Current Affairs August 2020 - Environment

1 - Polar bears to become extinct by 2100

Scientists have predicted extinction of few polar bears by 2100 due to climate change and global warming. The bears' habitat of sea ice is predicted to decline to such an extent that the animals will be food deprived. Climate change has affected badly to the Arctic, the habitat of polar bears. Climate change has been continually melting sea ice in the Arctic.

Polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt, and when the ice is absent, they will be forced onto land where they cannot find food. As Arctic sea ice declines in response to warming temperatures, polar bears will starve.

2 - India’s first snow leopard conservation centre to come up in Uttarakhand

India’s first Snow Leopard Conservation Centre will be opened in Uttarkashi forest division in Uttarakhand. It will be built by Uttarakhand forest department in partnership with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It will be built under a six-year long project, SECURE Himalayas.

The SECURE Himalayas Project started in 2017 and aims to secure livelihoods, conservation, sustainable use and restoration of high range Himalayan ecosystems. It also looks into conversation of snow leopards and other endangered species and their habitats, found in Himalayas.

3 - Centre to launch projects for Lion & Dolphin conservation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to launch Project Lion and Project Dolphin for the biodiversity conservation of these species on the lines of and to replicate the successes of Project Tiger launched in 1973. Project Dolphin will focus on both river and sea dolphins. The Project Lion will be implemented for the Asiatic lions.

The Gangetic dolphin is categorized as endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List. Asiatic lions are confined to Gir National Park and its surrounding environs in Gujarat’s Saurashtra.