My Science School

Blue tide and algal bloom

You may have often come across news about beach visitors witnessing glowing blue waves. This phenomenon is called blue tide and is caused when an abundance of marine noctilucent algae emit light in a chemical process called bioluminescence. The algae emit light when disturbed (by the waves in this case). It is an antipredatory response and is assumed to startle predators.

Though it may look magical, it is an ecological indicator of degraded water quality. Factors such as the pattern of the wind and higher sea temperature also determine the occurrence of algal bloom and bioluminescent waves.

What causes this algal bloom? When humans channel agricultural runoff, sewage and industrial effluents into waterways, the amount of nutrients in the water increases. The excess nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorous, lead to a spurt in the growth of microscopic algae. This is called algal bloom. Some of these can be bioluminescent. Not all algal blooms are harmful, but some are deadly. The presence of so many algae may suffocate fish by clogging or irritating the gills. Some algal species produce deadly toxins which either kill the animals or accumulate in the body of animals and spread through the food web.

Sea snot

Recently, there has been growing environmental concern in Turkey over the accumulation of 'sea snot, in the country's seas, which can cause considerable damage to the marine ecosystem.

"Sea snot", or marine mucilage, is a naturally occurring green sludge that forms when algae is overloaded with nutrients as a result of hot weather and water pollution. Most marine organisms produce mucus. But in unpolluted waters, mucus doesn't amass to large proportions. The current sea-snot outbreak can be blamed on phytoplankton, a type of algae that produces the small bits of mucus that turn into flakes of marine snow. During an algal bloom, they make an overabundance of mucus. Beads of that mucus can accumulate into sheets and wash up shore.

Sea snot affect marine and coastal ecosystem. It could poison the mussels and creatures such as crabs. It also affects fishing and tourism.

Sea foam

Sea foam is a type of foam created by the agitation of seawater, particularly when it contains higher concentrations of dissolved organic matter derived from sources such as the decay of offshore algal blooms. Sea foam forms when the ocean is churned by wind and waves. As a result, great amounts of decaying algal matter wash ashore.

Most sea foam is not harmful to humans, but when large harmful algal blooms decay near shore, there are potential for impacts to human health and the environment. The resulting aerosol can irritate the eyes and pose a health risk for those with respiratory conditions.

Sargassum

In the centre of the North Atlantic ocean, amidst the vast blue expanse, is a huge floating mat of brown seaweed called sargassum. These mats are quite common in the Sargasso Sea, a region around Bermuda. But since 2011, the Atlantic Ocean has been witnessing massive sargassum blooms every year. It stretches nearly 9000 km from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists call this the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt. The seaweed band has been getting bigger every year, posing a serious threat to marine life, coastal ecosystem and the fishing communities dependent on it. The seaweeds often wash up ashore en masse and choke coastal ecosystems. As the seaweed rots, it releases foul-smelling hydrogen sulphide gas, causing respiratory illness in local populations. It also affects coastal tourism.

Removal is time-consuming, expensive, and not always effective. Scientists attribute it various factors such as warming of the ocean due to climate change, discharge of nutrients from agricultural runoff.

Ghost forests

Grey and barren dead trees are dotting coastal regions across many parts of the world. Called ghost forests, these are leafless, limbless trees that can last decades in this dried-up barren state. Scientists believe they are the immediate consequences of sea-level rise. Sea-level rise increases the risk of saltwater intrusion. It is the flow of seawater into wetlands and rivers. As sea level rises, more and more saltwater encroaches on the land and overtakes freshwater that trees rely upon for sustenance. The salty water slowly poisons trees and eventually kills them. (Dead trees with pale trunks are a telltale sign of high salt levels in the soil.) The rising salt water also leaves soil unhealthy and forests unsuitable for new growth. Scientists note that extreme weather events, fuelled by climate change, are causing further damage to vegetation in the form of heavy storms, more frequent hurricanes and drought. This is causing mass tree die-offs across coastal regions.

