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General Studies 3 >> Enivornment & Ecology

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GRAZING ANIMALS
 
 

GRAZING ANIMALS

 
1. Key Points:
  • Grazing animals have a significant impact on the stability of soil carbon in grazing ecosystems.
  • Researchers observed that experimentally removing grazing animals from the ecosystem resulted in higher fluctuations in soil carbon.
2. Research:
The researchers, with the support of the Himachal Pradesh State Government, local authorities & the people of village Spiti, established some fenced plots where grazing animals were excluded & adjacent plots where animals like Yak & ibex grazed.
The soil was examined year after year, over the decade following 2005, when the study began.
3. Grazers & stability:
  • The soil carbon in the fenced plots fluctuated 30-40% more than that in the plots where animals were allowed to graze.
  • Grazing ecosystems like grasslands, steppes savannahs, and shrublands cover about 10% of India & 40% of the world.
  • Historically, these ecosystems support nearly all megafauna around the world & are home to reptiles, birds, and amphbians.
  • Such drylands were threatened by alternate land use.
  • Drylands seem to lack a legitimate standing in our policy due to the unfortunate wasteland tag which originated during the colonial past that was enamoured by forests.
4. Substitute Populations:
  • Grazing ecosystems store carbon in the soil & decarbonise the atmosphere. Large mammals are crucial for this.
  • Unfortunately, wild mammals are confined to a few parks, and reserves.
  • Wildlife has long been replaced by domestic livestock.
  • The questions that come up are: while this replacement is inevitable for livelihoods & food security, are livestock ecological substitutes for the wild mammals they have displaced?
  • These aspects are missing in the current policy on livestock and all the answers are not found yet.
  • The land which has wildlife & restore degraded lands are to be protected.
 
 
Source: Hindu

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