WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The great hornbill (Buceros bicornis) is also known as the concave-casqued hornbill, great Indian hornbill or great pied hornbill.
• It is one of the larger members of the hornbill family. It is found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
• The most prominent feature of the Great Hornbill is the bright yellow and black casque (hard structure on the head of some birds) on top of its massive bill.
• Festival: The Hornbill Festival celebrated in Nagaland is named after the bird – Hornbill, which is the most revered and admired bird for the Nagas.
• Cultural Symbol: They are the cultural symbols of some ethnic communities in the northeast, specifically the Nyishi of Arunachal Pradesh.
• State Bird: Great Hornbill is the state bird of Arunachal Pradesh and Kerala.
• IUCN Status: Vulnerable
• Indian Wildlife Protection Act,1972: Schedule I

WHY IN THE NEWS?

The Ministry of Culture has planned to inaugurate new museums on Jammu and Kashmir, Gautam Buddha, Indian armour and the freedom struggle by the end of 2021.

Museum on Jammu and Kashmir(J&K):

• The museum on Jammu and Kashmir will capture the essence and spirit of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh as an integral part of the nation for ages.
• The museum elaborates this by tracing the roots of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh from prehistoric times to the present day and telling unheard stories of the region and people which have been lost in the centuries of time.

Museum on Gautam Buddha:

• The museum on Gautama Buddha focuses on the religious and traditional aspects of Buddhist heritage in India.
• The museum would have over 200 objects from the 1st Century CE to 19th Century CE, including stone and bronze sculptures, terracotta heads and costumes.

Museum on Freedom Struggle:

• The museum will narrate the story of the country’s freedom struggle in an interactive manner. Further, the museum will provide more emphasis on the unheard stories of people’s participation in India’s freedom movement representing contribution of all regions.
• Another museum will be developed which would showcase arms and armour of India through the ages.

Moreover, the Ministry is also in the process of setting up a museum dedicated to freedom fighters at the Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata, called ‘Biplobi Bharat’

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Recently, a bat amazed the scientists by flying a distance of more than 2,000 km from London to the Pskov region in northwestern Russia. The bat is dubbed as the “Olympian bat” and has generated keen interest in climate scientists.

About:

• The bat belongs to the Nathusius’ pipistrelle species of bats.
• The journey is significant because it is the longest one undertaken by a bat from Britain across Europe.
• Bats belonging to the Nathusius’ pipistrelle species typically weigh less than 10 grams.
  • They are known to migrate from summer breeding grounds in northeastern Europe to warmer areas of the continent where they hibernate in trees in buildings.
• The ‘Olympian’ bat’s record is topped by another bat from the same species that flew from Latvia to Spain in 2019 covering a distance of 2,224 km.
• For climate scientists, the journey is a window into studying bat migration and its connection with climate change.
• Increased variation in climatic extremes raises the possibility of bats emerging from hibernation early or at a greater frequency.
  • That would not only put hibernating bats at risk from depleted energy stores, but could also affect the birth and survival of pups.
• Thus, Nathusius’ pipstrelle’s range expansion is linked to climate change and future changes in climate will further impact this species.
• The Bat Conservation Trust launched a project called the National Nathusius’ Pipistrelle Project in 2014.
  • The project aims to improve understanding of the ecology, current status and conservation threats for Nathusius’ pipistrelles in Great Britain.
  • One of the goals of this project is to determine the migratory origins of this species of bats since they might help in understanding its links to climate change.
  • There is already some evidence of birds migrating early because of a warming planet.
• IUCN status of Nathusius’ pipistrelle species of bats: Least concern.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) suffered the loss of an important earth observation satellite (EOS-03) during launch when the GSLV rocket carrying it malfunctioned about five minutes from the lift-off.

About the EOS-03:

• It was capable of imaging the entire country four to five times every day.
• It was riding on a GSLV rocket (GSLV-F10), which has a new payload carrier designed to significantly reduce aerodynamic drag and thus carry larger payloads.
• The rocket was supposed to deposit the satellite in the geostationary transfer orbit, from where the satellite’s onboard propulsion system will guide it to a geostationary orbit, 36,000 km from the earth’s surface.
  • Geostationary transfer orbit is a circular orbit positioned approximately 35,900 km above Earth’s equator and having a period of the same duration and direction as the rotation of the Earth.
  • An object in this orbit will appear stationary relative to the rotating Earth

WHY IN THE NEWS?

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) included Taiwan, after G7, straight in talks on August 13, 2021.

About:

• Taiwan further irritated China by publicly thanking the members of the Quad for including peace and stability in Taiwan Strait during virtual discussions on August 12.
• Biden administration is focusing and putting efforts towards developing the Taiwan Strait as a friction point with China after decades.
• US has also successfully mentioned Taiwan Strait in its joint statements with Japan and South Korea.
• Taiwan strait also found mention in the recent G-7 summit that was also attended by PM Narendra Modi.

Why inclusion of Taiwan in Quad irritated China?

Quad is considered as countermeasure against China in the Indo-Pacific region. With the inclusion of Taiwan, the grouping has strengthened its power in Indo-pacific region. China has been acting aggressively in South China Sea, East China Sea, Mekong, Himalayas and Taiwan Straits while Quad seeks to bring peace into the region.

China’s aerial incursion in Taiwan

China recently conducted the largest ever aerial incursions in Taiwan in which 28 military aircraft flew into air defence identification zone of Taiwan.

Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad)

QUAD is a strategic dialogue between United States, Japan, Australia and India. It is maintained by talks between the member countries. This dialogue was initiated in 2007 by former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe in collaborations with the Vice President of USA Dick Cheney, former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard and former Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. The dialogue is paralleled by joint military exercises, called Exercise Malabar, of an unprecedented scale

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Ministers of Agriculture of the BRICS countries held virtual talks on the theme “BRICS Partnership for Strengthening Agro Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Security”.

About:

• Implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlighted that BRICS countries are well positioned to help in achieving the objectives of 2030 Sustainable Development Goals of eradication of hunger and poverty.
• BRICS countries have set up a strong agricultural research base.
• It also acknowledged the sharing knowledge, transferring technologies from lab to land in order to enhance productivity, especially in the backdrop of climate change, maintaining agro biodiversity and ensuring sustainable use of natural resources.
• During the meeting, member countries discussed the Joint declaration of eleventh meeting of BRICS and Action Plan for 2021-24 for agricultural cooperation of BRICS countries and BRICS Agriculture Research Platform.
• Action Plan of 2021-24 will be endorsed by BRICS Working Group meeting for adoption in BRICS meeting.

About BRICS Agriculture Research Platform

This platform has been developed by India in order to promote cooperation in the areas of agricultural research, technology transfer, extension, training and capacity building. This platform was made functional with the objective of improving the use and application of agricultural technologies to meet the needs of producers and processors.

About BRICS

BRICS is expanded to five major emerging economies namely, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Members of the BRICS are known for their significant influence on regional affairs. Governments of the BRICS states have been meeting annually at formal summits, since 2009. Most recent BRICS Summit (12th edition) was hosted by Russia on November 17, 2020 virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

Four more wetlands from India have been added to the Ramsar list and have been recognized as wetlands of global importance in accordance with the Ramsar Convention.

About:

• India is home to more than a dozen of threatened and near threatened bird species.
• Four sites that have been included are:

1. Thol from Gujarat
2. Wadhwana from Gujarat,
3. Sultanpur from Haryana and
4. Bhindawas from Haryana.

• These sites are home to endangered Egyptian Vulture, Sociable Lapwing, Saker Falcon, and near threatened Dalmatian Pelican.

Number of Ramsar Sites in India

With the latest addition, the number of Ramsar sites in India have reached to 46. These 46 sites cover a surface area of 1,083,322 hectares.

Why Ramsar list was created?

Ramsar list was created with the aim of developing and maintaining an international network of wetlands which are important to conserve global biological diversity and to sustaining human life by maintaining their ecosystem components, processes and benefits.

Significance of the wetlands

Wetlands play a significant role in conservation of biodiversity. They purify and replenish the ground water. They also act as a natural sponge against flooding & drought and protect our coastlines. They also play role in fighting the climate change. They act as critical carbon sinks in Urban areas and play a significant role in preventing urban flooding.

Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary

It is the largest wetland in Haryana. This human-made freshwater wetland comprises of more than 250 bird species. The bird species use the sanctuary throughout the year for resting and roosting. It also supports more than ten globally threatened species such as Steppe Eagle, endangered Egyptian Vulture, Black-bellied Tern and Pallas’s Fish Eagle.

Sultanpur National Park

This Park from Haryana provides support to more than 220 species of resident, winter migratory and local migratory waterbirds.

Thol Lake Wildlife Sanctuary

It lies on Central Asian Flyway in Gujarat. It supports more than 320 bird species and more than 30 threatened waterbird species like critically endangered white-rumped vulture, Sociable Lapwing, Common Pochard etc.

Wadhwana Wetland

It is an internationally important wetland situated in Gujarat. It is famous for its birdlife because it provides wintering ground to migratory waterbirds, migrating on Central Asian Flyway. Some of the species include endangered Pallas’s fish-Eagle, vulnerable Common Pochard, and near-threatened Dalmatian Pelican.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The Quad country navies including, India, the US, Japan and Australia, will be conducting the annual Malabar naval exercises, from August 21, off the coast of Guam, in the Indo-Pacific.
• The harbour phase of the Malabar naval exercises will take place from August 21 to 24, 2021. The sea phase of the exercise will be held on August 25 to 29, 2021.
• Indian Navy will be represented by two surface combatants led by Guided Missile Destroyer INS Ranvijay and Frigate INS Shivalik along with maritime reconnaissance aircraft P-8I, ASW helicopters and Special Forces (Marine Commandos-MARCOS).
• The objective of the Malabar series of Exercises is to increase the interoperability of naval powers of the four QUAD countries.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully test-fired medium-range subsonic cruise missile Nirbhay from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, off Odisha coast.
• Nirbhay is India’s first Indigenous Technology Cruise Missile (ITCM).
• ITCM Nirbhay was successfully test-launched with a Made-in-India Manik turbofan engine.
• This was the first successful test-firing of the missile with the indigenous booster engine. It can use both conventional and nuclear weapons of 200 to 300 kilograms.
• The missile can be launched from multiple platforms. ITCM Nirbhay can travel at a speed of 0.7 to 0.9 Mach, or 4 to 7 times faster than the speed of sound.

WHY IN THE NEWS?

• The Indian Air Force (IAF) has built one of the world’s highest mobile air traffic control (ATC) towers at the Advanced Landing Ground in Ladakh. The ATC controls operations of the fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters operating in the eastern Ladakh region.
• Meanwhile, India has been considering multiple options of developing airfields in eastern Ladakh including Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO), Fukche and Nyoma which are at a distance of few minutes from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.