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DOES BENGAL TIGER HAVE BIGGER COUSIN?

• Two tigers with features distinct from the Royal Bengal variety have led to research interest on whether India hosts more than one sub-species of the cat.
• Rescued as orphans, Ipra and Chipi were eight months old when they were found near Anini in Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Dibang Valley district, bordering China, in December 2012.
• These two have grown to be bigger, more aggressive and endowed with a coat shade different from Royal Bengal tigers (RBTs).
• The Anini tigers do not have a white patch behind their ears like the RBTs.
• The tigers from Anini are markedly larger than captive-bred Bengal tigers that are older. They also appear morphologically different [in form] from Bengal tigers and have a different colour coating.
• The only sub-species bigger than the Royal Bengal is the Siberian or Amur tiger.

Relevance : Prelims

 

AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE A CRUCIAL HABITAT FOR BENGAL FLORICAN

• The critically endangered Bengal florican – a grassland bird more threatened than the tiger – use not just protected grasslands but agricultural fields, too, find scientists.
• This suggests that conserving these cultivated areas could be as important as protecting the grasslands where these birds breed.
• Fewer than 1,000 adult Bengal floricans remain in the world in two, very fragmented populations. One of them is in the grasslands of the terai, the fertile foothills of the Himalayas, which spans across Nepal and Indian states such as Uttar Pradesh.
• Floricans need alternating patches of short and tall grass to thrive, and till several decades ago, the large herbivores of the terai – such as rhinoceroses and swamp deer – would do this job of creating these perfect habitats. But now there are fewer mega-herbivores left, so only dense, tall grasslands remain in protected areas. So this could be triggering this movement of floricans into fields.
• Hence, conserving these fields – by ensuring safe agricultural practices – could be as important as protecting the birds’ grassland habitats.

Relevance : Prelims

 

RESEARCHERS DECIPHER CLIMATE VARIATIONS RECORDED IN STALAGMITE

• Analysing bits of a stalagmite from Kotumsar cave in Central India, researchers from have revealed variations of the Indian summer monsoon over some 3,000 years, starting from 8,500 years ago to 5,600 years ago.
• The Kotumsar cave is 35 metres below ground level and located in the Kanger Valley National Park of Chhattisgarh.
• It formed by slow dissolution of the Kanger limestone by water from the Indian summer monsoon (June to September) over hundreds of thousands of years.
• Of particular interest in understanding climate is the mid-Holocene, a period nearly 7,000 years back, during which rapid and significant changes took place that are supposed to have affected the cultural practices of early humans, such as agriculture.
• Instrument-based records of climate do not go beyond a few hundred years, whereas to study paleoclimate, we need data that span thousands of years.
• The piecing together of paleoclimate is done using indirect records such as tree rings. One such record is held by the so-called speleothems – rocks that were formed in caves over several years by the deposition of water from monsoon. Just like tree rings, these also hold records of seasonal variations.

Relevance : Prelims

 

ALL’S NOT RIGHT WITH THE COUNTRY AIR

• Often mistaken for asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in those who have never smoked — as the woman’s case was finally diagnosed to be — is increasingly being reported in many rural areas across India.
• Doctors say that the trigger is mainly indoor air pollution, though outdoor air pollution too is no longer uncommon.
• Of all the patients who manifest symptoms of breathlessness and asthma, nearly 20% of them have non-smokers-COPD due to excess pollution.
• These patients are typically exposed to the burning of biomass, wood and cow dung, all of which emit extremely harmful particulate matter — PM2.5 — that gets lodged deep in the lungs. There is also exposure to farming and construction dust and vehicular pollution in rural areas that increase chances of harmful exposure.
• India’s National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) has for the first time mentioned the need for a rural air monitoring network.
• Rural areas suffer from outdoor air pollution as well as indoor air pollution. Major sources of outdoor air pollution are indiscriminate use of insecticides/pesticides/sprays and the burning of wheat and paddy straw.
• Atmospheric concentration of ozone has been observed to be higher in rural areas when compared to urban areas.
• Indoor air pollution exposes more people worldwide to health risks than outdoor air pollution.

Relevance : Prelims, GS 3

 

TENSION BETWEEN IAS, IPS OFFICERS IN U.P.

• Tension is brewing between IAS and IPS officers over a recent Home Department order of the Uttar Pradesh government making it mandatory for all district police chiefs to take the approval of the District Magistrates before the posting of station house officers.
• IPS officers alleged that it was an attempt to undermine their authority.
• “The SPs and the SSPs will no longer be able to command the police force in their districts if the DM is given these powers,” an officer said.
• On the other hand, an IAS officer said there appeared to be no intention of undermining the authority of the police force. “It could be aimed at making the working of the police force more objective and smooth with the heads of districts keeping an overall eye on the situation,” an IAS officer said.

