IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Vulture population on the rise in the Nilgiris

News

• The population of vultures in the Nilgiris has increased by more than 26 % since 2012, but conservationists and experts who have been monitoring the birds say that major threats, such as deliberate poisoning of cattle carcasses, are still prevalent in the region.

Vulture population

• Experts studying vultures in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve, said that in 2012, the number of vultures seen in the Nilgiris was around 152 individuals, comprising the White-rumped vulture, Asian king vulture and the Long-billed vulture. Since then, the population increased each year till 2014, before sudden crashes in 2015 and 2016.
• It then recovered to 192 individuals in 2018.
• While these three species of vulture are known to nest almost exclusively in the Mudumalai and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserves in Southern India, other vulture species, such as the Cinereous vulture, the Himalayan griffon vulture and Egyptian vulture have been spotted visiting the Nilgiris each year.
• Unlike in other landscapes in India with high vulture population, the use of anti-inflammatory drugs like diclofenac, nimesulides and flunixin, was not as big a threat in the Nilgiris.

      Conservation efforts

• After vulture populations across the Western Ghats, and the rest of India, plummeted in the 1990s, sustained monitoring and concerted conservation efforts led to a recovery in the last decade.
• The effects diclofenac and other anti-inflammatory drugs had on vultures were first detailed in 2008, at a workshop in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve.
• This was done in subsequent workshops in the Nilgiris and Coimbatore in 2011 and 2015.
• In 2018, a multi-stakeholder meeting was held, with conservationists and Forest Department officials from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana taking part in it.

        Key resolution

• One of the major resolutions adopted was that the Department of Animal Husbandry would stop procuring non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as diclofenac, which were given to cattle to cure them of illnesses.
• This was to ensure that vultures did not die of scavenging carcasses that contained diclofenac residue.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Pakistan considering full airspace closure for India, ban on land routes for Indo-Afghan trade: Minister

News

• Pakistan government is once again mulling a complete ban on the use of the country’s airspace by Indian flights, a senior Minister said, weeks after the Indian government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

Pakistani airspace

• Minister for Science and Technology said the federal Cabinet was also considering banning India from using Pakistani land routes for Indo-Afghan trade.
• Air India, the country’s flag carrier, operates around 50 flights daily through Pakistani airspace.
• These are flights to the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.
• Minister for Science and Technology said that a blanket ban on the use of Pakistani land routes for India’s trade with Afghanistan was also suggested during the Cabinet meeting.
• Minister for Science and Technology said the legal formalities for these decisions to take effect were under consideration.

Telangana govt launches DEET to connect employers to job-seekers

News

• The State has initiated yet another innovative solution, Digital Employment Exchange of Telangana (DEET), for improving the employment ecosystem.

Digital Employment Exchange of Telangana

• Launched in association with StoryTech Private Limited, the DEET acts as a network connecting the employers to prospective job-seekers on a platform provided by artificial intelligence.
• The application has been launched taking into consideration the technological boom witnessed in the State and the consequent growth in the requirement of manpower in numerous industries.
• The DEET’s algorithm is built to cater to the needs of young employers and employees of the State and the platform has the bandwidth for providing end-to-end requirement in the employment ecosystem from registration, interviews, direct chat with companies to finally getting jobs.
• The initiative also has the provision of sending notifications and job alerts to job-seekers, including those relating to government jobs.
• Job-seekers as well as job-providers can register themselves onto the platform with minimal efforts.
• The platform provides the entire arena of skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled, unemployed, job migrants and fresh entrants access to the entire stream of employment. The other end of the spectrum would involve employers from various industries like IT, retail, e-commerce, consumer services, business services and other areas.
• The DEET platform, currently has more than 40,000 vacancies in various sectors across the State as well as the country.
• Once an applicant is enrolled in the app, they would get relevant results matching their profile, qualification, location and other factors.

Minority Affairs Ministry team in Kashmir to identify development projects

News

• A six-member Minority Affairs Ministry team led by its secretary arrived in the Kashmir Valley for a two-day visit during which it will identify the areas to implement centrally-sponsored development projects after provisions of Article 370 were abrogated.

Minority Affairs Ministry team

• The team will explore development possibilities where schools, colleges, skill development centres can be opened.
• The team will look at all possibilities of social-economic development projects.
• Earlier this month, the government had revoked J&K’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution and divided the state into two Union territories  Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
• The PMJVK is a centrally-sponsored scheme that seeks to improve the development of minority concentration areas through creation of socioeconomic infrastructure, provision of basic amenities, and other measures.
• With a large number of minority community population comprising mostly of Muslims, Buddhists and Sikhs in J&K and Ladakh, the Minority Affairs Ministry’s role assumes significance there.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Chandrayaan-2 scans Mitra crater

News

• Chandrayaan-2’s orbiter or mother spacecraft has zeroed in on a crater on the moon named after 20th century’s acclaimed radio physicist Sisir Kumar Mitra.
• Images of the crater are among the second set of pictures of the northern craters sent by the orbiter.

Mitra crater

• The Mitra crater is on the edge of another crater. The pictures were taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera-2.
• The orbiter was then around 4,300 km from the moon.
• At 25 degrees Kelvin (minus 248 degrees Celsius), the northern polar region is believed to be one of the coldest spots in the solar system.
• Mitra (1890-1963) also lends his name to the S. K. Mitra Centre for Research in Space Environment of the University of Calcutta.

India to restore 50 lakh hectares of degraded land by 2030

News

• India will restore 50 lakh hectares of its degraded land by 2030, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

Global conference on land desertification

• Minister said 29% land of India’s total geographical area is degraded which has to be restored and will be the agenda of the upcoming global conference on land desertification.
• India is hosting the Conference of Parties (COP) 14 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).
• Indian Prime Minister is also likely to attend the conference, in which nearly 200 countries and 100 ministers will be participating.
• The Minister also announced that a centre of excellence to combat desertification of the fertile land would be set up at the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun, which will study the causes of desertification and devise solutions.
• India will play a lead role in combating desertification for the next two years, taking over the COP Presidency from China.

