling in water.

India’s rank slips by two places from 2006 Human Development Indicator (HDI). The Report asserts that although large scale anomalies gain international recognition, many local climatic disasters goes unreported.

Human civilisation has been based on the systematic and controlled use of fire. Raging fires can wreak havoc on fragile ecosystems and destroy all that comes in its path, including precious life.

Lakes and wetlands possess the capability to moderate floods and droughts by retaining surface runoffs and enabling groundwater recharge. It also acts as silt traps which fuel the aquatic ecosystem with fresh nutrients. The carbon sequestration by lakes and wetlands regulate global climate and wetlands serve as both sink and source of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Great Trigonometrical Survey were spread over 1,600 miles in length along the meridian and, at places, 1,200 miles in latitude, in order to cover the entire country. This work took approximately fifty years to complete and is hailed as one of the most stupendous works in the history of science.

Drought is a normal climatic phenomenon that occurs in all climatic zones, but its intensity and frequency usually increases towards drier climatic zones. In weather terms, drought occurs when rainfall received is a certain percentage lower than the long term average for the area. Drought is not a disaster in the sense an earthquake, a cyclone, or a landslide is, because it does not strike with that suddenness, yet, it is a calamity that spreads slowly over a wide area, affecting the two basic production systems for survival: food and water, and thus impairing the livelihood of the affected people. Impact of drought gets cascaded when it occurs in consecutive years. Data compiled from 107 countries suggest that on an average 220 million people are globally exposed to drought per annum, the maximum vulnerability being occurring in sub Saharan Africa.

Biosphere Reserves are rich in biological and cultural diversity and encompass unique features of exceptionally pristine nature. The goal of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is to facilitate conservation of representative landscapes and their immense biological diversity and cultural heritage, foster economic and human development which is culturally and ecologically sustainable and to provide support for research, monitoring, education and information exchange. The scheme is a pioneering effort at pursuing the increasingly difficult yet urgent task of conserving ecological diversity under mounting pressures.