Daily Prelims Notes 26 October 2021
- October 26, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
26 October 2021
Table Of Contents
- Stone Mining in Jharkhand
- Trigonopterus corona
- India’s draft on REDD+ safeguards
- Atmospheric river storms
- Exclusions in Insurance
- Thawing permafrost
- Iconic Tourist Destinations
- Raja Ravi Varma
- Princely States
- Mullaperiyar Dam
- Pir Panjal Range
- Palk Strait Mapping
- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
- WMO Report on CO2 Emissions
- Rohingya Crisis
Subject – Environment
Context – A primitive tribe and rare fossils threatened by stone mining in Jharkhand
Concept –
- Rampant stone quarrying in the Rajmahal hills of Jharkhand has raised concerns on its impact on the indigenous communities living nearby.
- The impact of mining activities affect the livelihood and habitation of SauriaPaharia, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), that lives on the hills.
- Rajmahal hosts some of the oldest fossils in the world and there is a need to protect the area, say experts.
- Rare fossils, found in these hills, are claimed to be one of the oldest in the world and belong to the Jurassic period. These fossils could help scientists in research tracing the evolution of Earth and its creation.
Rajmahal Hills –
- Experts claim that after the Aravali hills, Rajmahal hills are perhaps among India’s oldest hills.
- Origin of these hills could be traced back to anywhere between 68 million years to 118 million years.
- The Rajmahal Hills are located in the Santhal Pargana division of Jharkhand, India.
- They were located on the northern margin of the Gondwana supercontinent, and its hills are today inhabited by the SauriaPaharia people whilst its valleys are dominated by the Santhal people.
- Volcanic activity during the Jurassic resulted in the formation of the Rajmahal Traps.
- The Rajmahal hills are named after the town of Rajmahal which lies in the eastern Jharkhand.
- The River Ganges wanders around the hills changing the direction of flow from east to south.
- Francis Buchanan-Hamilton travelled through the Rajmahal hills in the early 19th century. He described the hills that seemed impenetrable in a zone where few travellers had been.
Fossils –
- The plant fossil bearing inter-trappean beds of the Rajmahal Formation have been declared National Geological Monuments of India by the Geological Survey of India (GSI), for their protection, maintenance, promotion and the enhancement of geotourism.
- The Rajmahal hills contain plant fossils which are 68 to 145 million years old.
- The fossils here have attracted geologists and palaeobotanists from all over the world.
SauriaPaharia
- The SauriaPaharia tribe depends mainly on mixed farming of millet, corn and other crops.They practice shifting cultivation, called jhum.
- The SauriaPaharia people (also known as Maler Paharia) are a tribal people of Bangladesh and the Indian states of Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Bihar.
- They are found mostly in Santhal Parganas region in the Rajmahal Hills.
- According to Kurukh traditions, when they were driven out of their home in the Son valley, the main group migrated towards Palamu but a smaller group moved down the Gangetic valley till they reached Rajmahal Hills, where they settled mostly in Damin-i-koh.
- The language of the SauriaPaharias is closely linked to that of the Oraons.
- The SauriaPaharias mainly worship their ancestral spirits, known as JiweUrkkya (“the spirit that has left”), especially before sowing a new field.
- The Saurias also worship a group of spirits called Gosain. These are associated with every phenomenon in the world around them.
Particularly vulnerable tribal group
- 75 tribal groups have been categorized categorized by Ministry of Home Affairs as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG)s.
- The criteria for identifying Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups are:
- Pre-agricultural level of technology
- Low level of literacy
- Economic backwardness
- A declining or stagnant population.
- PVTGs reside in 18 States and UT of A&N Islands.
- Besides a number of schemes of Government of India and the State Governments where PVTG population are also benefitted along with other population, Ministry of Tribal Affairs administers a scheme namely ‘Development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG)’specifically for the PVTG population.
- The scheme covers the 75 identified PVTGs in 18 States, and Union Territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
- The scheme aims at planning their socio-economic development in a comprehensive manner while retaining the culture and heritage of the communities by adopting habitat level development approach.
