Module I

Environement
and
Ecosystem

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 Environmental Science - CHY1002

Module-1: Environment and Ecosystem

Reference: Benny Joseph; Kaushik and Kaushik; S. Kannappan and Erach Bharucha,
Google, wikipedia

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 Key environmental problems

 Basic causes and sustainable solutions

 IPAT Equation

 Ecosystem

 Earth – life support system

 Ecosystem components

 Food Chain, Food Web

 Energy flow in ecosystem

 Ecological succession- stages involved,

 Primary and secondary succession,

 Hydrarch, mesarch, xerarch

 Nutrient, water, carbon, nitrogen cycles

 Effect of human activities on these cycles.

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 Multidisciplinary nature

Life Sciences Physical Sciences

Modelling, Statistics, Environmental Studies Engineering Sciences

Computer Science

Management, Law, Sociology

Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, Social studies, Engineering and several other
subjects are all needed for environmental studies and can be said to be components of
Environmental studies..
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 Range of Environmental Issues
• Global Issues
(global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C
Global warming during the 20th century)
Ozone layer depletion
Depletion of Forest, energy resources
Loss of biodiversity

• Local Issues
River pollution
Dams
Man-animal conflicts
Solid waste disposal

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 Need for public awareness
• The goals of sustainable development cannot be achieved by any
government without the participatory role of public which is possible only
when they aware about ecological and environmental issues.

• Degrading our environment is actually harming our own selves since we

are a part of the complex network of environment where every
component is linked up.

• Chinese proverb “If you plan for one year, plant rice, if you plan for 10
years, plant trees and if you plan for 100 years, educate people.”

• World environment day 5th of June

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 Need for public awareness
• The 2004 nobel peace prize was awarded to kenyan
environmentalist Wangari Maathai (1 April 1940 – 25
September 2011)}

• This is the greatest recognition given to the cause of

environment at international level.

• Maathai kenya’s Deputy Environment Minister and

Founder of Kenya based Green Belt Movement.

• This movement planted about 30 million trees across

Africa.

• This has helped in slowing desertification, preserving

forest for wildlife and food for future generation.

• “When we plant new trees, we plant the seeds of peace.”

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 Indian Environmentalists

Rajender Singh
Alwar district, Rajasthan in India M.C. Metha

Water Conservation Green advocate

“Waterman of India” Ramon Magsaysay awardee IN 1997

Ramon Magsaysay awardee Goldman environmental prize 1996
Padma Shri in 2016
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHNXV6c4r94

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 Indian Environmentalists

Salim Ali Arundhati Roy {Indian author }

Ornithologist Narmada Bacho Andolan

“Birdman of India”,
Padma Vibooshan awardee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDrvtv3p6xY

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 Indian Environmentalists

Sunderlal Bahuguna Menaka Gandhi

Chipko movement Wildlife protection,

Indian politician, animal rights
Padma Vibooshan awardee activists, and environmentalist

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 Definition
Environment -Surroundings.
• Environmental study means study of our surroundings
• In the present environmental studies we concentrate more on the study
of surroundings of we, human beings.

What is meant by surroundings?

Things or conditions around a person or place.
• which include materials (non living), non-materials and living things.

What are the components of our environment?

One way of classification of our surroundings is into Chemical, Physical and
Biological components.
Chemical – all material things
Physical – mainly concerned with energy processes
Biological – both flora and fauna, as well as their interactions.

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Earth’s Life-Support System Has Four Major Components

The four major components of the

earth’s life-support system are the
 atmosphere (air)
 hydrosphere (water)
 geosphere (rock, soil, and sediment),
 biosphere (living things).
Life is sustained by the flow of energy
from the sun through the biosphere,
the cycling of nutrients within the
biosphere and gravity.

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 Ecological Footprint
As our ecological footprints grow, we are depleting and degrading more of the
earth’s natural capital.

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http://www.footprintcalculator.org/ 20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE9qh_WRk50&ab_channel=Indo-
GermanBiodiversityProgramme
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Population Explosion

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5q-PIN3KSE&ab_channel=TheInfographicsShow

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 IPAT -Environmental Impact Model

In the early 1970s, scientists Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren

developed a simple model showing how population size (P),
affluence, or resource consumption per person (A), and the
beneficial and harmful environmental effects of technologies (T)
help to determine the environmental impact (I) of human activities.

We can summarize this model by the simple equation

I = P × A × T.
Impact (I) = Population (P) × Affluence (A) × Technology (T)

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Environmental Impact of Population

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 Environmentally Sustainable Society: Principle
• Living sustainably means living off the earth’s natural income without depleting
or degrading the natural capital that supplies it.

• Rely more on renewable energy from the sun, including indirect forms of solar
energy such as wind , flowing water, to meet most of our heating and electricity
needs.

• Protect biodiversity by preventing the degradation of the earth’s species,

ecosystems, and natural processes, and by restoring areas we have degraded.

• Help to sustain the earth’s natural chemical cycles by reducing the production
of wastes and pollution, not overloading natural systems with harmful
chemicals, and not removing natural chemicals faster than nature’s cycles can
replace them. 29
 Natural Capital

Natural capital is another term for the stock of renewable and

non-renewable resources (e.g. plants, animals, air, water, soils,
minerals) that combine to yield a flow of benefits to people.

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 Natural Capital

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ufQLEu-T_E&ab_channel=GreenTV
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Ecosystems

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 Ecology
Definition:

• Ecology is the study of interactions among organisms or group of

organisms with their environment.

• The environment consists of both biotic components (living

organisms) and abiotic components (non-living organisms).

• Habitat refers to the physical and chemical factors of the place

where the organisms live.

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Ecosystem
Definition:
 The term ecosystem was first coined by A.G. Tansley 1935.
 ‘eco’ means environment and ‘system’ implies a complex
of co-ordinated units.
 An ecosystem is a community of different species interacting
with one another and with their non-living environment
exchanging energy and matter.

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Levels of the organization of
matter in nature.

Ecology focuses on the top

five of these levels.

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 Structure of Ecosystem
T h e environment consists of both biotic c om p o n e n t s
(living organisms) and abiotic c o m p o n e n t s (non-living
organisms) .
Ecosystem

Biotic Abiotic

Autotrophic Heterotrophic Physical Chemical

components components Components Components

(producers) (Consumers)

Air, Water, organic inorganic

Soil, Sunlight substances substances
Macro Micro etc.
consumers consumers

(decomposers)
Proteins, micro and
Carbohydrates macro
1. Primary consumers elements
2. Secondary consumers
3. Tertiary consumers
4. Quaternary consumers 36
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKJoXdrOT70 37
Biotic
• Producers – Green plants which can synthesize their food
themselves (Plants)

• Consumers – All organisms which get their organic food by

feeding upon other organisms (Rabbit, man)

• Decomposer – They derive their nutrition by breaking down

the complex organic molecule to simpler organic compound
(Bacteria, fungi)

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• Consumers

• Herbivores – Plant eaters, They feed directly on producers known

as primary consumers (e.g. Rabbit)

• Carnivores – Meat eaters, They feed on other consumers

» If they feed on herbivores they are called secondary consumers
(Frog)
» If they feed on other carnivores they known as tertiary
consumers (snake, big fish)

• Omnivores – They feed on both plants and animals. (humans, rat)

• Detritivores - They feed on the parts of dead organisms (ants,

earthworm)

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• Decomposer
– They derive their nutrition by breaking down the
complex organic molecules to simpler organic
compounds and finally into inorganic nutrients.
(bacteria and fungi)

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 Abiotic Structure

• Physical factors:
– The sunlight, average temp, annual rainfall, wind,
soil type, water availability etc. are some of the important
physical features which have strong influence on the
ecosystem

• Chemical factors:
– Availability of major essential nutrients like carbon,
nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, hydrogen, oxygen and
sulphur largely influence the functioning of the ecosystem

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 Functions of an Ecosystem
In the ecosystem, biotic components and other materials like N, C, H2O circulated within and
outside of the system.

 The energy is transferred from one trophic level to the other in the form of a chain called as
food chain.

 Important source of energy is the Sun.

 Climatic changes

The major functional attributes of an ecosystems are as follows:

 Food chain, Food webs and tropic structure
 Energy flow
 Cycling of nutrients (Biogeochemical cycles)
 Primary and secondary production
 Ecosystem development and regulation
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 Food Chains
Definition: The transfer of food energy from the source in plants through series of
organisms that consume and are consumed is called the ‘food chain’.
Sunlight Plants Herbivores Carnivores
(Producers) (Primary consumers) (Secondary consumers)

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Grazing food chain Detritus food chain

Eagle Fish

Snake Crab

Rabbit Algae

Grass Dead leaf

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 FOOD WEB
Definition: The interlocking pattern of various food chains in an ecosystem is known as food
web.

In a food web, many food chains are interconnected, where different types of organisms are
connected at different tropic levels, so that there are a number of opportunities of eating and
being eaten at each tropic level.

Example: Insects, rates, deer’s, etc. may eat Grass; these may be eaten by carnivores (Snake,
tiger). Thus, there is an interlocking of various food chains called food webs.

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 Energy flow in the Ecosystem
 The main structural components of an ecosystem (energy, chemicals, and organisms).
Nutrient cycling and the flow of energy—first from the sun, then through organisms, and
finally into the environment as low-quality heat

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 Energy flow in the Ecosystem
• Energy is needed for every biological activity.

• Solar energy is transformed into chemical energy

by a process of photosynthesis. This energy is stored in plant
tissue, and then transformed in to mechanical and heat form during
metabolic activities.

• In the biological world, the energy flows from sun to plants and then
to all heterotrophic organisms like micro-organisms, animals, and
man i.e. from producers to consumers. 1% of the total sunlight
falling on the green plants is utilized in photosynthesis.

• This is sufficient to maintain all life on this earth. There is no 100%

flow of energy from producers to consumers. Some is always lost to
environment. Because of this, energy cannot be recycled in an
ecosystem ‘it can only flow one way’.
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 The flow of energy follows the two laws of
thermodynamics

Ist law of thermodynamics: The law states that energy can

neither be created nor be destroyed but it can be transformed from one
form to another. Similarly, solar energy utilized by green plants
(producers) in photosynthesis converted into biochemical energy of
plants and later into that of consumers

IInd law of thermodynamics: The law states that energy

transformation involves degradation or dissipation of energy from a
concentrated to a dispersed form. We have seen dissipation of energy
occurs at every trophic level. There is loss of 90% energy, only 10% is
transferred from one trophic level to the other.

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 Matter in Ecosystem

• Matter, in the form of nutrients, cycles within and

among ecosystems and the biosphere

• Human activities are altering these chemical cycles.

• The elements and compounds that make up nutrients

move continually through air, water, soil, rock, and
living organisms within ecosystems, as well as in the
biosphere in cycles called biogeochemical cycles (life-
earth-chemical cycles), or nutrient cycles.

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 NUTRIENT CYCLE

• Imp functional attribute of an ecosystem.

• Nutrients move in circular paths through biotic & abiotic components

knownas biogeochemical cycle.

eg:- C, N, S, O, H, P

• Water moves in a cycle –hydrological cycle

• Nutrients move to foodchain & ultimately reach detritus compartment &

causes decomposition.

• Dead plants & animals converted into inorganic substances by microbial

decomposition that are used plants & the cycle starts afresh.
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1. WATER CYCLE

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 1. WATER CYCLE
Biogeochemical cycle that collects, purifies, and distributes
the earth’s fixed supply of water from the environment to
living organisms and then back to the environment.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncORPosDrjI 55
WATER CYCLE

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 Human influence on water cycle
• We withdraw large quantities of freshwater from streams, lakes, and aquifers
sometimes at rates faster than nature can replace it.

• We clear vegetation from the land for agriculture, mining, road building, and other
activities, and cover much of the land with buildings, concrete, and asphalt. This
increases runoff, reduces infiltration that would normally recharge groundwater
supplies, accelerates topsoil erosion, and increases the risk of flooding.

• We increase flooding when we drain and fill wetlands for farming and urban
development. Wetlands provide the natural service of flood control, acting like sponges
to absorb and hold overflows of water from drenching rains or rapidly melting snow.

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 2. NITROGEN CYCLE
Cyclic movement of nitrogen in different chemical forms from the
environment to organisms and then back to the environment.

• N2 is present in atm in large amount-78%

• N2 taken up by plants & used in metabolism for biosynthesis of amino acids

proteins, vitamins.

• After the death of plants & animals, the organic nitrogen in dead tissues is
decomposed by several groups of ammonifying & nitrifying bacteria which
convert nitrates into ammonia, nitrates & nitrites again used by plants.

• Some bacteria converts nitrates in to molecular nitrogen which is

released to atmosphere and the cycle goes on.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOpRT8BRGtk 59
 Nitrogen cycle
N2 gas makes up 78 % volume of the atmosphere.
Nitrogen - is a crucial component of proteins, many vitamins and nucleic acids
such as DNA.
N2 cannot be absorbed and used directly as a nutrient by multicellular
plants/animals.

Two natural processes convert/fix N2 into nutrients which can be used by plants
and animals.
1. Electrical discharge/lightning taking place in the atmosphere.
2. In aquatic systems - in soil, and in the roots of some plants, nitrogen fixing
bacteria completes this conversion as part of nitrogen cycle.

In Earth – Organic matters (amides) - NO3 (leaching, denirtification, Ammonia)

Atmosphere, microbes
Ammonia – Plants (Mineral acids) also different pathways – In dry condition act as
poison
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• Nitrogen cycle consists of several major steps (Nitrogen fixation)
• Specialized bacteria in soil as well as blue green algae (cyanobacteria) in
aquatic environment combine gaseous N2 with hydrogen to make ammonia
(NH3).
• The bacteria use some of the NH3 as nutrient and excrete the rest into the soil
/ water.
• Some of the NH3 is converted to ammonium ions (NH4+) – plants can use as a
nutrient.
• Plants and animals return nitrogen –rich organic compounds to the
environments through wastes and cast-off particles of tissues such as leaves,
skin or hair and through their bodies when they die. and are decomposed or
eaten by detritus feeders.
• In ammonification, specialized decomposing bacteria converts this detritus
into simpler nitrogen containing inorganic compounds such as NH3 and water
soluble salts containing ammonium ions NH4+.
• In de-nitrification, specialized bacteria in waterlogged soil and in the bottom
sediments of lakes, oceans convert NH3 and NH4+ back into nitrate ions (NO3-),
and then into N2 gas.
• These gases released to the atmosphere to begin the nitrogen cycle again.
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NITROGEN CYCLE

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 3. CARBON CYCLE

Cyclic movement of carbon in different chemical forms from the

environment to organisms and then back to the environment.

