Gaddi

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research- National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBAGR) has recently recognised the Gaddi.

• Gaddi has been recently recognised as an indigenous dog breed from the Himalayas by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research- National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources.
• The Gaddi will be joining the Rajapalayam, Chippiparai and Mudhol breeds that have already been recognised by the ICAR-NBAGR.
• The breed is named after the Gaddi shepherds of Himachal Pradesh and has been used by them to guard their flocks of sheep and goats from predators.
• The move by the government body is expected to help in conserving the Gaddi, a species that is not recognised by any kennel club at the moment.
• As per estimates the population of Gaddi dogs is less than 1000 now.
• The Gaddi breed of dog, like many other indigenous breeds, is on the verge of extinction due to the dilution of the gene pool and lack of dedicated breeders and breeding programme.
• The exact origin of the Gaddi breed is unclear.

Genome India Project

• A genome is defined as an organism’s complete set of Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid (DNA), including all of its genes.
• Each genome contains all of the information needed to build and maintain that organism.

The first Human Genome Project was an international consortium funded by the US National Institutes of Health among others and published the world’s first complete human genome in 2003.

• Aim - The Genome India project was first approved in 2020 with the aim of capturing this diversity at the genomic level.
• This is spearheaded by the Centre for Brain Research at Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science as the nodal point of about 20 institutions.
• The second phase of the project would involve sequencing the genomes of those with specific disease.

Pink Fire Retardant

Environmental experts have said that spraying fire retardant using planes is ineffective, expensive and a growing source of pollution for rivers and streams.

• Fire retardant is a mix of chemicals used to extinguish or slow down the spread of fires.
• There are different types of fire retardant but to tackle wildfires in the US, authorities most commonly use Phos-Chek
• ‘Phos-Chek’ is a brand of fire retardant which mostly contains an ammonium phosphate-based slurry.
• Typically, it is made of salts such as ammonium polyphosphate, which does not evaporate easily like water and stays for longer.
• Colour is usually added to the fire retardant to ensure that firefighters can see it against the landscape.
• This helps them create fire lines around the fire retardant, potentially saving lives and property.
• A 2024 study by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) found that Phos-Chek “is laden with toxic metals, and estimates retardant use has released 850,000 pounds of these chemicals into the environment since 2009,” according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.
• These toxic metals include chromium and cadmium which can cause cancer, and kidney and liver diseases in humans.

Greenland

• Greenland, the world’s largest island, lies in the North Atlantic Ocean.
• It is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, a founding member of NATO.
• Greenlandic people are primarily Inuit who, depending upon the region they are from, call themselves Kalaallit (West Greenlanders), Inugguit (from Thule district), or Iit (East Greenlanders).
• Greenland is where climate change, scarce resources, tense geopolitics and new trade patterns all intersect.
• Since 1992, Greenland has lost about 182 billion tons (169 billion metric tons) of ice each year, with losses hitting 489 billion tons a year (444 billion metric tons) in 2019.
• Greenland also serves as the engine and on/off switch for a key ocean current that influences Earth’s climate in many ways, including hurricane and winter storm activity.
  • It’s called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, and it’s slowing down because more fresh water is being dumped into the ocean by melting ice in Greenland.
• Greenland is also changing color as it melts from the white of ice, which reflects sunlight, heat and energy away from the planet, to the blue and green of the ocean and land, which absorb much more energy.

Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary

The Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has recently approved oil and gas exploratory drilling in the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam.

• The Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary renamed on 25 May 2004, formerly known as the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary or Hollongapar Reserve Forest.
• Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary is an isolated protected area of evergreen forest located in Jorhat district of Assam, India.
• The Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary contains India’s only gibbons, the hoolock gibbons, and North-eastern India’s only nocturnal primate the Bengal slow loris.
• Other primates include the stump-tailed macaque, northern pig-tailed macaque, eastern Assamese macaque, rhesus macaque, and capped langur.
•  Also found at the sanctuary are Indian elephants, tigers, leopards, jungle cats, wild boar, three types of civet, four types of squirrel, and several other types of mammal. 
• The sanctuary has a rich diversity of flora at each layer in the canopy.
• The upper canopy of the forest is dominated by the Hollong tree, while the Nahar dominates the middle canopy. The lower canopy consists of evergreen shrubs and herbs.