Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

India, being a tropical country, has a significant edge in green hydrogen production due to its favourable geographical conditions and abundant natural resources. Therefore, at the recently held World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, India said it will emerge as the leader of green hydrogen by taking advantage of the current energy crisis across the globe.

Efforts in this regard:

• The Centre has released guidelines on the National Hydrogen Mission which aims to increase production to 5 million metric tonnes (MMT) by 2030 to meet about 40 percent of domestic requirements.
• The centre is considering a proposal to introduce a Rs 15,000-crore Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for electrolysers.
• In February, the centre notified a green hydrogen and green ammonia policy that offers 25 years of free power for any new renewable energy plants set up for green hydrogen production before July 2025.
• The government is also planning to introduce mandates requiring that the oil refining, fertiliser and steel sectors procure green hydrogen for a certain proportion of their requirements.

What is Green Hydrogen? 

Hydrogen when produced by electrolysis using renewable energy is known as Green Hydrogen which has no carbon  footprint.

 Significance of Green Hydrogen:

• Green hydrogen energy is vital for India to meet its Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) Targets and ensure regional and national energy security, access and availability.
• Green Hydrogen can act as an energy storage option, which would be essential to meet intermittencies (of renewable energy) in the future.
• In terms of mobility, for long distance mobilisations for either urban freight movement within cities and states or for passengers, Green Hydrogen can be used in railways, large ships, buses or trucks, etc.

Applications of Green Hydrogen

• Green Chemicals like ammonia and methanol can directly be utilized in existing applications like fertilizers, mobility, power, chemicals, shipping etc.
• Green Hydrogen blending up to 10% may be adopted in CGD networks to gain widespread acceptance.

Benefits

• It is a clean-burning molecule, which can decarbonize a range of sectors including iron and steel, chemicals, and transportation.
• Renewable energy that cannot be stored or used by the grid can be channelled to produce hydrogen.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

• The Union government has made capturing of attendance through its app,National Mobile Monitoring System, compulsory at worksites where 20 or more workers are employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
• The decision comes despite many problems, including patchy Internet connectivity in rural areas and little or no technical support.
• The Rural Development Ministry had started the exercise on a pilot basis on May 21 last year. Initially, the utilisation of application was to be voluntary, but from May 16 this year, it has been made mandatory.
• The Ministry’s directive claims that the app, which requires two time-stamped and geotagged photographs of the workers in a day, encourages transparency and increases citizen oversight.

Women drop out

• Women employees, especially the supervisors or “work mates”, have faced the biggest setback from the move.
• In a majority of cases, the employees’ families are averse to giving phones to women, especially smartphones. Hence, many women have dropped out.
• In the past one year, the Union government has resolved some critical issues. Under the MGNREG Act, the workers can do time-bound or task-based work.
• The guidelines required uploading of geotagged and time-stamped photographs of the workers around 11 a.m. and another one after 2 p.m.
• For task-based work, the workers had to stay back after 2 p.m. even if they had completed their work in order to take the photograph to be eligible for the wages.

MGNREGA Scheme:

• The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, earlier known as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was passed in 2005 to augment employment generation and social security in India.
• The scheme is a demand-driven wage employment scheme, which functions under the Ministry of Rural Development.
• Every adult member of a household in a rural area with a job card is eligible for a job under the scheme.
• The scheme envisages providing 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to adult member volunteers for unskilled manual work.
• There is also a provision for additional 50 days of unskilled wage employment in drought/natural calamity notified rural areas.
• As per Section 3(4) of the MGNREGA, the States may make provisions for providing additional days beyond the period guaranteed under the Act from their own funds.
• At least one-third of beneficiaries have to be women.
• Wages must be paid according to the statutory minimum wages specified for agricultural labourers in the state under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

 Context:

• Kerala government has empowered local bodies to cull wild boars that pose a threat to agriculture crops or human life.
• The secretaries of the local bodies concerned will act as the delegated officers.

