Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Coral bleaching observed near Mandapam, Keezhakkarai, Palk Bay

News

• The National Centre for Coastal Research, an institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, in India, has a field research station in the Gulf of Mannar region, and researchers have found an alarming pattern of bleaching in the reefs in Mandapam, Keezhakkarai and Palk Bay.

Findings

• They have found that sea surface temperature ranged from 28.7°C to 31°C in the August 2018-February 2019 period and there was no bleaching seen then. However, when the temperatures rose to between 32°C and 36°C between March 2019 and May 2019, researchers observed a pattern of bleaching in corals, which was different at different layers within the sea.
• About 12% of coral species observed at depths between 0m and 2m were completely bleached. About 5% of species observed at depths between 2m and 4m were partially bleached. Poritesspecies observed in Palk Bay region were completely bleached at depths from zero to 4 metres. Corals at depths over 5m did not face bleaching.
• In some sites the massive corals such as Poritesspecies were completely bleached but branching corals such as Montipora digitata and Acropora species, were not bleached.
• Coral reefs are important hotspots of biodiversity in the ocean. Corals are animals in the same class (Cnidaria) as jellyfish and anemones. They consist of individual polyps that get together and build reefs.
• Coral reefs support a wide range of species and maintain the quality of the coastal biosphere. Corals control the level of carbon dioxide in the water by converting it into a limestone shell. If this process does not take place, the amount of carbon dioxide in the ocean water would increase significantly and affect ecological niches.
• Coral reefs are threatened by climate change. When the sea surface temperature increases beyond a tolerable limit, they undergo a process of bleaching. Basically bleaching is when the corals expel a certain algae known as zooxanthellae, which lives in the tissues of the coral in a symbiotic relationship.
• About 90% of the energy of the coral is provided by the zooxanthellae which are endowed with chlorophyll and other pigments. They are responsible for the yellow or reddish brown colours of the host coral. In addition the zooxanthellae can live as endosymbionts with jellyfish also.
• When a coral bleaches, it does not die but comes pretty close to it. Some of the corals may survive the experience and recover once the sea surface temperature returns to normal levels.

Groundwater reserves estimate to be updated soon

News

The Union Water Ministry is finalising an updated estimate on the state of groundwater reserves in India.

Beyond News

• The groundwater assessment, last done in 2013, is a survey that samples a sliver of blocks in each State and counts how many blocks have critically low levels of water and how many are well-stocked.
• An assessment from Punjab, the official said, pointed to “extreme” overexploitation of groundwater.
• In 2013, the CGWB assessed 6,584 units across the country and found 4,520 to be “safe,” 681 to be “semi-critical” 253 to be “critical” and 1,034 to be “overexploited.” About 96 blocks were “saline”.
• In a CGWB report of April 2015, the agency noted that the water resource potential or annual water availability of the country in terms of natural runoff (flow) in rivers is about 1,869 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM)/year. However, the usable water resources of the country is about 1,123 BCM/year.
• This is due to geographical limitation and water being unequally distributed in various river basins, making it difficult to extract all the available 1,869 BCM/year. Out of the 1,123 BCM/year, the shares of surface water and groundwater are 690 BCM/year and 433 BCM/year respectively.
• Setting aside 35 BCM for natural discharge, the net annual ground water availability for the entire country is 398 BCM.
• The overall contribution of rainfall to the country’s annual ground water resource is 68%.
• The share of other resources, such as canal seepage, return flow from irrigation, recharge from tanks, ponds and water conservation structures taken together is 32%.
• The national per capita annual availability of water has reduced from 1,816 cubic metres in 2001 to 1,544 cubic metres in 2011 a reduction of 15%.
• That India’s groundwater has been depleting at a worrying rate since 1995, the CGWB has shown.
• In 1995, only 3% of districts had overexploited their groundwater reserves whereas by 2011, that had increased to 15%.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Archives seeks ₹5.4 cr. aid for digitisation of TS records

News

• The Telangana State Archives and Research Institute, which has a collection of over 43 million documents/historical records dating back to 1406 AD, has embarked upon an ambitious project aimed at digitisation of all records.

Beyond News

• In addition to digitisation of records to preserve them for posterity, the Archives has taken up conservation of the old records which are getting damaged due to passage of time. The institute has urged the Government to immediately sanction ₹ 5.4 crore, a major of chunk of which would be spent on digitisation.
• The Director General of State Archives, in a letter addressed to the government, recalled that the institute has collection of records of Bahmani, Qutb Shahi, Adil Shahi, Mughal as well as large chunk of the Asaf Jahi rulers dating from 1724 to 1950, predominantly in Persian and Urdu languages, in addition to rare manuscripts.
• However, services of the archives was adversely affected by the absence of digitisation of the documents in that it was taking a huge amount of time in searching the required records from the huge stacks preserved.
• Moreover, given the age of these manuscripts, the documents were turning brittle and deteriorating.
• Accordingly, the institution has sought ₹ 2.4 crore for digitisation of the records through creation of meta data files while another ₹ 10 lakh would be needed for upgrading the digital library and website of the archives. This would be in addition to ₹ 20 lakh for the herbal treatment, lamination and other processes for preserving the records.
• Works are also proposed on the storage component with the institution proposing at least two rows of compacting systems estimated at ₹ 1 crore and another ₹ 50 lakh for air-conditioning facilities in the stack area.

