#Seismic_Zones
🔆Seismic Zones in India
✅There are four seismic zones (II, III, IV, and V) in India based on scientific inputs relating to seismicity, earthquakes occurred in the past and tectonic setup of the region.
✅Previously, earthquake zones were divided into five zones with respect to the severity of the earthquakes but the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) grouped the country into four seismic zones by unifying the first two zones.
✅Seismic Zone II:
Area with minor damage earthquakes corresponding to intensities V to VI of MM scale (MM-Modified Mercalli Intensity scale).
✅Seismic Zone III:
Moderate damage corresponding to intensity VII of MM scale.
✅Seismic Zone IV:
Major damage corresponding to intensity VII and higher of MM scale.
✅Seismic Zone V:
Earthquake zone V is the most vulnerable to earthquakes, where historically some of the country’s most powerful shocks have occurred.
#important
#Disaster_management
Join 🔜 @mapping_upsc_prelims
🔆Seismic Zones in India
✅There are four seismic zones (II, III, IV, and V) in India based on scientific inputs relating to seismicity, earthquakes occurred in the past and tectonic setup of the region.
✅Previously, earthquake zones were divided into five zones with respect to the severity of the earthquakes but the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) grouped the country into four seismic zones by unifying the first two zones.
✅Seismic Zone II:
Area with minor damage earthquakes corresponding to intensities V to VI of MM scale (MM-Modified Mercalli Intensity scale).
✅Seismic Zone III:
Moderate damage corresponding to intensity VII of MM scale.
✅Seismic Zone IV:
Major damage corresponding to intensity VII and higher of MM scale.
✅Seismic Zone V:
Earthquake zone V is the most vulnerable to earthquakes, where historically some of the country’s most powerful shocks have occurred.
#important
#Disaster_management
Join 🔜 @mapping_upsc_prelims
🔆Mega Food Parks in India
Govt. is building 37 Mega Food Parks under the Central Sector Umbrella Scheme - SAMPADA
✅Food Park Status click here
✅FIVE PILLARS SAMPADA
1.To double the income of fishermen and farmers
2.To increase the Fish production to 220 Lakh Tonnes Per Year in the next 5 years from the existing 150 Lakh Tonnes per year.
3.To increase the annual income to Rs 1 Lakh
Crore from the current Rs 46,600 Crore
4.Reduce post-harvest losses to 10 Per cent from 20-25 per cent
5.To create 55 lakh employment opportunities
in the sector
#Important
Join @mapping_upsc_prelims
Govt. is building 37 Mega Food Parks under the Central Sector Umbrella Scheme - SAMPADA
✅Food Park Status click here
✅FIVE PILLARS SAMPADA
1.To double the income of fishermen and farmers
2.To increase the Fish production to 220 Lakh Tonnes Per Year in the next 5 years from the existing 150 Lakh Tonnes per year.
3.To increase the annual income to Rs 1 Lakh
Crore from the current Rs 46,600 Crore
4.Reduce post-harvest losses to 10 Per cent from 20-25 per cent
5.To create 55 lakh employment opportunities
in the sector
#Important
Join @mapping_upsc_prelims
🔆India hosts 4 biodiversity hotspots
✅1-the Himalayas,
✅2-the Western Ghats,
✅3-the Indo-Burma region and the
✅4-Sundaland (Includes Nicobar group of Islands).
✅These hotspots have numerous endemic species.
✅Biodiversity is the collection of flora and fauna of a place. Biodiversity Hotspot is a region which is a prime location for the existence of rich biodiversity but also faces the threat of destruction. It is a place which needs our immediate and constant attention to survive and thrive in the future as well.
✅This idea of identifying hotspots was put forth by Norman Myers in 1988.
#environment
✅1-the Himalayas,
✅2-the Western Ghats,
✅3-the Indo-Burma region and the
✅4-Sundaland (Includes Nicobar group of Islands).
✅These hotspots have numerous endemic species.
✅Biodiversity is the collection of flora and fauna of a place. Biodiversity Hotspot is a region which is a prime location for the existence of rich biodiversity but also faces the threat of destruction. It is a place which needs our immediate and constant attention to survive and thrive in the future as well.
✅This idea of identifying hotspots was put forth by Norman Myers in 1988.
#environment
🔆India and RCEP
✅In the latest development, 15 countries solidifi ed their participation in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
✅Even as India opted to stay out after walking out of discussions last year, the new trading bloc has made it clear that the door will remain open for India to return to the negotiating table.
