• Aravalli Green Wall Project is inspired by Africa’s Great Green Wall (GGW) programme, an initiative launched in 2007 in Sahel region bordering Africa’s Sahara Desert, to combat desertification and land degradation. GGW project aims to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.
• Green Wall Project is a major initiative to create green corridors in 5 km buffer area around Aravalli Hill Range in four states – Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Delhi.
• It’ll involve planting native species of trees and shrubs on scrubland, wasteland and degraded forest land, along with rejuvenating and restoring surface water- bodies such as ponds, lakes and streams.
• The project will also focus on agroforestry and pasture development to enhance the livelihoods of local communities.
• Objectives
  • Improving ecological health of Aravalli range.
  • Prevent eastward expansion of Thar Desert and reduce land degradation.
  • Increase carbon sequestration and mitigating climate change.
  • Promote sustainable development and livelihood opportunities by involving local communities.
  • Contribute to India’s commitments under various international conventions such as United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
  • Enhancing India’s image as a global leader in environmental protection and green development.

About Aravalli range

• Aravalli range extends from Gujarat to Delhi passing through Rajasthan and Haryana in a southwest-northeast direction.
• Highest peak – Guru Shikhar on Mount Abu.
• It is considered the oldest range of fold-mountains in India.
• It gives rise to several rivers, including the Banas, Luni and Sabarmati.

• Muskan, the youngest Zila Parishad (ZP) chairperson in Himachal Pradesh from Bilaspur, resigned from her post today.
• She had won the ZP elections as an Independent candidate at the age of 20 years three years ago and was later elected as chairperson with the support of the BJP.

• In 1965, Gordon Moore postulated that roughly every two years, the number of transistors on microchips will double.
• Commonly referred to as Moore’s Law, this phenomenon suggests that computational progress will become significantly faster, smaller, and more efficient over time.

• Operation Interflex is a part of United Kingdom’s (UK) commitment of £2.3 billion for military aid and support to Ukraine.
• Under it, UK and other countries including Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, and Netherlands are training Ukraine’s military.

• Marine biologists during routine monitoring of marine litter stumbled upon plastiglomerate (plastic rock) from a beach on Aves island of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Plastiglomerate is a rock composed of sand, rock fragments, shells and other materials held together by plastic.
  • It is a new form of plastic pollution, which scientists described in 2014.
  • This is the first such find from India.

• A statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda was unveiled at the State Assembly premises in Bengaluru.
• Hailing from dominant agricultural Vokkaliga community in Karnataka, Kempegowda was a chieftain under Vijayanagara Empire.
• He is known as founder of Bengaluru in 16th century and had developed around 1,000 lakes in city to cater to drinking and agricultural needs.
• He prohibited the custom of amputating last two fingers of left hand of unmarried women during “Bandi Devaru“.
• He was multilingual and had authored ‘Gangagaurivilasa’, a yakshagana play in Telugu.

• Ministry of Home Affairs has decided to further decrease the jurisdiction of “disturbed areas” under Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958 in Nagaland, Assam and Manipur.
• Earlier, AFSPA was completely withdrawn from Meghalaya in 2018, Tripura in 2015 and Mizoram in 1980s.
• Currently, AFSPA is in effect in Nagaland, Assam, Manipur and parts of Arunachal Pradesh.
• AFSPA grants special powers to armed forces to maintain public order in “disturbed areas”.
• Disturbed areas are declared under Section 3 of AFSPA Act, 1958 when a part or whole state/UT is in such a condition that the use of armed forces in aid of civil power is necessary.
• Disturbed areas are declared by Governor of state or administrator of Union Territory or by Central government.
• Under section 4 of Act, Armed forces can fire upon or arrest anyone who is acting against law & order in disturbed area after giving warning.
• Section 6 of the Act gives legal immunity to persons acting under Act.

• Chenab Railway Bridge, being claimed as world’s highest railway bridge by India, is expected to become operational by 2024.
• Bridge will allow trains to run along Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project, and will connect Jammu & Kashmir with the rest of India.
  • It’ll be 35 meters higher than Eiffel Tower in Paris.
• The 3 km long bridge has a design speed of 100 kmph for trains and a lifespan of 120 years.
• The bridge is designed to withstand high wind speed up to 266 Km/Hour, bear earthquake forces of highest intensity zone-V in India.

• A newly proposed ‘pellet-beam’ propulsion system could theoretically beam a heavy spacecraft to outside the confines of our Solar System in less than 5 years.
• The pellet-beam concept was partly inspired by the Breakthrough Starshot initiative, which is working on a ‘light-sail’ propulsion system.
• This system requires two spacecraft – one that sets off for interstellar space, and one that goes into orbit around Earth.
• The spacecraft orbiting Earth would shoot a beam of tiny microscopic particles at interstellar spacecraft.
• Those particles would be heated up by lasers, causing part of them to melt into plasma that accelerates the pellets further, a process known as laser ablation.
• Those pellets could reach 120 km/second(75 miles/second) and either hit the sail of the interstellar spacecraft or repel a magnet within it, helping to propel the spacecraft to huge speeds that would let it whizz out of our heliosphere – the bubble of the solar wind around our Solar System.
• This is new propulsion architecture for fast transit of heavy (1 ton and more) payloads across the Solar System and to the interstellar medium.

• Earth Hour was observed on March 25 this year.
• Earth Hour is an annual event that takes place on the last Saturday of March.
• Earth Hour, organized by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), is a global grassroots movement uniting people to take action on environmental issues and protect the planet.
  • The event was first introduced in Sydney, Australia, in 2007 by WWF and its partners as a symbolic lights-out event to raise awareness about climate change.
• It is held worldwide to encourage individuals, households, communities and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour as a symbol for their commitment to the planet.