Prelim Bits 26-12-2023 | UPSC Daily Current Affairs

Airgun Surrender Abhiyan

Recently, Airgun Surrender Abhiyan was selected as a model wildlife conservation programme by UNESCO.

• An initiative to get local residents involved in environmental management and wildlife protection.
• Launched in – 2021.
• Launched by – Arunachal Pradesh.
• Aim – To discourage hunting and raise awareness about the detrimental effects of wildlife killing.
• To encourage the voluntary surrender of airguns and licensed guns to check their use in hunting birds and other wildlife.
• Collaborations - With local communities, administrative departments, NGOs, and community-based organisations.

Lumdung was declared as 1^st Airgun free village of Arunachal Pradesh, where 46 air guns were surrendered.

• Activities – Awareness campaign to maintain the tradition of hunting in the old style without guns and educating about the role of birds and animals in pollination and in creating forests.

In Arunachal Pradesh, hunting is a tradition for many among the 140 tribes and sub-tribes across the 83,743 sq. km with about 80% forest cover.

• Increased push for poultry, piggery and other farm initiatives to provide alternative to bush meat.
• People’s participation – People began organising airgun surrender ceremonies locally.
  • In Pasighat area of Arunachal, some villagers shunned airguns after realising pests had taken over their paddy fields because the birds, their nemesis, had been hunted out.
• Recognition – ‘Conservation Award’ at the 6^th North East Green Summit of Forest Ministers of North East held in Assam in 2021.
• Outcome – A total of 2,467 airguns, 9 double-barrel shotguns and 0.22 rifles, and 13 power chainsaws have been surrendered.

References

1. The Hindu| UNESCO’s recognition to Airgun Surrender Abhiyan
2. The Economic Times| Airgun Surrender Abhiyan

Red Sea & Bab-el-Mandeb

Houthi attacks on tankers passing through the Bab-el-Mandeb has disrupted one of the busiest global shipping lanes, dragging the U.S. deeper into the conflict.

• Red Sea – A narrow strip of water extending for about 1,200 miles.
• Geography – It extends between the Mediterranean Sea, to the north-west, and the Indian Ocean, to the south-east.
  • In north, it separates into the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez and in south, it is connected to the Gulf of Aden, and the outer Indian Ocean, via the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb.
• 6 bordering countries – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti.
• Physiography – It lies in a fault depression that separates 2 great blocks, Arabia and North Africa and its height can reach more than 6,560 feet above sea level, with the highest in the south.
• Higher salinity – It has high evaporation, low precipitation and has no major freshwater inflow.
• Resources – It is high in nutrient, planktons and also has 5 major types of mineral resources (petroleum deposits, evaporite deposits, sulfur, phosphates, and the heavy-metal deposits).
• Sea Route – It is a part of an important trade route connecting Europe to Asia (through Suez Canal).

Bab-el-Mandeb

• It is a strait that separates the Arabian Peninsula from East Africa and is just 29-km wide at its narrowest point.
• It is a strategically important strait.
• Control – Throughout 19th and until mid-20th century, Britain protected it through the island of Perim (Mayyum) in the Strait but in 1990, it came under the control of Sana’a, the capital of the united country of Yemen.
• As Houthis captured Sana’a in 2015, they pose a greater threat due to their close proximity to Bab el-Mandeb strait.

It is also know by the names Gateway of Tears and Gatway of Grief.

Reference

The Hindu| Bab-el-Mandeb, A strategic choke point

Information Fusion Centre for Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR)

Recently, IFC-IOR marked its 5th anniversary and it also played key role in the backend in tackling vessel hijacking episode near Gulf of Aden.

• Established by – The government of India at Gurugram in 2018 and is hosted by the Indian Navy.

IFC-IOR is located within the premises of the Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC), the nodal agency for maritime data fusion.