- Under this scheme, financial assistance is provided to the State/UT Governments based on their proposals for development of tribal people in the sectors of education, housing, land distribution, land development, agricultural development, animal husbandry, construction of link roads, installation of non-conventional sources of energy for lighting purpose, social security or any other innovative activity meant for the comprehensive socio-economic development of PVTGs and to fill in the critical gaps. The projects taken up under this scheme are demand driven.
PVTGs in Jharkhand (including Bihar)
Subject – Environment
Context – Trigonopterus corona: A beetle species named after coronavirus
Concept –
- On the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, museum scientists have discovered 28 new species of beetles. The species, all of which measure 2-3 mm, are described in the journal Zookeys.
- One of them has been named Trigonopterus corona. This reflects the large impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on this project, Pensoft Publishers, which brings out the journal, said in a blog spot.
- And it is not the only insect species to be named after the pandemic. In April, a new species of caddisfly (a moth-like insect) was collected near a stream in Kosovo by a team of scientists, and named Potamophylax coronavirus (Biodiversity Data Journal).
3. India’s draft on REDD+ safeguards
Subject – Environment
Context – India’s draft on REDD+ safeguards needs a relook
Concept –
- India has released a draft document on Safeguards Information System to reduce potential risks from the implementation of activities under the UN’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation program (REDD+), a key climate change mitigation tool.
- The draft document is in compliance with India’s commitment to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
- Experts note the safeguard relies on forest and land use policies, legislations and rules that do not have a good track record of ensuring environmental justice and addressing biodiversity loss. A more robust framework to evaluate compliance is needed.
- The REDD+ framework created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP), is geared towards the sustainable management of forests and the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries.
- The seven safeguards (called Cancun safeguards) articulated as per the Cancun Agreements at Cancun, Mexico, at the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference, need to be addressed and respected during the implementation of REDD+ activities to prevent any negative impacts of REDD+ actions on natural forests, biological diversity and local communities.
- As per the agreements, developing country Parties to the UNFCCC such as India, are required to create a Safeguards Information System (SIS) to report on compliance to the safeguards while implementing REDD+ activities.
- The National REDD+ Strategy of India endorses the adherence to Cancun safeguards during the implementation of REDD+ activities, states the draft document.
- The Strategy also ties in with India’s Nationally Determined Contribution to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.
What is REDD+?
- Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) is a mechanism developed by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2005.
- Most of the key REDD+ decisions were completed by 2013, with the final pieces of the rulebook finished in 2015.
- The “Plus” in REDD+, lays out the various ways in which countries have defined the three activities: conservation, the sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stock.
- It aims to achieve climate change mitigation by incentivizing forest conservation.
- It has three phases — Readiness, Implementation and Result-based actions.
- Readiness phase involves the development of national strategies or action plans, REDD+ mitigation actions, and capacity building.
- Implementation is about enacting REDD+ actions and national strategies that could involve further capacity building, technology development and transfer.
- Results-based payments comprise the final REDD+ phase.
- It provides financial incentives to developing countries that prove they stopped deforestation during a certain period of time. This is done through rigorous UN-backed technical evaluations
- The Green Climate Fund (GCF) established at Conference Of Parties (COP)-17 to function as the financial mechanism for the UNFCCC, is currently financing REDD+ programs.
- Brazil was the first country to receive $96.5 million under the results-based payments.
Subject – Environment
Context – Atmospheric river storms can drive costly flooding — and climate change is making them stronger
Concept –
- Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of moisture in the atmosphere that extend from the tropics to higher latitudes. These rivers in the sky can transport 15 times the volume of the Mississippi River.
- When that moisture reaches the coast and moves inland, it rises over the mountains, generating rain and snowfall. Many fire-weary westerners welcome these deluges, but atmospheric rivers can trigger other disasters, such as extreme flooding and debris flows.
- Atmospheric rivers occur globally, affecting the west coasts of the world’s major land masses, including Portugal, Western Europe, Chile and South Africa.
