Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Climate change may hit India’s wind power

News

• Increased warming in the Indian Ocean and the resultant weakening of the Indian summer monsoon may come in the way of India’s goal of leading the world’s wind power generation.

Findings

• Analysing the available wind and atmospheric data from 1980-2016, researchers found the potential electricity production of windmills across India had decreased by about 13%. And this trend might continue.
• The researchers showed a decline in electricity production in the States of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka. No significant decline was seen in Tamil Nadu, which is located on the east coast and, thus, had different wind conditions during summer.
• The researchers showed that 63% of the annual production of electricity from wind is contributed by winds in spring (March-May) and summer (June-August). Interestingly, they found a decrease in wind power during these months. This could be due to the weakening of the Indian summer monsoon during this period.
• Summer winds in India are driven by the temperature contrast between the Indian subcontinent and the Indian Ocean, and the warming in the Indian Ocean reduced this contrast. Also, warming of the Equatorial Indian Ocean resulted in a decline in the wind speed.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Making a quarry a model water source

News

• Pedikkattu quarry, in Thripunithura (Kerala) will soon figure among the select abandoned quarries in the State to be developed as a model source of water supply.

Beyond News

• The government has given its nod for making the quarry located in the Karingachira-Irumpanam wetland into a storage point for meeting the increasing water needs of the public.
• The nearby industries and other commercial establishments could also draw water from it for commercial use.
• Haritha Keralam Mission and Thripunitura municipality have joined hands to tap the water available in the quarry with a ₹30-lakh project.
• Tests conducted by the civic body had found that the water was fit for consumption after necessary treatment. The Pedikkattu quarry is spread across one acre. The depth of the quarry ranges from 40 metres to 54 metres. It has the capacity to store 1.5 lakh cubic metres of water.
• According to the project proposal, water from the quarry will be taken through a pipeline to an overhead tank to be set up at the revenue purambokeland near the quarry site. A filtration unit will be installed to treat the water drawn from the quarry.
• Tests have found that the water has no saline content.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Forest fires engulf Marayur

News

• The Marayur area of Anchunadu valley in Kerala is witnessing severe drought with large areas of forest and private land already engulfed in wildfires.

Beyond News

• Forest Department officials are working hard to control the fire which has already destroyed 11 ha of forestland.
• It was three weeks ago that the first major fire was reported on Murugan Hill, a historically important place known for the presence of several dolmen.
• The fire engulfed the entire hill before it could be brought under control.
• Meanwhile, the Forest Department has formed seven new fire squads comprising five members each to counter the wildfire.

Navy hands over houses to flood-hit families in Kerala

News

• Southern Naval Command Chief handed over the keys of newly constructed houses to three flood-hit families of the Cheriya Kadmakudy island.

Beyond News

• The houses were built as per specific suggestions and requirements of each house owner. The project was being steered by INS Venduruthy and has been completed in five-and-a-half months.
• The Navy is also installing solar power equipment at all the 55 houses of Cheriya Kadmakudy of which 30 have been completed, including the three newly constructed houses. Cheriya Kadamakudy will, therefore, be a fully Green Village in the next few weeks.

Camera traps reveal secret lives of rarely studied small cats

News

• A team has used camera traps to estimate activity patterns of some, rarely studied small cats of northeast India.
• Their findings suggest that factors other than inter-species competition could explain why some of these wild cats occur in the same area together.

Beyond News

• Northeast India is home to nine wild cats, including the ‘standard four’: the clouded leopard, Asiatic golden cat, marbled cat and leopard cat.
• Very little is known about these cats in this region at present, such as what times of the day they are most active or how they do not out-compete each other for resources despite living in the same ecosystem.

Findings

• A collaborative study compiled information from ten independent camera trap studies to estimate the activity patterns of the ‘standard four’ in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram.
• The team obtained 783 photo captures from around 27,500 trap nights (the total number of nights the camera traps were deployed) between 2013 and 2018. Based on the time that each photo was captured, they analysed their activity patterns.
• Their results, reveal that all four cats occurred together only in three of the 10 sites surveyed.
• Analyses of activity patterns showed that Asiatic golden cats and marbled cats were strongly diurnal, the clouded leopard largely crepuscular and nocturnal, and the leopard cat mostly nocturnal.
• Like others across southeast Asia, this study also found that the activity times of the marbled cat and leopard cat did not overlap much, in areas where they occurred together and otherwise.

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