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Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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2,680 indigenous languages in danger: UN

News

  • There’s Ojibwe in Canada, Ami in Australia and Ayapanec in Mexico: these are among the world’s nearly 2,700 indigenous languages at risk of disappearing unless new initiatives are taken, UN officials say.

Beyond News

  • The UN is hoping to raise awareness of the cultural loss with the launch this week of the International Year of Indigenous Languages, a year-long project to help protect these ancient mother tongues.
  • Out of the roughly 7,600 languages spoken worldwide, 2,680 indigenous languages are in danger and many are disappearing at an alarming rate, according to UN officials.
  • Every two weeks, there is an indigenous language that disappears, so it is a pretty large toll indeed.
  • Canada, home to around 630 First Nation tribes comprising 1.4 million people, has promised funds to help revitalise several languages.
  • In Australia, more than 250 aboriginal languages were spoken when the British started to settle in 1788, but only around 120 are still spoken.
  • In a bid to hold on to them, some Northern Territory schools now provide education in both English and an aboriginal language.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Over 70 lakh T.N. farmers to benefit from income scheme

News:

  • Nearly 4 lakh agriculturists in the State may be covered under the Central government’s proposed income support scheme for farmers.

Beyond News:

  • As the scheme is applicable to those owning up to two hectares of land, there are 62.24 lakh farmers, who have less than one hectare and 11.19 lakh, holding up to two hectares, according to the provisional results of the Agriculture Census, conducted keeping 2015-16 as the base year.
  • The marginal and small farmers account for 92.5% of the total number with their landholdings having a combined share of around 62.35%.
  • Officials dealing with issues concerning farmers are of the view that though there will be some implementation issues, the scheme can be rolled out in the State, given the level of digitisation of land records.
  • Also, the system of paying compensation or relief assistance through bank accounts is in place.
  • Besides, a large number of them have taken insurance covers.

Steady increase in cases of foreigners caught with Indian IDs

News

  • Over the past few months, immigration officials at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) have been getting a number of cases of foreign nationals with valid Indian identity documents. Most cases involved residents of Bangladesh and Nepal.

Beyond News

  • Since September 2018, there have been eight cases involving Bangladeshi nationals, and two involving Nepali nationals.
  • In the most recent case, a Nepali national was caught with a valid voter ID card from India.
  • Officials of the Bengaluru Regional Passport Office (RPO) have come across around 20 cases so far of immigrants having acquired Indian passports using valid Indian documents, and have filed around 15 complaints with the police.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

‘Microplastics found in dolphins’

News

  • Microplastics have been found in the guts of every marine mammal examined in a study of animals washed up on Britain’s shores.

Findings

  • Researchers examined 50 animals from 10 species of dolphins, seals and whales and found microplastics in them all.
  • Most of the particles (84%) were synthetic fibres which can come from sources, including clothes, fishing nets and toothbrushes while the rest were fragments, whose possible sources include food packaging and plastic bottles.
  • Though the animals in the study died of a variety of causes, those that died due to infectious diseases had a slightly higher number of particles than those that died of injuries or other causes.
  • In total, 26 species of marine mammal are known to inhabit or pass through British waters.
  • The species in this study included Atlantic white-sided dolphin, bottlenose dolphin, common dolphin, grey seal, harbour porpoise, harbour seal, pygmy sperm whale, Risso’s dolphin, striped dolphin and white-beaked dolphin.

Tangled food: forest animals near villages ‘gulp’ down plastic

News

  • Plastic has found its way into the stomachs of numerous animals from street-dwelling stray cattle to elephants in forests.
  • More recently,  discovered carry bags and packets of gutka, chips and biscuits in elephant dung in northern Bengal.

Findings

  • Some animals, including carnivores and ruminants such as deer, run a higher risk of consuming plastics because they are ‘gulpers’, lacking “dexterous hand or mouthparts, and consequently not able to separate food from plastic and other indigestible matter”.
  • Scientists observed various animals that visited two garbage dumps along a forest edge in Uttarakhand’s Nainital. Over two months in 2015, the team, including the study’s, observed the species and numbers of animals that visited the dumps during the day. At night, activity at the dumps was captured on camera traps.
  • The team classified the animals based on their feeding strategies to see if the differences in this behaviour put certain animals more at risk of consuming plastic.
  • ‘Peckers’ included birds that could pull out food from other inedible waste, ‘handlers’ were dexterous-fingered animals such as rhesus macaques which could separate food material, and ‘gulpers’ were unable to sift out plastic.
  • But apart from ingesting garbage, leaching of wastes from dumps is yet another problem.
  • One of the most crucial management actions that can be taken is to segregate waste at the source. This is especially crucial in areas near natural habitats and reserves.

Ecological Festival of Western Ghats begins

News

  • Ecological Festival of Western Ghats, the 9th national conference on saving the Western Ghats, commenced at Coimbatore.

Beyond News

  • The three-day conference would focus on getting a “pro-people, pro-Western Ghats and pro-ecology” outcome.
  • The conference started with the performances of the Irula community of the Nilgiris and Parai artistes.
  • The three-day conference will witness the participation of around 1,500 delegates from the six Western Ghats States namely Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharastra and Gujarat, and also from rest of the country.
  • Senior officials from the Forest Department, farmers, scientists, researchers and students from various educational institutions will take part in the conference.
  • As part of the conference, a three-day exhibition of photographs featuring the flora and fauna of the Western Ghats, captured by photographers from the six Western Ghats States.

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