Local Bodies:

• Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI) was constitutionalized through the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 to build democracy at the grassroots level
• This act has added a new Part-IX to the Constitution of India.
• This part is entitled as ‘The Panchayats’ and consists of provisions from Articles 243 to 243 O.
• 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act added a new Eleventh Schedule to the Constitution. This schedule contains 29 functional items of the panchayats. It deals with Article 243-G.

Urban Local Governments:

• There are eight types of urban local governments in India – Municipal Corporation, Municipality, Notified Area Committee, Town Area Committee, Cantonment Board, township, port trust, special purpose agency.
• At the Central level the subject of ‘urban local government’ is dealt with by the following three Ministries:

1. The Ministry of Urban Development was created as a separate ministry in 1985 (now Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs).
2. Ministry of Defense in the case of cantonment boards.
3. Ministry of Home Affairs in the case of Union Territories.

• 74th Amendment Act of 1992 added Part IX -A and consists of provisions from articles 243-P to 243-ZG.
• It added the 12th Schedule to the Constitution. It contains 18 functional items of Municipalities and deals with Article 243 W.

Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972:

• The Act was enacted for the protection of plants and animal species.
• It extends to the whole of India. Prior to this legislation, India had only five designated national parks.
• The Central Government appoints the Director of Wildlife Preservation and assistant directors and other officers subordinate to the Director.
• The State Governments appoint a Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) who heads the Wildlife Wing of the department and exercises complete administrative control over Protected Areas (PAs) within a state.
• The state governments are also entitled to appoint Wildlife Wardens in each district.

Prohibition of hunting:

1. It prohibits the hunting of any wild animal specified in Schedules I, II, III and IV of the act.
2. Exception: A wild animal listed under these schedules can be hunted/ killed only after getting permission from the Chief Wildlife Warden (CWLW) of the state if:

It becomes dangerous to human life or to property (including standing crops on any land.

It is disabled or suffering from a disease that is beyond recovery.

• It prohibits the uprooting, damage, collection, possession or selling of any specified plant from any forest land or any protected area.

1. Exception: The CWLW, however, may grant permission for uprooting or collecting a specific plant for the purpose of education, scientific research, preservation in a herbarium or if a person/institution is approved to do so by the central government.

• The government can declare an area (including an area within a sanctuary) as a National Park. A Collector is appointed by the central government to administer the area declared as a Sanctuary.
• Under Section 62 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, States can send a list of wild animals to the Centre requesting it to declare them vermin for selective slaughter.

Wild boar:

• Also known as the wild swine
• The species is now one of the widest-ranging mammals in the world, as well as the most widespread suiform.
• IUCN Red List- least concern
• It has become an invasive species in part of its introduced range.
• Indian boar, also known as the Andamanese pig or Moupin pig, is a subspecies of wild boar native to India.
• They can also be spotted in some of the National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuary such as Sariska Tiger Reserve, Bandhavgarh National Park, Corbett National Park and Ranthambore National Park.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

The GOI has notified that sugar exports will be restricted, or allowed only with permission. The government decided to “restrict” the export of sugar, effective from June 1

What are the latest curbs?

• The government has moved export of sugar from the ‘open category’, which requires no government intervention, to ‘restricted’ category.
• This means that export of sugar is allowed only with specific permission from the Directorate of Sugar, Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.

Why the curbs now?

• The curbs, the first such move in four years, have been ordered to maintain “domestic availability and price stability of sugar”
• During the festival period of October and November, the demand for sugar increases and therefore, the Centre is committed to ensure availability of sugar for the lean period
• Also the global situation reflects a shortage of sugar, especially due to lower production in Brazil.
• This may trigger the demand globally and so as to safeguard domestic availability and interests, government issued an order to maintain domestic availability and price stability of sugar in the country during sugar season 2021-22.