- So-called “Pineapple Express” storms that carry moisture from Hawaii to the United States West Coast are just one of their many flavors.
- In the 1960s meteorologists coined the phrase “Pineapple Express” to describe storm tracks that originated near Hawaii and carried warm water vapor to the coast of North America.
- By the late 1990s atmospheric scientists had found that over 90 per cent of the world’s moisture from the tropics and subtropics was transported to higher latitudes by similar systems, which they named “atmospheric rivers.”
- Atmospheric rivers are predicted to grow longer, wetter and wider in a warming climate.
- Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, warming the planet. This causes more water to evaporate from oceans and lakes, and increased moisture in the air makes storm systems grow stronger.
- In dry conditions, atmospheric rivers can replenish water supplies and quench dangerous wildfires. In wet conditions, they can cause damaging floods and debris flows, wreaking havoc on local economies.
- Atmospheric river classification scale ranks the storms from 1 to 5, similar to systems for categorizing hurricanes and tornadoes.
- Atmospheric River category 1 (AR1) and AR2 storms caused estimated damages under $1 million.
- AR4 and AR5 storms caused median damages in the 10s and 100s of millions of dollars respectively.
- The most damaging AR4s and AR5s generated impacts of over $1 billion per storm. These billion-dollar storms occurred every three to four years.
- The most significant finding was an exponential relationship between the intensity of atmospheric rivers and the flood damages they caused. Each increase in the scale from 1 to 5 was associated with a 10-fold increase in damages.
Subject – Economy
Context – Recently, doing the rounds on social media was the case of an insurance company rejecting a death claim under a personal accident policy because the deceased was riding a vehicle over 150 cc, mentioned as an exclusion under the policy.
Concept –
- Exclusions are the stated legal conditions under which the insurance company will not pay your claim even for events or risks covered by an insurance policy.
- All insurance policies, including those that may have been standardised by IRDAI, SaralJeevan or Saral Suraksha, will have basic exclusions.
- Non-standard policies may have even more exclusions.
- Exclusions are clearly stated in the policy document. Comparing them across similar policies will shed light on the standard exclusions that are present across all policies, and help you choose policies that provide maximum risk coverage across various situations.
Subject – Environment
Context – Thawing permafrost can pose direct threat to human health: Report
Concept –
- Thawing of the permanent frozen land (permafrost) in the Arctic can have consequences exacerbating global warming and be directly harmful to human health, a new study showed.
- The meltdown can release bacteria, viruses and radioactive material that were safely locked away in the permafrost’s frigid layers for thousands of years, according to the paper published in Nature Climate Change journal.
- It is all the more concerning that a large part of these microbes may be resistant to antibiotics.
- The marshes formed from the thawing permafrost will also act as a good channel for the microbes and chemicals to spread easily, the report showed.
- Toxic byproducts of natural metal mining and drilling activities as well as fossil fuel waste buried in the permafrost can also resurface, adding to the health hazards.
- Now-banned pollutants and chemicals, such as the insecticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, DDT, that were transported to the Arctic atmospherically and over time became trapped in permafrost, are at risk of re-permeating the atmosphere.
- Studies over the last half decade have estimated that the Arctic is heating up two-four times the rest of the world due to climate change. This accelerated the rate at which the permafrost is melting.
- Close to 40 per cent of the world’s permafrost could disappear by the end of this century, according to a report published in Nature Climate Change in 2017.
- The disintegrating permafrost will not only release carbon in overwhelming volumes, it will also inject microbial methane as well as methane trapped in the prehistoric limestones underneath the permafrost.
- Methane is roughly 80 times more powerful and 30 times more warming than carbon dioxide and the release of what scientists are calling a ‘methane bomb’ from under permafrost can hasten climate emergency at an unfathomable speed.
To know more about Thawing Permafrost, please refer September 2021 DPN.
7. Iconic Tourist Destinations
Subject – Governance
Context – Tourism Ministry identifies three more iconic tourist destinations
Concept –
- The Ministry of Tourism has added three more tourist destinations – Konark Sun Temple (Odisha), Kevadia (Gujarat) and Golconda Fort (Telangana) – to the current list of 17 iconic sites.
