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ENVIRONMENT

POLLUTION WILDLIFE

Domestic biomass burning deadliest Asiatic cheetah
source of air pollution: Study on verge of

Emissions from domestic biomass The latest study focuses on the extinction
burning has emerged as the deadliest major sources of PM2.5 that are
air pollution source in India with it behind the deaths namely, residential Conservationists, on 16 December
being responsible for around a quarter biomass burning, coal combustion in 2017, warned that the Asiatic cheetah
of the deaths caused by PM2.5, a industries and thermal power plants, is on the threshold of extinction
global study found on January 11, burning of crop residue and vehicular
following a UN decision to pull
2018. combustion.
funding from conservation efforts to
And this may only be the tip of Coal combustion, roughly evenly
protect it. Fewer than 50 of the
the iceberg as the study does not split between industrial sources and
critically endangered carnivores are
take into account indoor exposure thermal power plants, was responsible
thought to be left in the wild – all of
to biomass burning, especially in for 169,300 deaths (15.5%) in 2015. The
them in Iran – and scientists fear that
rural areas where charcoal, firewood open burning of agricultural residue
and animal dung are used for was responsible for 66,200 PM2.5- without urgent intervention there is
cooking in the absence of cleaner attributable deaths (6.1%), the report little chance of saving one of the
fuels. says. Transport, distributed diesel and planet’s most distinctive and graceful
According to the latest Global brick production were responsible hunters.
Burden of Diseases (GBD MAPS) behind 23,100, 20,400 and 24,100 The Asiatic cheetah, Acinonyx
report by the Boston-based Health deaths respectively, it says. jubatus venaticus, is slightly smaller
Effects Institute, residential biomass The burden of disease, in terms of and paler than its African cousin. It
burning was behind 2,67,700 deaths the numbers of deaths attributable to has a fawn-coloured coat with black
or nearly 25 per cent of the deaths total PM2.5, is expected to grow in the
spots on its head and neck, and
attributable to PM2.5 in 2015. future, as the population ages and
distinctive black “tear marks” running
The report builds on the GBD grows and leaves more people
from the corner of each eye down the
report, which was launched in susceptible to air pollution, the
side of its nose.
November last year. That report had researchers have forecast.
Asiatic cheetahs were once
attributed over 1.1 million deaths The study says that if emission
recorded in 2015 to outdoor exposure control measures are not taken, the widespread across the continent but
to PM2.5, which are ultrafine air-borne number of deaths caused by PM2.5 in were eradicated in India, where they
particulates as tiny as 30 times the the country will rise to 1.7 millions in were hunted for sport. The spread of
width of a human hair. 2030 and reach 3.6 million in 2050. farming also greatly reduced numbers
in the 19th and 20th centuries.
WILDLIFE Eventually the animal was wiped out
First-ever hybrid bird species from the in all the nations of Asia to which it
was once native – with the exception
Amazon discovered of a few areas of Iran.
Conservationists have battled to
Scientists, on 26 December 2017, species among vertebrates are keep numbers stable in these areas.
discovered the first-known hybrid bird exceedingly rare. They have faced severe problems,
species to be found in the Amazon A hybrid species forms when two
however. Cheetahs are killed in
rainforest– a golden-crowned manakin parental species mate to produce a
droves by poachers, and local
with yellow feathers. Through a series hybrid population. In this case, the
farmers, who kill them to protect their
of genetic and other tests, researchers two parents are the snow-capped
livestock. But a large number are lost
found that the golden-crowned manakin, named for its bright snowy-
as roadkill, being run over on
manakin – first discovered in Brazil in white crown feathers, and the
1957 but not seen again until 2002 – is opal-crowned manakin, named highways. The opening up of new
in fact a hybrid species. While hybrid for its brilliant iridescent crown mining operations has also restricted
plant species are very common, hybrid feathers. their territories.
84 Competition Wizard March 2018