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"No Room for a Leopard"

Author: Ruskin Bond

From the mountains of Himachal Pradesh to the valley of Dehradun, nature plays an important part in Ruskin Bond's works. The short story "No Room for a Leopard" was first published in 1998 anthology "A Bond with the Mountains". Set in the forest of forest of Mussoorie, it is a poignant tale of the killing of a leopard. Back in the 90s. leopards were often hunted for their prized skin. The story explores the changing relationship between humans and animals. The story ends with Bond recollecting the lines of the poet D.H. Lawrence, "There was a room in the world for a mountain lion and me. Alas, today the world is so crowded that there is indeed no room for a leopard.

"The Last Wild"

Author: Piers Torday

For environment enthusiasts, "The Last Wild" series by Piers Torday is perhaps equivalent to "Harry Potter books. The three spectacular books in the series - "The Last Wild", "The Dark Wild", and "The Wild Beyond-draws upon the themes of climate change, hope and friendship. It is set in a horrible world where animals have become extinct. There are no birds, no bugs, no dogs or even whales. So, Kester a kid named Kester embarks on an epic mission to save the last remaining members of the animal kingdom. The "Last Wild" is a great way to leam about the current environmental and sustainability crisis and prepare for the challenges of tomorrow. Along the way, you will also encounter some talking pigeons and a bossy cockroach!

"Watership Down"

Author: Richard Adams

A colony of rabbits in Watership Down are forced to leave their home due to its impending destruction by humans. Fiver and his friends leave the Sandleford Warren and hop into a vast and unknown world in search of a new home. Written by Richard Adams in 1972, this timeless novel is an allegory for the ongoing destruction for the environment and a cautionary tale Unlike the rabbits, we won't be able to find somewhere else to live if we don't save our environment.

"The Wind in the Willows"

Author: Kenneth Grahame

Published in 1908, this children's classic is one of the earliest examples of eco fiction. The Wind in the Willows" may seem like a simple tale, but it is actually a commentary on the destruction of the English countryside by industrialisation. It follows the adventures of the anthropomorphic animals Mole, Rat, Badger, Toad, and their friends as they discover the beauty of nature in spring as well as the damage caused by humans. Grahame wrote this sweet tale after retired from his position as the secretary of the Bank of England and moved back to the countryside, where he had lived as a child. He spent the rest of his life by the River Thames, enjoying nature.

"So You Want to Know About the Environment"

Author: Bijal Vaccharajani

Find it boring to read the jargon filled textbooks on environment? "So You Want to Know About the Environment" by Bijal Vaccharajani explains all about the ozone layer in simple words. The 170-page volume is packed with beautiful illustrations, jokes and activities that go hand in hand with the narrative. It explains important topics such as ozone depletion, dimate change and global warming in a fun and engaging manner.

"A Short History of Nearly Everything"

Author: Bill Bryson

You might have guessed by now that our planet Earth is in a pretty tight spot. But do you know how the depletion of the ozone layer began in the first place? Well, it all began with an Ohio inventor Thomas Midgley Jr. creating the infamous chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, that contributed to the reduction of the ozone layer of the atmosphere. In "A Short History of Nearly Everything". Author Bill Bryson provides us with a quirky, humourous and highly entertaining history of science and alerts us to the impending crisis facing our planet.

"We Are the Weather Makers"

Author: Tim Flannery

"We Are the Weather Makers" is the young adult edition of the popular book The Weather Makers" by Tim Flannery. Like the name suggests, "We Are the Weather Makers", rests the blame for climate change directly on our shoulders. Author Flannery gives it to us straight: God does not make the weather, we do! Our actions are responsible for the dire situation we are in today and we already possess the tools required to avoid catastrophic climate change. Read this book to find out how you can contribute towards saving the planet.

“Before the Flood”

Directed by: Fisher Stevens

Produced by the Academy Award winning Leonardo DiCaprio, "Before the Flood" is a documentary that tackles the subject of climate change. From Beijing being choked by industrial pollution and the vanishing ancient arboreal forests in Canada to the breaking of the glaciers well ahead of scientic predictions, the documentary looks at the drastic effects of climate change.

