Prelim Bits 31-03-2018

National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS)

• The National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) 2017-18 reveals that 68% of rural households in India use the toilet when required.
• The survey was conducted by a third party agency Kantar Public, as a requirement by the World Bank to begin payout on its $1.5 billion loan to the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan-Gramin.
• The provisional summary report of the survey found that 77% of all rural households now have access to toilets, and that 93.4% of those who had access to toilets used them regularly.

• Kerala and Mizoram top the list of States, with 100% of households which do not practice open defecation.
• Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are at the bottom of the rankings, with less than 44% of such households.
• The following 11 states/UTs namely Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Gujarat, Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Meghalaya had been declared Open Defecation Free in India.

Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport mission (InSight)

• NASA is to send the first-ever mission dedicated to exploring the deep interior of Mars, called InSight.
• It will be the first NASA mission since the Apollo moon landings to place a seismometer, a device that measures quakes, on the soil of another planet.
• It is a Mars Lander designed to give the Red Planet its first thorough checkup since it formed 4.5 billion years ago.
• The lander uses cutting edge instruments to measure the planet's "vital signs": its "pulse" (seismology), "temperature" (heat flow), and "reflexes" (precision tracking).
• It is the first outer space robotic explorer to study in-depth the "inner space" of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core
• Two cubesats named Mars Cube One or MarCO are also launched.
• MarCO will relay back InSight data as it enters the Martian atmosphere and lands.
• It will be a first test of miniaturized CubeSat technology at another planet.

Kadaknath Chicken

• Madhya Pradesh has got the Geographical Indication (GI) Tag for Kadaknath Chicken.
• Kadaknath is a black-feathered chicken known for its flavorful meat and found mainly in the districts of Madhya Pradesh.
• The breed is native to Jhabua, Alirajpur and parts of Dhar district of eastern Madhya Pradesh.

• The protein-rich meat of Kadaknath, chicks and eggs are sold at a much higher rate than other varieties of chicken.
• The Kadaknath is popular mainly for its adaptability, and the good-tasting black meat, which is believed to have medicinal properties
• In the recent past, the Madhya Pradesh government had launched a mobile app called ‘MP Kadaknath’.

Ladakh Lakes

• Ladakh is a part of the Trans-Himalayan range; it is in the northern most area of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The natural high altitude salt water lakes — Tso Kar, Tso Morari and Pangong Tso, are a typical feature of Ladakh
• They lie in the sweeping valleys of Rupshu and the Changthang Plains.
• The Pangong Tso is a ‘high grassland lake’ located at an altitude of 14,270 ft on the Sino-Indian Line of Actual Control.
• The lake is endorheic in nature and completely freezes during winter.
• Endorheic regions are considered closed systems as surface waters drain to inland termini whence they evaporate or seep away rather than draining to the sea or ocean.
• The Tso Morari, a pearl shaped ‘Mountain Lake’ lies on the Ladakhi part of the Changthang plateau.
• It is encircled by mountains and said to be the ‘Jewel of the Rupshu Valley’ is at an altitude of 14,836 ft.
• Tso Morari Wetlands conservation reserve is situated here which is also a Ramsar Conservtion site.

• The Tso Kar or ‘white lake’ lies in the Rupshu Valley in the Southern part of Ladakh.
• It is called as white lake as the white salt of the water deposits all over the lake shore.
• The Tso-Kar area is inhabited by the Khampas or Rupsa Chang, a nomadic group

Land Degradation

• Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Assessment Report is the world's first comprehensive evidence-based assessment of land degradation and restoration.
• Land degradation is defined as the temporary or permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land, and the diminution of the productive potential.
• It says that land degradation has been driving species to extinction and intensifying climate change.

• The degradation is also a major contributor to mass human migration and increased conflict.
• By 2014, more than 1.5 billion hectares of natural ecosystems had been converted into croplands.
• Less than 25 per cent of the earth’s land surface has escaped substantial impact of human activity.
• The report estimates that 50 million- 700 million people will be forced to migrate by 2050

Ratna Bhandar

• Recently, the state government’s law department granted conditional permission to open the Puri Jaganath Temple’s Ratna Bhandar.
• The permission was granted for inspection by experts of the ASI to assess its structural stability and safety.
• Precious jewellery and ornaments of the deities of the temple are kept in the Ratna Bhandar.
• The Bhandar is inspected after 34 years.
• During the last inspection in 1984, only three chambers out of seven were inspected. Therefore, no one knows what is inside the rest of the chambers.
• Puri Jagnath temple is in the state of Odisha.
• It is one of the four ‘Dhams’ the Hindus considered holy while, the other three ‘Dhams’ are Badrinath, Dwarka and Rameswaram.

Source: PIB, The Hindu, Business Standard