Exports

Increase in exports

• Increase in export is because of the fact that Brazil produced more ethanol than sugar given the exceptional rise in fuel prices.
• This, and drought hitting other big sugar producers like Thailand helped India venture in countries which otherwise were dependent on Brazilian sugar.
• India is the second largest sugar producer in the world after Brazil. However, Brazil has always led in terms of exports.

Sugarcane

Climate

• Sugarcane is predominantly a tropical crop. It requires hot (21°-27°C) and humid (75- 150 cm) climate.
• Sugar beet (tuber crop) is the temperate alternative for sugarcane. It requires 10 to 18 months to mature depending upon the geographical conditions.
• Too heavy rainfall results in low sugar content & deficiency in rainfall produces fibrous crop.
• Temperature above 20°C combined with open sky in the second half of the crop season helps in acquiring juice and its thickening.
• Short cool dry winter season during ripening and harvesting is ideal.
• Frost is detrimental to sugarcane. It must be harvested before frost season in northern parts where frost is a common phenomenon.
• On the other hand, hot dry winds like “Loo” are hostile to sugarcane. Both frost and loo are absent in South India. So south is ideal for sugarcane cultivation.
• Coastal plains and western side of Western Ghats are generally avoided as the gusty winds (monsoon winds) damage the crop.

Soil

• Sugarcane can tolerate any kind of soil that can retain moisture.

Manual labour

• Cheap abundant labor is a prerequisite for successful cultivation of sugarcane

Production

• India has the largest area under sugarcane cultivation in the world.
• But in production India lags behind Brazil – world’s largest producer of sugarcane
• Top Sugarcane Producing States: Uttar Pradesh > Maharashtra > Karnataka > Tamil Nadu > Bihar.

Sugarcane Pricing: Sugarcane prices are determined by:

1. Central Government: Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP)

• The Central Government announces Fair and Remunerative Prices which are determined on the recommendation of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) and announced by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)
• The FRP is based on the Rangarajan Committee report on reorganizing the sugarcane industry.

1. State Government: State Advised Prices (SAP)

• The SAP are announced by the Governments of key sugarcane producing states.
• SAP is generally higher than FRP.

Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP)

• The Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) is an attached office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India.
• The CACP is an expert body that recommends the MSPs of the notified Kharif and Rabi crops to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
• However, its suggestions are not binding on the Government.

Composition

The CACP is currently composed of five people. It consists of:

• A Chairman
• Member Secretary
• One Official Member
• Two Non-Official Members
• The two non-official members are usually representatives of the farming community and have an active association with the farming community.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to initiate graded action against more than 2,100 Registered Unrecognized Political Parties (RUPPs) for noncompliance of statutory requirements under the Representation of the People (RP) Act.

Election Commission of India (ECI):

• The Election Commission of India is an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering Union and State election processes in India.
• It administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, and State Legislative Assemblies in India, and the offices of the President and Vice President in the country.
• Part XV of the Indian constitution deals with elections, and establishes a commission for these matters.
• Article 324 to 329 of the constitution deals with powers, function, tenure, eligibility, etc of the commission and the members.
• It consists of one Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners appointed by the President.
• They have a fixed tenure of six years, or up to the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.
• They enjoy the same status and receive salary and perks as available to Judges of the Supreme Court of India.
• The Chief Election Commissioner can be removed from office only through a process of removal similar to that of a Supreme Court judge by Parliament.
• It grants recognition to political parties & allot election symbols to them along with settling disputes related to it.
• The Commission also has advisory jurisdiction in the matter of post-election disqualification of sitting members of Parliament and State Legislatures.
• It issues the Model Code of Conduct in election for political parties and candidates so that no one indulges in unfair practice or there is no arbitrary abuse of powers by those in power.
• It sets limits of campaign expenditure per candidate to all the political parties, and also monitors the same.

Registered Unrecognized Political Parties:

• Either newly registered parties or those which have not secured enough percentage of votes in the assembly or general elections to become a state party, or those which have never contested elections since being registered are considered unrecognized parties.
• They do not enjoy all the benefits extended to the recognised parties.

