UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 20-08-2020

East Kolkata Wetlands

• East Kolkata wetlands is the biggest ecological asset of the city and a Ramsar Site.
• The east Kolkata wetlands are a fascinating natural resource to which tremendous value has been added by traditional knowledge.
• The wetlands have been historically created by a natural shift of the Bidyadhari, a tributary of the Ganga.
• The land on which Kolkata is built slopes to the east.
• So the British created canals to take out the city’s waste water into in the wetlands.
• The traditional knowledge is used to treat this waste water.
• For the past century, the waste water has been first fed into settling ponds.
• There the biodegradation of organic components takes place.
• Then the nutrient-rich sewage is transferred into a fish pond to improve the organic quality of the water.
• Fish is grown in this pond and the used water is transferred to fields to irrigate crop.
• The government has assured to maintain the balance between ecology and development.
• But the reality is that the wetlands are slowly and steadily disappearing.
• Recently Kolkata Urban local bodies (ULB) were warned of punishment by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for failing to comply with its order over waste disposal at East Kolkata Wetlands.
• They were accused of illegally dumping waste and contaminating water bodies in the area.

Ramsar Site

• A Ramsar Site is a wetland (shallow waters) which is designated to be of international importance under the Convention on Wetlands.
• It is an intergovernmental environmental treaty established nearly 50 years ago (1971) by UNESCO.
• It came into force in 1975 and takes its name from Ramsar, the Iranian city where the convention was adopted.

Sarabhai Crater

• Recently, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) named a crater as Sarabhai Crater on completion of one year of centenary celebrations.
• A crater is a bowl-shaped depression produced by the impact of a meteorite, volcanic activity, or an explosion.
• The Sarabhai Crater is around 250 to 300 kilometres east of the crater where the Apollo 17 and Luna 21 Missions had landed.
• It is eight kilometres in diameter and located in the Mare Serenitatis in the Northeast quadrant of the Moon.
• The Crater has a depth of around 1.7 Kms taken from its raised rim.
• Chandrayaan 2 orbiter’s Terrain Mapping Camera–2 (TMC-2) instrument has captured a photograph of the Sarabhai Crater on the Moon.
• The crater’s outer region is dominated by numerous smaller craters of various sizes and is distributed over the flat Mare plains,
• It has defining features like a raised rim, gradient inner walls and the small hummocky floor.

Mare Serenitatis

• It is one of the lunar mare regions on the Moon which  were formed between 3.9 and 3.8 thousand million years ago with vast lava plains creating a  flat surface
• It was during this period when the Moon was heavily bombarded by asteroids and the major impact basins on the Moon were formed.
• The Sarabhai crater is an ‘excellent example’ to study the impact process of the Mare Serenitatis.
• It will help the Space Scientists to understand further the process on the lunar region filled with lava.

Ninja UAVs

• Recently, Indian Railways started deploying “Ninja UAVs” for establishing a drone-based surveillance system.
• It will be deployed in railway areas like station premises, Railway track sections, yards, workshops, etc.
• They are capable of real-time tracking, video streaming and may be operated on Automatic Fail-Safe mode
• They can be used to launch surveillance on criminal and anti-social activities like gambling, throwing of garbage, hawking etc in Railway premises.
• It can be used at disaster sites for helping in rescue, recovery and restoration and coordination in efforts of various agencies.
• A team of Railway Protection Force (RPF) has been trained for drone flying, surveillance and maintenance.

Micro plastics

• According to recent study Maldives beaches have the most Micro plastics in the world.
• These are small pieces of plastic, less than 5 mm in length, that occur in the environment as a consequence of plastic pollution.
• The debris can be of any size and shape, but those which are less than 5 mm in length (or about the size of a sesame seed) are called micro plastics.
• Micro plastics come from a variety of sources, including from larger plastic debris that degrades into smaller and smaller pieces.
• In addition, microbeads, a type of Micro plastic, are very tiny pieces of manufactured polyethylene plastic that are added as exfoliants to health and beauty products.
• These tiny particles easily pass through water filtration systems and end up in the ocean or other water bodies and cause serious environmental and food safety concerns.
• The problem with micro plastics is that, like plastic items of any size, they do not readily break down into harmless molecules.
• Plastics can take hundreds or thousands of years to decompose and in the meantime, wreak havoc on the environment.
• On beaches, micro plastics are visible as tiny multicolored plastic bits in sand.
• In the oceans, micro plastic pollution is often consumed by marine animals.

African Cheetahs

• Recently three African hunting cheetahs from South Africa has been introduced in Mysore zoo.

• A year after zoo lost its last surviving African hunting Cheetah Mysore zoo has received three big cats from Ann Van Dyke Cheetah Centre, South Africa.
• Mysuru is the second zoo to house hunting cheetah in India, Hyderabad zoo has a pair of big cats.
• In January 2020 SC has lifted its seven-year stay on a proposal to introduce African cheetahs from Namibia into the Indian habitat on an experimental basis.
• The plan was to revive the Indian cheetah population.
• In May 2012, the top court had stalled the plan to initiate the foreign cheetahs into the Palpur Kuno sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh fearing they may come into conflict with a parallel and a much-delayed project to reintroduce lions into the same sanctuary.

African Cheetahs

• Around 6,500-7,000 African cheetahs present in the wild.
• These are bigger in size as compared to Asiatic Cheetah.
• Were as Asiatic cheetahs has more fur, a smaller head and a longer neck and they have a more cat-like appearance.
• IUCN Status is Vulnerable for the animal.
• It is protected under CITES Appendix-I of the List.
• This List comprises of migratory species that have been assessed as being in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of their range.

Digital Quality of Life (DQL) Index 2020

• DQL Index has been released by Surf Shark, an online privacy solutions provider.
• It is global research on the quality of digital wellbeing in 85 countries (81% of the global population).
• The study indexes the countries by looking at five fundamental pillars that define the digital quality of life namely, internet affordability, internet quality, electronic infrastructure, electronic security and electronic government.
• Underpinning these pillars are 12 indicators that are interrelated and work together to provide a measure of the overall digital quality of life.
• According to DQL India ranks among the lowest in the world in terms of Internet quality.
• India stands at the overall rank of 57 out of the 85 countries.
• However in internet affordability, India as secured 9th place and outperforms countries like the UK, the USA and China.

Source: Down to Earth, PIB, the Hindu, Times of India