Assignment

Project Turtle-Narora

Turtles play an important ecological role in the environment in which they occur.  Freshwater tin a healthy condition. In addition, turtles occupy a significant role in the cultures of many people around the world.

In the article ‘Project Turtle-Narora’ the author talks about the programme for conserving an endangered species of turtle commonly known as the Three-Striped Roofed Turtle (Batagur dhongoka). This turtle is a semi-aquatic species that spends most of its time in fresh water. The presence of a hard and calcareous shell protects it from predators when in water as well as when on land. This riverine turtle is not found all over the world but is found in India and Bangladesh. Even in India its contribution is restricted to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Assam and Bihar.

Like most of the fresh water turtles, Batagur dhongoka also doesn’t return to its nest ones it lays the eggs the rest of the cycle is taken care by nature. Since the eggs are left at the hands of nature they are often preyed on by predators or are washed away by water or they are threatened by human activities like poaching of eggs or chicks and the new threat includes sand mining that ruins their habitat completely and island farming that disturbs their breeding site completely.

Because of all these activities, this specie is included in the endangered list and this is the main reason why the conservationists felt that there was an urgent need to save this specie.

A group of four led by an expert of Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA), a premier non-governmental organisation that conserves turtle, and two members’ of Nuclear Power Cooperation of India (NPCIL), which helps conserve nature around its nuke lands through its voluntary initiative called “Environment Stewardship Programme”, and a member of the World Wildlife Fund-India had sailed here to find the nests of freshwater turtles. With sticks, soft digging instruments and baskets in their hands, they began their search for turtle eggs on the sandy shore of the island. The island was situated a few miles off Narora- a small town located in the western part of Uttar Pradesh. During their search they found 25 lemon sized yellowish-white eggs.

The eggs were brought to the breeding center called the “Project Turtle-Narora, Turtle breeding center which was established by NPCIL under the Environment Stewardship Programme with technical guidance from TSA.

Once the eggs were brought to the breeding center, their health was checked and the eggs were buried inside a sandy habitat similar to that of the turtle’s natural habitat. The hatchery was equipped with all the protective equipment’s to save the eggs from predation.  

 The eggs are checked…

The hatchlings of Batagur dhongoka emerged from the sands nearly 2 months after the eggs were placed in the hatchery. Now, here all possible care is taken to take care of the young ones. The young ones that were healthy were transferred to the pond inside the facility. A day after they were left inside the pond, the neonates began their routines like feeding and moving around. As these neonates grew up there were many other programmes that were kickedoff simultaneously. After another 6 months’ time the facility had around 130 neonates and 60 eggs of different species of turtles.

The conservationists follow a two-tier strategy wherein on one hand they breed the neonates in captivity and further release them in the wild to boost their population and o the other hand, the people who live close to the habitats of turtles are sensitized about the significance of these turtles.

This project was a good attempt by the conservationists and many non-governmental organisations to save these small gentle creatures which are depleting due to natural calamities or due to human interference with nature. 

Such programmes should also be initiated by governmental organisations as this will help in increasing the population of these endangered species of turtles. Also, people have to be sensitized of the importance of these turtles and the role they play in the ecological cycle.

  Three- striped Roofed Turtle

To see the light or the bulb

‘To see the light or the bulb’ is an article written by B. William Dharma Raja and H. Chidambaram. The article is about light pollution: its causes, effects and regulations.

Natural processes cannot keep pace with the rapid environmental changes that are taking place. These changes are the main causes of the different types of pollutions prevailing in the society. We are aware of the causes and the consequences of air pollution, soil pollution, sound pollution etc which are very common in our society. Now, our society has faced yet another type of environmental pollution called as light pollution which is caused by excessive use of artificial lights.

The article also tells us that light pollution is caused by over illumination of a place or when the street lights etc. are not shielded. In such cases the light scatters in the sky and the very purpose of the lights gets wasted. This interferes with the adverse effects on the astronomical observations and can cause adverse health effects too.

There are five recognised forms of light pollution and they are as follows:

               1)      Light trespass

               2)      Glare

               3)      Clutter

               4)      Sky glow

               5)      Over-illumination

Light pollution has many adverse effects on plants, animals, insects especially nocturnal animals like moths etc, sometimes plants even die if they are exposed to light for 24 hrs. Aeroplanes and boats can and have crash landed, hit rocks or have lost their way because the pilots get confused. Stars become invisible to the naked eyes and other astronomical observations become difficult.

In this article the author also mentioned that there is a need for various governmental and non-governmental organisations to take steps to create awareness among people about the causes and the ill effects of this pollution on humans as well as on plants, animals and the universe as whole. This will help in protecting our environment from being degraded. People should also be made aware about the various ways to regulate or control this light pollution.

 This article is very informative and gives a lot of information about light pollution. It is very simple to understand and will make people aware of the various causes and ill effects of light pollution.