Concretization

In News: A day after a ‘severe’ category thunderstorm hit the Delhi pavements and roads were strewn with tree branches and trunks that had snapped, and full-grown trees that were uprooted entirely.

• Poor root growth due to concretization could be a factor that caused trees to keel over
• Most trees have ‘feeder roots’ that are in the upper layers of the soil. These roots take nutrients and moisture, and have symbiotic fungi in and around them. But these roots cannot survive under concrete, since they need oxygen.
• If the space around trees is covered with concrete, there will be no life beneath the concrete
• An NGT order from 2013 states that concrete within a 1 metre radius of trees is to be removed. A notice was issued in 2019 by the forest department; informing all departments and civic agencies that concretisation of trees damages them and is an offence under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994.
• Leaving 1 metre around the trees is not enough to have sustainable growth of avenue trees. They need to have good feeder roots that can spread to take in nutrients.

Deepor Beel

In News: Assam’s Deepor Beel is perishing from concretisation and waste dumping

• Deepor Beel has shrunk around 35 per cent in size since 1991

What’s happening?

• Threatened habitats, littered lake
• A 24-hectare garbage dumping yard lies to the east of the lake in Boragaon. Birds and animals feed on rotten flesh and waste from the site, littering the waterbody and threatening their lives
• Huge mountains of solid waste are turning the picturesque lake into a stinking drain
• Concrete factories, houses and warehouses built illegally on the wetland damage the ecology.
• Rail track impacts wildlife
• A railway line passing through the bird sanctuary has also been posing a danger to the wildlife in and around the lake.
• At least 14 jumbos were killed crossing the railway track till 2014 between Rani Reserve Forest and Deepor Beel.
• Lost livelihoods
• The deterioration of the lake harmed the livelihoods of several hundred fishers who have depended on it for generations. The government has banned fishing in the core area of the lake.
• Discharge from a local oil refinery has been further polluting the water and inducing kerosene-like smell in the fish

Deepor Beel

• It is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Assam and the State’s only Ramsar site besides being an Important Bird Area by Birdlife International.
• It is located towards the southwest of Guwahati city, Assam and is the erstwhile water channel of River Brahmaputra.

Importance:

• It constitutes a unique habitat for aquatic flora and avian fauna.
• It has both biological and environmental importance besides being the only major storm-water storage basin for Guwahati city.
• It provides a means of livelihood for a number of local families.

Previous Year Questions (PYQs)

Q.1) Consider the following pairs (2014)

Wetlands:          Confluence of rivers

1. Harike Wetlands:        Confluence of Beas and Satluj/Sutlej
2. Keoladeo Ghana National Park:        Confluence of Banas and Chambal
3. Kolleru Lake:        Confluence of Musi and Krishna

Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?

1. 1 only
2. 2 and 3 only
3. 1 and 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

Source: Indian Express