ENLIGHTENED MINDS_Inspiring Excellence

Impact of Plastic Waste   §   Economic Losses:  Plastic waste along shoreline has a negative impact on tourism revenue (creates an aesthetic issue). o    For example, the Andaman and The Nicobar Islands, are under the plastic threat and facing the aesthetic issue because of the  international dumping of plastic waste   at the island. §   Implications for Animals:  Plastic wastes have profoundly affected animals in aquatic, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems. o    PLASTIC INJESTION   upsets or fills up the digestive systems of the animals thus contributing to their death due to intestinal blockage or starvation. o    Marine animals can also be  trapped in plastic waste  where they are exposed to predators or starve to death. o    The plastics may also contain  toxic chemicals  which can harm the animal’s vital organs or biological functions. §   Implications for Human He...

  Forest Fire GS-1 Geography With rising mercury levels,  Uttarakhand's forest fire  season has now reached its peak. There are two primary causes of wildfires, viz. Human and Natural. Human Causes 90% of all wildfires are caused by humans. Human acts of carelessness such as leaving campfires unattended and negligent discarding of cigarette butts result in wildfire disasters every year. Accidents, deliberate acts of arson, burning of debris, and fireworks are the other substantial causes of wildfires. Natural Causes Lightning:  A fairly good number of wildfires are triggered by lightning. Volcanic Eruption:  Hot magma in the earth’s crust is usually expelled out as lava during a volcanic eruption. The hot lava then flows into nearby fields or lands to start wildfires. Temperature:  High atmospheric temperatures and dryness offer favourable conditions for a fire to start. Climate Change  is causing a gradually increasing surface air temperature, which c...

  Agriculture issues and its role in food security Issues in Indian agriculture Due to a  variety of limiting factors , from uncertainties of the weather to soil fertility and water availability, increasing returns to scale are very difficult to achieve in farming. This underscores the  need for the right kind of public investment  in agriculture. Again, economies of scale allow producers in industry to make profits by cutting unit costs, even as prices fall, while those who fail to make the cut, get eliminated from competition. But in agriculture, members of the family can be drafted to work on the family’s farm, as also in other farm and non-farm work. This phenomenon is quite widespread in India today: of the  nine crore rural families  who draw their  main income from unskilled manual labour,   four crore are small and marginal farmers . Through overwork and self-exploitation, peasant farmers are able to cling on to their land. Again,  pr...