▪️Background
✅The RCEP was first proposed at the 19th ASEAN meet in November 2011 with an aim to create a consolidated market for the 10 member countries and their trade partners.
✅India pulled out of the agreement last year over concerns about cheap Chinese goods entering the country. It can join at a later date if it chooses.
▪️What is RCEP?
✅It is described as the “largest” regional trading agreement to this day, RCEP was originally being negotiated between 16 countries — ASEAN members and countries with which they have FTAs, namely Australia, China, Korea, Japan, New Zealand and India.
✅MINDMAP CLICK HERE
#IR
✅In the latest development, 15 countries solidifi ed their participation in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
✅Even as India opted to stay out after walking out of discussions last year, the new trading bloc has made it clear that the door will remain open for India to return to the negotiating table.
▪️Background
✅The RCEP was first proposed at the 19th ASEAN meet in November 2011 with an aim to create a consolidated market for the 10 member countries and their trade partners.
✅India pulled out of the agreement last year over concerns about cheap Chinese goods entering the country. It can join at a later date if it chooses.
▪️What is RCEP?
✅It is described as the “largest” regional trading agreement to this day, RCEP was originally being negotiated between 16 countries — ASEAN members and countries with which they have FTAs, namely Australia, China, Korea, Japan, New Zealand and India.
✅MINDMAP CLICK HERE
#IR
🔆WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ISSUES AND CONCERNS IN INDIA
✅Day Zero: The day when a city’s taps dry out and people have to stand in line to collect a daily quota of water.
✅For the first time in human history, human use and pollution of freshwater have reached a level where water scarcity will potentially limit food production, ecosystem function, and urban supply in the decades to come.
✅Chennai, one of India’s major cities facing an acute, unprecedented water shortage and witnessing urban floods alternately. According to NITI Aayog’s recent assessment Many other big cities, including the national capital Delhi, are likely to run out of groundwater by 2020.
▪️Why is Water Resource Management the need of the hour?
✅The Niti Aayog report has warned that by 2030, 40 percent of India’s population will be deprived of access to clean drinking water.
✅ Further, as per the NITI Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index (2019), 75 percent of households in India do not have access to drinking water on their premises.
✅India ranks 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index.
✅ It becomes important to understand issues surrounding the effective management of water so as to reduce human miseries.
▪️Basic facts to begin the answer.
✅India has only about 4 percent of the world’s renewable water resources but is home to nearly 18 percent of the world’s population.
✅India witnesses’ floods and droughts at the same time in different parts of the country. This leads to a situation
of Deluge here droughts there.
✅85% of the precipitation in India comes from the South - West Monsoon which is concentrated over the period of four months from June to September.
▪️Issues with water resources
✅Depletion of Groundwater:
🔸 More Exploitation than recharge: The annual withdrawal of groundwater in India far exceeds the annual recharging of it.
🔸High dependence on groundwater: It caters to about 85 percent of rural demand, 50 percent urban requirements, and more than 60 percent of our irrigation needs.
🔸Unregulated extraction: It has led to overuse in many parts of the country, causing the groundwater table to plummet, drying springs and aquifers.
🔸Lack of Agro-climatic planning: water-guzzling crops and heavy use of fertilizers have both contributed to Punjab's water crisis depleting groundwater resources.
✅Impact of water scarcity on Economic Growth: By 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual 6% loss in the country’s GDP.
#mains
Source - OnlyIAS
✅Day Zero: The day when a city’s taps dry out and people have to stand in line to collect a daily quota of water.
✅For the first time in human history, human use and pollution of freshwater have reached a level where water scarcity will potentially limit food production, ecosystem function, and urban supply in the decades to come.
✅Chennai, one of India’s major cities facing an acute, unprecedented water shortage and witnessing urban floods alternately. According to NITI Aayog’s recent assessment Many other big cities, including the national capital Delhi, are likely to run out of groundwater by 2020.
▪️Why is Water Resource Management the need of the hour?
✅The Niti Aayog report has warned that by 2030, 40 percent of India’s population will be deprived of access to clean drinking water.
✅ Further, as per the NITI Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index (2019), 75 percent of households in India do not have access to drinking water on their premises.
✅India ranks 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index.
✅ It becomes important to understand issues surrounding the effective management of water so as to reduce human miseries.
▪️Basic facts to begin the answer.
✅India has only about 4 percent of the world’s renewable water resources but is home to nearly 18 percent of the world’s population.
✅India witnesses’ floods and droughts at the same time in different parts of the country. This leads to a situation
of Deluge here droughts there.
