Prelim Bits 05-01-2024 | UPSC Daily Current Affairs

Thanjavur Doll

Makers of the famed bobble-head and roly-poly dolls are facing stiff competition from electronic toys and e-commerce platforms, besides a severe labour crunch and shortage of clay.

• Introduced by - The craft was brought to Thanjavur by Maratha ruler Raja Serfoji in the early 19th Century.
• Types - Thanjavur dolls are primarily of two kinds, one is the bobble-head version, and the other is the tilting doll (roly-poly) version.
• The dancing girl, one variation of a bobble-head doll, once tapped on the head, bobs its head in response, which is due to the metal string that links the head of the doll to its stable base.
• Made of - The doll is made of terracotta, papier-mache (a mixture of paper, glue, flour and water), plaster of Paris and other materials.
• A mixture of vandal mann (fine silt deposited by rushing streams of water), kali mann (clayey riverbed mud), and manal (loose aggregate) is required to make the dolls’ pedestals.

Thanjavur doll earned GI tag in 2009.

• Fungicide - Copper sulphate powder is added as a fungicide.
• Making - All the dolls have a lightweight body made of tapioca flour, papier-mache and plaster of Paris cooked and kneaded to the consistency of ‘roti’ dough.
• Each toy is made in halves, by pressing the rolled-out ‘doll dough’ into cement moulds, with liberal dusting of chalk powder.
• Dancing doll - The dancer dolls have a heavier pedestal-shaped feet section made of clay.
• The dancing doll has four sections (including the arms that are individually glued to the torso), each balancing on the other with the help of inner metal loop hooks that create the light bobbing movement.

The dancing dolls are one of four papier-mâché handicrafts certified by the Tamil Nadu State government. The others are the two-piece moulded idols, multi-jointed figurines, and wall-hanging panels.

• Roly-poly - The roly-poly toys, on the other hand, use a bowl-shaped clay base (shaped with moulds) that ensures that the doll remains upright.
• Paint - Once assembled, the dolls are sandpapered and hand-painted, with watercolours for the dancing doll and oil paints for the others.

References

1. The Hindu – Thanjavur doll industry out of the doldrums
2. News 18 – Thayailatti Bommai might soon become a forgotten tale
3. The Indian Express – Thanjavur dolls

Mayurbhanj’s Red Ant Chutney

Mayurbhanj’s red ant chutney receives GI tag.

The Chutney

• Made with - The chutney is made with read weaver ants by the tribal people of Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district.
• Other name - It is also known by the name Similipal kai Chutney.
• Making - Red weaver ants are collected from the nests along with their eggs and cleaned.
• After that, the chutney is prepared by mixing and grinding salt, ginger, garlic and chillies.
• Characteristics - The hot chutney has a pungent and sour taste and is appetizing.
• The savoury chutney is popular in the region for its healing properties and also deemed important for nutritional security of the tribal people.
• Medicinal values - Consuming the species can help boost the immune system and prevent diseases.
• The tribal healers also prepare a medicinal oil in which they dip the ants along with pure mustard oil.
• After a month, this concoction is used as a body oil for babies and to cure rheumatism, gout, ringworm and other diseases by the tribes.

Red Weaver Ants

• Other name - Red weaver ants are also known as kai pimpudi.
• Found in - The red weaver ants are indigenous to Mayurbhanj and are found in abundance in the jungles of every block area of the district, including in the Similipal Tiger Reserve, throughout the year.
• Nests - The red weaver ants form colonies with multiple nests in trees.
• Each nest is made of leaves stitched together with the silk produced by their larvae.
• They mostly lodge in trees like mango, sal, jambu and jackfruit.
• The nests are strong enough against wind and impermeable to water.
• Kai’s nests are usually elliptical in shape and range in size from single small leaf folded and bound onto itself to large nest consisting of many leaves and measure over half a metre in length.
• Families - The Kai families consist of three categories of members, workers, major workers and queens.
• Workers and major workers are mostly orange coloured.
• Workers are 5-6 millimetres long, major workers are 8-10 mm long with strong legs and large mandibles and queens are 20-25 mm long and greenish brown coloured.
• Diet - They feed on small insects and other invertebrates like beetles, flies and hymenopterans.
• They do not sting but have a painful bite into which they can secrete irritant chemicals from their abdomens.
• Bio-control agents - They are also recognised as bio-control agents because they are aggressive and will prey on most arthropods entering their territory.
• They protect a variety of tropical crops against insect pests, acting as an alternative to chemical insecticides.
• Nutritional values - Red weaver ants are found to contain valuable proteins, calcium, zinc, vitamin B-12, iron, magnesium, potassium, sodium, copper, amino acids, among others.

References

1. Down To Earth – Mayurbhanj’s red ant chutney receives GI tag
2. The Hindu – Mayurbhanj’s superfood ‘ant chutney’
3. The Indian Express – Stinging Sensation

Geographical Indication (GI) Tag Products

Over 17 products from Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, and J&K bagged the coveted Geographical Indication tag.

GI Tags

• Geographical indications assign products to the place of its origin.
• It conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness for such goods.

A total 504 items from different parts of the country have had the tag so far since 2004.

• GI is defined under Article-23 and 24 of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

• India is a member of the WTO and thus enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act, 1999 that came into force from 2003.