Steps on to rejuvenate 9,000 hectares of forest land in Telangana

News

• The Forest Department has embarked upon the herculean task of rejuvenating nearly 9,000 hectares of forest land that was degraded bit by bit.

Rejuvenate forest land

• In the Mulugu range, about 450 hectares of planting is being done using a variety of methods. The forest was lost due to illegal felling and smuggling of precious wood – like the teak.
• The department personnel dug huge trenches all around the selected area, as was done near Jakaram. They intend to plant multiple shoots which would be singled out, selecting the healthy shoots to remain.
• Fire lines would be drawn randomly so that fire does not spread. They also opt for staggered trenches of three-meter length, one-meter width and one-metre depth – to help prevention of soil erosion across the slopes, which is called coppicing.
• The ongoing development work like – widening of roads and frequent tribal fair at Medaram village had telling effect on the forest in Mulugu district.
• The pilgrims who gather in large numbers indiscriminately cut off beautiful bamboo grooves to raise temporary huts and shops, thus robbing the nature of its gorgeous treasure.

7 new species of insects that can walk on water discovered

News

• Scientists of the Zoological Survey of India have discovered seven species of water treaders, semi-aquatic insects that can walk or run on the surface of water.

Newly described species

• The newly described species belong to the genus Mesovelia whose size ranges from 1.5 mm to 4.5 mm and are equipped with hydrophobic setae (bristles) on their legs.
• The combination of hydrophobic setae and water surface tension prevents them from sinking. The insects are pale green with silver-white wings with black veins on the basal half which make them stand out over the green mat of aquatic weeds.
• Among the new discoveries, Mesovelia andamanais from Andaman Islands,  bispinosa and M. isiasi are from Meghalaya, M. occulta and M. tenuia from Tamil Nadu and M. brevia and M. dilatata live both in Meghalaya and Tamil Nadu.
• These insects are hemimetabolous insects without having larval stage , they go from egg to nymph to adult. They are found on freshwater bodies such as ponds, lakes, pools, streams, rocks with moss and sometimes on estuaries.
• These insects serve as predators and scavengers (feed on midges, water fleas, feed on dead and dying mosquitoes), thereby removing organic waste and also providing a natural sanitation service.
• The females of Mesovelia are larger than males and dig several holes on plants and insert eggs in plant tissues with a specially adapted long serrated ovipositor (genital organ).
• Other than the size, there are morphological features that make these pond-weed insects different from water striders. The claws of Mesoveliaare placed apically (tip or extreme end of legs), whereas in water striders, they arise from the pre-apex (just before the tip) of legs.

Tiger concerns: much to be done at Periyar and Parambikulam tiger reserves

News

• From porous borders to illegal interstate entry points and large tracts of unprotected forests, which form the core of the reserves, much needs to be done on the ground at the Periyar and Parambikulam tiger reserves for improving their management.

Periyar and Parambikulam tiger reserves

• The recently released Status of Tigers in India-2018 report and the Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) paint a rosy picture of the two reserves.
• The growing tiger population in the Kerala forests and the top scores of the reserves in the MEE have hogged national attention.
• On an individual scale, Periyar has scored 93.75% and is given “good” rating for management effectiveness. Evergreen forests form more than half of the core area of the reserve.
• The core area is free of human settlements and biotic interferences there is negligible, points out the report.
• MEE report also lists management weaknesses of both the reserves along with the others that were evaluated during 2017. Of the total 881 sq km of the core area of the Periyar reserve, 733 sq km is protected area and the rest, carved out of the Ranni Forest Division, is not part of any protected area network, it says.
• The porous borders the reserve share with Tamil Nadu and the 18 illegal entry points along the nearly 90-km interstate boundary have been flagged as a matter of concern by the evaluators.
• The study has identified Sabarimala pilgrimage as the largest biotic factor that adds pressure to the fragile ecosystem of the reserve.
• The huge number of visitors to the hill temple is exerting a lot of biotic pressure on the natural resources, the report says.

      Invasive species

• The spread of the invasive species Lantana camara along the grasslands and fields of the reserve has evolved as a major biodiversity threat. The grasslands and fields are gradually being infested by the invasive woody species.
• The report also cautions the authorities about the safety aspects involved in the conduct of the nature walks undertaken for tourists in the reserve.

Legal status of reserve forest

• At present, these areas have the legal status of reserve forest and its notification as protected area is a legal formality. As there are no human habitations inside the area, the legal process will be a rather smooth affair.
• The risks posed by the porous borders can be addressed only with the support of the neighbours. From the Kerala part, vigil has been stepped up with field staff deployed in the area to keep a tab on the movement of people across the border.
• Tamil Nadu, it is learnt, is campaigning for notifying Meghamalai as a tiger reserve and those at the Periyar reserve are in support of the campaign. The notification of Meghamalai as a reserve will certainly improve the situation and curb illegal practices to a considerable extent.
• The presence of Pachakkanam estate, located within the core area of the reserve, was one of the conversational anxieties raised by the MEE.

Private estate

• Of the 208 hectares of the private estate where cardamom is being farmed, 67.52 hectare was recently notified as Ecological Fragile Land.
• The State government has plans to take over the estate from its owners and the compensation to be paid to the owners will come around ₹129 crore. The spadework for the takeover is being done.
• Regarding the spread of invasive species, an invasive and exotic species monitoring cell has been formed to address the issue. Studies are being undertaken to identify such species and formulate management plans.

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