✅85% of the precipitation in India comes from the South - West Monsoon which is concentrated over the period of four months from June to September.
▪️Issues with water resources
✅Depletion of Groundwater:
🔸 More Exploitation than recharge: The annual withdrawal of groundwater in India far exceeds the annual recharging of it.
🔸High dependence on groundwater: It caters to about 85 percent of rural demand, 50 percent urban requirements, and more than 60 percent of our irrigation needs.
🔸Unregulated extraction: It has led to overuse in many parts of the country, causing the groundwater table to plummet, drying springs and aquifers.
🔸Lack of Agro-climatic planning: water-guzzling crops and heavy use of fertilizers have both contributed to Punjab's water crisis depleting groundwater resources.
✅Impact of water scarcity on Economic Growth: By 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual 6% loss in the country’s GDP.
#mains
Source - OnlyIAS
🔆 Laurentian-type Climate
✅ Climate:
▪️Winter - cold and dry, with below freezing temperatures, snowfall is usual.
▪️Summer - warm Due to the influence of Seas, rainfall can be experienced throughout the year, but in Asian part the rainfall is mostly seen during summers.
✅ Vegetation: Predominant vegetation is cool temperate forest
✅ Location:
▪️North America : North-eastern region - eastern Canada, north-east U.S.A., and Newfoundland.
▪️Asia: Eastern coasts of Asia - eastern Siberia, North China, Manchuria, Korea and northern Japan.
✅Important Economic Activity:
▪️Lumbering
▪️Fishing - as the area near both American continent and Asia, is the meeting point of warm and cold ocean currents, it becomes an important fishing ground. Near Newfoundland - Mixing of warm Gulf Stream and cold Labrador currents takes place. Near Japan - Warm Kuroshio and Cold Oyashio Currents meet.
✅ Climate:
▪️Winter - cold and dry, with below freezing temperatures, snowfall is usual.
▪️Summer - warm Due to the influence of Seas, rainfall can be experienced throughout the year, but in Asian part the rainfall is mostly seen during summers.
✅ Vegetation: Predominant vegetation is cool temperate forest
✅ Location:
▪️North America : North-eastern region - eastern Canada, north-east U.S.A., and Newfoundland.
▪️Asia: Eastern coasts of Asia - eastern Siberia, North China, Manchuria, Korea and northern Japan.
✅Important Economic Activity:
▪️Lumbering
▪️Fishing - as the area near both American continent and Asia, is the meeting point of warm and cold ocean currents, it becomes an important fishing ground. Near Newfoundland - Mixing of warm Gulf Stream and cold Labrador currents takes place. Near Japan - Warm Kuroshio and Cold Oyashio Currents meet.
🔆Industrial corridors constitute world-class infrastructure, such as:
✅High-speed transportation network – rail and road
✅Ports with state-of-the-art cargo handling equipment
✅Modern airports
✅Special economic regions/industrial areas
✅Logistic parks/transhipment hubs
✅Knowledge parks focused on catering to industrial needs
✅Complementary infrastructure such as townships/real estate
✅Other urban infrastructure along with enabling policy framework
✅High-speed transportation network – rail and road
✅Ports with state-of-the-art cargo handling equipment
✅Modern airports
✅Special economic regions/industrial areas
✅Logistic parks/transhipment hubs
✅Knowledge parks focused on catering to industrial needs
✅Complementary infrastructure such as townships/real estate
✅Other urban infrastructure along with enabling policy framework
🔆Kartarpur corridor
✅The Kartarpur corridor connects the Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Narowal district of Pakistan with the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in India’s Punjab province.
✅The first guru of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, founded Kartarpur in 1504 AD on the right bank of the Ravi River. The name Kartarpur means “Place of God”.
✅The corridor is being built to commemorate 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikhism on 12th November 2019.
✅Kartapur Corridor facilitates visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib.
✅The Kartarpur corridor connects the Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Narowal district of Pakistan with the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in India’s Punjab province.
✅The first guru of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, founded Kartarpur in 1504 AD on the right bank of the Ravi River. The name Kartarpur means “Place of God”.
✅The corridor is being built to commemorate 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev, founder of Sikhism on 12th November 2019.
✅Kartapur Corridor facilitates visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib.
▪️Water Pollution:
✅Pesticides Use: The twin issues of pesticide use in the soil and industrial wastes penetrating into the soil are making groundwater toxic or at any rate, unfit for drinking.