Under Articles 1 (2) and 10 of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, geographical indications are covered as an element of Intellectual Property Rights.

• GI tagged products can be both Natural or Man-made.
• The GI Tag is valid for ten years.
• The essential difference between GI and other intellectual properties (IP) is that, GI is a collective intellectual property right.

The first product in India to be accorded with GI tag was Darjeeling Tea in the year 2004-05.

Recent GI Tagged Products

So far, six products from Arunachal Pradesh have received the GI certification.

With this, Bengal has a total of 27 GI tags to date.

With this, Odisha has received 25 GI tags to date.

References

1. The Hindu – GI tags for over 17 products
2. Times of India – Several products gets GI tag
3. Business Insider – Seven Odisha products to get GI tag
4. WIPO – Geographical Indications

Indian Landslide Susceptibility Map

IIT Delhi team makes first hi-res landslide risk map for India.

Landslide Susceptibility

• Landslide susceptibility is the likelihood of a landslide occurrence in an area depend on the terrain condition.
• It is an estimate of where landslides will have occurred.
• Relative susceptibility to land sliding is used as a measure of the potential hazard within an area.
• It is applicable to regions with different geomorphologic and vegetation characteristics.

National Landslide Susceptibility Mapping (NLSM) programme

• Geological Survey of India has launched and undertook a national programme on landslide susceptibility mapping with an aim to cover the 0.42 million sq. km landslide prone areas of the country.
• This national programme was formally launched in 2014.
• Objectives - To create a dynamic National Landslide Susceptibility Geodatabase for India.
• To prepare GIS based seamless Landslide Susceptibility Maps of India on 1:50,000 scale.
• To prepare a nation-wide repository on GIS-based Landslide Inventory.

The Map

• A landslide susceptibility map identifies areas which are subject to landslides and is measured from low to high.

Landslides are a unique and deadly problem in India and unlike floods, they are less widespread and harder to track and study with satellites.

• The landslide susceptibility map takes into account where the landslides occur and what causes them (slope, soil type and the impact of the flow of water in an area).

The Indian Landslide Susceptibility Map is the first of its kind by virtue of being on a national scale, leaving out no locations in the country.

• Process - Nearly 1.5 lakh landslide events were obtained via the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and other, global sources.
• GeoSadak, an online system that has data on the national road network in India, was particularly helpful in preparing the map, because it displayed data on roads even outside cities.

The fewer trees there are in a place, the closer it is to road-building activity, and the steeper the local slope, the more unstable the place will be and thus more prone to landslides.

• Applications - The map will help the policymakers to assess vulnerability and take appropriate measures for mitigation.
• The map is also expected to be useful for organisations involved in investigating and mitigating landslides, like the GSI, the Ministry of Mines, and the National Disaster Management Authority.
• High risk regions - The map acknowledged some well-known regions of high landslide susceptibility, like parts of the foothills of the Himalaya, the Assam-Meghalaya region, and the Western Ghats.
• It also revealed some previously unknown places with high risk, such as some areas of the Eastern Ghats, just north of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

A cartogram is called a thematic map in which a mapping variable, such as travel time, population, or GNP, is substituted for land area or distance.

References

1. The Hindu – IIT Delhi team makes landslide risk map for India
2. EOS – A landslide susceptibility map for India

Kadamba Inscription

10th century Kadamba inscription written in Kannada, Sanskrit found in Goa.

Kadamba Dynasty (345-535 C.E.)

• Extent - The Kadamba dynasty was an ancient Indian dynasty that ruled over parts of South India, particularly the present-day Karnataka region, from the 4th to the 6th centuries CE.
• Founder - The Kadamba dynasty is believed to have been founded by Mayurasharma, who was originally a feudatory of the Pallavas, a prominent dynasty of South India.
• Capital - The early capital of the Kadamba dynasty was Banavasi, located in present-day Karnataka.
• Later, the capital was shifted to Vaijayanti (modern-day Banavasi).
• End - The Kadamba kingdom came to an end with Pulakeshin II’s capture of Banavasi during the reign of Ajavarman.

• Kadambas of Goa - They were the subordinates of Chalukyas of Kalyana.
• Chalukyan emperor Tailapa II appointed Kadamba Shasthadeva as mahamandaleshwara of Goa for his help in overthrowing the Rashtrakutas.
• Kadamba Shasthadeva conquered the city of Chandavara from the Shilaharas in 960 A.D and later, he conquered the port of Gopakapattana (present Goa).
• Gundayya, the son of Talara Nevayya, may have participated in this battle, and won the port at the cost of his life.
• His father may have erected a memorial stone with the inscription in the temple of Mahadev of Cacoda to commemorate the heroic fight of his son.

The Inscription

• The inscription was discovered in the Mahadeva temple at Cacoda in southern Goa.
• It is in the literary style of Talangre inscription of Jayasimha I of the same period.
• Message - Talara Nevayya’s son Gundayya having taken a vow to fulfil his father’s desire of capturing a gopura of the port of Goa, fought and died after fulfilling his father’s wish.
• The record is composed as a vocal statement on the death of his son from the mouth of a lamenting father.

References

1. The Hindu – 10th century Kadamba inscription found in Goa
2. Times of India – 10th century Kadamba inscription found in Goa
3. Britannica – Kadamba Dynasty