Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Scorching heat forcing animals out of Seshachalam biosphere

News

• With the summer heat touching 45 degree Celsius, the wild animals in the Seshachalam biosphere in Andhra Pradesh, which is spread over Chittoor and Kadapa districts, are facing a torrid time.

Beyond News

• The phenomenon, which is preceded by deficit rainfall in the region, is forcing the animals to enter the forest fringe villages to quench their thirst.
• The intensity of heat this year is said to be the highest in the biosphere. As a result, even shy and critically endangered species such as the pangolin and the slender loris (devanga pilli) are venturing out of their habitat.
• According to information, a combing party of the Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force spotted an emaciated slender loris close to the Kalyani Dam a few days ago. Before it could be rescued, the animal slid down a tree and vanished into the bushes.
• In another incident, a forest official found the species close to a human habitation near the Talakona forests.
• Generally found clinging to the top tree branches and moving on the canopy, these animals have become a victim of steady signs of global warming in the biosphere.
• In search of water, they are forced to slide down the trees.
• The species is considered “critically endangered” in forest parlance, and is poached for its eyeballs and others body parts, which are believed to have healing power for multiple human health debilities.
• The pangolin is another species that has fallen on hard times in the biosphere, hit by paucity of food and water sources.
• The anteater is finding it difficult to gather food, mostly worms, insects, flies, bees and ants. Failure of rains for over three years led to the earth developing clods in several parts of the biosphere. These conditions would generally prevent the small creatures from coming out of the earth surface.
• According to the forest officials, this species is the most smuggled one from India for its scales, which are believed to be in great demand in Vietnam and several South-East Asian nations.

Factors such as low education levels in mothers contribute to stunting in children, says study

News

• Teen pregnancies contribute to under-nutrition in babies, according to a study that analysed data from India.

Findings

• The paper recommends policies and programmes to delay marriage, especially in districts where there is a higher prevalence of child marriage.
• The paper examined data for 60,096 women from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) to study the extent to which teenage pregnancy contributes to under-nutrition among children.
• The figures showed that 14,107 women first gave birth during adolescence; 31,475 during young adulthood, and 14,514 during adulthood.
• According to the study, children born to adolescent mothers (10-19 years) were 5 percentage points more likely to be stunted (shorter for their age) than those born to young adults (20-24 years) and 11 percentage points more stunted than children born to adult mothers.
• Children born to adolescent mothers also had 10 percentage points higher prevalence of low weight as compared to those born to adult mothers.
• The study said that lower education levels among adolescent mothers had the strongest impact on stunting levels, followed by socioeconomic status. Teen mothers were also likely to be underweight, exacerbating the stunting among their children.
• The research also highlights that while adolescent pregnancy is more likely to occur in high poverty contexts, it could trap mothers in an unending cycle of poverty as “women who bear children early are more likely to discontinue education and, thus, have lower earning potential.”

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

COMCASA agreement will enable info exchange to fight terror, says U.S. Admiral

News

• India and the U.S. are cooperating to prevent all forms of terrorism both from land and sea, U.S. Chief of naval operations Admiral said.
• The Admiral, who was in India earlier this week on a three-day visit, said Indian Navy chief Admiral and he were especially concerned by the threat “coming from the sea”.

Beyond News

• The foundational agreement, Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), which India signed last year would enable exchange of information on such threats.
• With COMCASA, India has signed three of the four foundational agreements with the U.S., and discussions are under way on the final one, Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation (BECA).
• COMCASA allows India to procure specialised equipment for encrypted communications from the U.S. origin military platforms.
• Two warships, INS Kolkata and INS Shakti, are also participating in IMDEX as also several Indian engineering and ship-building firms, including the Larsen & Toubro and the BrahMos aerospace corporation.
• After IMDEX, the Indian ships along with a Navy P-8I long range maritime surveillance aircraft will participate in the 26th edition of the Singapore India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX) scheduled from May 16 to 22.
• SIMBEX is the longest uninterrupted naval exercise that India has with any other country, the Navy said.

Taiwan approves same-sex marriage in a first for Asia

News

• Taiwan’s legislature voted to legalize same-sex marriage, in a first in Asia and a boost for LGBT rights activists who had championed the cause for two decades.