• C in the form of CO2 taken up by green plants as raw material for

photosynthesis.

• Through food chain it moves & ultimately organic carbon present in

dead matter is returned to atm as CO2 by micro organisms.

• Over use of Fossil fuel leads to imbalance in C cycle.

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 Carbon Cycle
• Carbon is the basic building block of the carbohydrates, fats,
proteins, DNA and other organic compounds necessary for life.

• The carbon cycle is based on CO2 gas (0.039 % of volume of the

earth’s atmosphere), and it is dissolved in water.

• CO2 is a key component of the atmosphere’s thermostat.

• If the carbon cycle removes too much CO2 from the

atmosphere, the atmosphere will cool.

• If the carbon cycle generates too much CO2, the atmosphere

will get warmer.
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• Terrestrial Producers remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

• Aquatic Producers remove CO2 from the water.

• Consumers and decomposers carry out aerobic respiration. This

process breaks down glucose, and other complex organic compounds
to produce CO2 in the atmosphere and water for reuse by producers.

• Linkage between photosynthesis in producers and aerobic respiration

in consumers and decomposers circulates carbon in the biosphere.

• Effect of Human Activities on Carbon Cycle

• We are altering the Carbon Cycle by adding large amount of CO2 to the
atmosphere by burning carbon-containing fossil fuels and clear carbon-
absorbing vegetation from forests, especially tropical forests.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70iDxBtnas 67
 This country isn't just carbon neutral — it's carbon negative | Tshering Tobgay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lc_dlVrg5M
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CARBON CYCLE

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Ecological succession

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 Ecological succession

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ceDE01iWLE&ab_channel=MooMooMathandScience 71
 Ecological succession

• Ecological succession is the gradual process by which

ecosystems change and develop over time. Nothing remains
the same and habitats are constantly changing.

• Types:

 Primary Succession

 Secondary Succession

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqEUzgVAF6g
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 Process of Succession
• Nudation : It is the development of a bare area without any life form.

• Invasion: It is the successful establishment of one or more species on a bare area

through dispersal or migration.

• Competition and coactions : As the number of individuals grows there is

competition, both inter-specific and intra-specific for space, water and nutrition.

• Reaction : The living organism grow use water and nutrients from the substratum
and modify the environment in such a way that it become unsuitable for the
existing species and favor some new species and leads to several seral
communities.

• Stabilization: The succession ultimately stabilize in a more or less stable

community called climax which is in equilibrium with the environment

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Ecological successions starting on different types of areas are
named differently

Hydrarch or Hydrosere: Starting in water area like pond, Swamp,

bog

Mesarch: Starting in an area of adequate moisture

Xerarch or xerosere: Starting in a dry area with little moisture

such as bare rock, sand and saline soil

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 Hydrosere

Phytoplankton

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Xerosere

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 Environmental Studies - CHY1002

Module – 2: Biodiversity

Reference: Benny Joseph; Kaushik and Kaushik; S. Kannappan and Erach Bharucha, Google, wikipedia
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMrtLsQbaok&ab_channel=GuardianNews
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2QxFM9y0tY&t=16s&ab_channel=TED
 Biodiversity

Bio = Life
Diversity = Variety

Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth and the

essential interdependence of all living things among
themselves and with their environment

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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/researchers-identify-a-new-family-of-bony
fishes/articleshow/78419152.cms?fbclid=IwAR3fjmIsjaPVxxtSYdZp13t5QXPNWTuiRUZ6iQQ5JM4dSQFP5Hq_Vb5Omd8
https://www.brainkart.com/article/Pollination--Two-types,-Significance,-Merits,-Demerits_16542/
There is enough for everyone's need but not for anyone's greed
-Mahatma Gandhi
 How much of Biodiversity is there on earth?
How many species?

• Scientists have identified more than 2 million

species. Tens of millions -- remain unknown

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 1. Genetic Diversity:
Variation in Genes within same species
Eg: Several varieties of rice, several breeds of
dogs

Chihuahua Beagle Rottweilers

Chihuahuas, beagles, and rottweilers are all dogs—but they're not the
same because their genes are different.
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2. Species Diversity
Variations in organisms, measured in a given area.
Eg: Flower, tree and cheeta are all different species

Saki Monkey Golden Skimmer Meadow Beauty

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3. Ecosystem Diversity
Variations in food webs, nutrient cycles, trophic structure etc, this diversity has developed
along with evolution

Eg: Tropical rainforests, desserts, ponds, oceans etc.

Prairies, Ponds, and tropical rain forests are all ecosystems. Each one is different, with
its own set of species living in it.

Paines Prairie Florida Sand hill Pond

Hoh Rain Forest

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Values of biodiversity

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 Values of biodiversity
What do we get from biodiversity?
What are the benefits of biodiversity

It has intrinsic and utilitarian values

Intrinsic Value = Something that has value in and of itself

Utilitarian Value = It is useful to others

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 Values of biodiversity

• Social Values: These are the values associated with

the social life, customs, religion and psycho-spiritual
aspects of the people

Eg:
.Certain plants are worshiped
• Tulasi (Holy besal), Palm tree in Egypt
Dances of Tribal people are often related to wildlife:
Snake, fish, cow, peacock etc.

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 Values of biodiversity

Ethical value: Also known as

existence value:

•Having affection for our other living beings,

and feeling that All life should be preserved.

•We do not use several of plant and animal

species directly. But we still feel that they
should not go to extinction.

•We consider it our responsibility to save

them

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 Values of biodiversity
Option value: Biodiversity gives us several options
Option of different forms of energy
Option to visit different areas
Options of medicines and other products etc.

• Ecosystem service value: Services provided by ecosystem like

• Maintenance of soil fertility,
• Cycling of nutrients and water
• Contribution to water cycle
• Pollution breakdown and absorption
• (eg: CO2 is absorbed by forests)
• Contribution to climate stability
• Recovery from disaster

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 Bio-geographical classification of India

• Bio = Life, Geo = land

• Bio-geographical classification refers to

• Different types of climate, topography , flora and fauna induced by
these

• India occupies 10th Place in the world in richness of diversity

• Several different regions exist in India, like Mountains, planes, sea-coast…

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A species is:

• Endangered: If its habitat is reduced to a critical level that it

will not survive unless protected.

• Extinct: If not seen for 50 years

• Vulnerable: If it population is continuously decreasing.

• Rare species: If sparingly scattered over a more extensive

area.
 Endangered Species of India

1. Indian Tiger
2. Ganges Dolphin
3.Gharial
4. Indian Bustard
5. Indian Rhinoceros
6. Lion Tailed Macaque
7. Nilgiri Tahr
8. Sangai Deer
9. Indian Pangolin
10. Wild Water Buffalo
 Extinct Species of India

Indian Cheetah

Himalayan quail Pink-head duck

 Vulnerable
Species of India

1. Barasingha
2. Blackbuck
3. Nilgiri Langur
4. Yak
5. One Horned Rhinoceros
6. Olive Ridley Turtle
7. Red Panda
8. Sloth Bear
Rare Species of
India

1. Asiatic Lion
2. Snow Leopard
3. Black Buck
4. Lion-tailed Macaque
5. Kashmir Red Stag
(Hangul)
 Endemic Species
Endemic species are those that are found in just one region and
nowhere else in the world.
Kashmir Stag, Kashmir Valley

Lion Tailed Macaque, Western Ghats

Asiatic Lion, Gir Forest
Malabar Civet, Western Ghats
 India as a Mega-Biodiversity Nation
• There are 17 mega-diversity nations in the world and they are
working together for conservation of biodiversity: India is one
among them!

• Australia • Madgasacar
• Brazil • Malaysia
• China • Mexico
• Colombia • Papua New Guinea
• Democratic Republic • Peru
of Congo • Philippines
• Ecuador • South Africa
• India • USA
• Indonesia • Venezuela
 India as a Mega-Biodiversity Nation

What makes India a mega-biodiversity nation?

1. Species richness
2. Species endemism
3. Biogeographically different regions
4. Biodiversity Hot spots
5. Biodiversity conservation efforts
 Bio-geographical classification of India

1. Trans-Himalayan
2. Himalayan
3. Deserts
4. Semi-arid
5. Western ghats
6. Deccan peninsula
7. Gangetic plain
8. North-east India
9. Islands
10. Coasts

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1. Species richness

 6% of species exist in India – 10th among plant richness, 11th in terms of

endemic species.
 6th place in origin of agricultural crops.

2. Species endemism

 About 5000 flowering plants, 166 crop plants and 320 species of wild
varieties of cultivated crops originated in India
 Along 7500 km coastal line 340 species of coral are found.
 Several other marine fish, crustaceans, sea-grasses are found in India.
 Areas rich in endemism are:
North-east India,
Western ghats
Gangetic plains (plains along river ganges)
Eastern ghats
North-western and Eastern Himalayas
3. Bio-geographically different regions
India has a wide spectrum of habitats due to its 10th bio-geological regions
(a) Snow covered Himalayas, western and eastern ghats
(b) Planes-gangetic plains and deccan peninsula
(c) Oceans
(d) Islands
(e) Arid and semiarid regions

These regions have different climatic conditions:

(a) Tropical regions with heavy rain and not much variation in temperature
(b) Subtropical zones with hot most of the time and cold in winter
(c) Temperate zones with warm summer and cold winter
(d) Zone with short summer and severe winter

Because of these, it has almost all types of ecosystems found in the world,
(a) like the tropical dry forests, warm deserts, and semi deserts, mountain
ecosystems, ocean ecosystems.
4. Biodiversity Hotspots
 It has four of the world’s 35 hot spots.
 It is home for 33% of life forms found in the world.
 Only 2% of land mass but 12% of biodiversity.

5. Biodiversity conservation efforts

 Project Tiger
 Crocodile Conservation
 Project Elephant
 Various other Indian acts exist related to Environment and Bio
Diversity
 Biodiversity Hotspots

Hotspots: Geographical regions with high biodiversity (species

richness) and endemism.

Criteria for recognizing hotspots

(a) Richness of the endemic species
(b) At least 0.5% of plant species should be endemic (Myers et. al.
2000)

Endemic: Species which are restricted to a particular area

Hotspots of the world and India
• There are 35 hotspots in the world
• 4 of them are in India
 Four Hotspots of India

1.The Western Ghats

2.The Eastern Himalayas

3.Indo-Burma

4.Sundaland
Western Ghats
 Western ghats
 40% plants, 62% amphibians, 50% lizards are endemic
 Forests occur up to 500 m elevation – (20% forest) are evergreen
forest in 500-1500 m are semi-evergreen
 Only 6.8% of the original forests are existing now in this region

Eg: Different species of lizards, reticulated python, Indian

salamander, lizard hawk
 Eastern Himalayas
• Northern Himalayan states of India, some part in Nepal and
Bhutan
• 35,000 plant species of which 30% are endemic species, 63%
mammals, 60% of the Indian birds are from North East
The Saola, a bovine, is one of the world's rarest mammals. It was
discovered in Vietnam only
 GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS
Reference: Benny Joseph; Kaushik and Kaushik; S. Kannappan and Erach Bharucha,
Google, wikipedia

52
 Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)
A genetically modified organism, or GMO, is an organism that has had its DNA altered or modified in some
way through genetic engineering. In most cases, GMO’s have been altered with DNA from another organism,
be it a bacterium, plant, virus or animal; these organisms are sometimes referred to as "transgenic" organisms.
 Challenges Ahead
World Population in 2050 : 9.7 Billion
Shrinking area of cultivated land
Diminishing water resources
Malnutrition and undernourishment
Deterioration in soil quality
Climate change (global warming)

Note: India ranked 94 among 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2020

https://www.globalhungerindex.org/results.html
 Genetically Modified (GM) Crops

What is a GM crop?

GM crops are genetically improved and contain a

gene or genes from the same or a different species
artificially inserted in its genome.

Tissue Culture & Transformation – gives the

maximum flexibility for moving genes within or
between species.
Traditional Cross Breeding
• Used to modify genetic characteristics of populations of species
Example: Dogs, cats, cows, mangos, flowers
• It is a slow process
• Can be done only between species that are genetically close
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)
 GM Crops in India

Bt stand for Bacillus thuringiensis (bacterium)

 Bt- Cotton
Bacillus thuringiensis

Bt-cotton - First GM crop – 2002

Second in global cotton production
Area – 8.0 million hectares – 2008
Yield gain - 31%
Reduction in pesticide sprays – 39%
Brinjal
Brinjal – Some Facts
• The most cultivated vegetable in India
• Eaten by almost all Indians
• Cultivated over 5 lakh hectares
• Annual yield 8 lakh tonnes

So the company producing brinjal wants to enter into GM

brinjal to get financial benefits
What does GM brinjal contain?
• GM brinjal has a foreign gene from Bacillus
thuringenesis (Bt)
• The plant can produce its own pesticide to kill fruit
flies and shoot borer

So the company claims that farmers

no need to use pesticides
 Advantage of GM Crops
• It improves production and raise farmer's income.

• It reduces the use of pesticide and insecticide.

• It can feed a rapidly increasing population because it

shows dramatically increased yields.

• It can produce more in small area of land.