- All these proposed iconic sites are part of the UNESCO World Heritage List, they are popular among tourist and have decent footfall.
- By including them in the iconic tourist sites the objective would be to attract foreign and domestic tourists.
- The aim of the scheme is to develop these sites with better tourism infrastructure such as connectivity to the destinations, facilities for the tourists, involvement of the local community and its promotion.
The 17 iconic Sites –
- Taj Mahal & Fatehpur Sikri (Uttar Pradesh),
- Ajanta & Ellora (Maharashtra),
- Humayun’s Tomb, Red Fort & QutubMinar (Delhi),
- Colva (Goa),
- Amer Fort (Rajasthan),
- Somnath& Dholavira (Gujarat),
- Khajuraho (Madhya Pradesh),
- Hampi (Karnataka),
- Mahabalipuram (Tamil Nadu),
- Kaziranga (Assam),
- Kumarakom (Kerala) and
- Mahabodhi Temple (Bihar).
Konark Sun Temple (Odisha)
- Konark Sun Temple is a 13th-century CE (year 1250) Sun temple at Konark on the coastline of Odisha, India.
- The temple is attributed to king Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty about 1250 CE.
- Dedicated to the Hindu Sun God Surya, what remains of the temple complex has the appearance of a 100-foot (30 m) high chariot with immense wheels and horses, all carved from stone.
- There are two rows of 12 wheels on each side of the Konark sun temple. Some say the wheels represent the 24 hours in a day and others say the 12 months.
- The seven horses are said to symbolize the seven days of the week.
- Once over 200 feet (61 m) high, much of the temple is now in ruins, in particular the large shikara tower over the sanctuary; at one time this rose much higher than the mandapa that remains.
- The structures and elements that have survived are famed for their intricate artwork, iconography, and themes, including erotic kama and mithuna scenes.
- It is directly and materially linked to Brahmanism and tantric belief systems.
- Also called the Surya Devalaya, it is a classic illustration of the Odisha style of Architecture or Kalinga architecture.
- This temple was called the “Black Pagoda” in European sailor accounts as early as 1676 because it looked like a great tiered tower which appeared black.
- Similarly, the Jagannath Temple in Puri was called the “White Pagoda”.
- Both temples served as important landmarks for sailors in the Bay of Bengal.
- The temple that exists today was partially restored by the conservation efforts of British India-era archaeological teams.
- Declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1984, it remains a major pilgrimage site for Hindus, who gather here every year for the ChandrabhagaMela around the month of February.
- Konark Sun Temple is depicted on the reverse side of the Indian currency note of 10 rupees to signify its importance to Indian cultural heritage.
Kevadia (Gujarat)
- Kevadia is a census town in Narmada district in the Indian state of Gujarat.
- This town is famous tourist location, as Statue of Unity is located here.
- The Statue of Unity is a colossal statue of Indian statesman and independence activist Vallabhbhai Patel (1875–1950), who was the first deputy prime minister and home minister of independent India and an adherent of Mahatma Gandhi during the nonviolent Indian independence movement.
- Patel was highly respected for his leadership in uniting 562 princely states of India with a major part of the former British Raj to form the single Union of India.
- The Statue of Unity is the world’s tallest statue, with a height of 182 metres (597 feet).
- Previous record holder – the Spring Temple Buddha in China’s Henan province.
- The previous tallest statue in India was the 41 m (135 ft) tall statue of Lord Hanuman at the ParitalaAnjaneya Temple near Vijayawada in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
- It is located in the state of Gujarat, India, on the Narmada River in the Kevadiya colony, facing the Sardar Sarovar Dam.
- It was designed by Indian sculptor Ram V. Sutar.
Golconda Fort (Telangana)
- Golconda Fort, also known as Gollakonda (Telugu: “shepherds’ hill”), is a fortified citadel built by the Kakatiyas and an early capital city of the QutbShahi dynasty (c. 1512–1687), located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
- Because of the vicinity of diamond mines, especially Kollur Mine, Golconda flourished as a trade centre of large diamonds, known as the Golconda Diamonds.
