India’s first international cruise vessel sets sail to Sri Lanka from Chennai

Key details:

• The newly-launched cruise will sail to three ports:
  • Hambantota, India
  • Trincomalee, India
  • Kankesanturai, Sri Lanka.
• The luxury cruise ship is named Cordelia Empress

The ground-level ozone pollution affecting parts of the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) was lower this year than in the last five years, but the duration of its exceedance was higher, a new analysis has found. 

What is ozone?

• O₃ is a colourless, odourless gas at ambient concentrations and is a major component of smog.
   

Stratospheric Ozone 

• Stratospheric ozone, also known as the “ozone layer” forms high in the atmosphere when intense sunlight causes oxygen molecules (O2) to break up and re-form as ozone molecules (O3).
• These ozone molecules form the ozone layer and are commonly referred to as “good ozone.”

Ground-Level Ozone 

• Ground-level ozone forms just above the earth’s surface (up to about 2 miles above ground) and impacts human, animal, and plant respiration. 
• Ground level ozone is a highly reactive secondary pollutant.
• This pollutant forms when primary pollutants, like hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, react with sunlight.
• Ozone irritates people’s lungs and is a major component of photochemical smog.
• Formation
  • Ground level ozone is created by a chemical reaction between volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides.
  • The sun and high temperatures act as catalysts to this reaction.
• Although ground-level ozone is less concentrated than stratospheric ozone, its impacts on human health and welfare make ground-level ozone “bad ozone.”
• Ground-level ozone is an irritant and can negatively affect human health and welfare. 
• Ground-level ozone concentrations typically are highest on days warm/hot days with low humidity when wind is light or stagnant.

Health effects of ground-level ozone

• Make it more difficult to breathe deeply and vigorously
• Cause shortness of breath and pain when taking a deep breath
• Cause coughing and sore or scratchy throat
• Inflame and damage the airways
• Aggravate lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis
• Increase the frequency of asthma attacks
• Make the lungs more susceptible to infection
• Continue to damage the lungs even when the symptoms have disappeared
• Cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Effect on the environment

• Just as ground-level ozone can make it harder for people to breathe, it also makes it harder for plants to breathe.
• Reducing ground-level ozone can have the following impacts on vegetation:
• Protect forest communities
• Improve yields for timber and some crops, such as soybeans and winter wheat

What types of weather conditions contribute to high ozone?

• On any given day, there are enough emissions of NOx and VOC to produce high ozone.
• The key difference between a high ozone day and a low ozone day is the weather.
• Weather conditions associated with high ozone include:
  • Lots of sunlight
  • Slow wind speeds
  • High peak temperatures
  • Large differences between high and low temperatures for the day
  • Low humidity

The J&K government has attributed the death of thousands of fish in the Dal Lake in Srinagar to thermal stratification.

• Dal Lake, situated in the northeast of Srinagar in Kashmir valley.
• It is the 2^nd largest lake in Jammu and Kashmir.
• The lake is probably of fluvial origin, formed from the oxbows of river Jhelum.
• Due to its beauty and attraction, Dal lake is also known as the “Jewel in crown of Kashmir or Srinagar’s Jewel”.
• It is declared as a protected wetland and a commercial fishing point.
• It has witnessed shore line Mughal gardens, such as Shalimar Bagh and Nishat Bagh built during the reign of Mughal Emperor Jahangir.
• It is a part of a natural wetland including its floating gardens.
• The floating gardens, known as Raad in Kashmiri, blossom with lotus flowers.
• The wetland is divided by causeways into 4 basins; Gagribal, Lokut Dal, Bod Dal and Nagin (although Nagin is also considered as an independent lake).
• Lokut-dal and Bod-dal each have an island in the centre, known as Rup Lank (or Char Chinari) and Sona Lank respectively.

Thermal Stratification

• It occurs when the surface layer of water, warmed by the sun, becomes less dense than the water underneath it.
• Pollution has badly affected the Schizothorax fish harvest and has destroyed the breeding grounds of the native fish.
• Data on harvest of Schizothorax, a local fish species known as Kashir gaad or Snowtrouts, from the lake between 1989 to 2019, shows a downward trend.
• The study suggested that the lake’s alkalinity has gone up.
• The chloride content of the water has drastically increased due to drainage from catchment areas, raw sewage coming from houseboats and nearby settlements and organic runoff from floating gardens.

Climate change and human intervention threaten the Myristica swamps of Kerala.

• Myristica swamps are freshwater swamps predominated by members of the Myristicaceae family.

• The evergreen trees have evolved to live in the waterlogged conditions of the swamps.
• They have two types of roots, knee roots (pneumatophores) and stilt root.
• They have evolved over millions of years and are comprised of old-growth trees.
• Location – In India, these unique habitats occur in the Western Ghats and a smaller distribution exists in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Myristica swamps are seen next to rivers and help in retaining water and act as a sponge, ensuring perennial water availability.
• Important Species – Gymnocranthera canarica and Myristica fatua — belonging to the primitive Myristicaceae family.