• India introduced Bt cotton seeds in 2002. It has greatly

reduced the use of toxic pesticides. India is now the
largest cotton producer in the world.
Why should we worry about
GM brinjal?
• Toxicity of proteins released
• Not tested for allergic reactions
• No long term safety tests conducted
• Babies have higher risk – but not tested
• Ecological imbalance – killing of other insects
• Loss of consumer choice – we cannot differentiate between
GM and non GM brinjal
• Farmer’s seed sovereignty under threat
• Possibility of gene contamination
• Price raise
• Regulatory problems
Why GM crops are not welcome?
• Nobody knows the future effects – like the effect of pesticides
• The genes can escape to other plants – produce “super weeds”
• May be harmful to good insects and to ecosystem
• Some people claim that it is against nature
• Enough food is already produced - 1.5 times of what is
required UN study – no need for GM crops
M.S. Swaminathan--Father of Green Revolution in India
https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/115/10/1876.pdf
Conservation of bio-diversity

68
69
Loss of Habitat
Forests and grasslands have been cleared for
• agriculture,
• pasturing
• human settlement
• development projects
 Habitat Loss
*** Greatest threat to species***

1. Habitat destruction: directly destroying habitat, include

filling in wetlands, dredging rivers, mowing fields, & cutting
down trees.

2. Habitat fragmentation: cutting up a habitat by building roads

& development.
Aquatic species’ this includes building dams and water
diversion projects.

3. Habitat degradation: pollution, invasive species, and

disruption of ecosystem processes such as fire suppression.
 Poaching
• Killing/hunting of animals

• Illegal trade of wild life

 Despite ban, animals are
killed for Furs, horns,
tusks, skins (crocodile)
 Live specimens are
smuggled

• Subsistence poaching: Killing animals for food

• Commercial poaching : Hunting & killing animals to sell their
products.
 Man-Wildlife conflicts

Reason of Conflict
1. Dwindling habitats of animals

2. Usually the ill, weak and injured animals – attack man

3. Clearing the forest area

4. Wildlife corridors - disrupted

5. Barriers - the villagers put electric wiring around their ripe crop fields
 Pollution

• Oil Spills
• Plastic accumulation
• Noise
• Heat
 Global Warming and Climate Change

• As temperatures increased in recent decades, certain species began breeding and

migrating earlier than expected.

• Decline in breeding populations.

Exploitation
 Conservation of Biodiversity
Conservation of Terrestrial Biodiversity

Conservation of Aquatic Biodiversity

Two approaches:

 In-situ conservation (within the habitat)

 Ex-situ conservation (outside the habitat)

 In situ conservation

• Biosphere reserves

• National Parks

• Wildlife sanctuaries
 In situ conservation
The principal in-situ conservation areas in India are designated at three levels;
Sanctuaries, National Parks and Biosphere Reserves, which differ from each other in their
design, management, purpose and size.

Sanctuaries are relatively smaller in size and are normally species-oriented. They focus
on the conservation of a particular species of plant or animal.

National Parks have more or less the same size as Sanctuaries, but focus on the
conservation of the habitat of one or two species.

Biosphere Reserves are much larger in size and encompass a whole ecosystem. They are
not specifically oriented to one or more species, but to the whole ecosystem. They may
also overlap other protected areas.
In situ conservation
 In-situ conservation
In India, we have 18 Biosphere reserves, 105 National Parks, 553 wildlife
sanctuaries and 120 Botanical gardens

Biosphere reserves conserve the ecosystem as a whole for long term

in situ conservation.

• Few example of biospheres in India

(1) Manas (Assam)
(2) Sunderbans (West Bengal)
(3) Gulf of mannar (Tamil Nadu)
(4) Nanda Devi (Uttar Pradesh)
(5) Nokrek (Meghalaya)
(6) Nilgiri (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka)
(7) Great Nicobars and Similipal (Odisha)

• With in a biosphere reserves there may be one or two national parks

 In-situ conservation
National Parks

• There are 105 existing national parks in India which cover

1.16% of the geographical area of the country

• Conservation as well as enjoyment (tours and trekking)

• Grazing of domestic animals, private rights and forestry

activities prohibited.

Gir (Gujrat), Kaziranga (Assam), Periyar (Kerala),Bandipur (Karnataka),

Corbett (Uttarakhand) etc.
 In-situ conservation
Wildlife sanctuaries:

• Hunting, killing, shooting and capturing of wild animals prohibited

• Private ownership rights are permissible
• Forestry activities are permitted

Mudumalai (TN), Nal sarover (Guj), Jaldapara (WB), wild ass

sanctuary (Guj), Vedanthangal (TN), Hazaribagh (Bihar)

Plants Sanctuaries:

Gene sanctuaries for Citrus (Lemon family) and one for pitcher plant
(as insect eating plants) (Both are loacated in Northeast India)
 In-situ conservation
Specific Projects
• Project Tiger was launched in the year 1973 to save the tigers
• Started with 9 animal reserves in 1973
• The number is grown up to 29 in 2006
• A total of 38,620 km2 is covered by these project tiger areas
• Gir lion project
• Project elephant
 Ex-situ conservation

 Botanical gardens

 Clonal repositories

 Herbariums

 Zoo

Marine Sanctuaries
 Ex-situ conservation
Botanical gardens

India has more than 100 botanical gardens under different

management systems located in different bio-geographical
regions.

Central and state governments manage 33 botanical

gardens that maintain the diversity in the form of plants or
plant populations.
 Ex-situ conservation
Clonal repositories

• National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR)-New Delhi

cryo-preservation (-196oC) of seeds, pollen grains

• National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR)-Karnal,

Haryana
- cryo-preservation of Semen of domesticated bovine animals

• National Facility for Plant Tissue Culture Repository (NFPTCR)

- Different crops
 Ex-situ conservation
Plant herbarium

Plant diversity preserved in the form of herbarium

The Botanical Survey of India has the largest holding of 1,500,000

specimens.

Forest Research Institute, Dehradun has collection of more than 3.0

lakh specimens.

There are many more herbaria

- Presidency College Madras ( 1,00,000)
- The Blater Herbarium at St. Xavier’s College,
Bombay (1,00,000)
- St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchi (60,000) etc.
Ex-situ conservation
Zoos
Captive breeding programs of endangered animals
Semen banks
Zoo Authority of India:
 164 recognized zoos
 Laboratory for Conservation of Endangered Species
Marine Sanctuaries

Gulf of Kutch Marine National Park. (Gujrat)

Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park (Andaman Islands)

Gahirmatha Marine Wildlife Sanctuary (Orissa)

Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park (Indian Ocean of Tamil

Nadu)

Malvan Marine Wildlife Sanctuary (Konkan region of

Maharashtra.)
 Aquatic biodiversity
*Aquatic biodiversity can be defined as the variety of life and the
ecosystems that make up the freshwater and marine regions of the
world and their interactions.

*It includes all unique species, their habitats and interaction

between them.

*It encompasses in Freshwater ecosystems (lakes, ponds, reservoirs,

rivers, streams, groundwater, wetlands) and Marine ecosystems
(Oceans, estuaries, coral reefs).
Importance of Aquatic Biodiversity:

This enormous treasured biodiversity used as an:

 Essential provider of ecosystem goods and services to the mankind.

 Potential to contribute towards Economic and aesthetic value.

 Responsible for maintaining and supporting overall environmental health.

 Depended on aquatic resources for food, medicines, and materials.

 For recreational and commercial purposes such as fishing and tourism.

 Anthropogenic factors affecting Aquatic Biodiversity

• Habitat loss and alteration through damming and water diversion.

• Introduction of exotic (Foreign)species, invasive species.

• Pollution from urban, industrial and agricultural areas.

(a) Fertilizers, pesticides
(b) Sewage from cruise ships & spills from oil tankers- For marine
biodiversity.
• Overexploitation of species.
REVIEW ARTICLES
Modern technologies for sustainable food and
nutrition security
P. C. Kesavan* and M. S. Swaminathan
M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Third Cross Street, Institutional Area, Taramani, Chennai 600 113, India
In the hierarchy of human needs, food is absolutely
the most basic. As the human population was increas-
ing at an accelerated rate with concomitant depletion
of natural resources during the 18th century, Malthus
was greatly concerned about the sustainability of food
availability. Despite the fact that the human popula-
tion has been burgeoning, a total collapse in food
supply has not yet happened. This is because of new
technologies emerging from time to time to boost agri-
cultural productivity and preventing the onset of the
Malthusian scourge. However, none of these technolo-
gies, including the Green Revolution of the 1960s, has
been truly sustainable largely because of their adverse
environmental and social impacts. It is expected that
the Evergreen Revolution which eliminates the nega-
tive attributes of the Green Revolution would be more
sustainable. Critical evaluation of the most modern
technology, modern biotechnology, reveals that the Bt-
and herbicide-tolerant-crops are highly unsustainable.
In addition to causing environmental harm, these
crops exhibit genotoxic effects. The original objective
of reducing the need for application of chemical pesti-
cides has also not been realized. There is need for
basic research to understand the causes of ‘unin-
tended effects’ associated with genetically engineered
crops. It will be prudent to adhere to the recommen-
dations of the Task Force on Agricultural Biotechnol-
ogy, Government of India (2004) in the development
and regulation of genetically engineered crops. These
aspects are briefly discussed in this article.
Keywords: Green to evergreen revolution, modern
technologies, nutrition security, sustainable food.
Technologies: long-term adverse effects
KNOWLEDGE is a continuum and new scientific discove-
ries are made all the time. For example in the field of ge-
netics, discovery of induced mutagenesis, polyploidy,
radiation genetics and genome union in Triticale are all
based on earlier discovery. Quite often discoveries may
lead to positive results in the beginning and later produce
undesirable effects. DDT is a good example. It played a
dominant role in the eradication of malaria, but had long
residual toxicity. With reference to Green Revolution
*For correspondence. (e-mail: pckesavan@mssrf.res.in)
1876
technologies, one of us (M.S.S.) warned as early as 1968
that unless we take care of the ecological consequences
of the different components of Green Revolution technol-
ogy, we may end up with negative impacts. The follow-
ing kind of proactive analysis is necessary while
introducing new technologies.
Technologies with a record of breakthroughs
In the middle of the 19th century Justus von Liebig
(Germany) noted that nitrogen-containing chemical com-
pounds enhanced growth and yield of crop plants. The
next question was regarding how to manufacture large
quantities of nitrates that could be applied to the soil so
that the crop species could uptake them for growth and
increased yield. The Haber–Bosch chemical process of
combining nitrogen and hydrogen at high temperatures
and pressures to produce ammonium nitrate solved the
problem. Liberal supply of nitrogen fertilizers became
available. This positive side of the Haber–Bosch techno-
logy, however, had at least two harmful environmental
effects which were realized only after several decades.
One is that energy for the fusion of hydrogen and nitro-
gen comes from burning fossil fuels, which results in
greenhouse gas emissions. The other is that the nitrogen
cycle is vitiated in the sense that much of the atmospheric
nitrogen is converted into nitrates, which accumulate on
land and in aquifers largely because there is no equally
efficient chemical process to denitrify and release nitro-
gen. Rockström et al.1 have discussed the anthropogenic
vitiation of the nitrogen cycle. This is a change at the
planetary level in epoch Anthropocene. In nature, the
nitrogen-fixing bacteria on the one hand, and the denitri-
fying bacteria on the other, keep a balance between
nitrates and nitrogen. What is obvious is the yield in-
crease by the application of nitrogen fertilizers, and what
is unnoticed is the progressive harm to soil, water and
atmosphere. Then in the middle of the 20th century, Paul
Muller demonstrated the insecticidal properties of a com-
pound, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) that had
been synthesized several decades earlier. DDT was con-
sidered a saviour of humankind from all sorts of pests,
and Paul Muller from Switzerland was awarded the Nobel
Prize in 1940. Two decades later in 1962, Rachael Car-
son2 who in the 1960s was dying of cancer, wrote, The
Silent Spring2, which revealed the significant damage
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 115, NO. 10, 25 NOVEMBER 2018

