40 lions to be moved to Barda from overflowing Gir (GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Gujarat government has planned to translocate 40 adult and sub-adult lions to the Barda Wildlife Sanctuary in the state.
- Barda sanctuary, about 100 kilometres away from Gir National Park, has been identified as a potential site to accommodate the Asiatic Lions, said the report entitled ‘Lion@2047: A vision for Amrutkal’.
Why relocation?
- As per the last count in 2020, there are 674 lions in the state and Gir has long been overflowing with the big cats.
- Experts have demanded translocation of lions in India for the past two decades as the big cats have been geographically isolated in Gir.
- A second home would protect the lion population from extinction in case of diseases like the Canine Distemper Virus leads to their deaths.
- The Supreme Court of India in 2013 had also ordered relocating some lions to Madhya Pradesh; however, 10 years later, the transfer has not yet happened.
Extinction threat:
- Carnivore populations restricted to single sites face various extinction threats from genetic and stochastic environmental factors.
- Catastrophes such as an epidemic, an unexpected decline in prey, natural calamities or retaliatory killings could result in their extinction when they are restricted to single populations.
Habitat:
- Asiatic lions are currently found in nine districts of Gujarat, including Junagadh, Gir-Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Botad, Porbandar, Jamnagar and Surendranagar, falling under the Saurashtra region. They are spread across an area of 30,000 square kilometres.
Why Barda WLS?
- The new report vouched for the relocation of 40 lions to Barda Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS). However, the 2014 report stated that the WLS can only hold 26 lions due to several factors like low prey base and small size of the Bards WLS (192 sq km), which is not big enough for 40 lions.
- The old report also identified habitat refuge patches in the Barda landscape of 410 sq km, which is critical for supporting breeding lion nuclei in future.
Ex-situ conservation efforts:
- The Gujarat Forest Department has made centres such as Barda, Rampara Wildlife Sanctuary and Sakkarbaug Zoological Garden to diversify the gene pool.
- The centres will be “strengthened and the objective of maintaining a pool of heterozygous genetically diverse individual lions will be served.”
- The state forest department may identify more sites for the rehabilitation of the lions. The Sakkarbaug Zoo shall be upgraded and developed further for breeding programmes, maintaining stud book records for the reproduction registry.
- There would be further encouragement of ex-situ conservation efforts of lions in other parts of the country as well.
- The report also talks about creating groves by making small patches of evergreen trees like Vad (Banyan or Ficus benghalensis), Jamun (Syzgium jamboolanum) and Karamada (Carissa carandas) and augmentation of water works in Barda.
Maldhari community:
- Members of the Maldhari community will also have to be relocated along with the big cats as it is important to restore around 1,000 km of ‘exclusive lion habitat’ under Project Lion through incentivised voluntary relocation of forest villages.
- Maldharis are local pastoral communities settled within Gir Protected Areas and the Barda WLS.
The great rift: Africa’s splitting plates
(GS Paper 1, Geography)
Context:
- Scientists in 2020, predicted a new ocean would be created as Africa gradually splits into two separate parts.
Details:
- The division of the continent is connected to the East African Rift, a crack that stretches 56 kilometres and appeared in the desert of Ethiopia in 2005, triggering the formation of a new sea.
- This geological process will inevitably divide the continent, resulting in currently landlocked countries, such as Uganda and Zambia, obtaining their own coastlines in due time, which would take five to 10 million years.
Pros & Cons:
- The necessary evacuation of people and the potential loss of lives will be an unfortunate cost of this natural phenomenon. However, on the upside, the emergence of new coastlines will unlock a myriad of opportunities for economic growth.
- These countries will have access to new ports for trade, as well as fishing grounds and sub-sea internet infrastructure, which will undoubtedly transform their economic potential.
New formations:
- As the Somali and Nubian tectonic plates continue to pull apart from each other, a smaller continent will be created from the rift, which will include present-day Somalia and parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania.
- The Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea will eventually flood into the Afar region in Ethiopia and the East African Rift Valley, leading to the formation of a new ocean.
- This new ocean will result in East Africa becoming a separate small continent with its own unique geographic and ecological characteristics.
- The three plates; the Nubian African Plate, Somalian African Plate and Arabian Plate are separating at different speeds. The Arabian Plate is moving away from Africa at a rate of about an inch per year, while the two African plates are separating even slower, between half an inch to 0.2 inches per year.
What is rifting?
- The Earth’s lithosphere, comprised of the crust and upper part of the mantle, is divided into several tectonic plates that are not stationary but rather move in relation to each other at varying speeds.
- Tectonic forces not only move the plates but also have the potential to cause them to rupture, resulting in the formation of a rift and potentially leading to the creation of new plate boundaries.
- Rifting refers to the geological process in which a single tectonic plate is split into two or more plates separated by divergent plate boundaries.
- This process leads to the emergence of a lowland region known as a rift valley, which can occur either on land or at the bottom of the ocean. These rift valleys occur due to the movement of Earth’s tectonic plates.
- The phenomenon of rifting can be traced back at least 138 million years, when South America and Africa were divided into separate continents.
Challenges & consequences:
- Africa is the most impacted region when it comes to displacement, with a larger number of countries affected than any other continent or region. As of 2015, more than 15 million people were internally displaced in Africa, according to the United Nations Environment Programme report on displacement and environment.
- As the plates continue to split in the future, this phenomenon will result in the displacement of communities, settlements and various flora and fauna.
- These changes will impact their habitats due to climate change, resulting in environmental degradation. Rapid urbanisation and increased settlements will put pressure on natural resources, leading to a scarcity of water, energy and food.
- Uncontrolled waste disposal will also be a significant concern. Furthermore, some species will disappear, while others will become endangered due to habitat changes.
Natural Hazards:
- Rifts showcase a unique topography, distinguished by a chain of depressions bounded by faults and enclosed by elevated terrain.
- While the process of rifting may often go unnoticed, the separation of the Nubian and Somali plates can result in the formation of new faults, fissures and cracks or the reactivation of pre-existing faults, leading to seismic activity.
- Additionally, the close proximity of the hot molten asthenosphere to the surface causes volcanism, further displaying the ongoing process of continental breakup.
- Several planetary transformations are occurring, primarily as a result of climate change. Devastating weather patterns owing to global warming are altering landscapes and raising sea levels.
- Although human displacement is not new, climate change exacerbates gradual and abrupt environmental crises by increasing their intensity, frequency and scope.