Home Ministry asks States, UTs to stay alert amid calls to incite violence

News

• A day before counting of votes for the Lok Sabha polls, the Union Home Ministry alerted all States and Union Territories on the possibility of violence in different parts of the country, saying calls were given in various quarters for inciting violence.

Beyond News

• In a statement, the Ministry also said it has asked the States and UTs to maintain law and order, peace and public tranquillity.
• The Ministry said the States and UTs have been further asked to take adequate measures for the security of strongrooms and venues of vote-counting.
• The central security agencies have received inputs that some organisations and individuals, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Tripura, have given certain statements which may lead to violence and disruption during the counting process.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

ISRO launches radar imaging observation satellite RISAT-2B

News

• In a predawn launch, a PSLV rocket of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) placed RISAT-2B, an X-band microwave Earth observation satellite, into orbit 556 km above earth.

Beyond News

• Data from the satellite would be vital for the Armed Forces, agriculture forecasters and disaster relief agencies.
• The new satellite will enhance India’s all-weather [space-based] capabilities in agriculture, forestry and disaster management.
• After the satellite separated from the launcher, its solar arrays deployed automatically.
• ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network at Bengaluru took control of the satellite. In the coming days, the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration.
• Two important secondary or “piggyback trial payloads that would revolutionise its future missions” were also included in the launch.
• They are the new Vikram processor from Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), Chandigarh, that will control future launchers, and a low-cost microelecronic inertial navigation system from the ISRO Inertial Systems Unit, Thiruvananthapuram.
• The high resolution Cartosat-3, the first small satellite launch vehicle (SSLV) misison and the second test of a future reusable launch vehicle would follow from Sriharikota in the coming months.
• The satellite reached its designated position and started orbiting in space, with an inclination of 37°.
• Designed at ISRO’s U.R. Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) in Bengaluru and fast-tracked in just 15 months, the RISAT-2B is built to operate for at least five years.
• Its X-band synthetic aperture radar can give added details such as the size of objects on earth, structures and movement.
• Information from RISAT-2B will complement data from normal optical remote sensing satellites.
• Such data are useful for agencies that need ground images during cloud, rain and in the dark.
• This is the third Indian RISAT in 10 years, and follows the Israeli-built RISAT-2 in 2009 and the ISRO-built RISAT-1 in 2012. The older RISATs have reached the end of their lives.

ISRO has planned a series of radar imagers in the coming months to enhance its space based observation of Earth and the Indian region.

Largest liquid hydrogen tank flagged off

News

• ISRO Chairman flagged off the country’s largest liquid hydrogen storage tank at Sri City.

Beyond News

• VRV Asia Pacific manufactured the storage tank with a Liquid Nitrogen shield in a collaborative effort with the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
• The tank can store 120 kilolitres of liquid hydrogen, which is used as fuel for satellite launch vehicles.

No protection to species that live underground, says expert

News

• Bathynellaceans are minute crustaceans (crab family) and they live in the porous spaces of sediments along the waterways. Not more than 0.5-mm long, they are barely visible to the naked eye. Only eight species of these crustacean in seven genera were known in India till the end of 20th century.

Findings

• Regular surveys initiated in the country since 2000, especially in certain pockets of coastal deltaic belt of the rivers Krishna and Godavari in Andhra Pradesh and South Eastern India, have so far yielded 90 new crustacean taxa. Of these 74 new species have been formally described. They include 34 Copepoda, 31 Bathynellacea, 6 Amphipoda, 2 Isopoda and one Ostracoda species.
• Scientist said that 13 of the 31 Bathynellid species were endangered by indiscriminate sand mining in the State.
• One million species of flora and fauna are predicted to become extinct in the next few decades.
• Team listed several reaches in deltaic coastal belt of Andhra Pradesh as hotspots for these crusteaceans.
• They listed places on the banks of Godavari Bank at Dowlaiswaram, Kapileshwarapuram, Ravulapalem and on the banks of Krishna River only at Jaggayyapeta as the hotspots for these minute crustaceans.
• Indiscriminate sand mining on the banks of Penna River at Pottepalem, Surayapalem, Jammipalem and Vamshadhara river at Purusottapuram, Narasannapeta and Madapam are also going to effect phreatic species.
• With increase in cave tourism and other cave-related activity like treasure hunting, caving (for recreation) the fragile environment of these hypogean ecosystems was deteriorating leading to the disappearance of the fauna which survived for millions of years.
• Surveys should be conducted by the Geology and other departments to locate and protect caves and to secure them from treasure hunters and cave vandals. The extremophile fauna that live in caves in the depths of earth were a great asset to mankind.
• Cave conservation involving locals, scientific studies, training of guides and creating awareness among tourists were some of the basic measures. Law and regulations should be brought about to protect these cryptic ecosystems.

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