Relevance : GS 2

 

ISRO MAKING GREEN PROPELLANT

• Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have reported progress in the development of an environment-friendly propellant to power satellites and spacecraft.
• The effort is to replace the conventional hydrazine rocket fuel, a highly toxic and carcinogenic chemical, with a greener propellant for future missions.
• A monopropellant is a chemical propulsion fuel which does not require a separate oxidizer. It is used extensively in satellite thrusters for orbital correction and orientation control.

Relevance : Prelims, GS 3

 

IMD TO ADD 30 DOPPLER RADARS ACROSS COUNTRY

• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) will add 30 doppler radars in the next two-three years across the country, of which 14 will be in the northeast.
• A doppler radar is a tool to provide precise information about thunderstorms, dust storms, hailstorms, rainfall and wind patterns.
• With a radius of 250 km, it helps in issuing nowcasts two-three hours prior to severe weather conditions.

Relevance : Prelims

 

GENDER BIAS CAUSED ‘EXCESS’ DEATHS OF GIRLS UNDER 5

• There have been 2,39,000 “excess deaths” per year of girls under the age of five in India, and 29 out of 35 States and Union Territories in the country contributed to this mortality, according to a study.That works out to about 2.4 million deaths in a decade.
• Excess mortality is the difference between observed and expected mortality rates in both genders.
• The National Family Health Survey in 2017 said that India’s sex ratio at birth increased to 919 in 2015-16 from 914 in 2004-05. This study, however, focuses on mortality after birth.

Relevance : GS 1, 2

 

ABUSE OF ELDERS MAY ATTRACT 6 MONTHS’ JAIL

• Taking note of the often under-reported abuse of elders, the Centre may increase prison term for people abandoning or abusing parents to “up to six months”, from the present three under the law, to ensure maintenance of senior citizens.
• Tribunals may also be empowered to sentence children to prison for a month for violating an order to pay maintenance allowance to parents or senior citizens.
• The new provisions form part of draft amendments to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007 that the social justice ministry has placed on its website for comments and suggestions.
• Surveys have shown that abuse of elders is more prevalent than might be estimated previously as it is often not reported — due to social stigma or emotional pressures as also the relatively dependent condition of many senior citizens.
• In the present law, a person is liable to be punished for three months for an action seen as intended to abandon a parent.
• The amendments also propose to broaden the definition of “children” from son, daughter, grandson and granddaughter to include sons-inlaw and daughters-in-law.

Relevance : GS 1, 2

 

WHO WANTS TRANS FAT ELIMINATED IN 5 YEARS

• Trans fats, often found in Indian snacks and baked products, are responsible for over 5 lakh deaths worldwide each year and must be eliminated from the global food supply.
• Revealing the impact of this form of unsaturated fat, the World Health Organisation has raised serious concerns over the use of industrially produced trans fats such as vanaspati oil.
• Industrially-produced trans fats are found in hardened vegetable fats, such as margarine and ghee, and are present in snacks, baked and fried foods. Manufacturers often use them as they have a longer shelf life than other fats.
• WHO is advocating to remove trans fats from food supply by 2023. It has released a step by step guide for the industry to eliminate trans fats from food. The guide, called ‘REPLACE’, has six actions, which include a review of dietary sources of trans fats, promoting replacement with healthier fats, setting up a regulatory framework, assessing and monitoring trans fats content in food, creating awareness and enforcing regulation.

Relevance : Prelims

 

FRESH PROOF OF WATER ON JUPITER’S MOON

• Scientists presented further evidence for water plumes on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa, raising hopes of probing the jets for signs of life around the second planet from Earth.
• Europa’s frozen surface has long been thought to cover a salty ocean about twice the size of our planet’s.
• Given the suspected abundance of warm, liquid water under its kilometres-thick ice shell, the moon is considered a ‘top candidate’ by Nasa for life on a Solar System body other than Earth.

Relevance : Prelims

 

 CENTRE’S SAY IS FINAL ON CAUVERY, SC TOLD

The Centre will have the final say in inter-State disputes over Cauvery water. The decision of the Centre will be “binding.” This is the crux of the draft Cauvery water management scheme filed in the Supreme Court.

 

IMPORTANT FACTS IN NEWS

Musca

A giant interstellar formation, the Musca cloud, located near the Southern Cross (Crux) constellation has been mapped and its 3D structure unravelled by astronomers.