caused by DDT to non-target organisms, including bene-
ficial pollinators, honeybees, etc. And the birds began to
disappear. Today, several countries have banned or re-
stricted the use of DDT and several other chemical pesti-
cides. While these two technologies are chemical, the
Green Revolution of the 1960s is biological and gene-
based. The height of the wheat and rice crops was geneti-
cally reduced without altering the length of the grain-
bearing panicle. The rationale was that these dwarf and
semi-dwarf plants could uptake high levels of chemical
fertilizers and water, and produce a greater number of
heavy grains. Never before, not in 4000 years of wheat
cultivation, had a new technology brought about such a
quantum jump in yield gain and within 3–4 years. Its im-
pact was such that India’s then image of a ‘begging bowl’
suddenly changed into a ‘bread basket’. This was a high-
input technology of inorganic chemical fertilizers, chemi-
cal pesticides and fungicides also requiring copious irri-
gation with groundwater drawn with thousands of pumps
(electricity was given free). A few of these high-level
fertilizer-responsive, high-yielding varieties were grown
continuously over large areas displacing several locally
adapted varieties and landraces (loss of biodiversity).
These genetically homogeneous varieties were more sus-
ceptible to pests and diseases, with the potential for wide-
spread failure. It was already known that chemical inputs
exert deleterious effects on soil and water (the major
components of the ecological foundations of sustainable
agriculture). The Green Revolution (christened by the late
William Gaud of the US Agency for International Devel-
opment), was a farming technology. This revolution re-
quiring high-level chemical intensification (i.e. high
cost), therefore, largely excluded resource-poor small and
marginal farmers. Scientific integrity demands that
society is kept informed of the deficiencies and negative
impacts of products of technology and innovation. Swa-
minathan3 did just this. As early as January 1968, months
before the ‘Wheat Yield Revolution’ stamp was released
by the Government of India (GoI), he elaborated as fol-
lows:
‘Intensive cultivation of land without conservation of
soil fertility and soil structure would lead ultimately
to the springing up of deserts. Irrigation without
arrangements for drainage would result in soils getting
alkaline or saline. Indiscriminate use of pesticides,
fungicides and herbicides could cause adverse
changes in biological balance as well as lead to an in-
crease in the incidence of cancer and other diseases,
through the toxic residues present in the grains or oth-
er edible parts. Unscientific tapping of underground
water would lead to the rapid exhaustion of this won-
derful capital resource left to us through ages of natu-
ral farming. The rapid replacement of numerous
locally adapted varieties with one or two high yielding
strains in large contiguous areas would result in the
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 115, NO. 10, 25 NOVEMBER 2018
REVIEW ARTICLES
spread of serious diseases capable of wiping out entire
crops, as happened during the Irish Potato Famine of
1845. Therefore, the initiation of exploitative agricul-
ture without a proper understanding of the various
consequences of every one of the changes introduced
into traditional agriculture and without first building
up a proper scientific and training base to sustain it,
may only lead us into an era of agricultural disaster in
the long run, rather than to an era of agricultural pro-
sperity.’
Since we are at a stage of rapid advances in science
and technology, it may be worthwhile discussing their
impact on food and nutrition security. Only a few exam-
ples are taken up for discussion.
The research programmes adopted at the M.S. Swami-
nathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai fall
under the categories of anticipatory, participatory and
translational research. This is essential for ensuring that
the technologies are ecologically, socially and economi-
cally sustainable.
As had been foreseen and forewarned by Swaminathan,
the Green Revolution started showing ‘yield fatigue’ by
the late 1980s, and reached a peak decline by the mid-
1990s (refs 4, 5). By then, Swaminathan6,7 had developed
strategies to transform the unsustainable Green Revolu-
tion into an Evergreen Revolution. Unlike the former,
which focused mainly on the genetic modification of the
plant type, the latter was designed on ‘systems approach’
to ensure concurrent attention to environmental and
social dimensions as well. It is emphasized that the Green
Revolution, which was not designed to fight the famine
of rural livelihoods, could establish food security only at
the national level, but not at the individual household
level of millions of the rural poor. On the other hand, the
Evergreen Revolution combined ‘ecoagriculture’ to
produce food (i.e. ensuring availability of food) with
‘ecotechnologies-led ecoenterprises’ consisting of on-
farm and non-farm rural livelihoods in order to enhance
‘access’ (i.e. purchasing power) of rural communities to
food. Hunger in India is largely due to lack of purchasing
power especially in rural areas, than a lack of availability
of food. The paradigm ‘mountains of grains on one hand,
and millions of hungry people on the other’ well de-
scribed the national hunger paradox following the Green
Revolution. The lessons learnt are that any technology,
modern or traditional, ought to be eco-friendly and rele-
vant to the weakest among the poor. Jeffrey Sachs8 (Earth
Institute, Columbia University, USA) wrote, ‘The great
agronomic successes since Malthus’ time, including the
Green Revolution itself have come at a huge and some-
time irreversible environmental costs. Even with all our
technological wizardry, we have not yet conquered the
Malthusian challenge, since we have not adopted a truly
sustainable method of feeding the planet.’ Even centuries
ago, humankind experienced that faulty technologies
1877
REVIEW ARTICLES
leading to environmental degradation and consequent
hunger could wipe out flourishing civilizations, as hap-
pened with the Sumerians (4th millennium BCE) and
Mayans (CE 900).
Green to evergreen revolution
It should be noted that it is not as if the Green Revolution
failed in its immediate objectives; it had delivered more
than its expectations, i.e. it freed India from imports and
made us self-sufficient. Therefore, it provided the much
needed ‘breathing space’ to develop holistic strategies for
sustainable agriculture. The Evergreen Revolution in a
way, defends the gains of the Green Revolution. The
Evergreen Revolution is lauded as the best option availa-
ble to humankind to feed the burgeoning billions of
mouths over the next several decades and save the ‘rest of
life’ at the same time, without being trapped in a Faustian
bargain that threatens freedom and security, as stated by
Edward Wilson9, in his epoch-making book, The Future
of Life9.
There are also examples of simple modifications in
agronomic practices leading to huge benefits. The ‘sys-
tem of rice intensification’ (SRI) is a good example. SRI
reduces fertilizer and water needs; yet the tillering is pro-
fuse and hence yields are dramatically increased. What is
most notable about SRI is that it makes paddy cultivation
climate-resilient through reduction in inputs. This tech-
nology is promoted by MSSRF.
Plant breeding technologies
In a recent editorial, Swaminathan and Kesavan10 have
briefly referred to the rise and decline of auto and allopo-
lyploid breeding. The synthetic (human-made) Triticale
(2n = 6x = 42) is an allohexaploid of rye, Secale cereale
(2n = 14) and wheat Triticum durum (2n = 4x = 28). It
has a history of about 140 years. It was largely sterile due
to meiotic irregularities. Over the years, meiosis has be-
come almost normal and is now cultivated in marginal
soil, in drought-prone areas of North Africa. The point
being made here is that deviations from Mendelian breed-
ing often exhibit problems which could take a very long
time to overcome or not be solved at all. Mutations and
natural selection are the predominant evolutionary
mechanisms to induce variations in angiosperms. This
fact accounts for the noteworthy success of mutation
breeding (http://www.fao.org/ag/portal/age/age-news/detail/
em/c/269620).
Exploitation of heterosis in hybrids derived from in-
bred parents with good combining abilities provides high
yields (kg/ha), but farmers have to buy hybrid seeds
afresh every year. Hence, it restricts them from saving
seeds for successive sowing. Such technologies provide
1878
handsome opportunities for the corporate sector to pro-
duce hybrid seeds for sale at considerable profits.
The most ‘modern’ technology is modern biotechno-
logy, i.e. ‘molecular breeding’ using recombinant DNA
(r-DNA) technology. The unique aspect of this techno-
logy is that genes from widely different taxa can be
‘inserted’ into a chosen recipient genome; sexual repro-
ductive barriers to gene transfer from one species to
another are broken. The basic problem with the r-DNA
technology (i.e. genetic engineering) is that all the mole-
cular and cellular events which are triggered with the in-
sertion of ‘exogenous DNA’ (whether cis or trans), are as
yet not precisely understood. Since the cost of GE (genet-
ically engineered) seed and inputs required, particularly if
hybrids are used as in India in Bt-cotton, are exorbitant
compared to non-GE seeds, resource-poor small and mar-
ginal farmers are not able to withstand financial losses,
especially if the crops fail for whatever reason. The site
of insertion of exogenous DNA into the recipient genome
is at random, and not controllable. ‘Position effect’ lead-
ing to alterations in gene expression is known to occur. In
many GE organisms, ‘unintended’ effects raising health
safety concerns have been and are being encountered. For
instance, Calgene Company’s ‘Flavr Savr’ tomato, the
first GE food crop in the US was marketed for about just
2 years in the late 1990s and then withdrawn. Calgene’s
short term (28-day) studies with feeding Flavr Savr re-
vealed occurrence of stomach lesions in experimental
rats. In another case, pigs were genetically engineered
with human growth hormone gene to produce ‘lean’ (i.e.
flesh with less fat) pork. These pigs called ‘Beltsville
pigs’ had defects in several organs, including heart.
Moreover, the bone formation was extremely defective
with the result that these pigs were not even able to stand
up; they hardly walked. So, this project was also with-
drawn. There are no ‘Flavr Savr’ tomatoes or pork from
Beltsville pigs today. Yet another case of failure of genet-
ic engineering was that of L-tryptophan. Normally L-
tryptophan is produced by fermentation process (i.e. clas-
sical biotechnology) and has been consistently safe for
humans. In the 1990s, Showa Denko (a Japanese pharma-
ceutical company in USA) started manufacturing L-
tryptophan using GE Escherichia coli. In one batch of GE
L-tryptophan, dimerization (an ‘unintended effect’) had
occurred and this caused the deaths of 37 people and
paralysis (esonophilia myalgia syndrome) of about 1500
people. The abovesaid failures suggest: (a) more research
is needed to elucidate the causes of ‘unintended’ effects;
(b) the assumption of ‘substantial equivalence’ to give
market approval to genetically modified (GM) crops is
wholly unscientific and extremely dangerous. These ex-
amples reveal that several uncertainties and unscientific
assumptions render genetic engineering an imprecise
technology. And multinational corporations are running
ahead of the science to drive this technology of genetically
modified organisms (GMOs), and colluding with
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 115, NO. 10, 25 NOVEMBER 2018

regulators. Aware of these serious issues, the Task Force
on Agricultural Biotechnology with Swaminathan as its
Chairman, laid down the guiding principle in 2004 as
follows:
‘The bottom line of our national agricultural biotech-
nology policy should be the economic well-being of
farm families, food security of the nation, health secu-
rity of the consumer, biosecurity of agriculture and
health, protection of the environment and the security
of national and international trade in farm commodi-
ties.’
As of now, the ground reality is that the guiding prin-
ciple has been set aside. The precautionary principle (PP)
has been done away with11 and no science-based and
rigorous biosafety protocols and evaluation of GM crops
are in place. The adoption of ‘substantial equivalence’
has been recommended11, which is unscientific. Further-
more, in order to generate support for such recommenda-
tion11, the statement on PP made in a Canadian paper12
has been misrepresented.
It is claimed by some that hybrid Bt-cotton has led to
an unprecedented increase in India’s cotton production.
These claims, however, are not based on analyses by ex-
perts or authorities on cotton in India. To set the record
straight, we cite two of the world’s most recognized au-
thorities on the science and production of cotton.
Keshav Kranthi (former Director of Central Institute
for Cotton Research (CICR), Nagpur, and currently with
the International Cotton Advisory Committee, Washing-
ton DC, USA) notes that from 2008 onwards, Bt-cotton
yield stagnated at around 500 kg/ha and currently remains
at this level or perhaps even lower, despite the substantial
increase in area under Bt-cotton cultivation. Pest resis-
tance to Bollgard II was already evident as early as 2008
and the onset of secondary pests became a serious con-
cern. Kranthi13 concludes: ‘Bt cotton was supposed to
have conferred two major benefits to cotton production:
(a) high yields due to effective protection of bolls from
bollworm damage and (b) reduction in insecticides rec-
ommended on bollworm control. Official data show that
none of these promises was kept in the past ten years in
India’.
The pertinent records are available in the public do-
main. It is interesting that the Union of India in its coun-
ter affidavit in the Delhi High Court (in WPCC) No.
12069 of 2015, has correlated farmer suicides with the
failure of Bt-cotton. At the same time, leading American
cotton scientists, Gutierrez and coworkers14 have shown
that farmers’ annual suicide rates in rainfed areas are
directly related to increases in Bt-cotton adoption (i.e.
costs). The lack of irrigation, onset of pest resistance and
emergence of secondary pests necessitating application of
chemical pesticides and the cost thereof, have significant-
ly added to farmers’ woes. Growing a refuge crop delays
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 115, NO. 10, 25 NOVEMBER 2018
REVIEW ARTICLES
onset of resistance. But in India ‘refuges’ are not viable
given our small-holder farming. The data points conclu-
sively to the failure of Bt-cotton due to rising resistance,
the hybrid policy and secondary pests. Many cotton
scientists have acknowledged the huge socio-economic
cost borne by cotton farmers as a result of deploying hy-
brids in Bt-cotton; that it was a clever ploy for a ‘value-
capture mechanism’ by Monsanto. Its role in the failure
of Bt-cotton in India and the resulting indebtedness of our
farmers is significant.
There is no doubt that GE Bt-cotton has failed in India:
it has failed as a sustainable agriculture technology and
has therefore also failed to provide livelihood security of
cotton farmers who are mainly resource-poor, small and
marginal farmers. That a plea has recently been made to
Bt-cotton farmers to adopt the time-honoured traditional
integrated pest management (IPM) system to sustain
Bollgard II cotton points to the relative effectiveness of a
traditional vis-à-vis modern technology15. It is unethical
to ask farmers to first adopt the highly expensive tech-
nology of Bt-cotton and when it subsequently failed, to
then introduce an inexpensive traditional technology to
protect Bollgard II cotton. Both Bt- and herbicide-tolerant
(HT) crops are now proven to be unsustainable agricul-
tural technologies. They have not decreased the need for
toxic chemical pesticides, which was the reason for them
in the first place. Benbrook16 in his study of pesticide use
in GM crops in USA (the first 16 years, 1996–2011) and
using official data has shown that overall pesticide (in-
secticide + herbicide) use has increased by an estimated
183 million kilograms or about 7%.
The Technical Expert Committee (TEC) appointed by
the Supreme Court of India recommended a total ban on
HT-crops. Now, in view of the unsustainability and fail-
ure of Bt-cotton in the country, and the rising health
concerns associated with Bt-crops, the recommended in-
definite moratorium of the TEC in its final report on Bt-
crops (2013), must now, like HT-crops, translate into a
ban on Bt-crops as well (apart from Bt-cotton). In this
context there have been strong criticisms that the GoI has
imposed a moratorium on the commercialization of Bt-
brinjal. What GoI has done is quite appropriate from
several points of view. For example, the long-accepted
version of Cry toxicity (its specificity to alkaline gut sys-
tems of insects) is not the actual mechanism. When feed-
ing moths Bacillus thuringiensis, Broderick et al.17 found
that indigenous gut flora were required for killing. Stu-
dies have shown that the Cry proteins permeabilize the
intestinal epithelium, providing an opportunity for com-
mensal bacteria to act to cause septicaemia and death17,18.
‘Elimination of the gut microbial community by oral
administration of antibiotics abolished Bt activity, and
reestablishment of microbial community restored Bt-
mediated killing.’ Virtually all animals, including humans,
depend on the interplay of numerous species of bacteria
that routinely colonize the stomach and intestines.
1879
REVIEW ARTICLES
‘In moths and butterflies, the complexity is much lower
than in mammals, and even some other insects.’ Bt toxins
are toxic to all the organisms, including mammals. The
exact role played by the microbes to promote the
lethal effects of Bt toxin remains unknown. Paul et al.19
showed that Cry 1 Ab protein in dietary feed is not com-
pletely broken in cow digestion. A year later, a Canadian
study found Bt toxic proteins circulating in the blood of
pregnant women and blood supply to their foetuses20.
The biosafety dossiers of Bt-brinjal were put in the
public domain only after the Supreme Court forced com-
pliance. The Supreme Court-appointed TEC found sever-
al deficiencies in design, collection of data and their
interpretations, and also noted that the important studies
were not done. When these data were analysed by several
leading international scientists (Seralini of France, Hei-
nemann of New Zealand, Schubert of the Salk Institute,
Andow of the University of Minnesota, Carman of Aus-
tralia, Gallagher of New Zealand among others), their
reports confirmed our worst fears and proved to be a de-
vastating commentary on our regulators. Ultimately, there
was no meaningful response from the Genetic Engineer-
ing Appraisal Committee to the ‘can of worms’ exposed
by the international appraisal of the raw data. Sub-
sequently, two Parliamentary Standing Committees (of
2012 and 2017) both concluded that Regulators failed to
uphold rigorous and independent test protocols for
GMOs, that conflicts of interests militated against proper
regulation, the Rules of which in the absence of an Act,
were tinkered with at will. They concluded that ‘field tri-
als must be stopped until corrective measures were put in
place, including a biotechnology Act that assigns priority
to biosafety’. Thus both the TEC and PSCs are unanim-
ous in their recommendation to stop field trials of trans-
genic seeds, which are a serious threat to biosafety.
Genotoxicity of glyphosate (‘Roundup’)
Nearly all HT-crops of corn, soy and cotton are resistant
to Roundup, whose active ingredient is the herbicide
glyphosate. The herbicide (and its adjutants) is known to
be an endocrine disruptor21, genotoxins22,23, teratogens24,
etc. In 2015, the International Agency for Research on
Cancer (IARC) of WHO classified glyphosate as a group
2A carcinogen, categorizing it as ‘a probable human car-
cinogen’. Today, Argentina has significant birth defects
and cancers in HT-soy regions25. Schubert26 refers to a
survey which shows that exposure to glyphosate has esca-
lated over the past 20 years, and laments that as yet regu-
lators are turning a blind eye. He says: ‘we have reached
the point where the evidence against probable carcinogen,
glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup
and in commercial HT-crops), is directly analogous with
DDT, asbestos, lead and tobacco, where industries were
able to block regulatory actions for many years by perpe-
1880
tually muddying the waters about their safety with false
and misleading data’.
Close on the heels of this article26, the Supreme Court
of California’s verdict in the Dewayne Johnson case of
Roundup link to cancer found Monsanto guilty; it must
pay US$ 289 million in damages (The Guardian, 11 Au-
gust 2018, http://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/
org/11/one-mans-suffering-exposedmonsantos-secrets-to-
the-world). The jurors found not only that Monsanto’s
Roundup and related glyphosate-based brands presented a
substantial danger to people using them, but there was
‘clear and convincing evidence’ that Monsanto officials
acted with ‘malice or oppression’ in failing to adequately
warn of risks. Evidence was also presented to jurors
showing how closely the company worked with Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency officials to promote the
‘safety message’ and suppress evidence of harm. In the
light of this judgment alone and apart from other reasons
(discussed later in the text), HT-mustard hybrid DMH-11,
tolerant to glufosinate must be banned. Genotoxic glufo-
sinate is at least as hazardous as glyphosate.
The major environmental harm by HT-crops is to exert
‘selection pressure’ on a wide spectrum of weed species,
to induce formation of ‘superweeds’. This in turn leads to
their acquisition of a ‘genetic shield’ or resistance to the
herbicide. Consequently, a new generation of herbicide-
resistant superweeds invades HT-crop fields. Millions of
hectares across several states in the US are now deva-
stated by superweeds. According to Gilbert27, superweeds
have now spread to 18 countries worldwide and as of
2012, 24 different glyphosate-resistant weed species have
been identified across USA. This is not a record that we
may even contemplate for India, also given our very
different approaches in farming systems.
Yield in non-GM crops in Western Europe and
GM crops in the US compared
Another decisive pointer to the unsustainability of GM
crops arises from the results of a comparison of yield in
Western Europe’s non-GMO maize with GM maize in the
US. The data show that the former matches or exceeds
those of the US, using less pesticide. (Western Europe
does not grow GM crops, unlike USA and Canada.) Fur-
thermore, yields in wheat and oilseed rape are increasing
at an even faster rate in Western Europe than in both the
US and Canada28.
Herbicide-tolerant mustard hybrid DMH-11
The mustard hybrid DMH-11 is a herbicide-tolerant mus-
tard hybrid deploying the sterility gene barnase and the
restorer fertility gene, Barstar. There is no dispute that
Varuna bn 3.6EH2 modbs 2.99 and DMH-11 are able to
survive normally lethal exposures to the herbicide
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 115, NO. 10, 25 NOVEMBER 2018
 REVIEW ARTICLES
Table 1. DMH-11: 2006–07: field trials in six valid locations (mean seed yield in kg/ha)

