ANSWER: D

ANSWER: A

ANSWER: D

ANSWER: A

ANSWER: C

• Tamil Nadu will collaborate with Kerala to jointly count the population of Nilgiri Tahr.
• Tamil Nadu had launched Project Nilgiri Tahr last year for the conservation of the State animal.

ABOUT NILGIRI TAHR

• It is southern India’s only mountain ungulate.
• The animal is only found in select habitats in the two states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• It prefers montane grasslands, with steep and rocky terrains at an altitude between 300 and 2,600 metres above sea level.
• There are believed to be a little over 3,100 of the animals living in highly fragmented habitats in the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, ranging between the Nilgiris in the north and the Kanniyakumari hills in the south.
• Eravikulam National Park in Kerala is the biggest habitat of the animal followed by Anamalai Tiger Reserve.
• Threats – habitat threats in the form of the spread of invasive plants such as wattles, pines, and eucalyptus; Hunting; lumpy skin disease has also been observed in the animal etc.
• Protection status
  • IUCN red list status– Endangered
  • WPA 1972– Schedule 1

ANSWER: D

• Like the earth’s oceans at their shores, the universe’s galaxies also experience tides, but on a much larger scale.
• Galactic tides are caused by gravitational forces within a galaxy, arising in the interactions between celestial objects like stars and gas clouds.
• These tidal forces influence various aspects of a galaxy’s evolution. They can reshape a galaxy structure by creating tidal tails and bridges, promoting star formation, and disrupting smaller star systems.
• Over aeons, galactic tides also disrupt the orbits of stars, leading to long-term changes in galactic structure.
• Galactic tides also have a say in the ways in which proximate galaxies do and don’t interact.

• Galactic tides also affect the supermassive black holes at galaxy centres, leading to events that change the ways in which these cosmic beasts interact with nearby stars.
  • In fact, researchers have found that the tidal streams near edges of Andromeda Galaxy could be signatures of dwarf galaxies that were later devoured.

ANSWER: D

• World Environmental Health Day is celebrated annually on September 26^th to highlight the intricate relationship between humans and their environment.
• The International Federation of Environmental Health, in 2011, announced World Environmental Health Day to be celebrated every year on September 26.
• The theme for this year’s World Environmental Health Day is – Global Environmental Public Health: Standing up to protect everyone’s Health each and every day.

ANSWER: B

• The country’s first-ever lighthouse festival was observed in the state of Goa.
• It was organized by the Union Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways.
• It is part of a grand vision to transform 75 lighthouses across India into thriving tourist hubs.

ANSWER: C

• The Vidhan Sabha today passed the Himachal Pradesh Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill 2023 to enable the appointment of a judge of the High Court as Lokayukta.
• According to the Himachal Pradesh Lokayukta Act, earlier only the HC chief justice was eligible for appointment to the post.
• It is noteworthy that the state government had made a provision in the law to make other HC judges eligible for appointment to the post of Lokayukta way back in 2021.
  • Section 7 of the law had to be amended for the same.
• Going forward, in case a judge is appointed to the post of Lokayukta, they will be eligible to receive the salary and allowances corresponding to the post.

ANSWER: B

• Himachal Pradesh Government announced the setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) headed by a top police officer to investigate the rising cases of cryptocurrency fraud in the state.
• The SIT would be headed by DIG (Northern Range) Abhishek Dullar.
• Fifty-six complaints have been received in cyber police stations over the last two years.
  • Three cyber police stations had been set up in Shimla, Mandi and Kangra to check cryptocurrency crimes.