• Tagline – Collaboration for Safety and Security.
• Aims – To strengthen maritime security in Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and beyond by acting as a maritime security information sharing hub for the region.
• Vision – To advance maritime safety through information sharing, cooperation and expertise development.
• Mission – To be a nodal centre of excellence for promoting maritime safety towards a peaceful, stable and prosperous IOR.
• Maritime domain – Piracy & Armed Robbery, Contraband Smuggling, IUU Fishing, Irregular Human Migration and other maritime incidents.
• Reports - Weekly, Half-Yearly, Annual, Weather Forecast and others.
• Collaboration – 43 organisations, 25 partner countries and 12 International Liaison Officers (ILO), now gearing up for expansion to eventually host 40 ILO.
• 67 linkages – It includes International Maritime Organisation (IMO), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA).
• Events – Regional Maritime Practitioner Programme (RMPP), Maritime Security Info-sharing Exercise (MARISX) and Shared Awareness Meeting (SAM).

The 3 major hotspots for piracy and armed robbery are South East Asia, Gulf of Guinea and Horn of Africa. There was a rise in numbers in South East Asia while there was a rise in intensity in the Gulf of Guinea.

References

1. The Hindu| Role of IFC-IOR in tackling vessel hijack
2. Indian Navy| IFC-IOR

Gyrocopters

Uttarakhand is all set to launch India's first-ever gyrocopter safari by the year's end to redefine the concept of adventure tourism in the state.

• It is a type of rotorcraft, uses a rotor that is not powered to generate lift.

A rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings, which generate lift by rotating around a vertical mast.

• The rotor looks similar to that of a helicopter, but it requires air flowing upwards across it to rotate.
• Types – It was traditionally an open cockpit 'Motorbikes of the sky' but, since late 2010, they are available as fully enclosed models.
• Economical – The operating cost of a Gyrocopter is one-tenth that of a helicopter, so it is comparatively cheaper, with an estimated cost of INR 200 per minute.
• Safer transport - As the engine is not connected to the rotors, it is not seriously affected if the engine stops in flight.
• It can fly lower and slower more safely than most other forms of flying machines and are also capable of flying in harsh weather conditions.

Gyrocopters in Uttarakhand’s Tourism

• It is a joint venture of tourism department with the civil aviation department of the state.
• Aim – To redefine the concept of adventure tourism in the state.
• Operation – The Gyros are coming from Germany and the pilots who will run the initial tests will be Germans.

This is the 1st time gyros will be used in India for the tourism sector.

• Gyrocopter safaris will also originate from Rishikesh, offering a bird's-eye view of the region's natural splendour.

References

The Indian Express| Gyrocopters in Uttarakhand Tourism

VIKAS

Recently, Indian government has launched new learning programmes for government servants in line with good governance day.

December 25 is celebrated as the ‘Good Governance Day’ to mark former PM Vajpayee’s birth anniversary since 2014. It is meant to foster awareness among citizens about government accountability and administration, and inculcate “good governance” as a habit for civil servants.

• Vikas – Variable and Immersive Karmayogi Advanced Support.
• It is a blended programme with iGOT (integrated government online training) Karmayogi platform.
• Aim – For capacity building of Middle management civil servants in Central Secretariat.
• Program duration – It consists of 33 hours complemented by 30 hours of offline training at ISTM.
• Focus – On development of functional, behavioural and technological competencies required in Central Government.

The Institute of Secretariat Training and Management (ISTM) which was established in 1948, a premier Central Training Institution in training of officers working in the Central Secretariat, State Governments/Union Territories, Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) and Autonomous Bodies.

3 new features on the iGOT Karmayogi Platform

• My iGOT – To deliver targeted training courses for individual officer addressing their unique capacity building needs.
• Blended Programs - To facilitate equitable access to training methodologies and it integrate traditional offline classroom courses with online learning components.
• Curated Programs – To cater to diverse learning needs of the ministries/departments and training institutions where the course providers will curate relevant content from the repository of iGOT.

References

1. The Hindu| New training programmes for government employees
2. PIB| VIKAS program