Location Varuna DMH-1 Kranti DMH-11 Zoanl check

Zone II
Sriganganagar 1527 1501 1606 1370 1344
Delhi 1395 1884 1503 1748 1313
Navgaon (Alwar) 1111 1434 1097 1264 1002

Mean yield (kg/ha) 1344 1606 1402 1461 1220

Zone III
Kanpur 1168 1110 1380 1319 1577
Pantnagar 952 1666 1232 1311 1208
Kota 2566 2488 2433 2325 2368

Mean yield (kg/ha): Zone III 1529 1755 1682 1652 1718

Mean yield (kg/ha): Zones II and III 1437 1681 1542 1556 1469

Source: RTI.

glufosinate ammonium because of the gene called bar.
Mustard DMH-11 remains a HT-crop irrespective of
whether the herbicide is used or not, because intention
(whether it is used in farmers’ fields, which in any case
cannot be stopped) is not a defining characteristic of the
definition of HT-crops. As shown, HT-crops are also
proven to be an unsustainable technology. Therefore, the
fundamental question is whether a dangerous technology
that has no benefit to Indian agriculture and is linked to
cancer and other health hazards should be developed at
all. Today, India has several mustard varieties and CMS
mustard hybrids that out-yield HT-mustard hybrid DMH-
11 as shown below.
In field trials with hybrid DMH-11, the mandated
‘comparator’ (non-GMO isogenic equivalent) was entire-
ly excluded. No non-GMO hybrid, including the CMS
hybrid DMH-1 was included for comparison in the later
required BRL field testing (2010–2014), presumably be-
cause DMH-1 out-yielded DMH-11 in earlier trials. The
fact is that DMH-11 was out-yielded comprehensively by
both varieties and non-GMO hybrids (CMS) (Table 1).
The DMH-11 field trials revealed atleast two unscientific
and flawed decisions by the regulatory authorities.
1. The exclusion of non-GM hybrid DMH-1 from the
subsequent field trials, which outperformed DMH-11 in
2006–2007. The mean yield of DMH-1 is 1681 kg/ha,
whereas that of DMH-11 is 1556 kg/ha.
2. It also became evident from the RTI response that
several non-GM varieties (Kranthi; RH 749, NRCHB506)
and non-GM hybrid mustard (DMH-1 and DMH-4) have
been subjected to rigorous field testing for at least 4–5
years in over 30–50 locations. GM hybrid DMH-11, on
the other hand, was tested for just three years in six loca-
tions. It is clear that DMH-11 fails under the rules of sta-
tistical significance and performance. Since the mandated
hybrid non-GMO comparator was entirely absent, DMH-
11 under the rules should have been rejected outright. It
is interesting to also note the data of heterosis in a study
by Singh et al.29 (co-authored with K. V. Prabhu, GEAC
Member). Heterosis in non-GM hybrids is around 80%
compared to 20–30% of hybrid GM mustard. Singh et
al.29 rightly conclude: ‘The high quality oil genotypes in-
volved in developing heterotic hybrids in this study, shall
be converted into cytoplasmic male-sterile and/or restorer
lines.’ It is noted that the authors would use CMS and not
GE mustard lines.
Claims of the biosafety and sustainable yield increases
of Bt- and HT-transgenic hybrid cotton and mustard (re-
spectively), do not have the backing of science nor field
data. The statement by Padmanaban30: ‘Large-scale anal-
ysis of data from authenticated reports covering a period
of over 15 years has discounted engineered concerns on
the health safety of millions of human and cattle consum-
ing GM-corn or soybean across the globe’, must, in the
light of the evidence provided and the verdict of the US
court case, be rejected. Furthermore, a pertinent question
arises: how are these conclusions drawn when USA,
under industry pressure, does not allow labelling of
genetically-engineered foods? In the absence of labelling
it is impossible to trace the cause of disease or allergenic-
ity. Moreover, in the US people do not consume Bt- and
HT-corn and soybean directly without processing; these
are largely animal feeds. Milk and meat comprise ‘sec-
ondary’ GM foods derived from animals fed GM feed.
Even so, Bt-proteins are found in the blood of pregnant
mothers and foetal blood20.
As of now, the functioning of the GEAC and RCGM
has rightly come under severe criticism due to endemic
conflicts of interest, lack of expertise in GMO risk
assessment protocols, including food safety assessment,
the assessment of their environmental impacts, the lack of
‘need’ for expensive transgenic technology, and which
must include a socio-economic assessment of their farm-
ing impacts on resource-poor small and marginal farmers,
etc. which is also absent. The vacuum in these matters
also means that the Swaminathan Agricultural Task Force

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 115, NO. 10, 25 NOVEMBER 2018 1881

REVIEW ARTICLES
Report (2004) continues to be ignored. Furthermore, our
regulators and institutions have been severely criticized
in three official Government reports (below), of which
two represent PSC Reports which may now be given as
evidence in court proceedings (ref. recent order of a
5-member Constitutional Bench).
(i) PSC: The 37th Report of the Committee on Agricul-
ture (submitted in August 2012) under the Chairmanship
of Shri Basudeb Acharya on the ‘Cultivation of Geneti-
cally Modified Crops – Prospects and Effects’.
(ii) The Unanimous 5-Member Report (June 2013) of
the Technical Expert Committee appointed by the Supreme
Court.
(iii) PSC: The 301st Report dated 25 August 2017
under the Chair of Renuka Choudhury (MP). The report
of this Committee concludes: ‘The Committee strongly
believes that unless the bio-safety and socio-economic
desirability, taking into consideration long-term effects,
is evaluated by a participatory, independent and transpa-
rent process and a retrieval and accountability regime
is put in place, no GM should be introduced in the
country.’
This conclusion of the report incorporates the findings
and principles enunciated in the Report of the Agricultural
Task Force (2004, under the Chairmanship of M. S.
Swaminathan) on the one hand, and the failure of
Bt-cotton, and the unreliability of claims in respect of the
yield of HT-hybrid mustard DMH-11 on the other.
In an interview to The Hindu, 16 August 2017;
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/why-cant-the-
government-provide-a-higher-income-for-farmers/article-
19498056-ece, Swaminathan emphasized that genetic en-
gineering technology is supplementary and must be need-
based. Only in very rare circumstance (less than 1%) may
there arise a need for the use of this technology. In more
than 99% of the cases, the time-honoured, royalty-free,
ecofriendly and socially equitable and also amenable for
‘participatory breeding’ Mendelian breeding will do.
Above all, we require independent, rigorous oversight
of GE crops, without the least hint of any conflict of in-
terest; persons of proven competence in genetic toxicolo-
gy and safety analyses, able economists who are familiar
with and will prioritize rural livelihoods, and the interests
of resource-poor small and marginal farmers rather than
serve corporate interests and their profits; ecologists of
high competence and dedication to biodiversity conserva-
tion, with a scientifically credible understanding of the
consequences of ‘genetic contamination’ in centres of
rich diversity of crops for food, fibre and medicine.
In the end, we strongly believe that scientific integrity
and social responsibility are not negotiable. No technolo-
gy may be exempt from these values. Further, it is noted
that the UN FAO’s Food Security definition includes
Food Safety as well, and therefore the technologies,
whether traditional or modern, must establish this non-
negotiable goal of food safety.
1882
Finally, it is evident that we have not ‘summarily dis-
missed genetic engineering technology as not sustainable
based on a superficial analysis’, as has been alleged by
Padmanaban30. Fortunately, scientific truth prevails and
finally succeeds.
Genetic engineering technology has opened up new
avenues of molecular breeding. However, their potential
undesirable impacts will have to be kept in view. What is
important is not to condemn or praise any technology, but
choose the one which can take us to the desired goal sus-
tainably, safely and economically.
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2009, 461, 472–475.
2. Carson, R., The Silent Spring, Houghton Miffin Co., Boston, USA,
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3. Swaminathan, M. S., The age of algeny, genetic destruction of
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Congress, Part II, Varanasi, 1968, pp. 236–248.
4. Bourne Jr, J. K., The end of plenty; the global food crisis. Natl.
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6. Swaminathan, M. S., Sustainable Agriculture: Towards an Ever-
green Revolution, Konark Publishers Pvt Ltd, Delhi, 1996, p. 232.
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8. Sachs, J. D., Foreword to the book From Green to Evergreen Rev-
olution (ed. Swaminathan, M. S.), Academic Foundation, New
Delhi, 2010, p. 410.
9. Wilson, E. O., The Future of Life, Vintage Books, London,
2003.
10. Swaminathan, M. S. and Kesavan, P. C., Science for sustainable
agriculture to achieve UN SDG Goal 2. Curr. Sci., 2018, 114(8),
1585–1586.
11. Biosafety assurance for GM food crops in India. Policy paper 52,
Published by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New
Delhi, December 2016.
12. Singh, A., Proceed with caution: the statutory, legal and consumer
influence on genetically modified foods in Canada. Can. J. Law
Technol., 2005, 4, 181–193.
13. Kranthi, K., Fertilizers gave high yields, Bt-only provided cover,
Cotton Statistics and News, 2016–2017, No. 39, 27 December
2016.
14. Gutierrez, A. P., Ponti, L., Herreh, H. R., Baumgartner, J. and
Kenmore, P. E., Deconstructing Indian cotton: weather, yields and
suicides. Environ. Sci. Europe, 2015, 27–12; doi:1o.1186/s/12302-
015-0043-8
15. Komarlingam, M. S., An area-wide approach to pink bollworm
management on Bt cotton in India – a dire necessity with commu-
nity participation. Curr. Sci., 2017, 112(10), 1988–1989.
16. Benbrook, C. M., Impacts of genetically engineered crops on pes-
ticide use in the US – the first sixteen years. Environ. Sci. Europe,
2012, 24, 24; https://doi.org/10.1186/2190-4715-24-24
17. Broderick, N. A., Raffa, K. F. and Handlesman, J., Midgut bacte-
ria required for Bacillus thuringiensis insecticidal activity. Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2006, 103(41), 15196–15199.
18. Vázquez-Padrón, R. I. et al., Cry1Ac protoxin from Bacillus
thuringiensis sp. kurstaki HD73 binds to surface proteins in the
mouse small intestine. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 2000,
271, 54–58.
19. Paul, V., Guertler, P., Wiedemann, S. and Meyer, H. H. D., De-
gradation of Cry1Ab protein from genetically modified maize
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(MON810) in relation to total dietary feed proteins in dairy cow
digestion. Transgenic Res., 2010, 19, 683–689.
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ships of Quebec, Canada. Reprod. Toxicol., 2011, 31(4), 1–6;
doi:10.1016/j.reprotox.2011.02.004.
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C. and Séralini, G. E., Glyphosate-based herbicides are toxic and
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nical formulation Roundup. J. Agric. Food Chem., 1997, 45,
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26. Schubert, D. A., Hidden epidemic. GMO Science, 17 March 2018;
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28. Heinemann, J. A., Massaro, M., Coray, D. S., Agapito-Tenfen, S.
Z. and Wen, J. D., Sustainability and innovation in staple crop
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080.14735903.2013.806408
29. Singh, N. et al., Combining ability and heterobeltiosis for yield
and yield contributing traits in high quality oil Indian mustard
(Brassica juncea) genotypes. Indian J. Agric. Sci., 2015, 85(4),
498–503.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. We thank Ms Sharmila Babu for secretari-
al assistance in the preparation for the manuscript.
Received 31 August 2018; accepted 25 October 2018
doi: 10.18520/cs/v115/i10/1876-1883
1883
 Module - 3
Sustaining Natural Resources and
Environmental Quality
 Environmental hazards – causes and solutions.
 Biological hazards – AIDS, Malaria,
 Chemical hazards- BPA, PCB, Phthalates, Mercury.
 Nuclear hazards
 Risk and evaluation of hazards.
 Water footprint; virtual water, blue revolution.
 Water quality management and its conservation.
 Solid and hazardous waste – types and waste management methods.