"Chasing Ice"

Director: Je Orlowski

Wonder what the end of the world would look like? Picture a three or five hundred feet tall glacier calving directly into the sea. It is accompanied by a loud and thunderous roar, as pieces of ice shoot six hundred feet up and then come crashing down into the water. It's enough to send chills down even the most intrepid souls.

The gigantic mountain, older than even the Himalayas, disappearing within minutes, leaving only a large, cold body of water in its place. Sounds farfetched? It's not.

A celebrated photographer James Balog tracks glacier retreats occuring across the world due to global warming in this documentary, It brings home the reality of global warming.

"David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet".

This stunning documentary is a first-hand account of the defining moments of David Attenborough's lifetime as a naturalist. Over the last 93 years. Attenborough has visited every continent on the planet and seen devastating changes to the landscape. He talks about humanity's impact on nature and its irreversible repercussions. It alerts us to the dangers of losing the Amazon rainforest, the thinning ice over the Arctic the dying coral reefs and possible mass extinctions and climate change.

“My Octopus Teacher”

Director Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed

This documentary follows the filmmaker Craig Foster as he free dives into the South African kelp forests and documents his encounters with a wild common octopus. The film shows Foster observes how the stunning creature survives in the sea defending itself from predators. When she loses an arm to a pyjama shark, Foster captures the slow, yet magical process of regeneration. The awe-inspiring documentary won an Oscar for the Best Documentary Feature this year.

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The mighty Lorax

The Lorax is a fictional character introduced by Dr. Seuss in the eponymous book published in 1971. The book is about the plight of the environment and the Lorax, who "speaks for the trees". The Lorax confronts the Once-ler, a reckless Thneed entrepreneur whose unrestrained ambition leads to the destruction of the environment. The main conversation that takes place within the book is between the Once-ler and the Lorax. While the Lorax speaks in defence of the environment and the animals that inhabit it, the Once-ler sides with his business. The Lorax" is an exemplary tale primarily about a person's responsibilities to the environment and represents the interests of all the creatures whose lives are affected negatively by the environmental degradation. The Lorax tries to convince the Once-ler to prevent destruction of the environment. However, the environment gets totally decimated before the Once-ler realises the harm he has caused. The story is also a hopeful account ending with the likelihood of environmental restoration when the Once-ler accepts responsibility.

Birdman of India

Sálim Moizuddin Abdul Ali was an Indian ornithologist and naturalist. He was popularly known as the "Birdman of India". Ali wrote many articles mainly in "Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society". He also wrote a number of popular and academic books. He loved birds most and wrote many books on them. Some of his famous books are 'The Book Of Indian Birds", "Indian Hill Birds", "The Fall of a Sparrow", "Common Birds". "Birds of Kerala", and "Birds of Sikkim". He was also a naturalist and strived to conserve the environment. For the conservation of birds and wildlife, he developed national parks such as the Bharatpur bird sanctuary and Silent Valley National Park. He inspired many people through his books and created awareness about the environment.

Ruskin Bond

Nature and literature have always shared a close relationship. This is evident in the works of various writers and poets from across the ages. The world of literature is flooded with works dealing with the beauty and power of nature. However, the concern for our environment and the damages caused by humanity has only recently caught the attention of authors. My favourite champion from literature is Ruskin Bond. His works include, "The Book of Nature", "An Island of Trees", "No Room for a Leopard", and "The Cherry Tree". In "No Room for a Leopard", Bond describes deforestation and its terrifying aftermath. In this story, he presents the piteous condition of the animals after deforestation. Bond's works not only showcase ecology as a dominant theme but reflect concerns for environmental issues that are unfolding in the world. His works voice his concerns about the inconsiderate actions of man towards nature.