- The region has produced some of the world’s most famous diamonds, including the colourless Koh-i-Noor (now owned by the United Kingdom), the blue Hope (United States), the pink Daria-i-Noor (Iran), the white Regent (France), the Dresden Green (Germany), and the colourless Orlov (Russia), Nizam and Jacob (India), as well as the now lost diamonds Florentine Yellow, Akbar Shah and Great Mogul.
- It was originally known as Mankal, and built on a hilltop in the year 1143.
- It was originally a mud fort under the reign of Rajah of Warangal.
- Later it was fortified between 14th and 17th centuries by the Bahmani Sultans and then by the Qutub Shahi dynasty. Golconda was the principal capital of the Qutub Shahi kings.
- The inner fort contains ruins of palaces, mosques and a hilltop pavilion, which rises about 130 meters high and gives a bird’s eye view of other buildings.
Subject – History
Context – – Book release “ FALSE ALLIES: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma”
Concept –
- Raja Ravi Varma was an Indian painter and artist. He is considered among the greatest painters in the history of Indian art.
- His works are one of the best examples of the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography.
- Additionally, he was notable for making affordable lithographs of his paintings available to the public, which greatly enhanced his reach and influence as a painter and public figure.
- Furthermore, his religious depictions of Hindu deities and works from Indian epic poetry and Puranas have received profound acclaim.
- Varma worked on both portrait and landscape paintings, and is considered among the first Indian artists to use oil paints.
- He was part of the royal family of Travancore.
- At the age of 14, Varma was patronised by AyilyamThirunal, the then ruler of Travancore, and went on to receive training in watercolours from Ramaswamy Naidu, the royal painter.
- Famous works: Damayanti Talking to a Swan, Shakuntala Looking for Dushyanta, Nair Lady Adorning Her Hair, and Shantanu and Matsyagandha.
Subject – History
Context – Book release “FALSEALLIES: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma”
Concept –
- Before the independence of India, there were many princely states in India, referred to by the Britisher’s as Native States. These states varied from very large to very small in area and population and were scattered all over the country interspersing the British Indian areas. These areas were ruled indirectly by the British through the princes themselves(principle of paramountcy)
- The form of government in these states was monarchical and the general perception of the British administrators as well as their nationalist opponents was that they were tradition-bound, unchanging, disinterested in progress. The people of princely states were burdened with higher land taxes, non-protection of civil liberties and were largely deprived of modernization in education, transport, communication taking place in the rest of British India. They were honourable exceptions and some states like Baroda and Mysore succeeded in promoting industrial and agricultural development, administrative and political reforms and education to a considerable degree.
British India policy towards princely states:
- Used them to prevent the growth of national unity and counter rising national movement. In 1921, the Chamber of Princes was creating to enable the princes to meet and discuss under the British guidance matters of common interest. In1935, the proposed federal structure was so planned as to check the forces of nationalism. It was provided that princes would get two-fifth of the seats in the Upper House and one third of seats in the Lower House.
- The princes indeed depended on British authorities for their survival and self-preservation from popular revolts.
State People’s Struggle:
- Around this time people of the state started organising movements for democratic rights. Numerous local organizations of the States’ people came into existence. Earliest of them was in Baroda in 1917, followed by Kathiawar, Mysore, Hyderabad, etc. Nationalists among the States people, such as Balwantray Mehta and Manilal Kothari of Kathiawar and R. Abhyankar of the Deccan, convened an All-India States People’s Conference in December 1927, which, though based on West Indian initiative, was attended by 700 delegates from all over India.
- The All India States people Conference has already founded in 1927 to coordinated political activities in different states. The AISPC’S aim was to influence the governments of the states to initiate the necessary reforms in the administration by the force of collective opinion of the people and the states and to emphasize popular representation and self-government by the elective principle in all states. Almost from the time the first conference was called in 1927, the AISPC became a permanent political organization.
