About Periyar Tiger Reserve:

• Location: It is named after the Periyar River, is located in the Idukki district of Kerala.
• It is set high at Cardamom Hills and Pandalam Hills of the Western Ghats, adjacent to the border with Tamil Nadu.
• It surrounds the Periyar Lake, which was created in 1895 by building a dam across the Periyar River.
• Terrain: The terrain is hilly and undulating with a maximum altitude of 2016 m. The highest peak is Kottamala (2016 m).
• Rivers: Two major rivers namely Periyar and Pamba drain the area.
• Dams: Mullaperiyar Dam is located within the PTR. 
• Tribes: It is home to many tribal communities, including the Mannans and the Palians.
• Vegetation: It comprises tropical evergreen forests, semi- evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, transitional fringe evergreen forests, grasslands, and eucalyptus plantations.
• Flora: Important flora includes teak, mangoes, rosewood, jamun, jacarandas, terminalias, tamarind, royal ponciana, bamboo, etc.
• Fauna: Elephants, Wild Pigs, Sambar, Gaur, Mouse Deer, Dole or Barking Deer, Indian Wild Dog, and Tiger.
• The major four species of primates are also found at Periyar – the rare lion-tailed macaque, the Nilgiri Langur, Gee’s Golden Langur, Common Langur, and Bonnet Macaque.
• It is also being considered as the habitat of the Nilgiri Tahr.

5. About Machu Picchu:

• It is a 15th-century Inca civilization site of Peru.
• Location: It is located 80 km northwest of Cuzco, Peru, in the Cordillera de Vilcabamba of the Andes Mountains.
• It is saddled between two peaks-Machu Picchu (“Old Peak”) and Huayna Picchu (“New Peak”)—at an elevation of 7,710 feet.
• It is believed to have been built by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, the ninth ruler of the Inca, in the mid-1400s. 
• Monuments: This citadel is made up of temples, palaces, terraces, monuments, complexes and walls; in addition to water channels, built with large blocks of stone, without any amalgam, proof of the great wisdom of the Inca civilization.
• Machu Picchu was rediscovered in 1911 by the American explorer  Hiram Bingham.
• It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983.

Key facts about Inca Civilization

• Time Line: It flourished in ancient Peru between c. 1400 and 1533 CE.
• It is the largest empire ever seen in the Americas and the largest in the world at that time.
• Society: Inca society was highly stratified. The emperor ruled with the aid of an aristocratic bureaucracy.
• Architecture and Technology: Inca technology and architecture were highly developed.
• Religious belief: The Inca religion combined features of animism, fetishism, and the worship of nature gods.

About Fentanyl:

• It is a potent synthetic opioid like morphine or heroin.
• It is both a prescribed drug and a drug that is at times made and used illegally.
• It is made entirely in laboratories, with no natural ingredients.
• It was developed as a prescription medicine for treating severe pain, such as pain after surgery.
• When used as prescribed, it is also very effective in treating cancer pain or other types of severe chronic pain that don’t respond to other pain medicines.
• It is also used with other medicines just before or during an operation to help the anesthetic (numbing medicine) work better.
• It is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin as an analgesic.
• It acts in the central nervous system (CNS) or brain to relieve pain.
• Some of its side effects are also caused by actions in the CNS, such as drowsiness or dizziness.
• Fentanyl is addictive. Like other opioids, repeated use causes changes in brain activity that cause people to continue using it even when they experience harmful effects.
• Fentanyl is cheap for drug dealers to make into a street drug, compared to other opioids, but it is more powerful.
• Because only a few grains is enough to kill, fentanyl is causing high rates of overdose and overdose deaths.

What are Opioids?

• The term “opioids” includes compounds that are extracted from the poppy plant (Papaver somniferum) as well as semisynthetic and synthetic compounds with similar properties that can interact with opioid receptors in the brain.
• Opioids are commonly used for the treatment of pain and include medicines such as morphine, fentanyl, and tramadol.
• Their non-medical use, prolonged use, misuse, and use without medical supervision can lead to opioid dependence and other health problems.
• Due to their pharmacological effects, opioids can cause breathing difficulties, and opioid overdose can lead to death.
• Apart from fentanyl, other well-known opioids include oxycodone, morphine, codeine, and heroin.

 About National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC):

• It is a flagship project of the Govt of India to piece together the entire 5000 years of India’s maritime history and showcase it under one roof.
• The Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways, under its SagarMala Programme, is developing the NMHC at Lothal, Gujarat.
  • The location–‘Lothal’–is significant since it is one of the prominent cities of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) dating back to 2400 BC, located 76 km from Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
  • It is the only port town of the IVC.
  • Archaeological excavations have discovered the oldest man-made dockyard, over 5000 years old, in Lothal.
• The NMHC is envisioned to be one of the largest maritime complexes in the world.
• It will be a one of its kind, digitally enhanced, experiential museum with the aim of attracting tourists and historians from all over the world, who will get to see and learn about the rich and diverse maritime history of India.
• The Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways has appointed the Indian Ports Association as the nodal agency, while Indian Port Rail Corporation Ltd. (IPRCL) is the executing agency of the project.
• It is being developed in an area of about 400 acres with an estimated cost of Rs. 4500 crore.
• Funding:
  • The NMHC project shall be funded by the Ministry of Shipping and Ministry of Culture through National Culture Fund by way of grant.
  • In the future, other Central Line Ministries, Coastal States & UTs, other government institutions, private organizations, and the public shall be approached for contributions either from their CSR funds or otherwise to the bank account of IPRCL-NMHC vertical.
• NMHC is planned to be developed in various phases.
  • Phase 1A will have an NMHC museum with six galleries, which also includes an Indian Navy & Coast Guard gallery envisaged to be one of the largest in the country.
  • Phase 1B will have NMHC museum with 8 more galleries, Lighthouse museum which is planned to be the world’s tallest, and the Bagicha complex (with a car parking facility for about 1500 cars, a food hall, a medical centre, etc.).
  • Phase 2 will have coastal states’ pavilions, a hospitality zone, a recreation of real-time Lothal City, Maritime Institute and hostel and four theme-based parks.
  • Phases 1A and 1B of the project are to be developed in EPC mode, and Phase 2 of the project will be developed through land subleasing/PPP to establish NMHC as a world-class heritage museum.
• A separate society will be set up for the development of future phases, to be governed by a Governing Council headed by the Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways.
  • This society will manage the implementation and operation of the NMHC.

About Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs):

• SLAPPs are meritless suits solely used to drag the opposing party through protracted litigation to dry up their resources.
• These lawsuits are typically filed by influential and wealthy individuals or businesses against people who criticise them, conduct investigations, communicate, or express opinions on matters of public interest.
• SLAPPs often target journalists and the media, as well as NGOs, academics, researchers, writers, artists, and human rights defenders-in general people who engage in public discourse and demand accountability.
• SLAPPs shut down critical speech by intimidating critics and draining their resources, undermining their active public engagement.
• Moreover, one core characteristic of this kind of action is the disparity of power and resources between the plaintiff and the defendant.
• Often based upon ambiguous and elastic law provisions, SLAPPs use several strategies to exhaust resources and morale, generally including exorbitant claims for damages and allegations designed to smear, harass and overwhelm activists and/or civil society organisations.
• Many nations (the USA, Canada, UK, and others) have enacted anti-SLAPP laws granting early dismissal of frivolous suits and fee-shifting to protect public participation.
• India has no such statute, so courts must rely on existing civil procedure rules and constitutional guarantees.
• The Supreme Court of India warns against 'SLAPP' suits, emphasizes the protection of journalistic expression in defamation cases.