Environmental pollution and degradation

Its my 1st mains question written practice. Evaluate it & guide me sir

KEY POINTS

In a 2015 Science study, the researchers estimated that India had dumped 0.6 million tonnes of plastic into the ocean in 2010. China was the top dumper, while India ranked 12^th.

Impacts of dumping plastics

·        Entanglement of marine organisms obstructs their locomotion.

·        Fishing nets(Ghost nets) lost at sea, and plastic bags can trap fish and mammals, preventing them from swimming, foraging for food and mating.

·        Plastics can block the digestive tract of marine organisms. Laysan Albatrosses(North Pacific Ocean) stomach is found to be filled with plastics because of Pacific Garbage Patch.

·        Microplastics settle in phytoplankton, at the base of the marine food chain. So phytoplankton-eating fish are at risk.

·        Algae which are at the base of the food chain were not able to photosynthesise efficiently when exposed to 20-nanometre polystyrene beads.

Consequences of dumping plastics

·        Plastics are non-biodegradable and reaches the top positions of Trophic levels, humans due to biomagnification, causing a lot of diseases in humans. Eg: Liver damage

·        Shortening of food webs, thereby causing a decrease in complexity of marine biodiversity; less ecological stability.

·        Disruptions of ecological niche affects the stability of the marine ecosystem and thereby risking the lives of human beings who depend upon it.

Illustrations

·        CMFRI’s scientists have recovered plastic from the gut of dozens of species: mackerel near Mangalore, yellowfish tuna near Kochi and anchovies off the coast of Alappuzha.

·        Gujarat’s Sasan Gir Forest Department did a post-mortem on the 1-ton carcass of a Longman’s Beaked Whale on a beach in the Sutrapada municipality. They found four large plastic bags in the whale’s stomach. The plastic had blocked the whale’s digestive system.

·        Japanese Medaka, a fish species, has been shown to suffer from liver stress when it ingests marine microplastics.

Remedial Measures for sustaining marine biodiversity

·        In 2017, the Kerala government began a program called Suchitwa Sagaram to prevent dumping of nets and to bring back plastic litter as well. Fishermen can now sell their damaged nets in a buyback programme. Also, when fishing nets trap litter, the fishermen bring it back to the shore. This type of programme needs to be implemented all coastal states uniformly.

·        Phasing out of microbeads in cosmetics.

·        Proper Management of Plastic waste through effective coordination at all levels of government; and implementing the principle of Reduce, Recycle, Reuse of plastics.

·        Holidays for tourist places to clean up the litters.Eg: Thailand’s Maya Bay, Phi Phi Leh island to be closed to tourists indefinitely.

kindly review!

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