✅Polluted Rivers: Most of the major and minor rivers in India are being turned into drains with industrial and household pollution. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2018 identified 351 polluted river stretches in India. Maharashtra has the highest number of polluted rivers stretches. The data obtained from CPCB stations show that organic and bacterial contamination continues to be the main source of pollution in rivers.
The Yamuna River is the most polluted river in the country between Delhi and Etawah. Other severely polluted rivers are: the Sabarmati at Ahmedabad, the Gomti at Lucknow, the Kali, the Adyar, the Cooum (entire stretches), the Vaigai at Madurai and the Musi of Hyderabad and the Ganga at Kanpur and Varanasi. Groundwater pollution has occurred due to high concentrations of heavy/toxic metals, fluoride and nitrates at different parts of the country.
▪️Agriculture sector specific issues:
✅ Excessive Consumption: It consumes the largest amount (over 85 percent) of India’s water.
✅Skewed incentive policy: Free or highly subsidized power, has led to excessive and irrational consumption of groundwater. It resulted in lowered water table and salinization of soil.
✅Low irrigated area: More than 60 percent of agricultural land in India is not irrigated, so the failed rains are particularly devastating for farmers. The drought has destroyed crops and dried up wells already stressed by overuse, forcing rural families to move to cities.
✅Poor Maintenance: There’s a growing gap between irrigation potential created and that actually utilised, simply due to improper maintenance.
✅ Unscientific Cropping Pattern: Punjab, Haryana, and West-Uttar Pradesh are the worst-affected Indo-Gangetic states in terms of water stress, and the main reason for this is their 40-year-old cropping pattern in which paddy, sugarcane, and wheat dominate -- all water-guzzlers.
#mains
Source - OnlyIAS
✅Pesticides Use: The twin issues of pesticide use in the soil and industrial wastes penetrating into the soil are making groundwater toxic or at any rate, unfit for drinking.
✅Polluted Rivers: Most of the major and minor rivers in India are being turned into drains with industrial and household pollution. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 2018 identified 351 polluted river stretches in India. Maharashtra has the highest number of polluted rivers stretches. The data obtained from CPCB stations show that organic and bacterial contamination continues to be the main source of pollution in rivers.
The Yamuna River is the most polluted river in the country between Delhi and Etawah. Other severely polluted rivers are: the Sabarmati at Ahmedabad, the Gomti at Lucknow, the Kali, the Adyar, the Cooum (entire stretches), the Vaigai at Madurai and the Musi of Hyderabad and the Ganga at Kanpur and Varanasi. Groundwater pollution has occurred due to high concentrations of heavy/toxic metals, fluoride and nitrates at different parts of the country.
▪️Agriculture sector specific issues:
✅ Excessive Consumption: It consumes the largest amount (over 85 percent) of India’s water.
✅Skewed incentive policy: Free or highly subsidized power, has led to excessive and irrational consumption of groundwater. It resulted in lowered water table and salinization of soil.
✅Low irrigated area: More than 60 percent of agricultural land in India is not irrigated, so the failed rains are particularly devastating for farmers. The drought has destroyed crops and dried up wells already stressed by overuse, forcing rural families to move to cities.
✅Poor Maintenance: There’s a growing gap between irrigation potential created and that actually utilised, simply due to improper maintenance.
✅ Unscientific Cropping Pattern: Punjab, Haryana, and West-Uttar Pradesh are the worst-affected Indo-Gangetic states in terms of water stress, and the main reason for this is their 40-year-old cropping pattern in which paddy, sugarcane, and wheat dominate -- all water-guzzlers.
#mains
Source - OnlyIAS
Solutions for water resources management
▪️Water Resource Management. (WRM)
✅World Bank defines WRM as the “process of planning, developing, and managing water resources, in terms of both water quantity and quality, across all water uses”.
✅ It includes the institutions, infrastructure, incentives, and information systems that support and guide water management.
✅According to the World Bank, water resources management seeks to harness the benefits of water by ensuring there is sufficient water of adequate quality for drinking water and sanitation services, food production, energy generation, inland water transport, and water-based recreational, as well as sustaining healthy water-dependent ecosystems and protecting the aesthetic and spiritual values of lakes, rivers, and estuaries.
✅Water resource management also entails managing water-related risks, including floods, drought, and contamination.
✅ One of the goals of water resource management is water security.
✅ It is not possible to ‘predict and plan’ a single path to water security for rapidly growing and urbanizing global populations. This is due to climatic and non-climatic uncertainties.
✅To help strengthen water security, there is a need to build capacity, adaptability and resilience for the future planning and management of water resources.
