• A 15-year-old boy in Kerala’s Alappuzha district died recently due to a rare infection caused by Naegleria fowleri or “brain-eating amoeba”.

ABOUT NAEGLERIA FOWLERI

• Naegleria fowleri, commonly known as “brain-eating amoeba,” is a single-cell organism found in a warm freshwater environment such as lakes, hot springs and even in poorly maintained swimming pools.
• Warm water temperatures, particularly during the summer months, create favourable conditions for the amoeba’s growth.
• It can only be seen with a microscope.
• Only one species of Naegleria, Naegleria fowleri, infects people.
• However, it doesn’t survive in saline conditions and is hence not found in sea water.
• It survives on bacteria found in the sediment in lakes and rivers.
• The amoeba enters the body through the nose and travels to the brain, leading to a severe and usually fatal brain infection known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM).
• This affects the brain by causing inflammation and destruction of brain tissue.
• The symptoms usually appear within a week of infection and include severe headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck, confusion, seizures and hallucinations.
• Brain-eating amoeba can be fatal, with a recorded death rate of 97%.
• Naegleria fowleri infection does not spread from person to person, nor does it manifest symptoms when contracted in other forms.

• PPR has recently killed 60 sheep and goats in the highland pastures of the Lahaul and Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh.

ABOUT PPR

• It is a highly contagious viral disease.
• It is caused by a morbillivirus closely related to the rinderpest virus.
• It affects goats, sheep, and some wild relatives of domesticated small ruminants, as well as camels.
• Symptoms:
  • It causes immunosuppression, which makes affected animals more likely to pick up other infections.
  • Clinical signs of PPR include fever, eye and nasal discharges, sores in the mouth, diarrhoea, listlessness, respiratory signs (coughing and pneumonia), Abortion and death
  • Fatality rates can range from 20% and can reach as high as 90% .
• Transmission
  • when a susceptible animal inhales the virus from infected animals’ coughing and sneezing.
  • indirectly through contact with infected objects (fomites) such as feed troughs, bedding
  • secretions from the eyes, nose, and mouth and faeces of infected animals.
• The PPR virus does not infect humans.

• Strait of Hormuz, also called Strait of Ormuz is a channel linking the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.
  • Gulf of Oman is also known as the Gulf or Sea of Makran.
• Islands- Qeshm (Qishm), Hormuz, and Hengām.

• Zaporizhzhia is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant located in eastern Ukraine but presently under the control of Russia.
• With six nuclear reactors, it is located on the south bank of the Dnieper River.

• Indore Municipal Corporation has become the first urban body in the country to receive the Extended Producers Responsibility credit by recycling 8 tonnes of banned single-use plastic items.
• Indore has also been recognized recently as India’s cleanest city for the sixth consecutive year.

• The closing ceremony of The Startup20 Shikhar Summit, organized by the Startup20 Engagement Group under the India G20 Presidency, in Gurugram, witnessed the official torch handover to Brazil, the next G20 presidency country, which committed to continuing the Startup20 initiative in 2024.

• The 7^th edition of the bilateral Japan-India Maritime Exercise 2023 was hosted by the Indian Navy off the coast near Visakhapatnam.
• The exercise will be conducted in two phases, the Harbour Phase and the Sea phase.
• The first ever JIMEX was conducted off Japan in January 2012.

• Ambergris, worth Rs 4 crore, was recently found in dead whale.
• Ambergris which means grey amber in French, is a waxy substance that originates from the digestive system of protected sperm whales.
• The freshly passed ambergris is a light yellowish
• Ambergris is produced only by an estimated 1% of sperm whales.
• It is a rare substance, which contributes to its high demand and high price in the international market.
• Traditionally, It is used to produce perfumes which have notes of musk.
• While there are records of it being used to flavour food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco in some cultures in the past.
• Although there is a ban on the possession and trade of ambergris in countries like the USA, Australia and India, in several other countries it is a tradable commodity.

ABOUT SPERM WHALE (ALSO CALLED CACHALOT)

• Sperm whales (Physeter catodon) are the largest of the toothed whales and have one of the widest global distributions of any marine mammal species.
• The sperm whale is dark blue-gray or brownish, with white patches on the belly.
• It is thickset and has small paddle like flippers and a series of rounded humps on its back.
• It is found in temperate and tropical waters throughout the world.
• Protection status
  • IUCN red list: Vulnerable
  • CITES: Appendix I
  • Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule 2

• Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and Britain have asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to open proceedings against Iran over the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane in 2020 that killed all 176 people on board.

ABOUT INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE (ICJ)

• ICJ was established in 1945 by the United Nations charter and started working in April 1946.
• ICJ, also known as the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the UN.
• It is situated at the Peace Palace in The Hague (Netherlands) and is the only one of six principal organs of the United Nations, not located in New York (USA).
• ICJ is composed of 15 judges, who are elected for terms of office of 9 years by UNGA and UNSC.
• ICJ entertain 2 types of cases:
  • legal disputes between States submitted to it by them (contentious cases) and
  • requests for advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by United Nations organs and specialized agencies (advisory proceedings).
• Members- 193 state parties (including India)

• Recently, NGT set aside order passed by Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority in which it had dismissed proceedings against some people for carrying out illegal construction and illegal filling of eco-sensitive, low-lying khazan lands in Cavelossim village, Salcete taluka.

ABOUT KHAZANS

• Khazans are coastal wetlands of Goa.
• It is a low-lying, saline water-logged area that is influenced by tidal flows.
• They are reclaimed from mangrove forests, probably in the pre-Christian era by an intricate system of dykes, sluice gates and canals and put to multiple productive uses such as agriculture, aquaculture and salt panning.
• They act as a main drainage system for flood water in the area.