Biochar is emerging as a critical technology in the global effort to combat climate change, especially in carbon capture and removal strategies. As India prepares to launch its carbon market in 2026, biochar is expected to play a significant role in helping to meet carbon removal targets.
Biochar is a carbon-rich material produced from agricultural residue or organic municipal waste through a process known as pyrolysis. This involves heating the biomass in the absence of oxygen at temperatures ranging from 400°C to 600°C in a kiln-like structure. The resulting biochar is a stable form of carbon that can be stored in the soil for extended periods, providing a long-term carbon sink.
Production Source: Made from agricultural waste, organic municipal solid waste, and sometimes wood or forest residues.
Stable Carbon: Biochar is highly stable and can sequester carbon in the soil for 100-1,000 years. This makes it an effective tool for long-term carbon storage.
Sustainability: Biochar offers a sustainable waste management solution, converting organic waste into a valuable product with environmental benefits.
Carbon Sequestration: Biochar’s ability to hold carbon for centuries makes it one of the most effective long-term strategies for carbon removal. This can significantly offset CO₂ emissions.
Soil Health: By enhancing soil organic carbon, biochar improves soil fertility, which is crucial for agriculture, especially in degraded soils.
Low Carbon Footprint: Biochar is a low-carbon technology compared to other industrial methods of carbon removal, making it suitable for eco-conscious sectors.
Agriculture:
Soil Improvement: Biochar can improve water retention in semi-dry and nutrient-depleted soils, which is crucial for dryland farming.
Reduction in Greenhouse Gases: It can reduce nitrous oxide emissions (a potent greenhouse gas) by 30-50% in agricultural soils.
Restoration of Degraded Soils: Biochar helps restore degraded soils by enriching the soil organic matter, improving crop yields.
Industries:
Carbon Capture: Modified biochar can be used in carbon capture applications to adsorb CO₂ from industrial exhaust gases. However, its efficiency in this application is currently lower than other conventional methods.
Sustainable Manufacturing: By incorporating biochar into industrial processes, industries can reduce their carbon footprint.
Construction Sector:
Building Materials: Biochar can be explored as a low-carbon alternative to traditional construction materials, acting as a carbon sink in building materials like concrete or bricks.
Stable Carbon Storage: Incorporating biochar into construction materials helps lock carbon away for long periods, contributing to the overall reduction of carbon emissions in the sector.
Wastewater Treatment:
Pollution Reduction: Biochar has been found to be highly effective in water filtration, particularly for reducing contaminants such as heavy metals and organic pollutants in wastewater. This makes it an affordable and efficient solution for wastewater treatment plants.
As India aims to launch its carbon market in 2026, biochar could play a crucial role in carbon offset programs. By creating a system where industries and sectors that produce carbon can buy carbon credits for storing carbon through methods like biochar, it aligns with global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Biochar’s Role: Biochar, as a carbon-negative technology, could generate carbon credits by sequestering CO₂ in the soil for centuries. This would not only incentivize the use of biochar but also promote waste management and sustainable farming practices.
Agricultural Incentives: Farmers could adopt biochar as a method for soil enrichment and carbon sequestration, receiving financial rewards through the carbon market for their efforts to offset emissions.
While biochar offers significant potential, its use as a CO₂ removal technology is still evolving. Some of the challenges it faces include:
Efficiency: Biochar’s carbon removal efficiency, especially in industrial applications, is lower compared to more established methods of carbon capture.
Scalability: To become a major player in carbon markets, the production of biochar needs to be scaled up significantly, which may require large investments in infrastructure and technology.
Regulatory Framework: For biochar to be effectively integrated into India’s carbon market, a robust regulatory framework needs to be established, addressing certification, verification, and the methodology for measuring biochar’s impact on carbon removal.
Biochar presents a promising solution for carbon removal, waste management, and soil health. As India prepares to launch its carbon market in 2026, the role of biochar could become pivotal in helping industries and sectors offset their carbon emissions while contributing to sustainable agriculture and carbon-neutral construction.
Recently, scientists have identified the culprit behind the mass die-offs of sunflower starfish since 2013. Over 5 billion sunflower starfish are estimated to have died due to a mysterious disease. The disease is caused by a bacterium called Vibrio pectenicida. This discovery sheds light on the ongoing devastation of this important marine species along the Pacific coast of North America.
