The IUCN report cites the example of the Hortobagy National Park, the second largest alkaline grassland in Europe, which covers 82,000 ha on the flood plain of the Tisza River. The Park managers established lighting regulations based on the RASC/IDA Guidelines for Outdoor Lighting, ensuring an environment free of light pollution, which is highly essential for the wildlife thriving in the Park.
By Salam Rajesh
“Light pollution is the human-caused alteration of outdoor light levels from those occurring naturally. It threatens ecological and commemorative integrity, interferes with amateur and research astronomy, degrades the appreciation of mythologies and cultural practices related to the night sky, mars wilderness experience and landscape beauty, carries risks to human health and wastes energy”.
The statement comes as a process of an emerging campaign by international bodies for the elimination of light pollution across the globe, as is outlined in the IUCN publication “The World at Night: Preserving natural darkness for heritage conservation and night sky appreciation” (2004).
Light pollution is a relatively new area of deliberation in an obscure region like North East India where there is less of discussion on the proceedings of the subsidiary bodies of the United Nations, far more pronounced in Manipur particularly where the State is yet to deal appropriately with issues on air and water pollution.
The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2020, at its session in Marseille, France, had specifically called upon its member organizations and the specialized Commissions to work towards reducing light pollution globally.
The world body while urging all concerned to ‘ensure the protection of the nocturnal environment’, appealed to all of its member organizations and agencies for the ‘management of land and water areas to develop, disseminate and implement engagement, education and outreach programs to explain the harmful impacts of light pollution, the benefits of preserving natural darkness, and the methods to reduce light pollution’.
With the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development of France in the lead, the IUCN plunged into action to reduce light pollution reminding member organizations that ‘the impacts of artificial light at night affect many biological groups, both flora and fauna, vertebrate and non-vertebrate, and affect the functioning of ecosystems and the free services that they provide to human societies, including pollination’.
The IUCN report emphasizes that ‘birds are seriously affected by light pollution. They may suffer navigation problems from night lights during migration and become disoriented, tending to fly toward bright lights. The death toll from collisions with lights or brightly lit windows and buildings has generated public concern over the accumulation of dead birds at the base of brightly lit towers. Their feeding habits, particularly of those that eat flying insects, can suffer from the effects of light pollution on their own behaviour as well as that of the insects upon which they feed’.
The report further stresses that ‘insects, too, suffer disorientation and death from attraction to artificial lights. Their numbers also decrease as they congregate under bright lights and become easy prey for insect-eating birds. Insects suffer losses due to the interruption of their normal breeding habits by light pollution.
On this very note, the report points out that ‘the impacts of light wavelengths on biological groups are very diverse (e.g. orientation, growth, phototaxis, circadian clock, activity modification) and that a biological group can be affected by several types of impact’.
The IUCN report is also specific on the fact that ‘artificial lighting disrupts the orientation of many animal species with severe adverse effects (marine turtles, migrating birds, etc.) and reduces the quality of habitats and connectivity within landscapes, with consequences for the viability of populations.
The IUCN report cites the example of the Hortobagy National Park, the second largest alkaline grassland in Europe, which covers 82,000 ha on the flood plain of the Tisza River. The Park managers established lighting regulations based on the RASC/IDA Guidelines for Outdoor Lighting, ensuring an environment free of light pollution, which is highly essential for the wildlife thriving in the Park. Hortobagy supports 159 nesting species and 178 regular or irregular visiting species. Every year around 100,000 to 300,000 grey geese (Anser spp.), 100,000 cranes (Grus grus), and 50,000 to 200,000 shorebirds stop at Hortobagy.
Citing a case study in Manipur’s Loktak Ramsar site which is an important feeding ground for thousands of transboundary migratory water birds flying in along two international flyways – the Central Asian Flyway and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway – the fishing community of Champu Khangpok Floating Island Village, a unique floating island village within Loktak Lake, raised a campaign to halt the illegal practice of night time fishing using brightly lit LED lights. The campaign had two-prong appeal: first, stop overexploitation of the fish resource, and secondly, stop disrupting the migratory water birds in their feeding season.
Taking advantage of the covid-19 restrictions, which nonetheless impacted the livelihoods of the locals drastically during the lockdown period of 2020 and 2021, there was profusion in night time fishing with LED lights, literally turning Loktak into a ‘city of lights’. The Champu Khangpok villagers’ relentless campaign significantly checked the undesired practice, with now only a few erring fishers here and there on the sly.
Taking a leaf out of the Hortobagy experience, the Loktak Lake managers requires to strategize a policy for ensuring strict compliance to regulations and halt any form of activity that contributes to light pollution, especially within the Loktak Ramsar site during the migration period of the long-distance flying water birds, many arriving from European destinations, from Siberia and the Far East.
It may be recalled that until the year 2012, light pollution as a subject of concern did not feature in any of the IUCN conventions. During the Members’ Assembly held as a process of the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2012 in Jeju, Republic of Korea, a motion to adopt a recommendation “Dark skies and nature conservation” was introduced by the InterEnvironment Institute, a US-based IUCN Member.
The motion moved by the international organization was based on the work of the IUCN Dark Skies Advisory Group, part of the Urban Conservation Strategies Specialist Group of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA). Similarly, the Members’ Assembly as part of the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2020 in Marseille, France, adopted a strong resolution “Taking action to reduce light pollution”. This since, has paved the path for a larger discussion on light pollution as detrimental to ecological integrity, wildlife, and human health in general.