Scientists say the system will help safeguard nature, but they want more transparency about the zones chosen for conservation China's government is the first to use satellites to monitor land set aside for conservation to ensure its protection from illegal development. Scientists hope that the move will safeguard ecologically important habitats and provide a model of remote-sensing use for conservation that other countries could follow. But they also have questions about how the nation has decided which areas to protect and where the boundaries, known as the ecological redlines, lie. “The decision makers have made a really bold step forward,” says Chi-Yeung Choi, an applied ecologist at Duke Kunshan University in Suzhou, China. He says that having a national system to protect ecolog...
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An arboretum showcasing the floral diversity of the Shivalik hills was inaugurated on Sunday at Jeolikot in Nainital district. One of the unique features of the "Shivalik Arboretum" inaugurated by noted environmental activist Ajay Rawat is that the trees standing there introduce themselves to visitors. Explaining the unique aspect, Chief Conservator of Forests Sanjiv Chaturvedi said the placards hanging on individual trees to describe their qualities refer to them in the first person in a story telling format. For example, the placard hanging from a Koelreuteria paniculata tree at the arboretum reads: "My common name is Golden rain tree. I belong to Sapindacea family. I am native to Eastern Asia. My flowers are used in the treatment of conjunctivitis and epihora. A yellow dye...
Read MoreSnow trout, the iconic cold water fish species found in Himalayan rivers, would lose their habitat by 16 per cent in the next 30 years and by over 26 per cent by 2070, a new climate change study by the government’s Wildlife Institute of India has found. The study -- ‘Is There Always Space at The Top’-- was published in the ‘Ecological Indicators’, a journal of high international repute based at the Netherlands, on September 6. The study indicates that most of the lower altitude streams across the Himalayas would be rendered unsuitable for the existence of snow trout with the rise in temperatures. An ensemble of 72 statistical models across the Himalayas, the study -- authored by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) scientists Aashna Sharma, Vineet Kumar Dubey, Jeyaraj Antony Joh...
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