Mahakavi Subramania Bharati

My favourite environment champion from literature is Mahakavi Subramania Bharati. He was one of the greatest Tamil poets. believed in the equality of humankind and also celebrated nature in his poems. His works motivated people to get closer to nature. He composed a poem "Jeya Berigai Kottada", in which he considers even crows and sparrows as part of the human race, along with mountains and oceans. Bharati insists that everything and everyone around him is his counterpart. In his song, "Kakkai Siraginile Nandalala", he compares God to nature, saying that the colour of the crow's wings reminds him of Krishna, and the green fields make him think of the Almighty. In his poem "Suttum vizhi sudar thaan Kannamma", he compares nature to his beloved. He writes that her saree is like the star-studded sky. Her eyes remind him of the "Sun and Moon" and her pupils are as dark as the night. Bharati says that her smile reflects the brightness of flowers. The poem itself is evidence of Bharati's love towards nature and the environment. I have a lot more to say about my favourite environment champion, but I cannot describe it all in just 150 words.

John Burroughs

John Burroughs was perhaps the best known and most widely read American nature writer of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, but he is largely unknown and unread today. Prolific and consistent. Burroughs published scores of essays in influential large circulation magazines between the American Civil War and World War I. Truly an interdisciplinary writer. Burroughs's essays present readers with direct, concrete descriptions of nature; and unsentimental evaluations of literature, especially the literature of natural history: and abstract meditations on time. Burroughs faced what he called "the cosmic chill" of an indifferent universe, but he insisted that we could face the indifference and "still find life sweet under its influence" ("The Light of Day"). In that regard, Burroughs can be seen as an exemplary figure of the scientific imagination, in league with Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin.

Earth's green hero

American biologist and author Rachel Carson is my favourite environment champion. Her book "Silent Spring" is about how humanity often forgets its dependence on plants for survival and instead acts in ways that are short sighted. In the book, Carson explains the role of water and soil in the web of life.

She argues that at times, it is necessary to disrupt plant life, but she wants we should do so thoughtfully with full awareness that what we do may have consequences remote in time and place."

From an evolutionary perspective, Carson describes why the sage brush is well suited to the landscape where it is found. She also describes the animal life that is dependent on the sage and the natural balance in which they both exist. Carson portrays the sage brush as wise and enduring.

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Greta Thunberg, who seems to have understood the importance of climate change at an early age, is a 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist born on January 3, 2003, in Stockholm, to opera singer Malena Ernman and actor Svante Thunberg. In a very short span, Thunberg became the global face of the growing youth movement against climate inaction.

Thunberg initially gained notice for her youth and her straightforward speaking manner, both in public and to political leaders and assemblies, in which she criticises world leaders for their failure to take what she considers sufficient action to address the climate crisis.

Her speech during the plenary session of the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) went viral. She commented that the world leaders present were "not mature enough to tell it like it is". In the first half of 2019, she joined various student protests around Europe, and was invited to speak at various forums and parliaments. At the January 2019 World Economic Forum, Thunberg gave a speech in which she declared: "Our house is on fire." She addressed the British, European and French parliaments, where in the latter case several right-wing politicians boycotted her. In a short meeting with Thunberg, Pope Francis thanked her and encouraged her to continue.[62] By March 2019, Thunberg was still staging her regular protests outside the Swedish parliament every Friday, where other students occasionally joined her. According to her father, her activism has not interfered with her schoolwork, but she has had less spare time. She finished lower secondary school with good grades. In July 2019, Time magazine reported Thunberg was taking a "sabbatical year" from school, intending to travel in the Americas while meeting people from the climate movement.

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Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist, author, and conservationist whose influential book Silent Spring (1962) and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement.

Carson had become interested in the danger of pesticides while still associated with the Fish and Wildlife Service. Her concern was accelerated with the introduction of DDT in 1945. Although she had left the Service to work on Silent Spring, her marine studies while there had provided her with early documentation on the effects of DDT on marine life. Since abnormalities always show up first in fish and wildlife, biologists were the first to see the effects of impending danger to the overall environment.

