Bhubaneswar: &nbsp;A pangolin was rescued from a village in Odisha's Kalahandi district, and one person was arrested on charges of wildlife trafficking, police said on Monday.Acting on a tip-off, a team of special task force personnel with the help of forest department officials conducted a search operation near Karnikhunti village under the Bhawanipatna-Madanpur Road police station limits on May 21 and recovered the animal from his possession, a senior officer said. It was suspected that the animal was trafficked by the accused, he said. The STF has handed over the endangered animal under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 to the divisional forest officer of Kalahandi for safe custody, while the arrest Pangolins are nocturnal, termite-eating mammals found in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and they are protected under schedule-I of the law, which put them in the same bracket as tigers, lions, rhinos and several other species. The body of a pangolin is covered with overlapping scales made of keratin, the same protein that forms human hair and nails, and rhino horn. Since 2020, the STF has seized skin of 28 leopards, 24 elephant tusks and 14 pangolins, and arrested 69 wildlife criminals.—PTI

 A pangolin was rescued from a village in Odisha's Kalahandi district, and one person was arrested on charges of wildlife trafficking, police said on Monday.

Pangolin rescued in Odisha, one held

Wildlife

Cincinnati (Ohio): Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have found that light pollution can disorient monarch butterflies, which travel as far as Canada to Mexico and back during their multigenerational migration.The research was published in the journal, 'iScience'.Researchers found that butterflies roosting at night near artificial illumination such as a porch or streetlight can become disoriented the next day because the light interferes with their circadian rhythms. Artificial light can impede the molecular processes responsible for the butterfly's remarkable navigational ability and trigger the butterfly to take wing when it should be resting. "We found that even with a single work light that you find at a construction site, monarch butterflies treat that like it's the sun," UC assistant professor Patrick Guerra said.With their erratic, circuitous movements taking them to and fro across your garden, it might be hard to imagine monarch butterflies sticking to a rigid flight plan. But their migrations take some monarch populations thousands of miles to the same forests in Mexico where they spend the winter. Now researchers want to know whether light pollution is impeding this amazing cross-country trek."It's an important question given that many migrants fly through urban areas," co-author and UC master's graduate Samuel Stratton said. "Getting some ecological data would be really helpful to seeing what impacts light pollution can have on orientation and migratory outcomes," he added.Monarchs rely on the darkness of night to process proteins key to their internal compass. These help the insects tell which direction to fly to reach their southern wintering grounds and return."The animal keeps track of day and night from this molecular system of production and degradation of proteins," Guerra said.Light pollution can disrupt normal circadian rhythms and sleep-wake cycles of wildlife and people alike. City lights have been shown to disrupt the navigation of animals like baby sea turtles, which mistake them for the glow of the moon on the ocean and head away from the water when they hatch. Researchers have examined the effects of light pollution on birds and other animals that migrate at night."We wanted to focus on animals that migrate during the day," Guerra said. Millions of monarch butterflies living east of the Rocky Mountains leave their summer breeding grounds in southern Canada and the northern United States, travelling as much as 2,500 miles (or 4,000 kilometres) to overwintering sites in Mexico. Monarchs can take up to five generations during this cross-continent trek and back. Along the way, they use an internal clock that tells them where to orient themselves in relation to the changing position of the sun in the sky.But monarchs exposed to nighttime light pollution, like a street lamp above their chosen roost in a cedar tree, can experience a phase shift, making their body think it's either earlier or later than it really is. That can throw off their sense of time, UC researchers found."It's like jet lag," Guerra said. "Essentially, their sense of time is disturbed," he added.UC researchers demonstrated this effect by conducting controlled laboratory studies. They simulated and isolated the effects of light trespass perturbation on migratory animals normally active in the day."We found that you're messing with their day-night cycle. Light pollution can make them think that the day is longer or that the day starts sooner," he said.So if you want to be hospitable to monarchs, Guerra said, maybe don't keep the light on for them. "It's something to think about if you're making a pollinator garden or if you want to be eco-friendly," Guerra said. —ANI

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have found that light pollution can disorient monarch butterflies, which travel as far as Canada to Mexico and back during their multigenerational migration.