Recognised Political Party:

• A recognised political party shall either be a National party or a State party if it meets certain laid down conditions.
• To become a recognised political party: 

State Party – The registered party has to satisfy any of the 5 conditions:

1. Secure at least 6% of the valid vote & win at least 2 seats in an Assembly General Election
2. Secure at least 6% of the valid vote & win at least 1 seats in a Lok Sabha General Election
3. Win at least 3% of the seats or at least 3 seats, whichever is more, in an Assembly General Election
4. Win at least 1 out of every 25 seats from a state in a Lok Sabha General Election
5. Secure at least 8% of the total valid vote in an Assembly or a Lok Sabha General Election

• National Party – The registered party has to satisfy any of the 3 conditions.

1. Secure at least 6% of the valid vote in an Assembly or a Lok Sabha General Election in any four or more states and won at least 4 seats in a Lok Sabha General Election from any State or States
2. Win at least 2% of the total Lok Sabha seats in a Lok Sabha General Election and these seats have to be won from at least 3 states
3. The party is recognized as a State Party in at least four states

• The recognition granted by the Commission to the parties determines their right to certain privileges like allocation of the party symbols, provision of time for political broadcasts on the state-owned television and radio stations and access to electoral rolls.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

The Ministry of Education released its National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021 report

• The objective of NAS 2021 is to evaluate children’s progress and learning competencies as an indicator of the efficiency of the education system, so as to take appropriate steps for remedial actions at different levels
• The survey assesses the health of the school education system in the country through a survey of children’s learning competencies at Classes 3, 5, 8 and 10.
• The survey is conducted every three years, and the last one was held in 2017.
• Nearly 34 lakh students of 1.18 lakh schools in 720 districts from government, government-aided and private-unaided schools participated in the exercise.
• The survey was conducted via an OMR (optical mark recognition)-based achievement test comprising multiple-choice questions along with questionnaires in 22 different languages.
• This nationwide survey was administered by the Central Board of Secondary Education in one single day at the same time.

Key Findings

• A DEEP learning crisis has set in during the Covid pandemic; there is fall of up to nine percentage points between 2017 and 2021 in the performance of students in subjects ranging from maths to social sciences
• The dip has happened across subjects, and grades.
• It is also found that as many as 24 per cent of the students surveyed did not have access to digital devices at home, 38 per cent said they faced difficulty carrying out learning activities at home during the pandemic, while 80 per cent said they learn better at school with the help of peers.
• It found that out of a score of 500, students across various classes performed better in languages but lagged behind in subjects like mathematics and science.
• It also shows that across various subjects and classes, SC, ST and OBC students performed worse than general category students.
• For instance, while general category students in Class 8 scored an average of 260 marks in mathematics, SC students scored 249 marks, ST scored 244 marks and OBCs scored 253 marks

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 1

International Labour Organisation (ILO) released a document “Inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) persons in the world of work”

Recommendations

• Report recommended member countries, employers’ organisations and representatives of workers to launch social protection programmes to remove barriers that LGBTIQ+ persons face in society
• The ILO document said discrimination has an economic cost not just to LGBTIQ+ persons and their families but also to enterprises and national economies.
• The ILO added that around the world, LGBTIQ+ persons face harassment, violence and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.
• It said a national policy and labour law review will allow governments to assess their country’s work policy environment for LGBTIQ+ persons – This will allow the identification of concrete steps for improving the legal and policy environment, ending discrimination and exclusions, and complying with international instruments
• The ILO said consultation with LGBTIQ+ communities and social dialogue with employers’ and workers’ organisations are key – This will allow the identification of barriers faced by LGBTIQ+ persons when entering the labour market and accessing government schemes
• Studies have shown that diversity in the workplace, including LGBTIQ+ persons, is better for business.
• It signals a creative environment that creates the right conditions for economic growth