Carson had long been aware of the dangers of chemical pesticides but was also aware of the controversy within the agricultural community, which needed such pesticides to increase crop production. She had long hoped someone else would publish an expose' on DDT but realized finally that only she had the background as well as the economic freedom to do it. She made the decision to produce Silent Spring after years of research across the United States and Europe with the help of Shirley Briggs, a former Fish and Wildlife Service artist who had become editor of an Audubon Naturalist Society magazine called Atlantic Naturalist. Clarence Cottam, another former Fish and Wildlife Service employee, also provided Carson with support and documentation on DDT research conducted but not generally known.

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Aldo Leopold was an American author, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac (1949), which has sold more than two million copies.

A land ethic is a philosophy or theoretical framework about how, ethically, humans should regard the land. The term was coined by Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) in his A Sand County Almanac (1949), a classic text of the environmental movement. There he argues that there is a critical need for a "new ethic", an "ethic dealing with human's relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it".

Leopold offers an ecologically-based land ethic that rejects strictly human-centered views of the environment and focuses on the preservation of healthy, self-renewing ecosystems. A Sand County Almanac was the first systematic presentation of a holistic or ecocentric approach to the environment. Although Leopold is credited with coining the term "land ethic", there are many philosophical theories that speak to how humans should treat the land. Some of the most prominent land ethics include those rooted in economics, utilitarianism, libertarianism, egalitarianism, and ecology.

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The Chipko movement or chipko andolan, was a forest conservation movement in India.

It began in 1973 in Uttarakhand, then a part of Uttar Pradesh (at the foothills of Himalayas) and went on to become a rallying point for many future environmental movements all over the world. It created a precedent for starting nonviolent protest in India. However, it was Sunderlal Bahuguna, a Gandhian activist, who gave the movement a proper direction and its success meant that the world immediately took notice of this non-violent movement, which was to inspire in time many similar eco-groups by helping to slow down the rapid deforestation, expose vested interests, increase social awareness and the need to save trees, increase ecological awareness, and demonstrate the viability of people power. 

Mr. Bahuguna, who lived for decades in his Silyara ashram in Tehri Garhwal, inspired many young people in his passion for the environment. His ashram was open to young people, with whom he communicated with ease.

He, along with local women, founded the Chipko movement in the Seventies to prevent the felling of trees in the ecologically sensitive zones. The movement’s success led to enactment of a law to ban the felling of trees in ecologically sensitive forest lands. He also coined the Chipko slogan: 'ecology is permanent economy'.

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A waterspout is a column of cloud-filled wind rotating over a body of water. 

Despite its name, a waterspout is not filled with water from the ocean or lake. A waterspout descends from a cumulus cloud. It does not "spout" from the water. The water inside a waterspout is formed by condensation in the cloud. 

There are two major types of waterspouts: tornadic waterspouts and fair-weather waterspouts.

Tornadic waterspouts get their start as true tornadoes. Influenced by winds associated with severe thunderstorms, air rises and rotates on a vertical axis. Tornadic waterspouts are the most powerful and destructive type of waterspout. 

Fair-weather waterspouts, however, are much more common. Fair-weather waterspouts are rarely dangerous. The clouds from which they descend are not fast-moving, so fair-weather waterspouts are often static. Fair-weather waterspouts are associated with developing storm systems, but not storms themselves.

Waterspouts exist on a microscale, where their environment is less than two kilometers in width. The cloud from which they develop can be as innocuous as a moderate cumulus, or as great as a supercell. While some waterspouts are strong and tornadic in nature, most are much weaker and caused by different atmospheric dynamics. They normally develop in moisture-laden environments as their parent clouds are in the process of development, and it is theorized they spin as they move up the surface boundary from the horizontal shear near the surface, and then stretch upwards to the cloud once the low level shear vortex aligns with a developing cumulus cloud or thunderstorm. Some weak tornadoes, known as landspouts, have been shown to develop in a similar manner.

