• The forest department has identified 12 illegal, unauthorised or unrecognised resorts in SMTR.

ABOUT SRIVILLIPUTHUR MEGAMALAI TIGER RESERVE (SMTR)

• It is spread across the districts of Theni, Virudhunagar and Madurai in Tamil Nadu.
• It lies in the Western Ghats region.
• SMTR is the country’s 51^st and 5^th tiger reserve of Tamil Nadu.
  • Other 4 include Mudumalai, Anamalai, Sathyamangalam and Kalakkad Mundanthurai.
• SMTR was formed by combining Srivilliputhur Grizzled Giant Squirrel Sanctuary and Megamalai Wildlife Sanctuary.
• It functions as a connecting link between Kerala’s Periyar Tiger Reserve and Tamil Nadu’s Southern Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve.
• SMTR will provide protection to Megamalai, the Vaigai River’s primary catchment, in turn helping water levels to rise in the river.
• Vegetation is a blend of tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, dry deciduous and moist mixed deciduous woods, and grasslands.
• Fauna includes elephants, tiger, leopard, nilgiri tahr, gaur, spotted deer, barking deer, sambar deer, wild boar, porcupine, nilgiri langur, lion-tailed macaque.

• The Rajasthan Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill 2023 was tabled in state legislature recently.
• The Bill aims to provide entitlement-based social security to support the individuals or households with an additional minimum guaranteed income in the form of a guaranteed wage or social security pension.
• The government anticipates an additional expenditure of Rs 2,500 crore per year for this scheme, which may increase with time.

MAIN PROVISIONS OF THE BILL

• The Bill largely covers three broad areas: Right to Minimum Guaranteed Income, Right to Guaranteed Employment and Right to Guaranteed Social Security Pension.
  1. Each adult citizen of the state has been guaranteed a minimum income for 125 days a year through – The Rajasthan government’s flagship Indira Gandhi Shahri Rozgar Guarantee Yojana for urban areas, and MGNREGA in rural areas. In his budget speech this year, the CM had increased the employment guarantee per family from 100 days to 125 days for his urban employment scheme. The state will supplement the MGNREGA’s 100 days by providing jobs for an additional 25 days in rural areas.
  2. Guaranteed employment: The right to employment states that post the work in urban or rural employment schemes, the minimum wages should be paid weekly or in any case not later than a fortnight. The state will designate a program officer – not below the rank of Block Development Officer in rural areas and an Executive Officer of the local body in urban areas – to implement the Act.
     • Among other things, the Program Officer shall ensure that the work site is within a radius of 5 Kms of where the job card is registered in both rural and urban areas. If the Program Officer fails to provide employment within 15 days from the receipt of the application, the applicant shall be entitled to an unemployment allowance on a weekly basis and in any case not later than a fortnight.
  3. Guaranteed social security pension: Every person falling in the category of old age/ specially abled/ widow/ single woman with prescribed eligibility shall be entitled to a pension of Rs 1000/month.
     • It will increase over the base rate in two instalments – 5% in July and 10% in January of each financial year starting 2024-2025.

• 20^th July is observed as World Chess Day to commemorate the establishment of Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) or World Chess Federation in 1924.
• Under initiative of FIDE, July 20 has been observed as International Chess Day by chess players around the world since 1966.

• International Moon Day is observed every year on the 20^th of July, which marks the anniversary of the day on which astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin famously set foot on the Moon in 1969 as part of the Apollo 11 lunar mission.

• India is looking to strengthen its energy ties with Iraq with plans for an LNG terminal in the West Asian nation and ONGC Videsh resuming exploration in a block under force majeure since 2003.
• Iraq does not possess the technology to capture gas from its hydrocarbon blocks, which are burnt and released into the environment.
• Iraq is one of the biggest gas-flaring countries as it lacks facilities to capture and process the gas to convert it into fuels or export it as LNG.
• ‘‘Block 20’’, earlier known as Block 8, is a large on-land exploration block in the western desert of Iraq, spread over 10,500 sq km.
• OVL had acquired a 100 % stake in the block by signing the exploration and development contract in November 2000. However, force majeure was declared in 2003 amid security concerns.

ABOUT FORCE MAJEURE

• Force majeure means “greater force” in French.
• It refers to an extraordinary event rendering the legal obligations between two or more contractually bound parties impossible to fulfill.
• It is related to the concept of an act of God, an event for which no party can be held accountable.
• This type of event must be entirely beyond the parties’ reasonable control.
• Notable events include war, riots, criminal activity, epidemics, pandemics, and other unforeseeable events.
• Force majeure conflicts with the concept of “pacta sunt servanda,” a principle in international law that agreements must be kept and not wriggled out of.

