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