1. Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary
Recently, a highly decomposed carcass of an elephant was discovered in the Khanapara range of the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary.
About Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary:
- It is located in the state of Assam.
- It comprises three Reserve forests-Khanapara, Amchang, and South Amchang.
- It stretches from the Brahmaputra River in the north to the hilly forests of Meghalaya in the south, forming a continuous forest belt through Meghalaya's Maradakdola Reserve Forests.
- Flora: Khasi Hill Sal Forests, East Himalayan Mixed Deciduous Forest, Eastern Alluvial Secondary Semi-evergreen Forests and East Himalayan Sal Forests.
- Fauna: Flying fox, Slow loris, Assamese macaque, Rhesus macaque, Hoolock gibbon, Porcupine. White-backed Vulture, Slender-billed Vulture.
- Tree yellow butterflies (gancana harina) are found at the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary which is Indigenous to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and northeast India.
2. Lightning
Climate change is making lightning strikes around the world more common and deadlier.
About Lightning:
- It strikes are possible because electrical charges can build up in a cloud beyond the ability of air to keep resisting their movement.
- It is an electrical discharge between charged particles in a cloud and the ground.
- It can occur between opposite charges within the thunderstorm cloud (intra-cloud lightning) or between opposite charges in the cloud and on the ground (cloud-to-ground lightning).
- It is one of the oldest observed natural phenomena on Earth. It can be seen in volcanic eruptions, extremely intense forest fires, surface nuclear detonations, heavy snowstorms, large hurricanes, and obviously, thunderstorms.
- While a lightning strike occurs between a cloud and an object on or near the ground, it takes the path of least resistance, which means it moves towards the closest object with the highest electric potential.
What is a lightning rod?
- It is a metallic rod (usually copper) that protects a structure from lightning damage by intercepting flashes and guiding their currents into the ground.
- Lightning rods are pointy and pointed things create stronger electric fields near them.
- The lightning rod is connected to a wire that drops through the length of the building into the ground, where it dissipates its electric charges into its surroundings.
3. Hokersar Wetland
Lack of water due to excess deficit rainfall at the Hokersar wetland in the Kashmir Valley in recent years has impacted the arrival of migratory bird populations in the region.
About Hokersar Wetland:
- It is known as the ‘Queen Wetland of Kashmir’, Hokersar (also known as Hokera) is a designated Ramsar site located in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.
- It is a natural perennial wetland contiguous to the Jhelum basin.
- It gets water from the Doodhganga River (Tributary of Jhelum).
- It is located in the northwest Himalayan biogeographic province of Kashmir, back of the snow-draped Pir Panchal.
- Fauna: It is the only site with remaining reedbeds of Kashmir and a pathway of 68 waterfowl species like Large Egret, Great Crested Grebe, Little Cormorant, Common Shelduck, Tufted Duck and endangered White-eyed Pochard,
- It is an important source of food, spawning ground and nursery for fishes, besides offering feeding and breeding ground to a variety of water birds.
What is the Ramsar Convention?
- This convention was signed on 2nd February 1971to preserve the ecological character of their wetlands of international importance.
- It is named after Ramsar, the Iranian city where the treaty was signed in 1971, and places chosen for conservation under it are given the tag ‘Ramsar site’.
4. Key Facts about Sutlej River
Anger mounts in Sri Ganganagar district, Rajasthan, against alleged pollution in the river Sutlej, which they blame on factories in the neighbouring Punjab.
About Sutlej River:
- It is the longest of the five tributaries of the Indus River.
- It is also known as "Satadree".
- The Sutlej River is primarily located to the north of the Vindhya Range, east of the Pakistani Central Makran Range,and south of the Hindu Kush region.
- Course:
- Origin: It rises on the north slope of the Himalayas in Lake Rakshastal in southwestern Tibetat an elevation above 15,000 feet (4,600 metres).
- It is one of only three Trans Himalayan rivers originating in the high Tibetan Plateau that cuts across the mighty Himalayan ranges. The other two are the Indus and the Brahmaputra.
- The Sutlejenters India by flowing west and south-westwards through the Shipki La Pass in Himachal Pradesh at an altitude of 6,608 metres.
- The river then flows through Punjab near Nangal before meeting the Beas River. The merger of these two rivers goes on to form 105 Km of the India-Pakistan border.
- The river continues to flow for another 350 Km before joining the Chenab River.
- The combination of the Sutlej and Chenab Rivers forms the Panjnad, which finally flows into the Indus River.
- Length: It has a total length of 1550 km, out of which 529 km is in Pakistan.