The Sunflower Sea Star, or Pycnopodia helianthoides, is one of the largest and fastest species of sea stars in the world, with unique features and significant ecological importance.
Size & Speed: They are among the largest sea stars, capable of moving quickly compared to other species.
Arms: They have between 15 to 24 arms, the highest number of arms in any sea star species. Most other sea stars have between 5 and 14 arms.
Radial Symmetry: Their body exhibits radial symmetry, a common feature in most sea stars, which helps them to move and feed efficiently.
Habitat: They are typically found on a variety of substrates including mud, sand, gravel, boulders, and rock.
Depth Range: Their usual habitat is found between intertidal coastal waters and up to 435 meters deep, though most live within 120 meters of depth.
Geographic Range: Sunflower sea stars are distributed along the Pacific coast of North America, from Alaska down to Mexico.
Regeneration: Sunflower sea stars have the remarkable ability to regenerate lost arms, a defense mechanism when they are attacked by predators. If an arm is detached and includes part of the central disk, a new sea star can form.
Reproduction: They exhibit external fertilization, where eggs and sperm are released into the water for broadcast fertilization. The breeding period generally spans from March to July.
Carnivorous: They primarily feed on mussels, sea urchins, fish, crustaceans, and other marine invertebrates.
Ecological Importance: Sunflower sea stars are opportunistic hunters and play a vital role in regulating ecosystems. They are key predators of sea urchins, which in turn graze on kelp. By keeping sea urchin populations in check, sunflower sea stars help maintain the health of kelp forests, which are crucial ecosystems that provide food and shelter for many marine species.
The Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) has recently identified and mass-produced the Hyblaea puera Nucleopolyhedrosis Virus (HpNPV), offering an eco-friendly alternative to chemical pesticides. This virus effectively combats the massive defoliation of teak trees caused by the teak defoliator moth (Hyblaea puera). The biocontrol method promises to reduce the environmental impact of traditional chemical pesticides.
The teak defoliator moth (Hyblaea puera) is a well-known pest, notorious for causing significant damage to teak trees and other vegetation.
Species Type: It is a moth and considered a cryptic species, meaning it is difficult to detect due to its camouflage.
Host Plants: Although it primarily attacks teak trees, it also targets Avicennia marina, a prominent mangrove species along the west coast of India.
First Recognition: The pest was first recognized as a threat to teak in 1898 in the Konni Forest Division in Kerala, India.
Native Region: The moth is native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, including India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, and parts of Australia.
Outbreak Frequency: The moth causes annual outbreaks in teak plantations, leading to significant economic losses in timber production.
Larvae Damage: The larvae of the teak defoliator moth begin to attack the trees with the onset of the monsoon rains. The damage primarily occurs when the larvae feed on the leaves.
Nature of Damage: The moth larvae defoliate the teak trees by eating entire leaves, leaving only the midrib. This hampers the tree's ability to grow as it diverts energy into regenerating leaves rather than growing.
Economic Consequences: The damage results in loss of timber quality and can reduce the economic yield of teak plantations during their seasonal outbreaks.
HpNPV is a biological agent that specifically targets and kills the larvae of the teak defoliator moth. It has shown significant promise in laboratory and field studies as the most effective biocontrol solution for this pest.
Infection Mechanism: The virus infects the larvae of the moth and multiplies inside the insect, creating a lethal infection. The virus can multiply trillions of times within a single larvae.
Inoculum Release: When the infected larvae die, their bodies break open, releasing huge quantities of the virus, which can infect surrounding moth larvae.
Long-Term Effectiveness: Even if the infection is sub-lethal (i.e., the larvae survive initially), the virus remains within the insect and can be passed on to the next generation, ensuring the pest population's eventual decline.
Eco-Friendly: Unlike chemical pesticides, HpNPV is a natural virus and poses minimal risk to the environment. It is a sustainable and green solution to combat defoliation.
Targeted Action: It specifically targets the larvae of the Hyblaea puera moth, meaning that other beneficial organisms in the ecosystem are not harmed.
Prevents Widespread Damage: By controlling the population of the pest larvae, it helps to prevent the extensive defoliation of teak trees and the economic losses caused by the pest.