▪️Why water resource management is important?
It is important because disastrous water crisis has been creeping up on us for years. Water tables have declined precipitously, even by thousands of feet in some parts of Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. Tanks and wells have gone dry. Some rivers have shrunk while other smaller ones have completely dried up. Water rationing is routine in many urban areas, while in many villages women are trudging longer distances to fetch water.
In addition to this, there are following issues
✅Rise in Water Stressed regions: More than a third of India's population lives in water-stressed areas and this
number is set to grow due to depleting groundwater and rising urbanization. India placed thirteenth among the world's 17 ‘extremely water-stressed’ countries, according to the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas released by the World Resources Institute (WRI).
✅Chronic Water scarcity: Hydrological uncertainty and extreme weather events (floods and droughts) are becoming more common. A NITI Aayog report in 2018 stated bluntly that 600 million people, or nearly half of India's population, face extreme water stress. That three-fourths of India's rural households do not have piped, potable water and rely on sources that pose a serious health risk.
✅Social and Political conflicts: Water scarcity is leading to social and political conflicts at different levels of the government. Internal water crises are also a national security concern. There’s a Growing resentment among
downstream populations toward the affluent, seemingly unconcerned citizens staying upstream, who by the virtue of their position seem to get away with their actions.
Skewed Priorities Diversion of water towards an urban megacity at the cost of the millions living in semi-urban and rural communities in the surrounding regions has been routine practice in India. Such inequity in the access to a resource as fundamental as water is bound to trigger migrations, sociocultural resentment, pressure on urban resources, and competition and conflict.
#mains
Source - OnlyIAS
▪️Water Resource Management. (WRM)
✅World Bank defines WRM as the “process of planning, developing, and managing water resources, in terms of both water quantity and quality, across all water uses”.
✅ It includes the institutions, infrastructure, incentives, and information systems that support and guide water management.
✅According to the World Bank, water resources management seeks to harness the benefits of water by ensuring there is sufficient water of adequate quality for drinking water and sanitation services, food production, energy generation, inland water transport, and water-based recreational, as well as sustaining healthy water-dependent ecosystems and protecting the aesthetic and spiritual values of lakes, rivers, and estuaries.
✅Water resource management also entails managing water-related risks, including floods, drought, and contamination.
✅ One of the goals of water resource management is water security.
✅ It is not possible to ‘predict and plan’ a single path to water security for rapidly growing and urbanizing global populations. This is due to climatic and non-climatic uncertainties.
✅To help strengthen water security, there is a need to build capacity, adaptability and resilience for the future planning and management of water resources.
▪️Why water resource management is important?
It is important because disastrous water crisis has been creeping up on us for years. Water tables have declined precipitously, even by thousands of feet in some parts of Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. Tanks and wells have gone dry. Some rivers have shrunk while other smaller ones have completely dried up. Water rationing is routine in many urban areas, while in many villages women are trudging longer distances to fetch water.
In addition to this, there are following issues
✅Rise in Water Stressed regions: More than a third of India's population lives in water-stressed areas and this
number is set to grow due to depleting groundwater and rising urbanization. India placed thirteenth among the world's 17 ‘extremely water-stressed’ countries, according to the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas released by the World Resources Institute (WRI).
✅Chronic Water scarcity: Hydrological uncertainty and extreme weather events (floods and droughts) are becoming more common. A NITI Aayog report in 2018 stated bluntly that 600 million people, or nearly half of India's population, face extreme water stress. That three-fourths of India's rural households do not have piped, potable water and rely on sources that pose a serious health risk.
✅Social and Political conflicts: Water scarcity is leading to social and political conflicts at different levels of the government. Internal water crises are also a national security concern. There’s a Growing resentment among
downstream populations toward the affluent, seemingly unconcerned citizens staying upstream, who by the virtue of their position seem to get away with their actions.
Skewed Priorities Diversion of water towards an urban megacity at the cost of the millions living in semi-urban and rural communities in the surrounding regions has been routine practice in India. Such inequity in the access to a resource as fundamental as water is bound to trigger migrations, sociocultural resentment, pressure on urban resources, and competition and conflict.
#mains
Source - OnlyIAS
✅ Climate Change: It will worsen the situation by altering hydrological cycles, making water more unpredictable and increasing the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts.
Climate change impacts the water cycle by influencing when, where, and how much precipitation falls.