- The hydrologyof the Sutlej is controlled by spring and summer snowmelt in the Himalayas and by the South Asian monsoon.
- Tributaries: It has many tributaries, with Baspa, Spiti, Nogli Khad, and Soan River being its main ones.
- Water from the Sutlej River has been allocated to India according to the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960.
- There are several major hydroelectric projects on the Sutlej, including the 1,000 MW Bhakra Dam, the 1,000 MW Karcham Wangtoo Hydroelectric Plant, and the 1,530 MW Nathpa Jhakri Dam.
5. What is Arrow-3 Missile Defence System?
Israel's Defence Ministry has begun coordinating joint preparations with the German Federal Ministry of Defence for the initial deployment of Israel's Arrow-3 missile interception system on German soil in 2025.
About Arrow-3 Missile Defence System:
- It is an exo-atmospheric anti-ballistic missile defence system for long-range threat engagement.
- The Arrow 3 interceptor is part of a series of the Arrow Weapon System (AWS), the world’s first national, operational, and stand-alone Anti Tactical Ballistic Missiles (ATBM) defense system.
- It was jointly developed byIsrael Aerospace Industries and the Missile Defence Agency in the US.
- Initially deployed in 2017, Arrow-3 is the top layer of Israel's sophisticated air-defence network, which also includes the Arrow 2, David’s Sling, and the Iron Dome active defence systems.
- It is designed to take out ballistic missileswhile they are still outside of the atmosphere.
- Features:
- It uses two-stage solid-fueled interceptors to engage short- and medium-range ballistic missiles and consists of a launcher, radar, and battle management system.
- It is hypersonic, which travels five times the speed of sound.
- It provides a range of 2,400 km and can intercept threats at an altitude of 100
- It has early warning and fire control radar. It provides extended-range acquisition as well as multi-target acquisition and tracking capabilities.
- How does it work?
- It uses hit-to-kill technologyto destroy incoming missiles.
- The missile is launched vertically, and then the direction is changed towards the estimated interception point.
- The high-resolution electro-optical sensoracquires the target for the kill vehicle to hit the target and destroy the warhead.
6. What is Eurasian Otter?
A rescue operation conducted by the Pune Forest Department and RESQ Charitable Trust has revealed a rare Eurasian Otter in Indapur, Pune District, a species previously unrecorded in this area.
About Eurasian Otter:
- The Eurasian otter, also known as the European otter, Eurasian River otter, common otter, and Old-World otter, is a semiaquatic carnivorous mammal native to Eurasia.
- Scientific Name: Lutra lutra
- Distribution:
- It has one of the widest distributions of all palearctic mammals, spanning countries in the Middle East, Europe, and Northern Africa, across to Eastern Russia, China, and other Asian countries.
- In India, it occurs in northern, northeast and southern India.
- Habitat:
- It lives in a wide variety of aquatic habitats, including highland and lowland lakes, rivers, streams, marshes, swamp forests, and coastal areas, independent of their size, origin, or latitude.
- In the Indian subcontinent, it is found in cold hills and mountain streams.
- Features:
- It is an elusive, solitary otter.
- It has sleek brown fur, which is often paler on the underside, and a long, lithe body with a thick tail and short legs.
- Adaptations for an aquatic lifestyle include webbed feet, the ability to close the small ears and the nose when underwater, and very dense, short fur that traps a layer of air to insulate the animal.
- Many sensitive hairs ('vibrissae') frame the snout; these help the otter to locate prey.
- It has an acute sense of sight, smell, and hearing.
- Vocalizations include a high-pitched whistle between a mother and her cubs, twittering noises produced during play-fighting, and cat-like noises when fighting.
- Conservation Status:
- IUCN: Near threatened
- Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule II
- CITES: Appendix I
7. Key Facts about Toto Tribe
Totos, one of the smallest tribes in the world, are fighting for identity and suffering from infrastructure woes.
About Toto Tribe:
- Toto is an aboriginal Indo-Bhutanese tribe concentrated in the village of Totopara in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal.
- The Totopara village falls under the periphery of the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary.
- It nestles just to the south of the border between Bhutan and West Bengal, on the bank of the Torsa River.
- Anthropologically, the Toto tribe is a branch of the Tibetan-Mongoloid ethnic group.
- They are one of the most endangered tribes in the world, with just over 1,600 members The Toto tribe is often described as ‘a vanishing tribe’ on the verge of extinction.
- They are categorised as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG).
- Toto Language: It is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Toto people and is written in the Bengali script.
