Mangroves outside Mumbai Metropolitan Region are not protected by state cell

Mumbai city news: Only 5,471 hectares of the state’s 15,088 hectares of mangroves are protected by the state’s mangrove cell

Two years after 15,088 hectares of mangroves along the Maharashtra coastline were notified as reserved forest by the state government, apart from the entire mangrove cover in Mumbai, the revenue department has not yet handed over 9,600 hectares to the state mangrove cell.

The mangrove cell came into being in 2013 as the state’s nodal agency to protect mangroves and take action against those destroying them. However, with only the mangroves in Mumbai under its jurisdiction, officials say many mangrove destruction cases are going unchecked across the state.

Mangroves are salt-tolerant plants, trees, shrubs or ground fern of tropical and subtropical intertidal regions of the world. Such areas are highly productive, but extremely sensitive and fragile. Besides mangroves, the ecosystem also harbours other plant and animal species.

Between August 2015 and January 2016, the Konkan divisional commissioner’s office sanctioned and handed 5,471 ha of mangrove forests from Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane — all under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. However, till date, the remaining 9,617 ha from Raigad, remaining parts of Thane, Palghar, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg continue to remain under the jurisdiction of the revenue officials from each district.

According to the Konkan divisional commissioner’s office, there have been 233 mangrove destruction cases between April 2016 and May 2017, of which, inquiry is pending in 21 cases, mostly from Thane, Mira-Bhayander, Raigad and Sindhudurg districts.

“While there is a dedicated cell to probe mangrove destruction cases, sub-divisional officers from each district are not well versed with the Environment Protection Act, 1986 as opposed to the Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927. Therefore, in situations where mangroves have been destroyed, a complete follow-up investigation is currently missing. It is the need of the hour to hand over the remaining mangrove area to the cell,” said a senior state official.

Meanwhile, officials from the Konkan divisional commissioner’s office said that the entire 9,617 ha is likely to be handed over in the next three months. “The entire process of handing over these forests is extremely tedious,” said Bhausaheb Dangade, Konkan deputy commissioner (revenue).

First, the sub-divisional officer needs to send out a notice for the notification under IFA, 1927 through vernacular newspapers. Then citizens will submit their objections followed by public hearing. Once the process is resolved, the entire process happens at the district collector’s level, followed by the Konkan commissioner and then the state government. “While the process has been completed in a number of districts, only a few remain and by August we will be handing over the area to the cell.”

“The revenue department is deliberately keeping the mangroves in the state out of the purview of the forest department so that it can be made available for construction and various other projects. This is a deliberate attempt and defiance of the Bombay high court (HC) orders from 2005,” said Stalin D, project director, NGO Vanashakti.

'My worst nightmares are coming true': last major primeval forest in Europe on 'brink of collapse'

Polish government is accused of pushing Białowieża forest ecosystem to point of no return with state-sanctioned logging in Unesco world heritage site

Scientists and environmental campaigners have accused the Polish government of bringing the ecosystem of the Białowieża forest in north-eastern Poland to the “brink of collapse”, one year after a revised forest management plan permitted the trebling of state logging activity and removed a ban on logging in old growth areas.

Large parts of the forest, which spans Poland’s eastern border with Belarus and contains some of Europe’s last remaining primeval woodland, are subject to natural processes not disturbed by direct human intervention.

An Unesco natural world heritage site – the only one in Poland – the forest is home to about 1,070 species of vascular plants, 4,000 species of fungi, more than 10,000 species of insect, 180 breeding bird species and 58 species of mammal, including many species dependent on natural processes and threatened with extinction.

“At some point there will be a collapse, and if and when it happens, it’s gone forever – no amount of money in the universe can bring it back,” said Prof Tomasz Wesołowski, a forest biologist at the University of Wroclaw who has been conducting fieldwork in Białowieża for each of the last 43 years. “With every tree cut, we are closer to this point of no return.”

Logging is prohibited in the Białowieża national park nature reserve, which contains woodland untouched by humans for thousands of years, but the reserve only accounts for 17% of the forest on the Polish side, leaving approximately 40,000 hectares vulnerable to state-sanctioned logging.

On recent visits to the forest, the Guardian encountered evidence of widespread logging of trees in apparent contravention of Polish and European law, including many trees that appeared to be more than 100 years old in Unesco-protected areas, with logs marked for commercial distribution.

