Environment

Urbanisation is primarily a major driver of land-use change and deforestation rather than a direct ecological impact of deforestation. Deforestation can cause soil erosion, biodiversity loss, habitat fragmentation, altered water cycles and increased carbon emissions.

Environment is treated as an integrated system consisting of physical, biological and cultural components. Physical resources include air, water and soil; biological components include plants, animals and microorganisms; cultural components arise from human society and activities.

Project Tiger is India’s flagship tiger-conservation programme. It was launched in April 1973, initially covering nine tiger reserves.

Argon is a noble gas and is not a greenhouse gas of significance. Carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour are greenhouse gases; water vapour is the most abundant greenhouse gas.

Ecology is the scientific study of interactions among organisms and between organisms and their environment.

An increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, strengthens the greenhouse effect and drives long-term warming. CO₂ concentrations rise mainly from fossil-fuel combustion, land-use change and cement production.

Medha Patkar is a prominent leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, which opposed displacement and raised environmental and rehabilitation issues around large dams. The movement is strongly associated with the Sardar Sarovar Project on the Narmada River.

Deforestation directly causes habitat loss, biodiversity decline, soil erosion and higher carbon emissions. Species invasion depends on additional ecological and human factors.

Petroleum is a fossil fuel formed over geological time and is therefore non-renewable. Solar, wind and biogas are renewable sources.

Modern sea-level rise is driven mainly by thermal expansion of seawater and melting of land-based glaciers and ice sheets. Melting floating sea ice has little direct effect.

The Ringelmann scale measures the apparent density or opacity of smoke from industrial stacks. It is an air-pollution assessment method.

Methane is the major component of biogas, commonly about 50–75%. Biogas is produced by anaerobic digestion of organic matter.

The Ecomark scheme was introduced in 1991 to identify products meeting environmental criteria. It was associated with the Bureau of Indian Standards.

Nuclear energy is non-renewable because it depends on finite nuclear fuels such as uranium. Solar, wind and hydropower are renewable energy sources.

The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 provides a broad legal framework for environmental protection and improvement in India.

The marine ecosystem covers the largest area because oceans and seas occupy about 71% of Earth’s surface.

Bhutan is widely recognised as a carbon-negative country because its forests absorb more carbon dioxide than the country emits. Its constitution requires at least 60% forest cover to be maintained.

Broad environmental categories include physical environment, biological environment and cultural/social environment. Operational Environment is not a basic category.

The major driver of biodiversity loss is natural habitat destruction and degradation, caused by land conversion, infrastructure, agriculture and habitat fragmentation.

Primary as well as secondary Consumer. In a food chain, man is primary consumer as he eats vegetables (herbivores) as well as secondary consumer as he eats meats and fishes (carnivores) Humans may occupy different trophic levels depending on diet.