Challenges Faced by LGBTIQ+ Community

• Family: The problem of sexual orientation and gender identity leads to fighting and family disruption.
• Lack of communication and misunderstanding between parents and their LGBTQ children increases family conflict.
• Discrimination at Work Place: LGBTQ suffers from the socio-economic inequalities in large part due to discrimination in the workplace.
• Health Issues: Criminalisation of homosexuality leads to discrimination and results in LGBTQ people getting poor or inadequate access to services within the health system.
• Drug Abuse: They gradually develop low self-esteem and low self-confidence and become isolated from friends and family.
• These people mostly get addicted to drugs and alcohol

Status of LGBTIQ+ Rights in India

• National Legal Services Authority Vs. Union of India (2014): The SC observed that “recognition of transgenders as a third gender is not a social or medical issue, but a human rights issue”.
• Navtej Singh Johar vs. Union Of India (2018): The SC decriminalised homosexuality by striking off parts of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which were held violative of Fundamental Rights of LGBTQ Community.
• The SC held that Article 14 of the Constitution guarantees equality before law and this applies to all classes of citizens therby restoring ‘inclusiveness’ of LGBTQ Community.
• Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019:
• The Parliament has enacted the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, to prohibit discrimination against Transgender persons
• Same Sex Marraiges: In Shafin Jahan v. Asokan K.M. and others (2018) case, the SC observed that choice of a partner is a person’s fundamental right and it can be a same-sex partner.
• However, in February, 2021, the Central Government opposed same-sex marriage in Delhi High Court stating that a marriage in India can be recognised only if it is between a “biological man” and a “biological woman” capable of producing children.

Way Forward

It is time to recognize the rights of LGBTIQ+ community through anti-discrimination law that empowers them to build productive lives and relationships irrespective of gender identity or sexual orientation and place the onus to change on state and society and not the individual.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

A leak of thousands of photos and official documents from China’s Xinjiang has shed new light on the violent methods used to enforce mass internment in the region

• The files were published as UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet begins a long-awaited and controversial trip to Xinjiang.
• Documents support the claim that Chinese authorities have detained more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in a network of detention centres and prisons in the region, which Beijing has defended as training centers
• After initially denying their existence, Beijing has claimed the facilities are vocational training schools, attended voluntarily and aimed at stamping out religious extremism.
• China’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the leaked documents as “cobbled-together material” by “anti-China forces smearing Xinjiang”

Uighur Muslims:

• The Uighurs are a predominantly Muslim minority Turkic ethnic group, whose origins can be traced to Central and East Asia.
• The Uighurs speaks their own language, similar to Turkish, and sees themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations.
• The Uighurs are considered to be one of the 55 officially recognized ethnic minority communities in China.
• However, China recognises the community only as a regional minority and rejects that they are an indigenous group.
• Currently, the largest population of the Uighur ethnic community lives in Xinjiang region of China.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 2

• The fourth Quad summit was held in Japan
• There were divergences among the leaders of Australia, India, Japan and US on the war in Europe(Ukraine crisis) but unanimity in their response to China’s belligerence as they strongly opposed “any coercive, provocative or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo” in the Indo-Pacific.
• While Washington and Tokyo were vocal in their criticism of Moscow in their public statements — India and Australia did not do so in their opening statements at the summit.
• Apart from the Ukraine crisis, the leaders also took note of the post-coup crackdown in Myanmar called for the release of “all political detainees, including foreigners” and called for “swift restoration of democracy”.
• The summit condemned “unequivocally terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations” and condemned the 26/11 Mumbai and 2016 Pathankot attacks.