- It was consistently anti-feudal, but not as clearly anti-imperialist as the National Congress. This was to a great extent explained by the fact that as far as the States people were concerned, the feudal system was the more direct exploiter.
The Civil disobedience movement produced a deep impact on the minds of the people of the states. Numerous local organizations of the States’ people came into existence.
National Congress attitude towards State People’s Struggle
- INC supported the State People’s Struggle and urged the princes to introduce democratic representative government and to grant fundamental civil rights.
- In 1938, when the INC defined independence it included independence of the princely states.
- At Tripuri session, it decided to take a more active part in the State People’s movements. Jawaharlal Nehru became the President of the All-India States People’s conference in 1939.
Subject – Geography
Context – SC tells panel to fix maximum water level at Mullaperiyar dam
Concept –
- Mullaperiyar Dam is a masonry gravity dam on the Periyar River in the Indian state of Kerala.
- It is located 881 m (2,890 ft) above mean sea level, on the Cardamom Hills of the Western Ghats in Thekkady, Idukki District of Kerala, India.
- It was constructed between 1887 and 1895 by John Pennycuick and also reached in an agreement to divert water eastwards to the Madras Presidency area (present-day Tamil Nadu).
- The Periyar National Park in Thekkady is located around the dam’s reservoir.
- The dam is built at the confluence of Mullayar and Periyar rivers.
- The dam is located in Kerala on the river Periyar, but is operated and maintained by the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu.
- According to a 999-year lease agreement made during the British rule the operational rights were handed over to Tamil Nadu.
- Although the Periyar River has a total catchment area of 5398 km2 with 114 km2 downstream from the dam in Tamil Nadu, the catchment area of the Mullaperiyar Dam itself lies entirely in Kerala and thus not an inter-State river.
- The dam redirected the river to flow towards the Bay of Bengal, instead of the Arabian Sea and provide water to the arid rain region of Madurai in Madras Presidency, the shadow regions of the Tamil Nadu.
To know about Periyar River, please refer September 2021 DPN.
Subject – Geography
Context – The Poonch encounter, which has continued for 15 days, is one of the longest such operations in the dense forests south of the Pir Panjal range in more than a decade.
Concept –
- The PirPanjal Range is a group of mountains in the Lesser Himalayan region, running from east-southeast (ESE) to west-northwest (WNW) across the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan administered Kashmir.
- The Himalayas show a gradual elevation towards the Dhauladhar and PirPanjal ranges.
- PirPanjal is the largest range of the Lesser Himalayas.
- Near the bank of the Sutlej River, it dissociates itself from the Himalayas and forms a divide between the Beas and Ravi rivers on one side and the Chenab on the other.
- The renowned Galyatmountains are also located in this range.
- The region is connected to the Valley of Kashmir via Mughal Road and used to be the historical connection of Kashmir with India.
- DeoTibba (6,001 m (19,688 ft)) and Indrasan (6,221 m (20,410 ft)) are two important peaks at the eastern end of the mountain range.
- The hill station of Gulmarg in Kashmir lies in this range.
- The PirPanjal Pass (also called Peer Ki Gali) connects the Kashmir valley with Rajouri and Poonch via the Mughal Road. It is the highest point of the Mughal Road at 3,490 m (11,450 ft) and lies to the southwest of the Kashmir Valley.
- The Jawahar Tunnel is a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) long tunnel through PirPanjalmountain under the Banihal pass connects Banihal with Qazigund on the other side of the mountain.
Subject – Geography
Context – A festering crisis in the Palk Strait
Concept –
- The Palk Strait is a strait between the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Jaffna District of the Northern Province of the island nation of Sri Lanka.
- It connects the Bay of Bengal in the northeast with Palk Bay in the southwest.
- Several rivers flow into it, including the Vaigai River of Tamil Nadu.
- The strait is named after Robert Palk, who was a governor of Madras (1755–1763) during the Company Raj period.
- The unique feature around Palk Strait is that the waves around it, to its north and south are of high contrast.
- To the north, the waves of Bay of Bengal are mostly swells waves while that on the south, in Palk Bay, are mostly sea waves.
