Environment & Ecology
Context: Residents from around 40 villages of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan have walked 225 kilometres to protect community-conserved sacred spaces known as ‘orans’. Currently, the biodiversity hotspots are classified as wastelands.
About orans:
- ‘Orans’ are community forests that act as a store of biodiversity, enable effective water management and serve as a community based regeneration system, which also ensure sustainable extraction of Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFPs) by villagers, in the world’s oldest Aravali Mountain Range and in the Great Indian Desert of Rajasthan.
- Sacred groves have been live manifestations of historical, cultural and emotional attachment of human beings with forests.
- They unify rural communities religiously, culturally and socially. In due course, degradation and depletion of forests and forest resources have occurred due to several reasons—both natural and anthropogenic.(India).
- There are about 25000 orans in Rajasthan that cover more than 600,000 hectares and provide a much-needed lifeline and safeguard to their respective communities.
- Until two decades ago, orans have suffered widespread degradation due to neglect and misguided priorities, opposition from hostile actors such as profit-seeking corporations, the introduction of foreign flora and fauna that compromise biodiversity and from a changing climate, all of which led to a marked decline in the condition of orans.
- Founded to address the above challenges, KRAPAVIS, an organization of local people, has been working for 21 years to revive orans, both physically and conceptually, in the desert and Aravali regions.
- These orans are hotspots of biodiversity with trees and flowers like rohida, bordi, kumbhat, and desi babool in large numbers.
- There are different varieties of grasses like sevan and murath as well, making these grasslands home to more than 250 species of birds and animals, including the great Indian bustard, McQueen bustard, chinkara, Indian desert cat, desert fox, etc
About KRAPAVIS:
- Krishi Avam Paristhitiki Vikas Sansthan (KRAPAVIS), literally means “organization for the development of ecology and agriculture/livestock”, works with a clear mission: the betterment of ecological, agricultural and livestock practices with a view to ensuring sustainable livelihoods for rural pastoral communities in Rajasthan.
Source: DownToEarth
Previous Year Question
Q.1) Consider the following pairs:
Wetland/Lake: Location
- Hokera Wetland Punjab
- Renuka Wetland Himachal Pradesh
- Rudrasagar Lake Tripura
- Sasthamkotta Tamil Nadu
How many pairs given above are correctly matched? (2022)
- Only one pair
- Only two pairs
- Only three pairs
- All four pairs
Q.2) With references to India, Didwana, Kuchaman, Sargol and khatu are the names of (2021)
- Glaciers
- Mangrove areas
- Ramsar sites
- Saline lakes