Light Pollution Can Interfere With Navigational Abilities Of Monarch Butterflies: Research

New Delhi (The Hawk): Union Minister of State (IC) Ministry of Science and Technology; Minister of State (IC) Ministry of Earth Science; MoS of Prime Minister's Office and Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances &amp; Pensions Dr Jitendra Singh said, Agri-tech Start-ups are critical to India’s future economy.Addressing a Conclave-cum-Exhibition on Agri-Tech and Food-Tech in the Royal city of Mysuru, Dr Jitendra Singh said, a new wave of Agri-tech Startups has come up in India in the last few years due to enabling policy environment provided by Modi government to address the problems of Indian agriculture such as supply chain management, use of outdated equipment, improper infrastructure, and inability of farmers to access a wider range of markets with ease. The Minister noted with satisfaction that young entrepreneurs are now quitting their jobs in IT sectors and MNCs to establish their own startups and these young entrepreneurs are now beginning to realize the fact that investing in agriculture is one of the very few safe and profitable businesses.Dr Jitendra Singh said, Agritech Startups are providing innovative ideas and affordable solutions to a number of challenges faced all across the agricultural value chain and it has the potential to change the face of Indian agriculture sector and eventually raise farmers’ incomes. He said, these startups and budding entrepreneurs have become the missing link between the farmers, input dealers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers connecting each of them to each other and providing strong marketing linkages and quality produce on time.Dr Jitendra Singh said, the third edition of “TechBharat” on the theme “Transforming India’s FoodTech, AgriTech &amp; Agronomic Landscape” is a timely one as Agriculture is one of the important pillars of the Indian economy as 54 percent of Indian population depends directly on agriculture and it accounts for around 20 percent of GDP. He said, although, agriculture in India has majorly seen a steady growth in the last few years, not much has been done in encouraging young, fresh and unique innovative ideas in the sector.Dr Jitendra Singh strongly advocated the use of modern and new technology in Agricultural sector and pointed out that countries like Israel, China and the US have transformed several agriculture practices in their country with the use of technology. He said, these countries have demonstrated that assortment of technology like hybrid seeds, precision farming, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, geo-tagging &amp; satellite monitoring, mobile apps and farm management software can be applied at every stage in agriculture process to increase productivity and farm incomes.Dr Jitendra Singh informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 100 Made in India agricultural drones across the country in February this year, which carried out farm operations in unique simultaneous flights. He also referred to the Budget Speech of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, wherein she said that use of ‘Kisan Drones’ will be promoted for crop assessment, digitisation of land records, spraying of insecticides, and nutrients. The Minister added that Drones can also be used for assessing the health of any vegetation or crop, field areas inflicted by weeds, infections and pests and based on this assessment, the exact amounts of chemicals needed to fight these infestations can be applied thereby optimizing the overall cost for the farmer.Dr Jitendra Singh underlined that Indian agriculture space holds tremendous potential for technology adoption considering the sheer size of population involved in it. He said, AgriTech is nothing, but application of modern technologies to the agricultural sector with a view to enhance produce, efficiency and revenue. The concept extends to any applications, practices, products and services that enhance any aspect of the agricultural process, be it an input function or the output received, he added.The Minister said that many agri-tech startups in India are mainly in marketplace segment where e-commerce companies provide fresh and organic fruits and vegetables procured directly from farmers, but recently many startups have come up providing innovative and sustainable solutions for farmer’s problems. He said, Startups are now providing solutions such as biogas plants, solar powered cold storage, fencing and water pumping, weather prediction, spraying machines, seed drills and vertical farming, which is bound to increase farmers income.In his concluding remarks, Dr Jitendra Singh said, he is quite optimist that upsurge in the internet usage, increase in smartphone penetration, emergence of startups and various government initiatives in rural areas are facilitating fast technology adoption in the farm sector. He said, the technology solutions for most issues in agriculture are present but the challenge is for these solutions to reach every farmer in a larger scale and not just only one farmer. It is time now that we adopt technology in this very crucial sector of our economy and on a mass scale, so that the agriculture and the farming community benefit and in turn the India economy also grows rapidly, the Minister added.Dr. G.R. Chintala, Chairman, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Dr. Sridevi Annapurna Singh; Director, CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysuru, Shri Mahesh Shenoy, President, Laghu Udyog Bharati- Mysuru Vibhag, Shri Rajappa, Secretary, Laghu Udyog Bharati- Mysuru Vibhag and many senior officials, delegates and invitees joined the programme at CSIR-CFTRI Campus, Mysuru.