 The event witnessed the launch of several initiatives

• Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA)
• The leaders of the Quad countries announced the formation of the Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) which will build a “faster, wider, and more accurate maritime picture of near-real-time activities in partners’ waters.”
• The IPMDA is said to be a satellite-based maritime security system aiming for a “fundamental requirement for peace, stability, and prosperity” in the Indo-Pacific region.
• The initiative will integrate three critical regions of the Pacific Islands – Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean region – and allow tracking of “dark shipping” and other “tactical activities”.
• “Dark ships” are vessels with their Automatic Identification System (AIS) – a transponder system – switched off so as not to be detectable.
• The new maritime initiative will enable these countries to monitor illegal fishing even when the boats have turned off the transponders which are typically used to track vessels.
• The maritime system will also improve the partners’ ability to respond to climate and humanitarian events and protect their fisheries – a vital need for many Indo-Pacific economies.
• Quad Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Package (Q-CHAMP)
• The members also launched the “Quad Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Package (Q-CHAMP) with “mitigation” and “adaptation” as its two pillars.
• The initiative will help green shipping and foster the idea of a “shared green corridor”
• Quad Partnership on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR)
• As part of the plan to increase the humanitarian footprint in the region, the leaders announced the establishment of the Quad Partnership on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) in the Indo-Pacific region.
• The grouping also decided to enhance sharing of data as part of the “Quad Satellite Data Portal” that will enhance cooperation among the satellites of the member countries.
• The Tokyo summit witnessed the launch of the Quad Fellowship which will intensify people-to-people contact and foster academic exchanges. Under the scheme, 100 students from the member countries will travel to the US each year to pursue graduate studies in STEM fields.

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Money Spider, ant-mimicking spider discovered at Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary

Money Spider

• Money spiders, commonly found in European meadows, have been reported for the first time in the country from the Muthanga range of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary
• The species is called so as it is “believed to bring luck” to the person who comes in contact with it.
• The spider belongs to the family of dwarf spiders (Linyphiidae) under the genus Prosoponoides.
• It has been given the name Prosoponoides biflectogynus.
• Only six species of spiders belonging to this genus have been identified from across the world so far.
• It is the first report of this genus from India and hence no extensive studies have been conducted on this species of spiders in the country
• The male and the female money spiders are typically 3 mm and 4 mm long respectively.
• Both sexes are dark brown and have irregular silver patches and black spots on elliptical abdomen.
• There are numerous fine black spines on their olive green legs.
• Eight dark eyes are arranged in two rows
• Females build triangular webs in between dry tree twigs and feed on small insects, while males prefer to hide beneath dry leaves.
• Two or more male spiders can be found in the web of a single female.

Ant-mimicking spiders

• Research team also discovered ant-mimicking spiders, belonging to the group of jumping spiders, from the Mananthavady range.
• They belong to the family of Salticidae.
• The ant-mimicking spider has been named Toxeus alboclavus
• They perfectly mimic ants by lifting their front pair of legs while walking as a mechanism to escape from potential predators.
• Only three species of this genus have been reported from India, and this is the first species reported from the Western Ghats
• The male and the female spiders of this species grow up to 4 mm and 6 mm long respectively.
• A pair of white stripes on the dark brown abdomen of females makes them distinct from other spiders of this group.
• The male of the species are characterized by a brown cephalic region and black thorax with white hairs.
• The forward-projecting fangs have a characteristic shape of an antler.
• Long spines are present on the base of each leg.

Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS)

• Located in Kerala, WWS is an integral part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. It was established in 1973.
• Spread over 344.44 sq km, Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary is contiguous to the tiger reserves of Nagerhole and Bandipur of Karnataka and Mudumalai of Tamil Nadu.
• Kabini river (a tributary of Cauvery river) flows through the sanctuary.
• The forest types include South Indian Moist Deciduous forests, West coast semi-evergreen forests and plantations of teak, eucalyptus and Grewelia.
• Elephant, Gaur, Tiger, Panther,Sambar, Spotted deer, Barking deer, Wild boar, Sloth bear, Nilgiri langur, Bonnet macaque, Common langur, Wild dog, common otter, Malabar giant squirrel etc are the major mammals.
• Other wildlife parks within the Reserve (Nilgiri Biosphere) are: Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary, Bandipur National Park, Nagarhole National Park, Mukurthi National Park and Silent Valley.