UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 19-12-2020

Great Indian Bustard

• The Wildlife Institute of India proposed to put all power transmission lines passing through Great Indian Bustard (GIB) habitat underground.
• GIB, a bird native to India and Pakistan, is the State Bird of Rajasthan.
• The largest population is found in Rajasthan.
• The sanctuaries that shelter or conserve GIB are
  1. Desert National Park, Rajasthan
  2. Kutch Bustard Sanctuary, Gujarat
  3. Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary or Jawaharlal Nehru Bustard Sanctuary, Maharashtra
• Protection status of GIB:
  1. IUCN Status is Critically Endangered
  2. Appendix I of CITES
  3. Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection)Act, 1972
• Threats include agriculture; energy production & mining; transportation; human intrusions, and invasive and other problematic species.

IUCN Red List

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has updated its Red List of Threatened Species.
• Now, Ganga, Amazon, Indus, Irrawaddy species of freshwater dolphins are “threatened with extinction” on the IUCN Red List.
• Tucuxi species (Sotalia fluviatilis) of freshwater dolphins is moving from ‘data deficient to ‘endangered’.
• IUCN also declared that 31 species as extinct which include 15 freshwater fish species endemic to Lake Lanao and its outlet in the Philippines; three Central American frog species; Lost Shark.
• Also, three Macadamia species of protea (a genus of South African flowering plants) family; 9 Asian oak species.
• The European bison has moved from Vulnerable to Near Threatened.
• To know more, click on these links:
  1. Ganga and Indus species,
  2. Irrawaddy species

Chang’e 5 Lunar Mission

• This lunar mission of China returned with 2Kg of the fresh rock samples from the moon, which would help us know more about moon’s origins and formation.
• The spacecraft landed in Siziwang Banner, China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
• These lunar samples were retrieved from a previously unvisited area of the moon known as the Oceanus Procellarum, or Ocean of Storms.
• Ocean of Storms is a site near the Mons Rumker, which was believed to have been volcanic in ancient times.
• Mons Rumker, never sampled before, is geologically younger than the sampling areas of the U.S. and the Soviet missions.
• These young samples could help widen the spectrum of their analysis to understand the moon's volcanic activity and evolution.
• To know more about Chang’e 5 mission, click here.

Young Champions of the Earth

• An Indian entrepreneur is among the seven winners of UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) “Young Champions of the Earth” 2020 prize.
• This award is given to spot global change-makers between the ages of 18 and 30 and support their ideas to save the environment.
• Seven champions are selected from each global region: Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, West Asia and two from Asia and the Pacific.
• This prize, launched by the UNEP in 2017, is in similar lines to UNEP’s Champions of the Earth prize.
• To know about Champions of the Earth prize, click here.

Right to Protest

• The Supreme Court said farmers have a constitutional right to protest as long as their opposition against the three agricultural laws did not slip into violence.
• But the CJI said whether the farmers should be allowed into the city or not was a question best left to the police and not the court.
• The court reiterated its suggestion of forming a committee of experts in agriculture to hear both farmers and the Union government on the laws.
• Right to protest is a fundamental right as per Indian Constitution.
• This right is a part of the right to free speech under Article 19.

Source: AIR, The Indian Express, The Hindu, Down To Earth