- Despite being a sea dominated area, the significant wave heights in Palk Bay regions are relatively low.
- Palk Bay is studded at its southern end with a chain of low islands and reef shoals that are collectively called Adam’s Bridge, it has historically been known in Hindu Mythology as “Ram Setu”, that is, the bridge of Rama.
- This chain extends between Dhanushkodi on Pamban Island (also known as Rameswaram Island) in Tamil Nadu and Mannar Island in Sri Lanka.
- The island of Rameswaram is linked to the Indian mainland by the Pamban Bridge.
13. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
Subject – IR
Context – FAA starts fiveday audit of DGCA
Concept –
- The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters.
- Its powers include air traffic management, certification of personnel and aircraft, setting standards for airports, and protection of U.S. assets during the launch or re-entry of commercial space vehicles.
- Under its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) program, the FAA determines whether another country’s oversight of its airlines that operate to the U.S. or have a codeshare agreement with a U.S. airline comply with safety standards laid down by the global aviation watchdog International Civil Aviation Organisation.
- The FAA will look into India’s ability to adhere to international aviation safety standards.
14. WMO Report on CO2 Emissions
Subject – Environment
Context – ‘CO2 emissions in 2020 above decadal average’
Concept –
- A report from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said the increase in CO2 from 2019 to 2020 was slightly lower than that observed from 2018 to 2019 but higher than the average annual growth rate over the past decade. This is despite the approximately 5.6% drop in fossil fuel CO2 emissions in 2020 due to restrictions related to the pandemic.
- Updated data shows that the pandemic disruption in 2020 didn’t significantly dent overall greenhouse gas emissions.
- For methane, the increase from 2019 to 2020 was higher than that observed from 2018 to 2019 and also higher than the average annual growth rate over the past decade.
- For nitrous oxides also, the increase was higher and also than the average annual growth rate over the past 10 years.
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (AGGI) shows that from 1990 to 2020, radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases (LLGHGs) increased by 47%, with CO2 accounting for about 80% of this increase.
- Radiative forcing — the warming effect on our climate — by long-lived greenhouse gases.
- Roughly half of the CO2 emitted by human activities today remains in the atmosphere. The other half is taken up by oceans and land ecosystems.
- The numbers are based on monitoring by WMO’s Global Atmosphere Watch network.
Subject – IR
Context – The Karnataka Government has no plans to deport Rohingyas.
Concept –
- The Rohingya people are stateless, Indo-Aryan ethnic group who reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar.
- The Rohingya are primarily Muslims who live in Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
- There were an estimated 1 million Rohingya living in Myanmar before the 2016–17 crisis. An estimated 625,000 refugees from Rakhine, Myanmar, had crossed the border into Bangladesh since August 2017. The majority are Muslim while a minority are Hindu.
- They are described by the United Nations (UN) as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.
- The Rohingya population is denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar nationality law. They have denied the Rohingya the possibility of acquiring a nationality.
- Although Rohingya history in the region can be traced back to the 8th century, Myanmar law does not recognize the ethnic minority as one of the eight national indigenous races.
- The flow of Rohingya from Myanmar intensified in 2017 and the coast near the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar was taken over by refugee settlements.
- In June 2015, the Bangladesh government suggested resettling Rohingya refugees on the Bhasan Char island under its Ashrayan Project.
Where are Rohingya fleeing to?
Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, India, Japan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the U.S., Canada and some European countries.
Bhasan Char –
- Bhasan Char (Floating Island) also known as Char Piya or Thengar Char Island, is an island in Hatiya, Bangladesh. It surfaced only 20 years ago and was never inhabited.
- It was formed with Himalayan silt from the mouth of river Meghna in 2006 spanning 40 square kilometres.
- The island, which was once regularly submerged by monsoon rains, now has flood protection embankments, houses, hospitals and mosques built at a cost of more than 112 million dollars by the Bangladesh navy.
- It is underwater from June to September because of the monsoon.
To know about India’s Refugee Policy, please refer September 2021 DPN.