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National Parks and Sanctuaries
1) Most national parks are areas of land that have great natural beauty, which are set aside and protected for the conservation of habitat of many plants and animals.
2) In national parks peoples are allowed to enjoy the scenery and wildlife, but visitor management is often required to reduce conflicts between recreation and conservation.
3) National parks are largely natural and unchanged by human activities, but many of them already had existing human impacts before they were designated for protection and human activities have often been allowed to continue. People have no rights in a National Park.
4) The first wildlife sanctuary was the Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary near Madras, set up in 1878, which merely formalised the traditional protection afforded by villagers for pelicans, herons and other birds breeding at Vedanthangal. Another such sanctuary was set up at Ranganathittu near Mysore, in 1942. As in 2018, India has 103 National Parks, 536 Wildlife Sanctuaries and 18 Biosphere Reserves.
Zoos
1)The basic philosophy behind the creation of zoological parks in modern times is to create an understanding of the environment and ecological balance of life, meaning strengthening the bond between people and the living earth.
2)These zoological parks are no mere picnic spots. They are now centres for ex-situ wild life conservation and environmental education.
3)The history of modern zoos has started some 200 years ago with the creation of the first public zoo. Since then every part of world has developed their own zoological parks with great diversity such as aquaria, bird-parks, private zoos and safari parks. 4)The World Zoo Conservation Strategy concludes that the evolution of zoo should continue to help the conservation of wildlife. There are several species of wildlife which would have been extinct
today except for efforts by zoos and animal reserves.
Plans and Projects of Environment
1)Ganga Action Plan was directed by Rajiv Gandhi. The authority was headed by the prime minister and chief ministers of all the states in which river Ganga flows. GAP was divided into two phases. Phase-I started in 1985 and covered the then three states, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar and West Bengal (WB).
2)The main aim of this plan was to protect the river Ganga from further more pollution.
3)It was launched to improve the quality of water treatment of the sewage, interception and other methods, also to prevent the mixing of the industrial wastes.
Save Tiger Project
1)Project tiger was launched on 1 April, 1973 as centrally sponsored scheme of Government of India to maintain viable population of the tiger and its natural habitat.
2)The main objective of the scheme is to ensure a viable population of tiger in India for scientific, economic, aesthetic, cultural and ecological values and to preserve areas of biological importance as natural heritage for the benefit, education and enjoyment of the people.
3)Project Tiger is undisputedly a custodian of major gene pool in the country. It is also a repository of some of the most valuable ecosystem and habitats for wildlife.
4)The effective protection and intensive conservation measures inside the reserves have brought about considerable indescribable achievements. The project has been instrumental in mustering local support for conservation programme in general.
Chipko Movement
1)The movement originated in 1973 at the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand (then part of Uttar Pradesh) and went on to become a rallying point for many future environmental movements all over the world.
2)It created a precedent for starting nonviolent protest in India.However, it was Sunderlal Bahuguna, a Gandhian activist, who gave the movement a proper direction.
3)It’s success inspired many similar eco-groups by helping to slow down the rapid deforestation, expose vested interests, increase social awareness and the need to save trees, increase ecological awareness, and demonstrate the viability of people power
4)The Chipko Andolan or the Chipko movement is a movement that practiced methods of Satyagraha where both male and female activists from Uttarakhand played vital roles, including Gaura Devi, Suraksha Devi, Sudesha Devi, Bachni Devi and Chandi Bhatt, Virushka Devi and others.