The Hyblaea puera Nucleopolyhedrosis Virus (HpNPV) offers an innovative and eco-friendly alternative to chemical pesticides, enabling more sustainable management of teak plantations and reducing the environmental impact of pest control efforts.
Researchers from IIT Delhi and IIT Gandhinagar have developed the District Flood Severity Index (DFSI) to assess and rank districts in India based on the severity of floods and their impacts over time.
The index accounts for the historical severity of floods in India, taking into consideration factors such as the number of people affected, the spread and duration of floods, and other related parameters. It is designed to help in better flood management and decision-making at the district level, which is crucial for planning and mitigation strategies.
Mean Duration of Floods: The average duration (in days) of flooding events in a district.
Percentage of Area Flooded: The extent of the district’s area historically impacted by floods.
Human Impact: Total number of deaths and number of injuries due to floods.
Population: The population size of the district.
Flood History: Data from the India Flood Inventory with Impacts (IFI-Impacts) database, which includes statistics on deaths, damage, and the extent of flooded areas.
The data is sourced from national hydrologic-hydrodynamic models and provides a comprehensive picture of flood frequency and impact.
Top Districts: According to the DFSI, Patna ranks as the most flood-affected district, followed by many other districts in the Indo-Gangetic Plain and Assam.
Flooding Events: Thiruvananthapuram experiences the highest number of flooding events but is not among the top districts in the flood severity index. This indicates that while the frequency of flooding events may be high, their severity (in terms of damage, deaths, and area affected) might be lower.
Assam’s Impact: Dhemaji, Kamrup, and Nagaon districts in Assam have experienced over 178 flooding events, averaging more than three events per year.
Urban Flooding: Urban flooding is often due to a combination of hydrometeorological factors (e.g., intense rainfall, river overflow) and unplanned urban development (e.g., poor drainage, over-exploitation of natural landscapes).
Flood Management: The DFSI can guide flood management policies, help prioritize resources, and assist local authorities in planning interventions that address both short-term relief and long-term resilience.
Local Decision-Making: Since districts are the most relevant unit for planning and response, the DFSI will be a valuable tool for district-level flood management.
Targeted Policy Actions: The index can help identify which districts need immediate flood control measures, assist in disaster preparedness, and improve response times during floods.
This development of the District Flood Severity Index is an important step in addressing the long-term challenges posed by flooding in India, particularly in flood-prone areas like the Indo-Gangetic Plain and Northeast India.
Recently, a rare albino Indian flapshell turtle with a striking yellow shell and skin was spotted in a freshwater lake at Chikodra village, Gujarat. This rare sighting has garnered attention due to its unusual appearance, as albinism is extremely rare among reptiles.
Geographic Range: The Indian flapshell turtle is commonly found in tropical South Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.
Habitat: These turtles thrive in shallow, quiet, and often stagnant waters such as rivers, streams, marshes, ponds, lakes, irrigation canals, and tanks. They prefer areas with sand or mud bottoms to help with burrowing.
The Indian flapshell turtle has distinctive femoral flaps that extend from the shell and cover its limbs when it withdraws into its shell.
They have oval, soft shells, a feature that connects them to hardshell turtles through evolutionary adaptation.
They can grow up to 370 mm in length and live for about 20 years.
Their diet is omnivorous, and they are primarily solitary, active during the day.
The Indian flapshell turtle is highly adaptable and has the unique ability to survive extreme droughts for 120-160 days, making it resilient to changing environmental conditions.
IUCN Red List: Vulnerable
CITES: Appendix I
Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I
The turtle’s vulnerability is largely due to habitat destruction and poaching, leading to its endangered status.
Albinism is a rare genetic condition that leads to a lack of melanin, which causes pigment loss in skin, eyes, and other parts of the body.
It is a recessive genetic trait, meaning both parents must carry the gene for an animal to be born albino. Albinism occurs in approximately 1 out of 10,000 births in many species.
Leucism, a related condition, results in a partial loss of pigmentation. Leucistic animals often have white fur, scales, or skin, but unlike albinism, their eyes are not red or pink.
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We provide offline, online and recorded lectures in the same amount.
Every aspirant is unique and the mentoring is customised according to the strengths and weaknesses of the aspirant.
In every Lecture. Director Sir will provide conceptual understanding with around 800 Mindmaps.
We provide you the best and Comprehensive content which comes directly or indirectly in UPSC Exam.
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