“They are logging natural, diverse forest stands which were not planted by humans and replacing them with plantations of trees of a single age and species,” said Adam Bohdan of the Wild Poland Foundation , which monitors logging activity and provides data for scientists working at the Białowieża botanical research station.

“They are logging in Unesco zones where timber harvesting is forbidden, they are logging 100-year-old tree stands in contravention of European law, they are logging during breeding season and destroying habitats occupied by rare species. It is disrupting natural processes which have been continuing there for thousands of years. We are losing large parts of the last natural forest – my worst nightmares are coming true ,” said Bohdan.

Donald Trump's 'insane' climate change policy will destroy more jobs than it creates and also speed up global warming

Donald Trump's 'insane' policy 

Speeding up global warming , at the same time destroying jobs.

US energy department report says less than 200,000 work in coal, oil and natural gas, compared to more than 650,000 in wind, solar and bio fuels.

Donald Trump will speed up global warming and will potentially destroy more American jobs than he creates, the Environment Protection Agency claims.Tom Crowther, who recently led a global warming report that is already being adopted by the United Nations, also said the US President’s short-sighted approach was “brutal” and “insane”. Dr Crowther, back in December, said average temperatures are forecast to increase by 3 Celsius by 2050 and that global warming is beyond the 'point of no return' .
"It is an issue that deserves attention," the official said of climate change. "But I think the President has been very clear that he is not going to pursue climate change policies that put the US economy at risk. It is very simple."

"The previous administration devalued workers by their policies," the official said. "We are saying we can do both. We can protect the environment and provide people with work."

His report, which was celebrated by academics across the globe, said climate change scientists had not previously taken account of harmful carbon gasses emitted from the soil: known as ‘positive feedback’.“Certainly Trump’s policy will bump that number up and will accelerate climate change and that’s devastating,” said Dr Crowther, speaking to The Independent.

The former Yale University academic also said Mr Trump’s policy would destroy more jobs than it creates in the long run, because global warming will terrorize industries that are tied to the land . Mr Trump’s executive order seeks to reverse Mr Obama’s “war on coal”, but a US Department of Energy report in January claimed the renewable energy sector employed far more than the fossil fuel sector.It said 187,117 worked in coal, oil and natural gas, while more than 650,000 worked in wind, solar and bio fuels.“It’s only going to put the US at a massive disadvantage as the rest of the world moves forward,” said Dr Crowther. If, as a lot of studies suggest, that renewable energies employ more people than coal and other natural gases, then sticking with natural gas is reducing the potential for job creation.

Mr Trump’s executive order, signed on Monday, initiates a review of the Clean Power Plan which restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants.“As Trump withdraws from all of these agreements, our once in a lifetime chances of offsetting the devastating impacts of climate change just continue to slip away," added Mr Crowther.

Suicide

Suicide

Why do people especially teens commit suicide ?

To Die

To die is something very frightening , nobody alive knows what is the pain you have to go through to die. It is also not an easy topic to discuss about although talking bout it could save lives. It is clear that usually it's not just one thing that compels someone to feel suicidal. It can be a combination of these few things , pain, loneliness, rejection, abuse, deep depression, guilt, depression, helplessness, hopelessness.

People do not understand

More than anything, I believe people who live with suicidal idea feel hopeless. They are hurting so badly and want nothing more than for the pain to end. Unfortunately, but they cannot imagine the pain ever going away. They cannot see the light at the end of the very dark and lonely tunnel they have found themselves traveling down. Have you ever felt this way?

It is not uncommon for a person’s circumstances or their self-image to cause someone to think negatively about themselves. Often times, people consider suicide because they are unable to find any reason to make living worthwhile. They think their problems are unsolvable and they feel completely out of control. I believe first and foremost, hopelessness is a serious spiritual problem rooted in lies and faulty thinking. Anytime you believe lies about yourself, you are listening to the wrong voices.

Jennifer said suicide has been a daily struggle for the past nine years due to being sexually abused. I feel like suicide is the only option I have left, the only chance at peace I’ll ever have. It’s as if something will always be missing and life will never be quite right. There is no denying that the pain of sexual abuse can be tremendous. But the abuse is not Jennifer’s fault. She is the victim, but she does not have to punish herself for her abuser’s actions. Additionally, many people just like Jennifer have overcome abuse through talking about it with a professional counselor. 

Conclusion  

Suicide is the results of irrational thinking in the illness of depression. Spread the awareness and stop suicidal.