Government-owned engineering consultancy firm Engineers India (EIL) is studying the prospects and feasibility of developing salt cavern-based strategic oil reserves in Rajasthan.

Key details:

• If the idea comes to fruition, India could get its first salt cavern-based oil storage facility.
• The country’s three existing strategic oil storage facilities — at Mangaluru and Padur in Karnataka, and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh are made up of excavated rock caverns.
• Need for oil reserves:
  • Countries build strategic crude oil reserves to mitigate major supply disruptions in the global supply chain.
    • Strategic petroleum reserves (SPRs) are stockpiles of crude oil maintained by countries for release in the event of a supply disruption.
  • India, the world’s third-largest consumer of crude, depends on imports for more than 85% of its requirement .
  • Strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) could help ensure energy security and availability during global supply shocks and other emergencies.
• Current capacity of India:
  • India currently has an SPR capacity of 5.33 million tonnes, or around 39 million barrels of crude, that can meet around 9.5 days of demand.
  • The country is in the process of expanding its SPR capacity by a cumulative 6.5 million tonnes at two locations — Chandikhol in Odisha (4 million tonnes) and Padur (2.5 million tonnes).
  • India’s strategic oil reserves come under the Petroleum Ministry’s special purpose vehicle Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve (ISPRL).
• Salt cavern-based reserves v. rock cavern-based reserves
  • Unlike underground rock caverns, which are developed through excavation, salt caverns are developed by the process of solution mining, which involves pumping water into geological formations with large salt deposits to dissolve the salt.
  • After the brine (water with dissolved salt) is pumped out of the formation, the space can be used to store crude oil.
  • The process is simpler, faster, and less cost-intensive than developing excavated rock caverns.
  • Salt cavern-based oil storage facilities are also naturally well-sealed, and engineered for rapid injection and extraction of oil.
  • This makes them a more attractive option than storing oil in other geological formations.
  • The salt that lines the inside of these caverns has extremely low oil absorbency, which creates a natural impermeable barrier against liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons, making the caverns apt for storage.
  • Also, unlike rock caverns, salt cavern-based storages can be created and operated almost entirely from the surface.
  • Salt caverns are also used to store liquid fuels and natural gas in various parts of the world.
  • They are also considered suitable for storing compressed air and hydrogen.

• Potential in India for storing crude, petroleum products
  • Rajasthan, which has the bulk of requisite salt formations in India, is seen as the most conducive for developing salt cavern-based strategic storage facilities.
  • A refinery is coming up in Barmer, and Rajasthan has crude pipelines as well.
  • Such infrastructure is conducive for building strategic oil reserves.
  • However, no Indian company had the requisite technical know-how to build salt cavern-based strategic hydrocarbon storage.
  • This gap in access to technology has been bridged by EIL’s recent partnership with Germany’s DEEP.

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu clashed over Mekedatu project
 

What is the Mekedatu project?

• The Mekedatu dam project is located in Ramanagaram district about 100 km south of Bengaluru (Karnataka), close to where the Cauvery enters Tamil Nadu.
• Mekedatu is a multipurpose balancing reservoir project focussing on the generation of electricity and supply of drinking water in the region.
• In 1996, the project was first planned by the Karnataka Power Corporation to meet the water and electricity needs of the people in Bengaluru and the surrounding districts.
• The dam aims to supply drinking water to Bengaluru and replenish the regional groundwater table.
• The Mekedatu dam will be larger than the Krishnaraja Sagar project on the Cauvery.

Opposition to the project

• Tamil Nadu witnessed widespread protests against the dam in 2015, with a statewide bandh.
• The state Assembly passed unanimous resolutions against the project in December 2018 and January 2022.
• In August 2021, Tamil Nadu approached the Supreme Court against the project.
• Tamil Nadu’s key arguments are that Karnataka is attempting to modify the flow of the river by constructing two reservoirs on it.
• The action violates the final award of the CRWT, and would impound the flow in the intermediate catchment below the Krishnaraja Sagar and Kabini reservoirs, and Billigundulu, along the border of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu

The Supreme Court Verdict

• Tamil Nadu approached the centre for setting up a tribunal to decide the allocation of water between the states.
• In 1990, the tribunal was set up and in 2007 allocated the water to Karnataka (270 tmcft), Kerala (30 tmcf) t0, Puducherry 97 tmcft) and Tamil Nadu (419 tmcft) and allocation would stand reduced in rain-scarcity years.
• TN and Karnataka were not satisfied with this allocation and violent protests erupted which brought the Supreme Court into the Picture.
• In the 2018 judgment, the court redistributed the share of water between both states.
• Now, TN granted 404.25 tmcft and Karnataka’s share went up to 284.75 tmcft while share for Kerala and Puducherry remained the same.

Environmental concerns

• Environmental activists have argued that due to submerging of land by the dam, the Cauvery Wildlife Wildlife Sanctuary area, which is a key elephant corridor will be severely affected. 
• Apart from being home to many endangered wildlife species, the sanctuary also acts as a buffer area for wildlife animals.
• It will lead to more man-animal conflict.