• Sailors of the Indian Navy are all set for gruelling session at the snow heights of Himalayan mountain range.
• A team of 24 sailors led by Commander Vivek Anand reached Sissu in Lahaul and Spiti yesterday to take part in the second edition of the snow marathon to be held at Sissu near Atal Tunnel on March 12.
• Apart from New Delhi, sailors from Visakhapatnam, Mumbai, Kochi, Port Blair and Karwar (Karnataka) will participate in the marathon.
• Out of 24 participants, 10 would participate in full marathon (42 km) while the rest would join half marathon (21 km).

• The International Day of Women Judges, which is celebrated every year on March 10, honours all female judges who have taken the lead in the fight against social injustice.
• On March 10, 2022, the International Day of Women Judges was celebrated for the first time.

• Yaoshang, Manipur‘s version of Holi, which lasts for five days, has begun. On the full moon of Lamta (February–March) in the Meitei lunar calendar, the event is observed annually.
• Manipur celebrates Yaoshang differently than Holi, with a traditional touch.
  • Manipur comes to life throughout the course of these five days with traditional “thabal chongba” dance in the evening and sporting events during the day.
  • A typical Meitei dance called the thabal chongba involves boys and girls dancing in a circle on an open field.
    • The Thabal Chongba is now performed all during the Lamta month, though.
  • In a practice known as “nakatheng,” kids solicit their neighbours for financial gifts.

• Election Commission of India (ECI) hosted an international conference as the lead for Cohort on Elections Integrity which was established as a follow up to Summit for Democracy.
• Summit for Democracy was an initiative of US President to set forth an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal and to tackle greatest threats faced by democracies today.
• Following this Summit, a Year of Action was proposed and Summit also developed two platforms: Focal Groups and Democracy Cohorts to facilitate participation in the Year of Action.
  • ECI is leading Democracy Cohort on Election Integrity.

• First edition of WINS Awards was announced by Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs.
• Awards aim to recognize inspiring and exemplary initiatives in urban sanitation and waste management by women led organizations and individual women.
• State nominations will be evaluated at the national level on their innovativeness, impact, uniqueness, sustainability & replicability.

• The new capital Nusantara is located in East Kalimantan province on the Indonesian part of Borneo.
  • East Kalimantan is an area with immense water resources and habitable terrain on Borneo island which is shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
  • Indonesian officials say the new metropolis will be a “sustainable forest city” that puts the environment at the heart of the development and aims to be carbon-neutral by 2045.
• Reasons For Shift
  • Jakarta is home to about 10 million people and extremely congested.
  • Jakarta is the world’s most rapidly sinking city and at the current rate, it is estimated that one-third of the city could be submerged by 2050.
    • Uncontrolled groundwater extraction and rising Java Sea due to climate change are considered main reasons for sinking.
  • It floods regularly and its streets are so clogged that it’s estimated congestion costs the economy $4.5 billion a year.
  • Jakarta’s air and water are heavily polluted. It is also prone to earthquakes.
• Issues
  • East Kalimantan is rich in flora and fauna. Moving the capital to East Kalimantan would lead to massive deforestation and put the habitat of animals and trees in danger and damage the ecosystem.
  • Relocation of Indigenous Balik people because of the construction,

• In salt flats across the globe, the salt on the surface forms pentagons and hexagons arranged in a patchwork pattern.
• These mesmerizing patterns have been captured in Bolivia, Chile, China, India (in the Rann of Kutch), Iran, Tunisia and even United States.
• Researchers are puzzled by these patterns of salt flats.
• Now a study conducted by researchers from Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom may have found an explanation for these patterns of salt flats.
  • The study began with the hypothesis that the salt on the surface is influenced by the salt flowing through the soil below.
  • Based on this, they found that the salt penetrated deeper into the soil exactly below the ridges and remained shallow under the flat areas. Due to this, salt on the surface forms pentagons and hexagons.

ABOUT SALT FLATS

• A salt flat is a natural landscape in which a large area of flat land is covered by salt.
• World’s most well-known salt flat is the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia contains more than half of the planet’s lithium reserves.
• A salt flat forms from a natural water body whose recharge rate is lower than the evaporation rate.
• The underlying soil is highly saline: even if the water table is shallow, the groundwater is too salty for humans to drink.
• To mitigate the deleterious effects of salt flats, experts have recommended covering salt flats in a shallow layer of water, so that the salt is deposited on the surface more uniformly and less salt is carried away by winds.

• Recently, Truth Hounds, which documents war crimes in the Ukraine conflict was awarded Norway’s Sakharov Freedom Award.
  • Truth Hounds is a Ukrainian rights group founded during the Maidan Revolution which led to the fall of pro-Russian former Ukranian president Viktor Yanukovych
• Sakharov Freedom Award is named after Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov.
• It was established in 1980 by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee with the support and consent of Andrei Sakharov to help people who, because of their opinions, beliefs, and conscience are persecuted or imprisoned.

• Indian scientists have identified better drug treatment for severe Scrub typhus.
• Combination therapy using both doxycycline and azithromycin is far more effective in treating severe scrub typhus than monotherapies of either drug by itself.

ABOUT SCRUB TYPHUS

• Scrub typhus, a life-threatening infection caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi bacteria — is a major public health threat in South and Southeast Asia.
  • Nearly one million cases are reported from South and Southeast Asia with 10% mortality.
  • India is one of the hotspots with at least 25% of the disease burden.
• Scrub typhus is a major public health threat because of the high mortality rate in patients with severe disease despite diagnosis and treatment.
• It is transmitted to humans by bites from tiny, infected larvae of mites.
• Only the larval stage of the mite requires a blood meal, which is usually from rodents.
• The infection does not cause typical symptoms, thus making correct and early diagnosis difficult.
• Also, awareness about infection and disease is very low despite the high disease burden and mortality rate.

• Recent studies on Himalayan glaciers show that the variability in retreat rate and mass balance in different sectors of the mountain range is primarily linked to topography and climate.
• However, variable retreat rates of glaciers and inadequate supporting field data make it challenging to develop a coherent picture of climate change impact.

FACTORS INFLUENCING GLACIAL DYNAMICS

• A research team studied two glaciers with different characteristics, the Pensilungpa Glacier (Ladakh) and the Durung-Drung Glacier, (Ladakh) for a comparative study of glacier fluctuations between 1971 and 2019.
• They quantitatively evaluated the influence of the debris cover on the loss of ice mass in summer and on the terminal recession of glaciers.
• Its study confirms that the glacier retreat rate is controlled by climate change and the topographic setting and morphology of the glacier.
• They also found that the thickness of the debris cover significantly alters the glacier response to climate forcing.
• Other factors such as snout geometry, glacier size, elevation range, slope, aspect, debris cover, as well as the presence of supra and proglacial lakes also influence the heterogeneous glacial dynamics.

ABOUT GLACIAL RETREAT

• Glacial retreat refers to the process of a glacier shrinking or receding in size over time due to a decrease in ice accumulation or an increase in ice melt.
• Causes: This can be caused by a number of factors, including rising global temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, or changes in the geography of the surrounding landscape.
• Impacts: As a glacier retreats, it can lead to a number of significant environmental impacts, including changes in water availability, alterations to local ecosystems, and increased risk of natural disasters such as floods and landslides.
• In addition, the loss of glacial ice can contribute to rising sea levels, which can have significant impacts on coastal communities and ecosystems around the world.