1
 Environmental hazards:
 Biological Hazard

 Chemical Hazard

 Nuclear Hazard

 Risk and evaluation of hazards.

2
 Major Health Hazards
Biological - Pathogens like bacteria, viruses, parasites,
protozoa, and fungi.

Chemical - Harmful chemicals in air, water, soil, food, and

human-made products

Physical - Fire, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, and

storms

Cultural factors - Unsafe working conditions, unsafe highways,

criminal assault, and poverty

 Lifestyle choices - Smoking, making poor food choices, drinking

too much alcohol, and having unsafe sex
3
 Biological Hazards
Flu, AIDS, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases and malaria.
A non-transmissible disease is a not caused by any living organism.
Eg. Cardiovascular (heart and blood vessel) diseases, most cancers, asthma, and diabetes.

A transmissible disease (also called a contagious or communicable disease) is an infectious

disease that can be transmitted from one person to another by living organism - By pathogen
such as a bacterium, virus, or parasite. Eg. tuberculosis (TB) , flu, and measles

4
 Infectious disease
The life cycle of malaria
Plasmodium parasites circulate from
mosquito to human and back to
mosquito.

5
 Malaria
• About one of every five people in the world—most of them
living in poor African countries—is at risk from malaria

• there is no vaccine for preventing this disease

• It infects and destroys red blood cells, causing intense fever,

chills, drenching sweats, severe abdominal pain, vomiting,
headaches, and increased susceptibility to other diseases

• Four species of protozoan parasites in the genus Plasmodium

cause malaria.
 HIV/AIDS

 HIV - Human Immunodeficiency Virus

 AIDS - Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
 Discovered in 1983
 World wide 40 million affected - mostly in Africa, India, China,
Russia
 3 million died in 2003 due to HIV/AIDS
 Where did it come from?

 The origin is from monkeys, and other apes in Africa

 It spread through HIV contaminated polio vaccine programs

 Hepatitis B viral vaccine in New York, Los Angeles and San
Francisco
 Through small pox vaccine programs of Africa

 Some believe that it is man made – by Genetic Engineering

 Activities spreading HIV

 Blood contact

• Blood transfusion
• Use of infected injection syringes, surgery tools

 Through unprotected sex with multiple partners

 Can pass from mothers to their babies

• During delivery and breast feeding
 Activities which do not spread HIV

 It does not spread through sweat, tears, urine or saliva

 It does not spread through mosquito or bed bug bites

 It does not spread through simple touch.

 It does not spread through sharing utensils, towels,

clothing etc.

 The virus dies quickly outside blood

 Effects of HIV/AIDS on Environment
 Large number of deaths can cause changes in local environment

 Most of the people infected are labours - loss of labour and so

production decreases

 With fewer adults, children find it difficult to survive

 People who are infected become weak and cannot do hard

physical work like farming – crops and food production will fall

 Teachers, doctors affected – education and medical treatment

hampered

 Without labor, less time will be spent on environmental

activities like soil conservation
 Chemical Hazards
Chemicals that can cause cancers and birth defects and disrupt the human immune,
nervous, and endocrine systems

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) listed arsenic, lead,

mercury, vinyl chloride (used to make PVC plastics), and
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as the top five toxic substances

Carcinogens:
chemicals, types of radiation, or certain viruses that can cause or
promote cancer
Eg: arsenic, benzene, chloroform, formaldehyde, gamma radiation,
nickel, PCBs, radon, certain chemicals in tobacco smoke,
ultraviolet (UV) radiation, X-rays, and vinyl chloride.

12
 Chemical Hazards
Mutagens:
Includes chemicals or forms of radiation that cause mutations,
or changes, in the DNA molecules found in cells, or that
increase the frequency of such changes.
Eg: nitrous acid (HNO2), formed by the digestion of nitrite
(NO2–) preservatives in foods.

Teratogens:
chemicals that cause harm or birth defects to a fetus or
embryo.
Eg: Ethyl alcohol, angel dust, benzene, cadmium,
formaldehyde, lead, mercury, mescaline, PCBs, phthalates,
thalidomide, and vinyl chloride.
 Chemicals may affect our Immune, Nervous,
and Endocrine Systems
• Arsenic, methyl mercury, and dioxins can weaken the human immune
system

• Natural and synthetic chemicals in the environment, called neurotoxins, can

harm the human nervous system (brain, spinal cord, and peripheral
nerves).

• Effects can include behavioral changes, learning disabilities, retardation,

attention deficit disorder, paralysis, and death.

• Examples of neurotoxins are Poly chlorinated biphenyls, PCBs, methyl

mercury, arsenic, lead, and certain pesticides.

14
 Chemicals may affect our Immune, Nervous, and
Endocrine Systems

Hormonally active agents (HAAs) disrupt the endocrine system

Certain pesticides and other synthetic chemicals such as
bisphenol A (BPA).

-HAAs include aluminum, atrazine and several other

herbicides, DDT, mercury, PCBs, phthalates, and BPA.

-Estrogen mimics and hormone blockers are sometimes called

gender benders because of their possible effects on sexual
development and reproduction

- thyroid disrupters and cause growth, weight, brain, and

behavioral disorders.
 Mercury (Hg)
Hg and its compounds HgS
and HgCl2, methylmercury
(CH3Hg+) are all toxic.
Research indicates that long-
term exposure to high levels of
mercury can permanently
damage the human nervous
system, brain function, kidneys,
and lungs.
fairly low levels of mercury
can harm fetuses and cause
birth defects

1
6
 The BPA Controversy
Estrogen mimic is bisphenol A (BPA):

It is a chemical building block in certain hardened

plastics (especially shatter-proof polycarbonate)

• Baby bottles
• Sipping cups
• Reusable water bottles
• Sports drink and juice bottles
• Microwave dishes
• Food storage containers
• Can liner in nearly all canned food
• Beverage products.
1
7
 The BPA Controversy

BPA adverse effects include brain damage, early puberty,

prostrate disease, breast cancer, heart disease, liver damage,
reduced sperm count, impaired immune function, type 2 diabetes,
hyperactivity, increased aggressiveness, impaired learning,
increased addiction to drugs such as amphetamines, decreased sex
drive in males, and obesity in unborn test animals exposed to BPA

These hormone mimics are chemically similar to female sex

hormones called estrogens.
In males, excess levels of female hormones can cause feminization,
smaller penises, lower sperm counts, and the presence of both
male and female sex organs (hermaphroditism).
 Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls (PCB)

PCB are a class of more than 200 chlorine-containing organic

compounds that are very stable and non-flammable.

Paints, fire retardants in fabrics, preservatives, adhesives, and

pesticides

Soil, air, lakes, rivers, fish, birds, your body, and even the bodies of
polar bears in the Arctic.

10
Phthalates:
• Phthalates are used to soften polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic found in a
variety of products and used as solvents in many consumer products.
• Phthalates are found in many perfumes, cosmetics, baby powders, body
lotions, hair sprays, deodorants, nail polishes, and shampoos for adults
and babies.
• They are also found in PVC products such as soft vinyl toys, teething
rings, and blood storage bags, IV bags, and medical tubes used in
hospitals.
• Phthalates has caused birth defects and liver cancer, kidney and liver
damage, premature breast development, immune suppression, and
abnormal sexual development.
Toxicity Ratings of different Toxins

21
 Pollutants in Home products

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdEGs9cahyE
22
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7LO8lL4Ai4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK8ccWSZkic

23
24
25
26
 Nuclear Hazard
Nuclear power has a low environmental impact and a very low accident risk, but its use
has been limited by a low net energy yield, high costs, fear of accidents, long-lived
radioactive wastes, and the potential for spreading nuclear weapons technology.

Explosions and partial or complete meltdowns are possible, as we learned in 1986 from
the serious accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.

By 2005, some 56 people had died prematurely from exposure to radiation released by
the accident. The number of long-term premature deaths from the accident, primarily
from exposure to radiation, range from 9,000 by World Health Organization estimates, to
212,000 as estimated by the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, to nearly 1 million
according to a 2010 study by Alexey Yablokov and two other Russian scientists, published
by the New York Academy of Sciences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5ptI6Pi3GA 27
High-level radioactive wastes consist mainly of spent fuel rods and assemblies from
commercial nuclear power plants, the waste materials from dismantled plants, and assorted
wastes from the production of nuclear weapons. They must be stored safely for at least
10,000 years and, by some estimates, up to 240,000 years if long-lived plutonium-235 is not
28
removed from the wastes.
29
30
 Risk - Assessment- Management

Risk
-is the probability of suffering harm
from a hazard that can cause injury,
disease, death, economic loss, or
damage.

Risk assessment
- is the process of using statistical
methods to estimate how much
harm a particular hazard can cause
to human health or to the
environment

Risk management
-involves deciding whether or how
to reduce a particular risk to a
certain level and at what cost.
31
 Estimating Risks from Technologies
The overall reliability or the probability (expressed as a percentage) that a person,
device, or complex technological system will complete a task without failing is the
product of two factors:

System reliability (%) = Technology reliability (%) x Human reliability (%)

With careful design, quality control, maintenance, and monitoring, a highly

complex system such as a nuclear power plant or space shuttle can achieve a high
degree of technological reliability.

 But human reliability usually is much lower than technological reliability and is
almost impossible to predict: To err is human.

32
 Evaluating and avoiding Risks

Scientists use live laboratory animals, case reports of poisonings,

and epidemiological studies to estimate the toxicity of chemicals,
but these methods have limitations.

Because of the difficulty in evaluating the harm caused by

exposure to chemicals, many health scientists call for much greater
emphasis on pollution prevention.

Becoming informed, thinking critically about risks, and making

careful choices can reduce the major risks we face.

 Pollution prevention
33
Prevention is better than cure 24
35
36
37
38
39
40
Dissolved Oxygen
Dissolved oxygen (DO) is the amount of oxygen dissolved in a given quantity of
water at a particular temperature and atmospheric pressure.
oDO depends on
• Aeration,
• Photosynthetic activity of the water,
• Respiration of animals and plants
• Speed of water flow
• Roughness of surface over which water flows
• Temperature of the water body

oOxygen Demanding Wastes

- Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)
Chemicals/Organic wastes present in water consume the DO
- Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)
Organic wastes reaching water consume oxygen from water bodies for
their decomposition by bacteria through biochemical oxidation

o These are useful measures to check water quality

42
A high-quality "boiled" ice cube vs. a regular "cold water" ice cube.
Amazing, right?
44
45
46
47
49
51
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihFkyPv1jtU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ8dbx8CXM4
52
53
54
55
56
Water Pollutants

57
Water pollution is any change in water quality that can harm living organisms or make
the water unfit for human uses such as irrigation and recreation.

 various infectious agents such as certain strains of coliform bacteria Escherichia coli, or E. coli
 dissolved oxygen (DO), COD, BOD
 toxic heavy metals in the ocean.

Eutrophication is the natural nutrient enrichment of a shallow lake, estuary, or slowly

moving stream. It is caused mostly by runoff of plant nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates
from surrounding land.

Near urban or agricultural areas, human activities can greatly accelerate the input of plant

nutrients to a lake—a process called cultural eutrophication. Such inputs involve mostly
nitrate- and phosphate-containing effluents from various sources
58
Ground water pollution – Prevention / Cleanup

59
Water footprint, which is a
rough measure of the volume of water
that we use directly and indirectly to
keep ourselves alive and to support our
lifestyles.

Water that is not directly consumed

but is used to produce food and other
products is called Virtual water, and
it makes up a large part of our water
footprints, especially in more-developed
countries.