- Totos are endogamous and are divided into 13 exogamous clans, from which, they choose to marry.
- Unique to their culture is the idea of having only a single wife, and they strongly advocate an anti-dowry system, unlike neighbouring tribal practices.
- Their houses are elevated bamboo huts covered by thatched roofs.
- Beliefs: Toto people consider themselves Hindus who also worship nature.
- Economy:
- In the past, Totos were mainly food gatherers and practiced slashes and burn types, of cultivation.
- Along with this, the Toto families earn a good amount of money by working as porters carrying oranges from the different gardens of Bhutan to Totopara.
- With the passage of time, occupational diversification has taken place. At present, they have become settled agriculturists.
8. Scarborough Shoal
China recently released geographic coordinates marking baselines around the contested Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.
About Scarborough Shoal:
- The Scarborough Shoal (also known in English as the Scarborough Reef) is an oceanic coral atoll that developed on top of a seamount into a triangle shape in the eastern part of the South China Sea.
- It is located some 220 kilometers west of the Philippines’ Island of Luzon.
- It is the largest atoll in the South China Sea, submerged at high tide with few rocks above sea level.
- This atoll extends 18 km along its northwest-southeast axis and reaches 10 km along its northeast-southwest axis.
- The deep waters around the shoal make it a productive fishing area, rich in marine life, and the lagoon also contains many commercially valuable shellfish and sea cucumbers.
- The shoal is the source of an ongoing and, so far, unresolved dispute between the People’s Republic of China and the Philippines, with both countries claiming that the shoal lies within their territory and saying they have exclusive rights to access its waters.
- There are no structures built on Scarborough Shoal, but the feature is effectively controlled by China, which has maintained a constant coast guard presence at the feature since 2012.
- China, which now refers to the shoal as Huangyan Island, makes a historical claim to the area, stating that they can trace their ownership of the area back to the Yuan Dynasty of the 1200s.
- The Philippines claim the area based on geography, as it is much closer to the Philippines’ main island of Luzon, which contains the capital, Manila, but lies over 500 miles from China.
- It is considered within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
9. What is Arpactophilus pulawskii?
In a groundbreaking discovery for Indian entomology, researchers have identified a new species of aphid wasp, Arpactophilus pulawskii, in Nagaland’s Khuzama district.
About Arpactophilus pulawskii:
- It is a new species of aphid wasp (target aphids as prey).
- It was discovered in Nagaland’s Khuzama district at an altitude of over 1,800 meters.
- Arpactophilus species are primarily native to the Australasian region.
- Members of this genus display remarkable morphological variation, including differences in body length and head shape, and some exhibit modifications in head size and shape.
- They are particularly fascinating because they are among the few social wasps that exhibit social behavior.
- They are known for their distinctive nesting behavior, with females using silk from their abdomen to create protective cells in old termite galleries or mud nests.
- This discovery marks the first recorded presence of the genus Arpactophilus outside Australasia.
- Arpactophilus pulawskii features a distinct square-shaped head with an inverted V-shaped uplifted clypeus and rust-colored body markings.
- Additionally, it has a uniquely textured thorax that further sets it apart.
10. What is Kayakalp Scheme?
The Rajasthan College Education Commissionerate has directed 20 government colleges to get the front facade of their buildings and entry halls painted orange under the Kayakalp Scheme.
About Kayakalp Scheme:
- It is an initiative launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on May 15, 2015, under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to promote cleanliness and enhance the quality of healthcare facilities in India.
- Objectives:
- To promote cleanliness, hygiene, infection control, and environment-friendly practices in Public Health Facilities (PHFs).
- To incentivise and recognise PHFs that show exemplary performance in adhering to standard cleanliness and infection control protocols.
- To inculcate a culture of ongoing assessment and peer review of performance related to hygiene, cleanliness, and sanitation.
- To create and share sustainable practices related to improved cleanliness in PHFs linked to positive health outcomes.
- The Kayakalp assessment is a three-tier process involving internal, peer, and external assessment. At the beginning of each financial year, a health facility is assessed, scored, and documented using the pre-defined assessment tool.
- The parameters on which the performance of the facility would be judged are as follows:
- Hospital/Facility Upkeep
- Sanitation and Hygiene
- Waste Management
- Infection Control
- Support Services
- Hygiene Promotion
- To appreciate the hard work and dedication of the healthcare centres, five awards are provided under this scheme:
- Two best district hospitals
- Two best community health centres or sub-district hospitals
- One primary health centre in every district
- Cash awards and citations are provided to the winners judged by the set criteria.