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IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Delhi gets ‘green war room’ to monitor pollution levels this winter

News

• Delhi Environment Minister inaugurated a ‘green war room’ at the Delhi Secretariat to monitor pollution levels in the city this winter.

Green war room

• A 10-member team has been set up to monitor the levels of primary pollutants, measures taken to curb pollution and status of complaints received through Green Delhi mobile application.
• Satellite data related to farm fires in the neighbouring states will also be analysed in the green war room.
• There are different agencies working to deal with the problem of air pollution in Delhi. The green war room has been set up to coordinate their efforts.
• The control room will work towards ensuring stricter enforcement of guidelines to check dust pollution at construction and demolition sites, ready-mix concrete plants, and garbage burning.
• The pollution levels at 13 hotspots in the city and the steps taken to bring them down will also be monitored via the green war room.

IMD reviews preparedness, says will release impact-based cyclone warnings this season

News

• The India Meteorology Department will release dynamic and impact-based cyclone warnings for districts this season to minimize economic losses and damage to property due to the intense weather system.

Cyclone warnings

• The pre and post- monsoon months form the cyclone season. Storms during October to December, especially in the Bay of Bengal, ravage the eastern coast and damage property.
• The new system will give specific warnings. For instance, if a district is to be hit by winds up to 160 kmph, it will warn about the kind of infrastructure that is likely to be damaged and these can be mapped.
• Under the system, location or district-specific tailored warnings, which factor in the local population, infrastructure, settlements, land use and other elements, will be prepared and disseminated.
• All disaster management agencies will make extensive use of cartographic, geological and hydrological data available for the district concerned.
• Until now, the IMD gave warnings about the kind of damage expected during a cyclone.
• The National Disaster Management Authority is executing the project and developing a web-based Dynamic Composite Risk Atlas (Web-DCRA) in collaboration with IMD and coastal states.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

Mars will be closest to the Earth this week than it will be in the next 15 years: NASA

News

• The US-based space agency has said that from October 6 onwards the distance between Mars and the Earth will just be 62.1 million kilometres. As per EarthSky, this will be the closest Mars would come towards the Earth in the next 15 years.

Mars- closest

• The reason behind this phenomenon is that Mars will come in direct opposition to the Earth from the Sun and will remain closest to the Earth in its respective orbit. Such an occurrence takes place every two years.
• Eventually, this is possible due to the fact that the Earth and Mars revolve around the Sun in their respective elliptical orbits in the same direction but at different speeds and at a different distance.
• The closest proximity of Earth and Mars at a distance of 54.6 million kilometres will perhaps be possible when Earth remains far away from Sun, called Aphelion, and Mars remains nearest to the Sun, called Perihelion.
• In the year 2018, both the planet came comparatively closer to each other at a distance of 57.6 million kilometres.
• The most fascinating occurrence of the Earth and Mars coming close to each other with the shortest possible distance ever happened in the year 2003 when the distance was a mere 55.7 million kilometres.
• This was the closest distance between both the terrestrial planets in the last 60,000 years. Red planet will again come nearest to us in the year 2287 at a distance of 55.69 million kilometres.

NIA arrests two from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka for ‘funding’ travel of IS recruits to Syria

News

• The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested two men from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for allegedly recruiting for Islamic State (IS) and for funding the travel of the recruits to Syria.

Unlawful Activities

• NIA said it has arrested the two “for having affiliation with the banned terrorist organization ISIS/ISIL/Daesh and for entering into a conspiracy to radicalize and motivate Muslim youth of Bengaluru to join ISIS, and for raising funds to facilitate their travel to Syria”.
• The probe agency has registered cases under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), and 125 (waging war against any Asiatic Power in alliance with the Government of India) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 17 (raising funds for terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy) and 18b (recruitment or cause to recruit any person or persons for commission of a terrorist act) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
• The agency has conducted searches at the residence of the two and claimed to have recovered “incriminating material” and electronic devices.

As stubble-burning season begins, sharp spike in farm fires

News

• The first six days of October saw five times the number of stubble-burning incidents in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh as in the corresponding period of last year, official data show.

Stubble-burning

• In all, 1,091 incidents of crop stubble-burning were recorded in these three states between October 1 and October 6, the most for these dates since at least 2016, according to data collated by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Delhi.
• Smoke from burning crop stubble contributes to air pollution over the national capital and large parts of the Indo-Gangetic plain every winter. Farmers burn paddy stubble around this time before they prepare the soil for the rabi crop.
• Data using satellite remote sensing technology, show that the largest number of residue-burning events during October 1-6 this year took place in Punjab – 841, more than 10 times the number of such events on these dates in 2019 (79).
• A total 188 residue burning events were detected in Haryana, followed by 62 in UP between October 1 and 6 this year. The numbers were lower in both states during the corresponding period last year – 108 and 27 respectively.
• The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR-India), under the union Ministry of Earth Sciences, has forecast a deterioration of air quality in Delhi in the coming days due to the increased burning of stubble in Haryana and Punjab.

8 white-backed vultures set to be released in wilderness today

News

• The Haryana Forest and Wildlife department is all set to release eight white-backed vultures attaching platform transmitter terminals (PTT) with each raptor to track down their locations and behaviour in the wilderness.

Critically endangered species

• These eight vultures had been kept in the pre-release enclosure at Jatayu Conservation and Breeding Centre (JCBC) at Jodhpur village near Pinjore since 2018.
• Eight vultures included both the genders and six out of eight are in the age group of six-seven years. Two vultures are in the age group of 10 years.
• JCBC was established in 2004. Since then, the centre has successfully released its one pair of Himalayan Griffon vulture in 2016 and the soft-release of eight oriental white-backed vultures was scheduled for 2020.
• Vultures were listed as critically endangered species by IUCN. In 1980s, vulture population in the country was estimated to be in lakhs but by 1990s, 99 per cent decline was reported in the number of these three species, including white-backed vultures.
• Two other species are long-billed vulture and slender-billed vulture.
• Between 2004-2019, 43 slender-billed, 115 oriental white-backed and 175 long-billed vultures were successfully hatched and fledged at the JCBC.

Maharashtra govt forms group to study man-tiger conflict in Chandrapur district

News

• The Maharashtra government has formed a study group to take an in-depth look at the man-tiger conflict in Chandrapur district.

Man-tiger conflict

• The group will delineate reasons for the conflict and suggest remedies.
• Chandrapur has been witnessing intense man-tiger conflict since 2007. This year, the conflict has seen 25 deaths in the district.
• A ‘problem tiger’ from Rajura forest is currently posing a serious threat to human life and has attacked 11 persons, eight fatally, in the past 21 months.
• A few months ago, suggested translocation of 50 tigers from the district to other forest areas.