10.3 Pollution, Climate Change, Water Disputes & Renewable Energy

Pollution — Types, Causes and the Standards That Regulate Them

Terms the paper asks for by definition: BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) — the oxygen consumed by micro-organisms decomposing organic matter, so a high BOD means heavy organic pollution; COD (chemical oxygen demand); eutrophication — nutrient enrichment, typically by nitrates and phosphates, causing algal blooms that deoxygenate water and kill fish, which is exactly the mechanism behind Bellandur's froth and fish kills; bioaccumulation and biomagnification — the concentration of persistent pollutants up the food chain; thermal pollution; and Particulate Matter 2.5 and 10.

Climate Change and Karnataka's Vulnerability

• The greenhouse gases to name are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapour and the fluorinated gases; the greenhouse effect is natural, and global warming is its intensification by human emissions.
• Ozone depletion is a separate problem, caused by chlorofluorocarbons and addressed by the Montreal Protocol; climate change is addressed by the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement (2015), under which India submits Nationally Determined Contributions and has declared a net-zero target for 2070.
• India's response includes the National Action Plan on Climate Change with eight missions — solar, energy efficiency, sustainable habitat, water, sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem, Green India, sustainable agriculture, and strategic knowledge.
• Karnataka's exposure is unusually two-sided. The state has among the largest drought-prone areas in India, concentrated in the northern and Kalyana-Karnataka taluks, while the Krishna and its tributaries flood in the same monsoon, and the Malnad and Kodagu now see recurrent landslides in extreme rainfall events. Coffee, arecanut and horticulture are sensitive to shifts in rainfall timing, and the State Action Plan on Climate Change is the coordinating document.

Disaster Management — Where a VAO Actually Operates

The Disaster Management Act, 2005 created a three-tier structure:

Response forces include the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force, funded through the National and State Disaster Response Funds.

The village-level sequence in a drought or flood is worth learning as a procedure, because it is the most likely descriptive question for this post:

1. The state declares drought for specified taluks, or a flood or hailstorm event occurs.
2. A joint field survey — typically the VAO with the Agriculture or Horticulture Department official — inspects affected survey numbers.
3. The VAO records the survey number, crop, extent sown, extent damaged and percentage of loss, drawing the holder's name from the RTC.
4. The report goes to the Revenue Inspector and Tahsildar and is consolidated at taluk and district level.
5. On that basis, input subsidy or relief is paid to the cultivator, crop-insurance claims are processed, and remission or suspension of land revenue may be granted.

An honest, prompt report is the whole mechanism. Because payment follows the record, a careless entry either denies relief to a household that lost its crop or pays for a loss that did not occur.

Interstate Water Disputes

Disputes are resolved under the Interstate River Water Disputes Act, 1956, through tribunals constituted by the Centre; Article 262 empowers Parliament to provide for adjudication and to bar the courts' jurisdiction. Alongside these, the Belagavi boundary dispute with Maharashtra remains pending in the Supreme Court.

Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development

• Karnataka is one of India's leading renewable-energy states, with roughly 9 GW of installed solar capacity anchored by the Pavagada Solar Park in Tumakuru district — among the largest solar parks in the world — plus substantial wind capacity in the northern districts, small hydro in the Ghats, and biomass and cogeneration in the sugar belt.
• Hydro remains significant: Sharavathi (Linganamakki), Kali (Supa), Varahi and the historic Shivanasamudra station. Kaiga in Uttara Kannada is the state's nuclear station, and Raichur and Ballari host its major thermal plants.
• The nodal agency is Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL); national programmes include the National Solar Mission, PM-KUSUM for solar pumps, and rooftop solar schemes. Surya Raitha supported solar pump-sets for farmers.
• Village-level sustainability instruments a VAO encounters: biogas (gobar gas) plants, solar street lighting funded from Panchayat and Finance Commission grants, watershed structures and farm ponds, Krishi Aranya farm forestry, and tank restoration.

Exam Angle

Three clusters carry the marks. First, definitions — BOD, eutrophication, biomagnification, AQI — which are pure recall. Second, the water disputes with their years and the 2018 Cauvery modification, which are recurring current affairs. Third, the disaster-management chain with the Deputy Commissioner chairing the DDMA, together with the crop-loss procedure, which is the part of this chapter closest to the actual job.