 Union Minister of State (IC) Ministry of Science and Technology; Minister of State (IC) Ministry of Earth Science; MoS of Prime Minister's Office and Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions Dr Jitendra Singh said, Agri-tech Start-ups are critical to India’s future economy.

Dr Jitendra Ays, Agri-Tech Start-Ups Are Critical To India’s Future Economy

Pilibhit: Karnataka will send four elephants to the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve to conduct patrolling and other activities, said wildlife authorities.Sanjay Singh, Uttar Pradesh's chief wildlife warden, said, "The two elephants were seized by the department officials from private keepers who did not have valid permission with them. One of them is a 20-year-old bull elephant which has been living in Phulpur forest nursery at Prayagraj for a year, while the second is a 50-year-old cow elephant in Jaunpur district. These two pachyderms are also being provided to Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. The Pilibhit Tiger Reserve authorities had sought 10 elephants in 2018 as part of "Project Tiger". This was reduced to six by the Karnataka authorities in December 2021. Now with two elephants from Prayagraj and Jaunpur, only four pachyderms will be taken from Karnataka.However, the formalities for transporting the four elephants from Karnataka have been completed, including assigning the contract for transporting them by truck.Naveen Khandelwal, Divisional Forest Officer of Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, said, "The "no-objection" certificates from the Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh governments through which the elephants will pass have been obtained. We are now waiting for the early monsoon to let the high atmospheric temperature dip. We have been issued certain guidelines for taking proper medical care of pachyderms during the transit period, which we will strictly follow."A five-member team comprising a Sub-Divisional Forest Officer, a Range Officer, one Departmental Veterinary Officer and two other Forest personnel has been constituted for fetching the elephants. In addition, six mahouts arranged from Dudhwa Tiger Reserve will also be leaving for Karnataka a week before the departure of the five-member team, Khandelwal added.—IANS

Karnataka will send four elephants to the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve to conduct patrolling and other activities, said wildlife authorities.

 UP's Pilibhit Tiger Reserve to get 4 elephants from K'taka

Davis (California): According to the University of California, switching to low-carbon fuels for transportation, cooking, heating, electricity generation and other needs will help combat climate change and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in exposure to air pollution.The findings of the research were published in the journal 'Science of The Total Environment.'The study found that differences in exposure to fine and ultrafine particle pollution could be reduced between 20 and 40 per cent in 2050 if solar, wind and electric sources were used rather than fossil fuels.The findings factor in California's ban on the sale of new gas-powered passenger vehicles beginning in 2035 and illustrate the need to focus beyond transportation pollution, which has been a significant source of climate-damaging emissions. "Even though transportation pollution has been largely decreased by 2050, the other sectors will still be important," said Yiting Li, a PhD candidate in atmospheric sciences who is the first author of the journal article.Energy, climate and emissionsThe UC Davis researchers analyzed future energy use and emissions scenarios in four regions - the San Francisco Bay area including Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley, Los Angeles and San Diego. The energy scenarios ranged from business as usual to strict reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.All California residents benefitted from improved air quality when low-carbon fuels, carbon capture or other actions were adopted, the analysis showed.The analysis also showed that adopting low-carbon fuels can help address some of the historical imbalances in air pollution exposure. For example, Black residents experience higher levels of pollution than white residents in Los Angeles, but the detailed analysis carried out in the study showed that using larger quantities of low-carbon fuels reduced those exposure disparities. Similar results were found in other regions, with the groups living closest to the urban cores benefitting the most."Not only does it improve air quality, but it also shrinks the disparity among different groups," said Michael Kleeman, the study's senior author and professor of civil and environmental engineering who is also a member of the Atmospheric Science Graduate Group and the Institute for Transportation Studies. "It levels the playing field for all California residents."Environmental justice and low carbon fuelsKnowing this information can help round out policy discussions about cutting pollution levels by incorporating environmental justice aspects, the researchers said."We often talk about low carbon fuels and greenhouse gas reductions, but there's not a lot of talk about public health," Kleeman said. "The public health benefits associated with low carbon fuels should be a part of these conversations."The study also estimated that adopting low-carbon fuels would prevent thousands of deaths in California each year through improved air quality. In economic terms, the total public health benefits were estimated to be approximately $20 billion annual.Anikender Kumar and Yin Li from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering also contributed to the analysis.&nbsp;—ANI

According to the University of California, switching to low-carbon fuels for transportation, cooking, heating, electricity generation and other needs will help combat climate change and reduce racial and ethnic disparities in exposure to air pollution.