Beyond News

• Lawmakers pressured by LGBT groups as well as church organizations opposed to the move approved most of a government-sponsored bill that recognizes same-sex marriages and gives couples many of the tax, insurance and child custody benefits available to male-female married couples.
• That makes Taiwan the first place in Asia with a comprehensive law both allowing and laying out the terms of same-sex marriage.
• Taiwan’s Constitutional Court in May 2017 said the constitution allows same-sex marriages and gave Parliament two years to adjust laws accordingly.
• The court order mobilised LGBT advocacy groups pushing for fair treatment, as well as opponents among church groups and advocates of traditional Chinese family values.
• Thailand is also exploring the legalisation of same-sex civil partnerships.
• Bills on the table include one authored by the government. Another version plays to both sides of the debate by allowing marriages but with conditions such as calling them “unions” and imposing restrictions on adopting children.
• Opinion surveys in 2012 and 2015 found that slight majorities of Taiwanese backed legalising same-sex marriage.

Centre issues ‘drought advisory’ to southern, western States

News

• With water storage in dams dropping to a “critical” level, the Centre has issued a “drought advisory” to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, asking them to use water judiciously.

Beyond News

• The advisory was issued to Tamil Nadu and similar cautionary letters were sent to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana late last week.
• The drought advisory is issued to States when the water level in reservoirs is 20% less than the average of live water storage figures of the past 10 years.
• Water falls under the State list and the advisory recommends States to use water for drinking purpose only till the dams are replenished.
• The CWC monitors water storage available in 91 major reservoirs across the country.
• According to the figures released, the total water storage available was 35.99 billion cubic metres (BCM), which is 22% of total storage capacity of these reservoirs. The total storage capacity of these 91 reservoirs is 161.993 BCM.
• The situation seems to be grim in western and southern parts of the country.
• The western region includes Gujarat and Maharashtra. There are 27 reservoirs 10 in Gujarat and 17 in Maharashtra under CWC monitoring having a total live storage capacity of 31.26 BCM.
• The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 4.10 BCM until May 16, which is 13% of total live storage capacity.
• The storage in 27 reservoirs of these two States during the corresponding period of last year was 18% and average storage of last 10 years was 22%.
• The southern region includes States of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• There are 31 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 51.59 BCM.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Chinese probe reveals secrets of the moon

News

• Scientists have said they could be a step closer to solving the riddle behind the Moon’s formation, unveiling the most detailed survey yet of the far side of Earth’s satellite.
• In January, the Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-4 named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology became the first ever craft to touch down on the far side of the lunar surface.

Findings

• The moon is believed to have gone through a phase during its formation when it was partially or entirely composed of molten rock.
• As it cooled, denser minerals sank to the bottom of the magma-ocean, while lighter materials gathered near the surface to form its mantle.
• The team landed its probe in the Von Karmen Crater in the Aitken Basin at the Moon’s south pole home to one of the largest impact craters known in the solar system.
• They detected materials such as olivine and low-calcium pyroxene that are rare elsewhere on the surface. Authors of the study, which was published in the journal Nature, suggest that these materials were ejected from the Moon’s upper mantle when it was struck by a meteor.
• Unlike the near side of the moon that always faces the Earth and offers many flat areas to touch down on, the far side is mountainous and rugged.
• The United States, Russia and China have all landed probes on the near side of the moon, though neither NASA’s Apollo missions nor the Soviet Union’s probes have ever returned samples of the lunar mantle.

Now, 1,800 building permits on KCZMA radar

News

• After high-rises that came up in violation of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms, attention is now on hundreds of building permits that were cleared in Maradu municipality, the hotbed of CRZ violations in Kerala State.

Beyond News

• In a mammoth exercise, over 1,800 building permits issued by the Maradu municipality during a five-year period have come under the scanner.
• The Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority (KCZMA) has constituted three special teams to scrutinise building permits issued by the Maradu municipality in five years between February 2013 and 2017. The decision on the inspection was taken on the instructions of the Kerala High Court.
• The court had earlier directed the Chief Town Planner to verify all building permits issued during the said period. It was suspected that the permits were cleared by the local body without forwarding them to the KCZMA. Incidentally, Maradu is located on the banks of the ecologically-sensitive Vembanad lake.
• For the record, the Supreme Court had ordered the demolition of four apartment complexes, which were constructed on the banks of the lake in violation of CRZ norms, within a month.
• Any application for permit for construction of buildings in areas coming under the CRZ regime needs to be cleared by the KCZMA. It can only be after obtaining a no-objection certificate from the authority that a coastal local body can consider the application.
• However, it was reported that none of the nearly 1,800 applications was sent to the KCZMA for verification and certification, sources said.
• An uphill task awaits the special squads as they, along with officials of the local body, have to individually verify all permits that were cleared during the period. Each file has to be checked for violations.
• There could be genuine and proper applications, besides violations. After sieving through the files and identifying permits that were issued in violation of CRZ rules, officials will do a ground-truthing.
• The holdings where permits have been issued for construction will be physically verified to find out the exact nature of violations and related details.
• The court has set a deadline of six months for the verification process.

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