 Each of us can help to bring about

such a “blue revolution” and
reduce our water footprints by using and
wasting less water

60
Water Conservation

61
 Solutions
 Pollution Prevention to Protect Groundwater
 Protecting Watersheds Instead of Building Water
Purification Plants
 Using Laws to Protect Drinking Water Quality
 Sewage Treatment to Reduce Water Pollution

62
 Water conservation practices
1. Decreasing run-off losses
Infiltration into the soil can reduce loss

 Contour cultivation
 Conservation bench terracing
 Water spreading – channeling, lagoon- leveling
 Chemical wetting agents like surfactants
 Chemical conditioners –Gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O)
 In Sodic soils – HPAN (hydrolysed
polyacrylonitrile) improve permeability
 Water-storage structures – ponds, dug-outs

63
Water conservation practices
2. Reducing evaporation losses
Some methods available
• Use of asphalt sheets below the soil
• Super slurper – copolymer of acrylonitrile and
starch absorbs water upto 1400 times its weight
• Planting trees on the edges of fields
3. Storing water in soil
– Some water is stored in soil in the root zone. If the
land is left fallow for some time that water will
become available

64
Water conservation practices
4. Reducing irrigation losses
– Covered canals to reduce seepage
– Irrigation in early morning or evening
– Sprinklers
– Use of less water requiring hybrid varieties
– Drip irrigation

5. Reuse
– Treated water can be reused
– Water from washings bath tubs etc (grey water)
for watering gardens

65
Water conservation practices
6. Stop wastage
• Close taps
• Repair leaks
• Use small capacity flush

7. Increase block pricing

• Put a charge on water

– Introduce proper laws

– Educate people

66
 Rainwater Harvesting

• What is it and why do we need it?

• Why are some of the cities like Chennai

or Mumbai facing water problems?

• Because of less rainfall?

67
 Comparison of rainfall in 5 Indian cities 57
35.0

30.0
Mumbai
25.0

20.0
Rainfall in

15.0 Chennai
Calcutta
inches

10.0
Delhi
Bangaloru
5.0

0.0

November
March

May

December
September
April

October
February
January

August
June

July

Months

Bangaloru gets 37”annually but the rainfall is more spread out.

Delhi = 32.1” Mumbai=120” Calcutta=62.3” Chennai = 50”
68
Flood and Drought

69
 Rainwater harvesting
• It is a technique of increasing the recharge
of groundwater by capturing and storing
rainwater

• This is done by construction of special water

harvesting structures like dug wells,
percolation pits, lagoons, check dams etc.

70
 Rainwater harvesting
• Obectives
– Reduce run off loss
– Avoid flooding of roads
– Meet the increasing demands of water
– Raise the water table
– Reduce groundwater contamination
– Supplement groundwater supplies during
lean season

71
 Rainwater harvesting
Methods of rainwater harvesting are

1. Storing in tanks or reservoirs above or below

ground
2. Constructing pits, dug wells, lagoons trenches or
check dams on rivers and streams
3. By recharging groundwater

72
Roof-top rainwater harvesting

73
 Traditional rainwater harvesting
• What were the good deeds of Samrat Asoka?

• In ancient India there were lakes and ponds in every

village constructed by kings

• In Rajasthan underground tanks and embankments

were found

• In Himalayan regions bamboo pipes were used to draw

water from streams

• Collecting rain water from roof-tops is one of the

oldest techniques in India

• In villages lake cut ponds were made. In Tamilnadu,

they had separate such ponds for bathing, washing
and drinking. 63
 What is Watershed?
• Watershed – a delineated area with well-
defined topographical boundary

• The land area from which water drains to

a drainage channel – stream, river etc.

• Also called as catchment area, drainage basin,

river basin etc.

• Watersheds have a well-defined boundary and

one water outlet.

75
76
ESTRA SLIDES
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/why-world-has-declared-a-
war-against-plastic/articleshow/70806066.cms
 Synonyms Phenylcyclohexyl
piperidine, angel
dust, sherm, wet,
animal
tranquilizer,
embalming fluid,
[
wack
Phencyclidine
89
contour cultivation
Polyacrylonitrile. ... Almost all PAN resins are copolymers
made from mixtures of monomers with acrylonitrile as the
main monomer. It is a versatile polymer used to produce
large variety of products including ultra filtration
membranes, hollow fibers for reverse osmosis, fibers for
textiles, oxidized PAN fibers.

Soil permeability is the property of the soil to

transmitwater and air and is one of the most important
qualities to consider for fish culture. A pond built in
impermeable soilwill lose little water through seepage.
... Soils are generally made up of layers and soil quality
often varies greatly from one layer to another.
Bench terraces are a soil and
water conservationmeasure used on sloping land with
relatively deep soils to retain water and control erosion.
They are normally constructed by cutting and filling to
produce a series of level steps or benches. This allows
water to infiltrate slowly into the soil.
 Chemical wetting agents like surfactants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcqfZdTxZ_k
Sudarsan Pattnaik
3
5
6
 Solid waste
Solid waste contributes to pollution and represents the unnecessary
consumption of resources; hazardous waste contributes to pollution as well
as to natural capital degradation, health problems, and premature deaths.

 Industrial solid waste

 Municipal solid waste (MSW)

 Hazardous, or toxic waste

7
8
9
10
11
landfilling
Resource recovery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KMMwHjJ9R8

14
15
16
Solid Waste Management

17
 Solid waste management
 We attempt to control wastes in ways that reduce their
environmental harm without seriously trying to reduce the
amount of waste produced.

 A sustainable approach to solid waste is first to

reduce it,

then to reuse or

recycle it,
and finally to safely dispose of what is left.
13
Integrated waste management

19
 Methods of Discarding Wastes

1. Sanitary Land fill

2. Biocompost

3. Incineration

20
16
Sanitary Land Fill

22
Sanitary Landfills – Advantages/ Disadvantages

23
Biocompost

24
25
Incineration

26
27
Incineration

28
Incineration – Advantages/ Disadvantages

29
Solid waste management -Priority

30
31
Hazardous waste

32
 Solutions
Physical methods for detoxifying hazardous wastes:
include using charcoal or resins to filter out harmful solids, distilling liquid wastes to separate
out harmful chemicals, and precipitating, or allowing natural processes to separate, such
chemicals from solution.

Chemical methods are used to convert hazardous:

chemicals to harmless or less harmful chemicals through chemical reactions

Nanomagnets:
magnetic nanoparticles coated with certain compounds that can remove various pollutants
from water.

Biological methods for treatment of hazardous waste:

-bioremediation, in which bacteria and enzymes help to destroy toxic or hazardous
substances, or convert them to harmless compounds.

-phytoremediation, which involves using natural or genetically engineered plants to absorb,

filter, and remove contaminants from polluted soil and water
33
Solution to solid waste

34
Additional slides
17
Module 7: Global Climatic Change and
Mitigation

Climate disruption, Green house effect, Ozone

layer depletion and Acid rain. Kyoto protocol,
Carbon credits, Carbon sequestration methods
and Montreal Protocol. Role of Information
technology in environment-Case Studies.

1
2
2
3
3
4
4
What is climate?
• Climate – average weather of an area over a long
period – at least 30 years

• General weather conditions and seasonal variations

• The climate of the world is changed mainly by

- green house effect

Effect of Climate change
• Winds and ocean currents are disturbed
• Upsets hydrological cycle
• Changes rainfall patterns
5
• Affects agriculture
Global Climate Change

6
What is climate Change?

7
8
8
9
9
10
10
11
11
 Green house gases

• Carbon dioxide
• Methane
• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s)
• Nitrous oxide
• Ground level Ozone

12
13
 Bad Effects of Global warming
• Land and ocean temperatures rise
• North and south pole (Artic and Antarctic) Glaciers melt
• Sea levels rise
• Ocean currents change
• Weather patterns change
– Ecological disturbance
– Reduction in biodiversity
– Effect on Agriculture
– Effect on human health

14
 How Much is the Temperature
Increase?
• Some models propose up to 9°C increase
this century
• Two studies put the minimum at 1.5°C and
maximum at 4.5°C or 6.2°C
• Another study puts the minimum at 2.5°C

15
 Global warming effects to unfold faster
as world inches towards 4 degree temperature rise
16
 Wildlife is Effected
Polar Bears
– Require ice to live
– Might eventually go extinct

Sea turtles
–Breed on the same islands as their birth
–Could go extinct as some islands as
beaches are flooded

• Other species may go extinct as rainfall

patterns change throughout the world
17
Warming could significantly Extreme heat waves and drought on the
exacerbate existing water scarcity rise due to melting ice
in many regions

Agriculture production would be hit because

of temperature rise and flooding
18
 Effect on Humans
• Sunstroke – many people will die

• Since more mosquitoes, snails and insects

can grow (as more fish which eat them die due
to increase in temperature of the water) –
diseases like malaria will be on high

• Higher temperature and humidity increase

sweating and cause skin diseases and
Respiratory diseases

19
 STEPS TO PREVENT GLOBAL WARMING

• Plant more trees

• Control population growth

• Cut down rate of CFC’s and fossil fuels

• Use non-conventional (renewable) sources of energy

• Shift from coal to natural gas

• Reduce carbon dioxide from smoke

• Adopt sustainable agriculture – grow heat resistant

crops
20
 Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC ) that aims at reduction of Green House Gases
The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11th
December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005
There are 192 parties to the convention, including 191 states
(all the UN members, except Andorra, Canada, South Sudan
and the United States) and the European Union
2001- withdraws U.S. endorsement of the Kyoto Protocol
2011- Canada withdraws from the protocol

21
 Kyoto Protocol

Agreement is to reduce emissions of Green

House Gases (GHGs)
• Carbon Dioxide
• Methane (CH4)
• Nitrous oxide (N2O)
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)
• Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)
22
 Kyoto Protocol
How much reduction?
• All countries put together should
reduce the gases by 5.2% of what are
present in 1990.

• Individual countries were assigned

higher or lower targets and some
countries were permitted increases
23
OZONE DEPLETION

24
 Ozone layer depletion
• Ozone is naturally found in stratosphere which
occurs 30 km above the ground level
• It has a normal thickness of 3mm
• In the past 4-5 decades a progressive decrease in
ozone layer thickness is observed.
• It is more prominent over antarctic region
• In fact a hole is formed in the ozone layer over
the antarctic region.

25
The largest Antarctic ozone hole
recorded as of September 2006
26
 WHAT IS OZONE ?
• Ozone (O3) is a highly-reactive form of oxygen.

• Ozone exists within both the tropospheric and

stratospheric zones of the Earth’s atmosphere.

• This layer absorbs 97–99% of the Sun's high frequency

ultraviolet light, which is damaging to life on Earth.

• Ozone concentrations are greatest between about 20

and 40 kilometres (12 and 25 mi), where they range
27
from about 2 to 8 parts per million.
There are three categories of UV

• UV-A, between 320 and 400 nm

• UV-B, between 280 and 320 nm
• UV-C, between 200 and 280 nm

• UV-A reaches the Earth from the sun in the greatest quantities. Recent
information suggests that UV-A can damage the skins immune system. UV-A
from the sun passes right through the ozone layer to the Earths surface with
little attenuation.

• UV-B radiation is potentially very harmful. Fortunately, most of the sun's UV-B
radiation is absorbed by ozone in the stratosphere.

• UV-C radiation is potentially the most damaging because it is very energetic.

Fortunately, all UV-C is absorbed by oxygen and ozone in the stratosphere and
never reaches the Earth's surface.

28
Ozone is a life saviour, if present in
stratosphere; but a pollutant, if
present in troposphere”

In the troposphere, ground level ozone

is a major air pollutant and primary
constituent of photochemical smog

In the stratosphere, the ozone layer is

an essential protector of life on earth
as it absorbs harmful UV radiation
before it reaches the earth.

29
• Ozone: It is dangerous if present in lower atmosphere. If it is present in
upper atmosphere it protects us from UV-radiation.

• Low level ozone: It is Major ingredient in Photochemical smog-that

Results when organic compounds emitted into the air combine with
nitrogen oxides in the presence of sun’s UV-light.

• Organic compound gases are released from Refineries, motor vehicles,

chemical plants, paints and solvents.

• Ozone in lower atomosphere can cause lung damage: lung tissues can be
damaged, lung capacity may decrease, changes in breathing passage.

30
Smog: = Smoke + Fog
Large scale outdoor pollution caused by reaction between
various air pollutants and fog.

 Common near cities – industrial and vehicle emissions.

 Irritates eyes, throat, bronchitis, asthma.

 Chronic respiratory diseases, damage to brain, nervous

system.

Photochemical smog is a unique type of air pollution which is

caused by reactions between sunlight and pollutants like
hydrocarbons and nitrogen dioxide. Although photochemical
smog is often invisible, it can be extremely harmful, leading to
irritations of the respiratory tract and eyes. In regions of the
world with high concentrations of photochemical smog, elevated
rates of death and respiratory illnesses have been observed.
31
 London smog

On 9 December 1952, in London.

• Being very cold, most houses kept fires burning, with coal as the major fuel.
• The smoke from these fires mixed with the fog and was unable to disperse,
resulting in a smog which persisted for 4 days.
• The pH of air during the Great London Smog was as low as 1.6.
• During this period some 4000 more people died than would expected at
this time of the year.
• Most of these additional deaths were due to respiratory disorders.
• Coal containing high sulfur content releases sulfur dioxide when burnt. The
sulfur dioxide dissolved in moisture caused the low pH.

New York City, before and after a photochemical smog. 32

Ozone layer is being destroyed due
to chemicals like

CFC: Chlorofluorocarbons:
• CFC -11 is Trichlorofluoromethane, CCl3F
• CFC-12 is Dichlorodifluromethane, CCl2F2
• CFC-13 is Chlorotrifluoromethane, CClF3

There are others like,

• CFC-114, Chlorotetrafluoroethane

33
CFC’s and ozone depletion
• Chlorofluorocarbons are created
and used in refrigerators and air
conditioners.

• These chlorofluorocarbons are

not harmful to humans and have
been a benefit to us.

• Once released into the

atmosphere, chlorofluorocarbons
are bombarded and destroyed by
ultraviolet rays.