✅ It also leads to more severe weather events over time. Increasing global temperatures causes water to evaporate in larger amounts, which will lead to higher levels of atmospheric water vapor and more frequent, heavy, and intense rains in the coming years.
✅ Contaminated water resources: Regardless of improvements to drinking water, many other water sources are
contaminated with both bio and chemical pollutants, and over 21% of the country's diseases are water-related. Furthermore, only 33% of the country has access to traditional sanitation.
✅ Impact on Public Health: As its water reserves get dirtier and smaller, India is losing the capacity to safeguard public health, ensure farm productivity, grow the economy, and secure social stability.
✅Water Related Disasters: When water related disasters hit, they can destroy or contaminate entire water supplies, increasing the risk of diseases like cholera and typhoid to which children are particularly vulnerable.
▪️What are the ways and means of water resource management?
✅ Since there is a declining availability of fresh water and increasing demand, the need has arisen to conserve and effectively manage this precious life-giving resource for sustainable development. Given that water availability from sea/ocean, due to high cost of desalinisation, is considered negligible, India has to take quick steps and make effective policies and laws, and adopt effective measures for its conservation.
✅Besides developing water saving technologies and methods, attempts are also to be made to prevent the
pollution.
#mains
Source - OnlyIAS
Climate change impacts the water cycle by influencing when, where, and how much precipitation falls.
✅ It also leads to more severe weather events over time. Increasing global temperatures causes water to evaporate in larger amounts, which will lead to higher levels of atmospheric water vapor and more frequent, heavy, and intense rains in the coming years.
✅ Contaminated water resources: Regardless of improvements to drinking water, many other water sources are
contaminated with both bio and chemical pollutants, and over 21% of the country's diseases are water-related. Furthermore, only 33% of the country has access to traditional sanitation.
✅ Impact on Public Health: As its water reserves get dirtier and smaller, India is losing the capacity to safeguard public health, ensure farm productivity, grow the economy, and secure social stability.
✅Water Related Disasters: When water related disasters hit, they can destroy or contaminate entire water supplies, increasing the risk of diseases like cholera and typhoid to which children are particularly vulnerable.
▪️What are the ways and means of water resource management?
✅ Since there is a declining availability of fresh water and increasing demand, the need has arisen to conserve and effectively manage this precious life-giving resource for sustainable development. Given that water availability from sea/ocean, due to high cost of desalinisation, is considered negligible, India has to take quick steps and make effective policies and laws, and adopt effective measures for its conservation.
✅Besides developing water saving technologies and methods, attempts are also to be made to prevent the
pollution.
#mains
Source - OnlyIAS
🔆Micro-Water Shed Management and Development:
✅It’s one of the most efficient method of conserving water and managing scarce Water resources with a decentralized approach. Size of Micro watershed ranges from 100 to 1000 Hect. So, it gives scope for adopting area specific approach for better water resource management.
▪️What’s watershed?
✅Watershed is defined as any surface area from which rainfall is collected and drains through a common point.
✅“A watershed is a drainage area on earth’s surface from which runoff resulting from Precipitation flows past a single point into a larger stream viz., a river, a lake or an ocean”.
✅A watershed could be described as fan shaped (near circular) or fen shaped (elongated). Hydrologically the shape of the watershed is important because it controls the time taken for the runoff to concentrate at the outlet.
✅ Watershed management is the integration of technologies within the natural boundaries of a drainage area for optimum development of land, water, and plant resources to meet the basic needs of the people and animals in a sustained manner.
✅Watershed sizes are classified into three: micro, mini, and macro watersheds.
▪️TYPES OF WATERSHEDS
Watersheds is classified depending upon the size, drainage, shape and land use pattern.
✅Macro watershed (> 50,000 Hect)
✅Sub-watershed (10,000 to 50,000 Hect)
✅ Milli-watershed (1000 to10000 Hect)
✅ Micro watershed (100 to 1000 Hect)
✅ Mini watershed (1-100 Hect)
Amongst the above watersheds, Micro-Watershed is of utmost importance to develop successful strategy of water resource management.
✅Micro watershed
The smallest one: covers 100-1000 ha. It covers regional planning at the village level with the objective to improve the efficiency of water use for the betterment of agricultural productivity and the value addition of rural populations (SWAJAL Scheme)
Part1/2
#mains
Source - OnlyIAS
✅It’s one of the most efficient method of conserving water and managing scarce Water resources with a decentralized approach. Size of Micro watershed ranges from 100 to 1000 Hect. So, it gives scope for adopting area specific approach for better water resource management.
▪️What’s watershed?