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Mud-puddling, or simply puddling, is a behaviour most conspicuous in butterflies, but occurs in other animals as well, mainly insects; they seek out nutrients in certain moist substances such as rotting plant matter, mud and carrion and they suck up the fluid. Where the conditions are suitable, conspicuous insects such as butterflies commonly form aggregations on wet soil, dung or carrion. From the fluids they obtain salts and amino acids that play various roles in their physiology, ethology and ecology.

Males seem to benefit from the sodium uptake through mud-puddling behaviour with an increase in reproductive success. The collected sodium and amino acids are often transferred to the female with the spermatophore during mating as a nuptial gift. This nutrition also enhances the survival rate of the eggs.

When puddling, many butterflies and moths pump fluid through the digestive tract and release fluid from their anus. In some, such as the male notodontid Gluphisia crenata, this is released in forced anal jets at 3 second intervals. Fluid of up to 600 times the body mass may pass through and males have a much longer ileum (anterior hindgut) than non-puddling females.

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Murmuration refers to the phenomenon that results when hundreds, sometimes thousands, of starlings fly in swooping, intricately coordinated patterns through the sky.

Scientists have been surprised to learn that the flying patterns of murmurations have more in common with physics than biology. Much remains unknown about murmurations. However, scientists now believe they may be able to describe murmurations using the principles of physics.

Scientists believe murmurations are similar to other systems, such as crystals forming, avalanches, metals becoming magnetized and liquids turning to gases. These systems are “on the edge," which means they're ready to be completely transformed in an instant.

Like the elements of these other systems, each starling in a murmuration is connected to every other starling. As shown in today's video, when a murmuration turns in unison, scientists believe it's like a phase transition.

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The Great Indian Bustard, a bird species once found in abundance across the grasslands of India, is facing the risk of extinction.

The 2011 Red List of birds, released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has enlisted the bird in the Critically Endangered category, the highest level of threat. The population of the species is estimated to be just 250.

Besides the Bustard, the list has enumerated 15 species from India as critically endangered and 16 as endangered ones. There are 55 vulnerable ones and 65 near-threatened bird species in the country. Some of the critically endangered Indian varieties include the Himalayan Quail, Pink-headed Duck, White-bellied Heron and Christmas Island Frigatebird. The vulture species found in India namely the White-backed, the Indian, the Slender-billed and the Red-headed are also in the critical list, says Dr. Nameer.

The list has classified 189 species worldwide as critically endangered, 381 as endangered with very high risk of extinction and 683 as vulnerable with high risk of extinction. It has also listed 843 species as near-threatened. A total of 2,096 species were treated as global conservation priorities. The threat status of 62 species could not be properly assessed following deficiency of data.

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The Amur leopard is a leopard subspecies native to the Primorye region of southeastern Russia and northern China. It is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. In 2007, only 19–26 wild leopards were estimated to survive in southeastern Russia and northeastern China. It was considered as one of the rarest cats on Earth.

Amur leopards are solitary, unless females have offspring. Records from camera-traps indicate that they are more active during the day than at night and during twilight, both in the summer and winter seasons. This activity pattern coincides with activity of prey species such as Siberian roe deer, sika deer and wild boar.

The Amur leopard is threatened by poaching, poaching of prey species, habitat loss and deforestation or exploitation of forests. Its natural habitat is threatened by forest fires and construction of new roads. Due to the small number of reproducing Amur leopards in the wild, the gene pool is so reduced that the population is at risk from inbreeding depression. In 2015, a wild Amur leopard was found with canine distemper virus in Primorskii Krai. The small population is possibly exposed to domestic or wild disease carriers and transmitters.

Tigers can eliminate leopards if densities of large and medium-sized prey species are low. Competition between these predators supposedly decreases in summer, when small prey species are more available. In winter, conditions are less favorable for tigers and the extent of trophic niche overlap with that of leopards probably reaches its peak.

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The vaquita is a species of porpoise endemic to the northern end of the Gulf of California in Baja California, Mexico. Averaging 150 cm (4.9 ft) (females) or 140 cm (4.6 ft) (males) in length, it is the smallest of all living cetaceans.