• In the process, chlorine is

released to destroy the ozone
molecules

34
Destruction of ozone by chlorine

35
 Other causes of Ozone Depletion
• The other cause of ozone depletion is the increase in the level of free
radicals such as hydroxyl radicals, nitric oxide radicals and atomic chlorine
and bromine.

• The most important compound, which accounts for almost 80% of the total
depletion of ozone in the stratosphere are chlorofluorocarbons (CFC).

• These compounds are very stable in the lower atmosphere of the Earth,
but in the stratosphere, they break down to release a free chlorine atom
due to ultraviolet radiation.

All the CFCs are released in northern hemisphere, but Ozone layer depletion is
more over Antarctic
This is because of the so called Polar Stratospheric clouds formed there in
winters with no oxides of nitrogen that can trap the Cl free radicals. They form
a platform for ozone depletion.
36
Harmful effects of UV rays on people

• Skin cancer

• Premature aging (photoaging) of the skin

(different from normal chronological aging)

• Cataracts and eye disorders (corneal sunburn

and blindness)

• Immune system damage

37
 Health consequences
• Skin cancers, sunburn, eye damage, cataracts

• Estimated 10 % reduction ozone layer 25 %

increase non-melanoma skin cancer -temperate
latitudes by 2050

• Suppress immune system

• DNA mutation of existing disease bacteria and

viruses

38
 Effects of ozone depletion
• Phytoplankton's are sensitive to ozone depletion. Ozone
depletion will result in decrease in their population
thereby affecting the population of zooplankton, fish,
marine animals.

• Yield of vital crops like corn, rice, soyabean, wheat will

decrease.

• Degradation of paints, plastics and other polymer

material will result in economic loss due to the effects of
ozone depletion

39
 Effects of ozone depletion
•Causes sunburns, skin cancer
•UV radiation absorbed by cornea in the eye leads
to cataracts
•Loss of phyto and zooplankton in lakes and ponds –
•increases global warming.
•Flecking of grape and citrus plants
•Greater evaporation of surface water
•Destroys fibres, and other materials

Control measures
Stop using the chemicals that cause ozone depletion

40
41
ACID RAIN

42
43
ACID RAIN

44
Sources – Acid forming gases

 Oxides of sulfur and Nitrogen - industrial operations

Fossil Fuel combustion

45
The pH scale of common substances

Rain water is turned acidic when its pH falls below 5.6

In fact clean or natural rain water has a pH of 5.6 at

20°C because of formation of carbonic acid due to
dissolution of CO2 in water
46
Acid Deposition

47
Acid Rain

33
 Effects of Acid Rain
• Surface waters and aquatic animals
At pHs lower than 5 most fish eggs will not hatch and lower pHs
can kill adult fish. Lakes and rivers become more acidic
biodiversity is reduced.
• Soils
Soil biology and chemistry can be seriously damaged by acid
rain. Some microbes are unable to tolerate changes to low pH and
are killed
• Forests and other vegetation

Effect of acid rain on a forest, Jizera

Mountains, Czech Republic

49
• Ocean acidification
Coral's limestone skeletal is sensitive to pH drop, because the
calcium carbonate, core component of the limestone dissolves
in acidic (low pH) solutions.
• Human health effects
The acid in the rainwater is too dilute to have direct adverse
effects. However, the particulates responsible for acid rain
(sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides) do have an adverse effect.
Increased amounts of fine particulate matter in the air do
contribute to heart and lung problems including asthma and
bronchitis.
• Damage to materials

50
In India acid rain is recorded from certain places:
Name of place pH of rainwater
Kodaikanal 5.18
Minicoy 5.52
Mohanbari 5.50

51
 Control of Acid Rain
Emission of SO2 and NO2 from industries and power
plants should be reduced by using pollution control
equipments.

Liming of lakes and soils should be done to correct

the adverse effects of acid rain.

A coating of protective layer of inert polymer

should be given in the interior of water pipes
for drinking water. 52
 Effect of acid rain
On humans
• Human nervous system and heart
• respiratory system –Bronchitis, asthma
• digestive system – acidity, ulcers etc.
On materials :
• Many substances dissolve more in acid. Eg. CaCO3
• Corrodes metallic substances
• Dislodges and corrodes other materials
• Eg: Tajmahal is losing its colour
On ecosystems:
• Reduction in photosynthesis
• When aquatic fish are eliminated, other organisms like
mosquitoes grow more
53
Carbon Sequestration

54
55
 Carbon Sequestration

• Also known as “carbon capture”

• A geoengineering technique for the long-term

storage of carbon dioxide (or other forms of
carbon) for the mitigation of global warming

• More than 33 billion tons of carbon emissions

(annual worldwide)

56
 Carbon sequestration

• Carbon sequestration is the general term used

for the capture and long-term storage of
carbon dioxide.
• Capture can occur
– Point of Emission – Ex: Power plants
– Through natural resources – Ex: Photosynthesis
• It removes carbon dioxide from the earth's
atmosphere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dm1esCpzR0
51
 Carbon sequestration

Sequestration methods include:

• Soil Sequestration - enhancing the storage of carbon in soil

• Plant Sequestration - enhancing the storage of carbon in
forests and other vegetation
• Geosequestration - storing carbon in underground geological
formations
• Ocean Sequestration - storing carbon in the ocean
• Mineral Carbonation - subjecting carbon to chemical
reactions to form inorganic carbonates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d7FObM4N7o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY_lzonfE3I
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 Soil sequestration

• Soils contain 700 gigatonnes (Gt, 109 tonnes) to 3000 Gt of

carbon
• When forests are converted to agricultural land, the soil carbon
content decreases
• Agricultural usages also tend to reduce soil carbon
• Management practices that can retain or increase the carbon
content of soils include
– low-tillage or no tillage
– use of manures and compost,
– crop rotations and winter cover crops
– establishing perennial vegetation on steep slopes.

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 Plant sequestration
• Plants use the energy of sunlight to convert CO2 from the
atmosphere to carbohydrates for their growth and
maintenance, via the process of photosynthesis.

• Uptake of CO2 by vegetation will decrease with time as plants

grow to their full capacity

• Biological storage could be enhanced through agricultural and

forestry practices and revegetation

• It provide a significant shorter-term contribution to climate

change mitigation.

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 Geosequestration
• Geosequestration is the injection and storage of greenhouse
gases underground, out of contact with the atmosphere.

• Suitable site - geological formation

– Depleted oil and natural gas fields, coal beds.
– Deep natural reservoirs filled with saline water (saline
aquifers)

• Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) involves injecting CO2 into the

oil-containing reservoir to pressurise the reservoir and
improve the rate of flow of oil.

• The displaced oil is pushed through the well bore

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 Geological Sequestration
Storing of CO2 underground in rock formations able to
retain large amounts of CO2 over a long time period.
Held in small pore spaces (have held oil and natural gas for
millions of years)

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 Geosequestration

• Canada: Weyburn project (2000 - Largest)

– injects about 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

• North Sea: the Sleipner project (1996)

– one million tonnes of CO2 per year.

• In Australia – Victoria: the Otway Project (2008)

– injecting about 4500 tonnes of CO2 per month

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Ocean Sequestration

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 Ocean Sequestration
• “Carbon is naturally stored in the ocean
• The ocean represents the largest carbon store
on earth
• It can store 60 times more than atmosphere.
• Eventually equilibrium between the ocean and
the atmosphere will be reached with or without
human intervention and 80% of the carbon will
remain in the ocean.
• The rational behind ocean sequestration is
simply to speed up the natural process.”
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 Ocean Sequestration

• Carbon sequestration by direct injection into the deep

ocean involves the capture, separation, transport, and
injection of CO2 from land or tankers
• 1/3 of CO2 emitted a year already enters the ocean
• Ocean has 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere
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 Mineral Sequestration
• It is also known as mineral carbonation

• Reaction of carbon dioxide with minerals like

silicates gives carbonates

• This option is being tried to fix fossil fuel emissions

• But process is slow

• Research - enhancing the rate 68

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69
Carbon Credits

70
 Carbon Credits

• During Kyoto protocol, allocation of carbon credits or Kyoto

credits was made to different countries

• Each credit gives the owner to emit one metric ton of carbon
dioxide or other equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG)

• If a country exceeds its emission quota, it has to pay for it in

three possible mechanisms to get back the credits, and thus
GHG emissions become expensive for the emitters.

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In order to reduce emission - a marketing strategy is
employed.

Reduction in one ton of emission of Carbon Dioxide or

an equivalent is called one carbon credit.

These carbon credits can be sold or purchased- they

have a market value.

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 Carbon Credits – Indian Scenario

• India has generated approximately 30 Million carbon

credits and approximately 140 million in run, the
second highest transacted volumes in the world.

• India’s carbon market is growing faster than even

information technology, bio technology and BPO
sectors as 850 projects with a huge investment of Rs
650,000 million are in pipeline.

• As per the Prime Minister's Council on Climate

Change, the revenue from 200 projects is estimated at
Rs. 97 billion till 2012.

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 Clean Development Mechanism
• Mechanims I – Emission Trading: Countries that have not used up
their quotas can sell their unused allowances as carbon credits, while
others that are about to exceed their quotas can buy them.

• Mechanism II - Clean Development Mechanism: Developed countries

(responsible for high GHG emissions) can start GHG reduction
projects in relatively un-developed country.

• Mechanism III- Joint Implementation Mechanism: A

developed country with relatively high cost of setting up of GHG
reduction project, will set it in some other developed country. At
present Russia and Ukraine are having highest number of JI projects.

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Montreal Protocol

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 Montreal Protocol
• The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect
the ozone layer by phasing out the production of substances believed
to be responsible for ozone depletion

• Opened for signature on September 16, 1987, and entered into force
on January 1, 1989, followed by a first meeting in Helsinki, Finland,
May 1989- It was aimed, CFC emission should be cut by 35% by year
2000

• After hearing more bad news about seasonal thinning of ozone layer
above Antarctica in 1989, it had undergone several revisions later, in
1990 (London), 1991 (Nairobi), 1992 (Copenhagen), 1993 (Bangkok),
1995 (Vienna), 1997 (Montreal), and 1999 (Beijing)

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 Montreal Protocol

• 36 countries signed the treaty first in 1987

• At present it has been ratified by 196 states

• If the international agreement is adhered to, the ozone layer

is expected to recover to 1980 levels by 2050

• “Perhaps the single most successful international agreement

to date has been the Montreal Protocol" - Kofi Annan

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Role of Information Technology
in Environment

78
 Roles of IT

• Efficient data management.

• Better Analysis-Trends and patterns.
• Accurate predictions.
• Modelling in the environmental sciences
• Environmental (Geographical) Information Systems

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Tools used these days

GPS

ENVIS
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 Geographic Information Technologies
• Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
– a system of earth-orbiting satellites which can provide
precise (100 meter to sub-cm.) location on the earth’s
surface (in lat/long coordinates or equiv.)

• Remote Sensing (RS)

– use of satellites or aircraft to capture information about the
earth’s surface
– Digital ortho images a key product (map accurate digital
photos)

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

– Software systems with capability for input, storage,
manipulation/analysis and output/display of geographic
(spatial) information
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 Remote Sensing

• Remote sensing is the acquisition of information

about an object or phenomenon without making
physical contact with the object and thus in contrast
to on site observation.

• In modern times, the term is generally refers to the

use of aerial sensor technologies to detect and
classify objects on earth by means of propagated
signals.

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83
84
85
(Geographic Information Systems)

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 Geographical Information System

• A system of integrated computer-based tools for end-to-end

processing (capture, storage, retrieval, analysis, display) of
data using location on the earth’s surface for interrelation in
support of operations management, decision making, and
science.

• A powerful set of tools for collecting, storing, retrieving,

transforming, and displaying spatial data from the real world.

• We are able to gather digital information on aspects like

water logging, desertification, river and canal network,
deforestation etc. through satellite imageries.

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 Examples of Applied GIS

Environmental Sciences

• Monitoring environmental risk

• Modeling storm water runoff

• Management of watersheds, floodplains, wetlands,

forests, aquifers

• Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA)

• Hazardous or toxic facility siting

• Groundwater modeling and contamination tracking

Italy’s Government Uses a Cloud GIS to Monitor
Hazardous Materials

89
 Google Earth

• This is an example of GIS.

• Google earth is an online mapping and geographic research

program that uses satellite images and aerial photography.

• In India, Google Earth has been used for flood relief in

Gujarat.

• Visualizing the impacts of climate change on a 3D map of

the world.

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Google Earth aerial photos show just how flooded
Texas was in April 2016

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 World Wide Web

• Sharing of information on a public

domain.

• Encourages research, awareness and

an opportunity to create an awareness.

• Leverages information in the form of

online accessible databases.

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 ENVIS

• ENVIS stands for Environmental Information Systems.

• Established by government of India in December, 1982.

• The focus of ENVIS since inception has been on

providing environmental information to decision
makers, policy makers, scientists and engineers,
research workers, etc all across the country.

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 What is ENVIS all about?

• ENVIS’s mission is to provide access and enhance the use of

environment related information in India as well as the rest of
the world, advancing understanding of environment related
issues and indirectly serving the needs of the public and
private decision making.

• ENVIS is a network that unites around 100 organisations in

India, known as ENVIS centres. It is dedicated to providing
comprehensive, up-to-date environment data and news.

• ENVIS exists solely to act as an information agent

for environmental information in India.

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GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS)
FOR ENVIRONMENTAL
MANAGEMENT

95
 What is GPS?

• Global Positioning System.

• System to Identify the Position

on Globe.

• Network of Satellites.

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Global Positioning System (GPS)

97
In 2010, GPS helped cleanup crews respond
to the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Endangered monk seal with GPS-enabled tracking device
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Use of the Global Positioning System in Environmental
Hazardous Operations

100
 Role of Information Technology
in
Modelling in the environmental sciences

Models are representations of the environment that

can be used to inform regulation or management
decisions.
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Environmental Modeling of Groundwater Pollution

102
Groundwater flow and contaminant transport
modeling

103
Identifying Groundwater Contamination Using Resistivity
Surveys at a Landfill near Maoming, China

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