• Ghaggar river has affected six districts of Haryana (Panchkula, Ambala, Kaithal, Fatehabad and Sirsa), four of Punjab (Mohali, Patiala, Sangrur and Mansa) and two (Hanumangarh and Sriganganagar) of Rajasthan with floods, this monsoon season.
• The Ghaggar and many of its tributaries originate in the Shivalik foothills of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh.
• Among these tributaries, the Kaushalya, Tangri, Markanda, Beghna and Sukhna rivers are the ones that merge into the Ghaggar.
• The encroachement of the catchment area has converted these perennial rivers into seasonal rivers.
• These are considered dead rivers but in this monsoon season they reclaimed their floodplains and caused heavy losses.
• The Ghaggar-Hakra River is an intermittent river in India and Pakistan that flows only during the monsoon season.
• The river is known as Ghaggar in India, before the Ottu barrage, and as the Hakra in Pakistan, downstream of the barrage.
• It eventually dries up in the Great Indian (Thar) Desert.

• America’s largest reptile sanctuary, The Phoenix Herpetological Society has requested a permit to import 6 gharials and 6 crocodiles from Madras Crocodile Bank Trust.

ABOUT GHARIAL

• Habitat- It is a fresh-water crocodile which lives in deep fast-flowing rivers.
• It has a very long and narrow snout.
• Globally Gharial is found only in India and Nepal.
• In India their major population occur in three tributaries of the Ganga River: the Chambal and the Girwa Rivers in India and the Rapti-Naryani River in Nepal.
• The Gharial reserves of India are located in three States – Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
• Protection status
  • IUCN red list: Critically endangered.
  • Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I
  • CITES: Appendix I

ABOUT MUGGER CROCODILE

• It is mainly restricted to the Indian subcontinent and is found in a number of freshwater habitat types and also in coastal saltwater lagoons and estuaries.
• It is already extinct in Bhutan and Myanmar.
• It is an egg-laying and hole-nesting species, known to be dangerous.
• Threats include habitat destruction, fragmentation, and transformation, fishing activities and use of crocodile parts for medicinal purposes.
• Protection Status:
  • IUCN red list: Vulnerable
  • CITES: Appendix I
  • Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule I

• A fusion of Rock Art has been found at Rudragiri Hillock in Andhra Pradesh.
• The site unveils a fascinating combination of prehistoric rock paintings from the Mesolithic period (Middle Stone Age) and exquisite artwork from the Kakatiya dynasty.
  • Mesolithic Period corresponds to period from 12,000 years ago till about 10,000 years ago.
• The site includes five naturally formed rock shelters that served as living quarters during the Mesolithic age, around 5000 B.C.
• The Kakatiya-era paintings display scenes from the epic Ramayana and are adorned with a variety of colours derived from white kaolin and different pigments.
• One of the caves depicts a fierce battle between the Vanara brothers Vali and Sugriva, with Rama shooting arrows at Vali.
• Another cave features a grand sketch of Hanuman carrying the Sanjivani hill in his right hand, symbolizing his mission to save Lakshmana’s life.

ABOUT KAKATIYA DYNASTY

• Kakatiyas was an Andhra dynasty that flourished in the 12th century CE.
• They ruled from Warangal from CE 1083-1323.
• Were known for the construction of a network of tanks for irrigation and drinking water purposes.
• There are hundreds of Hindu temples built under the patronage of Kakatiya kings like Ganapati Deva, Rudrama Devi and Prataparudra in the Kakatiya dynasty. For e.g Thousand Pillar Temple or Rudreshwara Swamy Temple. It is a star-shaped, shrine dedicated to Vishnu, Shiva and Surya.

• Shaheed Mangal Pandey’s birth anniversary was observed on July 19^th
• Often known as First freedom fighter of India, he was born in a town near Faizabad in eastern Uttar Pradesh.
• He joined the army of the British East India Company in 1849 and he was made a soldier (sepoy) in the 6th Company of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry.
• He revolted against East India Company in 1857 by attacking British officers at military garrison in Barrackpore.
• He was sentenced to death and executed on April 7, 1857, in Barrackpore.
• The revolt was considered as First War of Independence in India against Britishers.
• A postage stamp was issued in the year 1984 in honour of Shaheed Mangal Pandey by the Government of India for his important role in India’s freedom struggle.

• India recently participated in the first-ever Foreign Ministers’ meeting of BIMSTEC in Bangkok, Thailand.

ABOUT BIMSTEC

• BIMSTEC is a regional organisation that was established in 1997, with the signing of Bangkok Declaration.
• The Secretariat is located in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• Initially, it was established with four countries Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand as members.
  • Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan joined it subsequently.
• The BIMSTEC Charter was signed and adopted during the Fifth BIMSTEC Summit held in virtual format in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 30 March 2022.
• BIMSTEC also connects the ecologies of the Great Himalayas and the Bay of Bengal.
• There are 14 priority sectors that have been identified for BIMSTEC Cooperation-
  • Counter terrorism and transnational crime,
  • Transport & Communication,
  • Tourism,
  • Environment and Disaster Management,
  • Trade and Investment,
  • Cultural Cooperation,
  • Energy,
  • Agriculture,
  • Poverty Alleviation,
  • Technology,
  • Fisheries,
  • Public Health,
  • People-to-People contact
  • Climate Change.
• Each of the Member States leads in certain sectors.
  • India focuses on security, counter-terrorism and transnational crime, disaster management and energy.

SOME FACTS

• BIMSTEC grouping accounts for 22% of the world’s population.
• Combined GDP of $2.7 trillion
• Almost 25% of the world’s traded goods cross the Bay of Bengal annually.