Syllabus: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment
IUCN World Heritage Outlook 4 Report
- Western Ghats, Manas National Park (Assam), Sundarbans National Park (West Bengal) categorized as “significant concern”.
- Report attributes four main threats: climate change, tourism activities, invasive alien species, roads.
- Uses four conservation assessment cycles undertaken since 2014 for comprehensive evaluation.
Threats to South Asian Sites
- Roads and railroads now among top five threats in Asia (not in 2020).
- Other threats include forest fires, hunting, roadkill, waste disposal, encroachment, illegal logging activities.
India’s Conservation Status
- Four sites “good with some concerns”: Great Himalayan, Kaziranga, Keoladeo, Nanda Devi-Valley of Flowers.
- Khangchendzonga National Park (Sikkim) rated “good” in conservation outlook maintaining current measures.
Western Ghats
- Significance
- Older than Himalayas with exceptionally high biological diversity and endemism levels.
- Habitat to 325 globally threatened species (IUCN Red List): flora, fauna, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish.
- Includes Nilgiri tahr, stocky agile goat found nowhere else globally exclusively.
- Western Ghats Vulnerabilities
- Hundreds of hydropower projects like ₹5,843 crore Sillahalla project (Nilgiris) threatening ecosystem integrity.
- Tourism creates garbage problems consumed by elephants exacerbating human-wildlife conflict situations dangerously.
- Plantations replacing natural ecosystems; climate change forcing fauna redistribution to higher altitudes.
- Exotic species (eucalyptus, acacia from Australia) colonizing natural forests since colonial era.
Sundarbans Threats
- Salinity, heavy metal contamination, unsustainable resource extraction threatens mangrove ecosystem significantly.
- Sea level rise, frequent storm surges reduce mangrove biodiversity in tiger habitat.
Global Context
- Natural World Heritage sites constitute less than 1% Earth’s surface, nurture over 20% global species richness.
- Includes over 75,000 plant species, 30,000 mammal/bird/fish/reptile/amphibian species within protected boundaries.
Q- Discuss the threats faced by the Sundarbans National Park. How are climate change, sea-level rise, and salinity affecting the world’s largest mangrove ecosystem and its tiger population? (10 Marks)