✅Watershed is defined as any surface area from which rainfall is collected and drains through a common point.
✅“A watershed is a drainage area on earth’s surface from which runoff resulting from Precipitation flows past a single point into a larger stream viz., a river, a lake or an ocean”.
✅A watershed could be described as fan shaped (near circular) or fen shaped (elongated). Hydrologically the shape of the watershed is important because it controls the time taken for the runoff to concentrate at the outlet.
✅ Watershed management is the integration of technologies within the natural boundaries of a drainage area for optimum development of land, water, and plant resources to meet the basic needs of the people and animals in a sustained manner.
✅Watershed sizes are classified into three: micro, mini, and macro watersheds.
▪️TYPES OF WATERSHEDS
Watersheds is classified depending upon the size, drainage, shape and land use pattern.
✅Macro watershed (> 50,000 Hect)
✅Sub-watershed (10,000 to 50,000 Hect)
✅ Milli-watershed (1000 to10000 Hect)
✅ Micro watershed (100 to 1000 Hect)
✅ Mini watershed (1-100 Hect)
Amongst the above watersheds, Micro-Watershed is of utmost importance to develop successful strategy of water resource management.
✅Micro watershed
The smallest one: covers 100-1000 ha. It covers regional planning at the village level with the objective to improve the efficiency of water use for the betterment of agricultural productivity and the value addition of rural populations (SWAJAL Scheme)
Part1/2
#mains
Source - OnlyIAS
▪️BENEFITS OF MICRO WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
✅ For draught prone area: Micro-watershed management became inevitable for the development in droughtprone and semi-arid regions that could sort out the problem of water scarcity and drought. Micro-watershed projects can prevent unwanted evaporation by increasing the biomass component of the area.
✅Restoration of Natural Water resources: By Restoring the natural resources of water collection like ponds, lakes. etc.
✅Infrastructure Development: It leads to development of infrastructures like tanks, artificial ponds, check dams,
etc. to store the rainwater and increase the moisture level of the soil.
✅Increased Water user Efficiency: It also includes Improving water use efficiency for agriculture with methods
like drip irrigation and sprinkle irrigation.
✅ Prevention of Soil Erosion: It also helps in Preventing soil erosion, planting trees in the wastelands, groundwater reaching, and conservation of soil moisture.
✅Improves Quality of Life: Micro Water shed management helps in Improving the quality of life of the drought-prone region by the increased availability of water both for drinking and irrigation purposes
🔸E.g., Women and Girls will not have to trudge longer distances for fetching water.
✅It improves the quality of life of villagers through increased productivity of the land, availability of water—surface and ground, an increase in the vegetation cover, improving cattle health resulting in higher milk production, and improving the overall environment by tree plantation.
✅Corresponding Development in Vegetation: Increasing the vegetation occur in semi-arid regions by rational utilization of water resources. Micro-watershed development can result in phenomenal success in regions like Vidarbha. Bundelkhand. & Rajasthan.
✅Conclusion : Thus, Micro water shed management is an area specific decentralized approach with improved chances of better implementation.
Activities such as desiltation of common water bodies like wells, lakes and building of check dams on small rivers will improve water availability.
It also gives scope for application of traditional knowledge of communities in conservation of water.
(SWAJAL Scheme)
Part 2/2
#mains
Source - OnlyIAS
✅ For draught prone area: Micro-watershed management became inevitable for the development in droughtprone and semi-arid regions that could sort out the problem of water scarcity and drought. Micro-watershed projects can prevent unwanted evaporation by increasing the biomass component of the area.
✅Restoration of Natural Water resources: By Restoring the natural resources of water collection like ponds, lakes. etc.
✅Infrastructure Development: It leads to development of infrastructures like tanks, artificial ponds, check dams,
etc. to store the rainwater and increase the moisture level of the soil.
✅Increased Water user Efficiency: It also includes Improving water use efficiency for agriculture with methods
like drip irrigation and sprinkle irrigation.
✅ Prevention of Soil Erosion: It also helps in Preventing soil erosion, planting trees in the wastelands, groundwater reaching, and conservation of soil moisture.
✅Improves Quality of Life: Micro Water shed management helps in Improving the quality of life of the drought-prone region by the increased availability of water both for drinking and irrigation purposes
🔸E.g., Women and Girls will not have to trudge longer distances for fetching water.
✅It improves the quality of life of villagers through increased productivity of the land, availability of water—surface and ground, an increase in the vegetation cover, improving cattle health resulting in higher milk production, and improving the overall environment by tree plantation.
