UPSC Daily Current Affairs | Prelim Bits 19-12-2020
iasparliament
December 20, 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
Desert National Park, Rajasthan
Kutch Bustard Sanctuary, Gujarat
Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary or Jawaharlal Nehru Bustard Sanctuary, Maharashtra
Protection status of GIB:
IUCN Status is Critically Endangered
Appendix I of CITES
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.
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.
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
