Olive Ridley Turtles
Category: Environment
- The Kalam Island off the Odisha coast has become lively with lakhs of baby Olive Ridley turtles crawling towards the Bay of Bengal after emerging from eggs.
- The unmanned island, located close to the Wheeler’s Island defence test range centre, a prohibited territory, is one of the largest rookeries in the world.
- After breaking the eggs, the turtles crawl seawards almost immediately without their mothers.
Indian Bullfrog
Category: Environment
- Indian bullfrogs introduced in the Andaman islands are invasive, and eat native wildlife including fish and lizards.
- Now, experiments reveal that the frogs take to this invasive behaviour early in their lives. Even in the developmental stages, the large bullfrog tadpoles eat other native frog tadpoles.
- The Indian bullfrog Hoplobatrachus tigerinus (native to the Indian subcontinent) has rapidly invaded the Andaman islands after it was introduced there in the early 2000s.
- In human-dominated areas, it now shares space with other native (and often endemic) frog species.
- The experiment results reveal that Indian bullfrog tadpoles – which grew to be the largest (around 20 millimetres) – also grew the fastest. The survival of endemic frog tadpoles reduced when bullfrog tadpoles were present.
Indoor Air Pollution
Category: Environment
- India can achieve its air quality goals if it completely eliminates emissions from household sources.
- A recent study has pointed out that the use of firewood, kerosene and coal in the households contributed to about 40% of the PM 2.5 pollution in the Gangetic basin districts.
- This number varied across the country but household emissions remained one of the major culprits behind air pollution.
- The researchers pointed out that complete mitigation would bring down the country’s average annual PM 2.5 air pollution to 38 microgram/cubic metre.
- Surprisingly, this is below India’s national ambient air quality standard of 40 microgram/cubic metre and slightly above the World Health Organization (interim target 1) standards of 35 microgram/cubic metre.
Crab Nebula
Category: Sc & tech
- Celebrating the 29th anniversary of its launch, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the Southern Crab Nebula.
- Resembling its namesake, the celestial structure,located in Centaurus constellation, several thousand light years away, is made of a whirling pair of stars – an ageing red giant and a burnt out white dwarf.
Project 15B
Category: Defence & security
- Project 15B ships feature cutting edge advanced technology and are comparable to the best ships of similar class anywhere in the world.
- These ships have been designed indigenously by the Indian Navy.
- Each ship spans 163 metres in length and 17.4 metres at beam and displaces 7,300 tonnes.
- P15B ships will be equipped to carry and operate two multiple role helicopters.
- With significant indigenous content, these ships are a true hallmark of self-reliance attained by our country in warship design and shipbuilding, and a shining example of the ‘Make in India’ philosophy.