Vaquitas are generally seen alone or in pairs, often with a calf, but have been observed in small groups of up to 10 individuals.

Little is known about the life history of this species. Life expectancy is estimated at about 20 years and age of sexual maturity is somewhere between 3 and 6 years of age. While an initial analysis of stranded vaquitas estimated a two-year calving interval, recent sightings data suggest that vaquitas can reproduce annually. It is thought that vaquitas have a polygynous mating system in which males compete for females. This competition is evidenced by the presence of sexual dimorphism (females are larger than males), small group sizes, and large testes (accounting for nearly 3% of body mass).

This species inhabits shallow, murky lagoons along the shoreline where there is strong tidal mixing, convection processes and high food availability. Individuals are generally seen traveling alone or in small groups of 1-3 individuals, although they are sometimes observed swimming in groups as large as ten. They feed primarily on bony fish and squid which are found at or near the bottom of the sea.

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The sangai is an endemic and endangered subspecies of brow-antlered deer found only in Manipur, India. It is also the state animal of Manipur. The brow-antlered deer is a medium-sized deer, with uniquely distinctive antlers, measuring 100–110 cm. in length with extremely long brow tine, which form the main beam. The two tines form a continuous curve at right angles to the closely set pedicels. This signifies its name, brow-antlered deer, the forward protruding beam appears to come out from the eyebrow. The antlers of the opposite sides are unsymmetrical with respect to each other. The beams are unbranched initially whereas curvature increases as length increases and they get forked also. The sexes are moderately dimorphic in body size and weight. The height and weight of a fully grown stag may be approximately 115–125 cm at shoulder and 95 to 110 kg (210 to 230 lb) respectively. The height and weight of the female are shorter and less as compared to the male counterpart. The length of the body from the base to the ear up to the tail is about 145 to 155 cm in both sexes. The tail is short and rump patch is not pronounced.

Culturally, the sangai finds itself imbedded deep into the legends and folklore of the Manipuris. Based on a popular folk legend, the sangai is interpreted as the binding soul between humans and the nature. The slaying of the sangai, an unpardonable sin, is conceived as the rude breaking up of the cordial relationship between humans and the nature. When humans love and respect the sangai, it is respecting nature. In the sangai, therefore, humans find a way of expressing their love for the nature. Socially, the sangai is the symbol of a prized possession of the state.

It is believed that the name sangai (sa "animal" and ngai "in awaiting") was coined from its peculiar posture and behaviour while running. By nature, the deer, particularly the males, even when running for its life stops occasionally and looks back as if he is waiting for someone and hence the name.

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Ozone is an elemental molecule with formula O3. Ozone (O3) is a highly reactive gas composed of three oxygen atoms. It is both a natural and a man-made product that occurs in the Earth's upper atmosphere (the stratosphere) and lower atmosphere (the troposphere).  Depending on where it is in the atmosphere, ozone affects life on Earth in either good or bad ways.

Ozone is a powerful oxidant (far more so than dioxygen) and has many industrial and consumer applications related to oxidation. This same high oxidizing potential, however, causes ozone to damage mucous and respiratory tissues in animals, and also tissues in plants, and above concentrations of about 0.1 ppm. While this makes ozone a potent respiratory hazard and pollutant near ground level, a higher concentration in the ozone layer (from two to eight ppm) is beneficial, preventing damaging UV light from reaching the Earth's surface.

Ozone occurs naturally in the troposphere, mainly due to the release of hydrocarbons from plants and soil that break down in sunlight to nitric acid and oxygen radicals. Natural levels are seldom high enough to cause problems for humans, but the extra ozone from industrial processes and automobiles can cause a number of them. The highly reactive gas damages forests and crops, damages living tissue and causes respiratory ailments in sensitive individuals. Ozone levels in the troposphere aren't constant -- they increase on hot sunny days in metropolitan and other areas of high industrial activity. Ozone is a primary component of smog.

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