✅Corresponding Development in Vegetation: Increasing the vegetation occur in semi-arid regions by rational utilization of water resources. Micro-watershed development can result in phenomenal success in regions like Vidarbha. Bundelkhand. & Rajasthan.
✅Conclusion : Thus, Micro water shed management is an area specific decentralized approach with improved chances of better implementation.
Activities such as desiltation of common water bodies like wells, lakes and building of check dams on small rivers will improve water availability.
It also gives scope for application of traditional knowledge of communities in conservation of water.
(SWAJAL Scheme)
Part 2/2
#mains
Source - OnlyIAS
Over the last five years, India’s total fertility rate (TFR), the average number of children a woman gives birth to in her lifetime, has declined from 2.2 to 2.0, as per the latest National Family Health Survey (2019-2021). For the first time, TFR has hit below the replacement-level fertility rate (2.1), the number of children needed to replace the parents, after accounting for fatalities, infant mortality, etc. This milestone indicates that the country’s population is stabilizing—there are only five states now that have TFR above 2.1.
SOLOMON ISLANDS
✅The Solomon Islands’ decision to switch its diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing has been blamed for arson and looting in the national capital Honiara, where protesters are demanding the prime minister’s resignation.
✅Solomon Islands is a sovereign country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu.
✅The Solomon Islands are famous as a battleground of World War II, the pivotal Battle of Guadalcanal named after the country’s largest island where the restive capital Honiara is located.
✅The South Pacific nation of 700,000 people — mostly Melanesian but also Polynesian, Micronesian, Chinese and European — is, like neighboring Australia and New Zealand, a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II the head of state.
✅The Solomon Islands’ decision to switch its diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing has been blamed for arson and looting in the national capital Honiara, where protesters are demanding the prime minister’s resignation.
✅Solomon Islands is a sovereign country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu.
✅The Solomon Islands are famous as a battleground of World War II, the pivotal Battle of Guadalcanal named after the country’s largest island where the restive capital Honiara is located.
✅The South Pacific nation of 700,000 people — mostly Melanesian but also Polynesian, Micronesian, Chinese and European — is, like neighboring Australia and New Zealand, a constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II the head of state.
LANDSLIDE PRONE AREAS IN INDIA
✅As per Geological Survey of India (GSI), about 0.42 million
sq.km covering nearly 12.6% of land area of our country is prone to landslide hazards. The major landslide prone areas in India include
1. Western Ghats and Konkan Hills (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra)
2. Eastern Ghats (Araku region in Andhra Pradesh)
3. North-East Himalayas (Darjeeling and Sikkim)
4. North-West Himalayas (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir).
✅Himalayan Mountain ranges and hilly tracts of the North-Eastern region are highly susceptible to slope instability due to the immature and rugged topography, fragile rock conditions, high seismicity resulting from proximity to
the plate margins and high rainfall.
✅As per Geological Survey of India (GSI), about 0.42 million
sq.km covering nearly 12.6% of land area of our country is prone to landslide hazards. The major landslide prone areas in India include
1. Western Ghats and Konkan Hills (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra)
2. Eastern Ghats (Araku region in Andhra Pradesh)
3. North-East Himalayas (Darjeeling and Sikkim)
4. North-West Himalayas (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir).
✅Himalayan Mountain ranges and hilly tracts of the North-Eastern region are highly susceptible to slope instability due to the immature and rugged topography, fragile rock conditions, high seismicity resulting from proximity to
the plate margins and high rainfall.
🔆Lithium Triangle
✅The intersection of Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina make up the region known as the Lithium Triangle.
✅The Lithium Triangle is known for its high quality salt flats including Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, Chile’s Salar de Atacama, and Argentina’s Salar de Arizaro.
✅The Lithium Triangle is believed to contain over 75% of existing known lithium reserves.
✅Half the world’s known reserves are located in Bolivia along the central eastern slope of the Andes range.
✅Exploration and prospection of Lithium at several other specific sites like in Afghanistan, US etc is being carried out.
✅The intersection of Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina make up the region known as the Lithium Triangle.
✅The Lithium Triangle is known for its high quality salt flats including Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, Chile’s Salar de Atacama, and Argentina’s Salar de Arizaro.
✅The Lithium Triangle is believed to contain over 75% of existing known lithium reserves.
✅Half the world’s known reserves are located in Bolivia along the central eastern slope of the Andes range.
✅Exploration and prospection of Lithium at several other specific sites like in Afghanistan, US etc is being carried out.