Type 001A

China’s first domestically manufactured aircraft carrier started sea trials. The carrier, known only as “Type 001A”.

Maranga

A frozen semen station in Maranga, Purnea, Bihar, is being set up under the RashtriyaGokul Mission with 100% contribution from the Central Government.

Samarth

Samarth – Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector under the Skill India Mission aims to skill the youth for gainful and sustainable employment in the textile sector covering the entire value chain of textiles, excluding spinning and weaving.

Sarah Mullally

Sarah Mullally was installed as the first female bishop of London.

Halo

A halo occurred around the sun over Madurai. The rare phenomenon, known as the 22 degree halo of the sun, occurs due to refraction of light against ice crystals in the thin wisp-like strands of clouds in the sky.

Relevance : Prelims

 

IMPORTANT TERMS IN NEWS EXPLAINED

Hepatitis C

• Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an infection that causes chronic liver disease.
• Hepatitis C affects the liver, and has the same mode of transmission as HIV, spreading through blood, injecting drugs, blood transfusion and sexual activity, and from mother to child during pregnancy.
• Although data on HCV is weak, the Central government estimates that about 1.2 crore people are positive for hepatitis C in the country — six times the number of people living with HIV/AIDS. There is no vaccine against the disease but it is curable.

SAWEN

• South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN) is an inter-governmental wildlife law enforcement support body of South Asian countries namely – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
• SAWEN was officially launched in January, 2011 in Bhutan.
• It promotes regional cooperation to combat wildlife crime in South Asia.
• It focuses on policy harmonization; institutional capacity strengthening through knowledge and intelligence sharing; and collaboration with regional and international partners to enhance wildlife law enforcement in the member countries. SAWEN operates its activities from the Secretariat based in Kathmandu, Nepal.

 

Adopt a Heritage

• The ‘Adopt a Heritage: Apni Dharohar, Apni Pehchaan’ scheme is an initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India.
• It was launched in September 2017 on World Tourism Day.
• Under it, the government invites entities, including public sector companies, private sector firms as well as individuals, to develop selected monuments and heritage and tourist sites across India.
• Development of these tourist sites calls for providing and maintaining basic amenities, including drinking water, ease of access for the differently abled and senior citizens, standardised signage, cleanliness, public conveniences and illumination, along with advanced amenities such as surveillance systems, night-viewing facilities and tourism facilitation centres.
• The sites/monument are selected on the basis of tourist footfall and visibility and can be adopted by private and public sector companies and individuals — known as Monument Mitras — for an initial period of five years.
• The Monument Mitras are selected by the ‘oversight and vision committee,’ co-chaired by the Tourism Secretary and the Culture Secretary, on the basis of the bidder’s ‘vision’ for development of all amenities at the heritage site. There is no financial bid involved.
• The corporate sector is expected to use corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for the upkeep of the site.
• The Monument Mitras, in turn, will get limited visibility on the site premises and on the Incredible India website.
• This is not the first time the government has tried to rope in the corporate sector to help maintain tourist sites and monuments. In one such attempt, the government in 2011 formed a National Culture Fund.

OALP

• The Directorate General of Hyrdrocarbons (DGH) had recently announced the completion of the first round of bidding under its new Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP), a part of its revamped Hyrdrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy (HELP) unveiled in March 2016.
• What is OALP? The policy was brought out in June 2017 and marked a departure from the previous regime in terms of the geographical area that could be explored, the number of licences required, the manner in which proceeds are to be shared with the government, and the procedure to sell what is extracted.
• OALP is a part of HELP, which itself was a replacement to the New Exploration and Licensing Policy.
• How is the new policy different?
  • The ‘open acreage’ in OALP refers to the fact that potential investors are now able to choose exactly which areas they want to explore and develop.
  • Under NELP, the government used to select an area and then place it on the block, and investors had to bid for the entire block even if they were interested in only a portion.
  • Under OALP, investors choose the exact areas they are interested in, convey their interest to the government, which then places just those blocks up for bidding, typically twice a year.
  • The other major difference between the new and old policies is the new one doesn’t require developers to apply for separate licences for each of the hydrocarbons they want to extract from the block. They can obtain a single unified license that will allow them to extract and market oil, gas, coal bed methane, shale oil and shale gas.
  • The new policy also does away with the earlier provision for a profit-sharing model with the government. Profit sharing as a policy led to a number of delays and complications over what exactly constituted the cost, and therefore profit, of the firm doing the exploring. The new policy hinges on revenue-sharing, doing away with this ambiguity.

Relevance : Prelims