Daily Current Affairs Quiz: December 02, 2023

ANSWER: D

ANSWER: C

ANSWER: C

ANSWER: A

• The tiger which had killed a woman at Balluruhundi close to Hediyala range of Bandipur National Park was darted and captured recently.
• A massive combing operation involving more than 200 forest department personnel and tribals from the local villages, was launched soon after the woman was killed.

ABOUT BANDIPUR TIGER RESERVE

• It is situated in two contiguous districts (Mysore and Chamarajanagar) of Karnataka and located at the tri-junction area of the States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
• When Project Tiger was launched in 1973, Bandipur was among the first nine reserves to be brought under the flagship programme ‘Project Tiger’ and it included most areas that were already a protected area as Venugopal Wildlife Park.
• It was upgraded to a national park and renamed as Bandipur and the adjacent reserve forests were included under it to extend its area to 874.20 sq km.
• At present, it has an area of 912.04 sq km while the adjoining Nugu Wildlife Sanctuary too has been incorporated under Bandipur, which is recognised as among the prime tiger habitats in the world.
• Flora comprises of diverse vegetation of dry deciduous to tropical mixed deciduous.
  • Species like rosewood, Indian kino tree, sandalwood, Indian laurel, clumping bamboo are found here etc.
• The Bandipur Tiger Reserve is an important component of the country’s first biosphere reserve – Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and the landscape spanning Bandipur, Nagarahole, Mudumalai, and Wayanad complex is home not only to the highest number of tigers in the country – about 724 – but is also to the largest Asian Elephant population.
  • Fauna also includes gaur, sloth bear, golden jackal, dhole and four-horned antelope etc.

ANSWER: B

• Rising sea temperatures due to climate change are causing tropical marine species to move from the equator towards the poles, according to a study.
• The research also shows that temperate species are receding as it gets too warm, they face increased competition for habitat, and new predators arrive on the scene.
• This mass movement of marine life, termed tropicalisation, is changing the ecological landscape of oceans and leading to a cascade of consequences for ecosystems, biodiversity, and potentially the global economy.
• The warm-water boundary currents are heating faster than the global seawater average, facilitating the poleward movement of species, and reinforcing the retraction of temperate species.
• The first instance of this process was identified in the Mediterranean Sea, now considered a “tropicalisation hotspot” due to an increase in tropical species present.

ANSWER: C

• Astronomers at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) have used the Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT) in Hanle, Ladakh, to photograph the Comet P12/Pons-Brooks.

• According to IIA, this comet has revealed many outbursts of gas and dust and has been dubbed the Devil Comet or the Millennium Falcon due to its appearance.
  • The comet will become brighter in the coming months and may even become a naked eye comet.
• Comet P12/Pons-Brooks was discovered in 1812 and orbits the Sun with a period of 71 years.
• During its earlier approaches to the Sun, astronomers had observed multiple ejections of gas and dust from its nucleus, which typically gave it an appearance of being horned.
• This comet will pass closest to the Sun on April 21, 2024, and will have its closest approach to Earth on June 2, 2024 (when it will be 1.5 times the Earth-Sun distance away from us).
  • It is expected that this comet will be easily seen with small telescopes or binoculars, or even with the naked eye at that time.

ANSWER: B

• A diplomatic row sparked between Greece and the UK after British Prime Minister cancelled a meeting with his Greek counterpart over the status of the Parthenon Sculptures housed at the British Museum.

ABOUT PARTHENON SCULPTURES

• The Parthenon Sculptures at the British Museum are more than 30 ancient stone sculptures from Greece that are more than 2,000 years old.
• Most of them originally adorned the walls and grounds of the Parthenon temple on the rocky Acropolis hill in Athens.
• Completed in 432 BC, the temple is dedicated to the goddess Athena and is seen as the crowning glory of Athens’ Golden Age.
• While one notable sculpture, which is 75 metres long, depicts a procession for the birthday of Athena, others show gods, heroes or mythical creatures.
• They were removed from the Parthenon in the early 19th century by Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin and then-British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
  • The marbles were taken to Britain and purchased by the British Museum in 1816.
  • While Athens accused Lord Elgin of theft, he insisted he had permission to remove the marbles from the Ottoman Empire, which used to control Athen at the time.
  • The original letter giving him permission, however, has been lost.
• Athens has been demanding the return of the sculptures since it became independent in the early 1830s.

ANSWER: A

• The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is observed annually on December 2^nd.
• It marks the date of the adoption, by the General Assembly, of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others in 1949.
• The focus of this day is on eradicating contemporary forms of slavery, such as trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, the worst forms of child labour, forced marriage, and the forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.
• The theme for this year’s International Day for the Abolition of Slavery is – Fighting slavery’s legacy of racism through transformative education.

ANSWER: D

• Former United States secretary of state Henry Kissinger passed away at the age of 100.
• Kissinger had a significant effect on US foreign policy and external affairs and he served under two presidents — Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford — between 1969 and 1977.
• Kissinger had also won a controversial Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating America’s exit from Vietnam war, which led to the resignations of two Nobel committee members and inquiries into the US’ secret bombing of Cambodia.
• In 1971 war for liberation of Bangladesh, Kissinger supported Pakistan against India.
• He successfully reestablished diplomatic relations between the United States and China.