• Populations of seals and penguins could be in grave danger if an iceberg, which has been drifting for more than three years in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, hits a British island territory in the area.

A68a

• The iceberg, named ‘A68a’, separated from the Larsen C ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula in 2017.
• At 100 miles long and 30 miles wide, it is roughly the size of the US state of Delaware.
• A68a was about 400 kilometres away from the coast of the British island territory of South Georgia, according to the British Antarctic Survey.
• If the iceberg ran aground near the island, it would lead to barriers in the path of seals and penguins for gathering food.
• Both, seals and penguins give birth on land and then travel back and forth to the ocean to provide food for their pups and chicks.
• If their routes are blocked, they would be unable to find food and that would lead to starvation, the scientists said.
• There was a chance, however, that the iceberg might just sail past the island as the ocean current in the area was quite strong, the report said.
• South Georgia of Antarctica was often referred as a graveyard for Antarctica's greatest icebergs.

• The Jharkhand government has recently convened a special session and passed a resolution to send the Centre a letter to recognise Sarna religion and include it as a separate code in the Census of 2021. 

Sarna Tribes

• The followers of Sarna faith believe pray to nature.
• The holy grail of the faith is “Jal, Jungle, Zameen” and its followers pray to the trees and hills while believing in protecting the forest areas.
• Jharkhand has 32 tribal groups of which eight are from Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups.
• While many follow Hindu religion, some have converted to Christianity — this has become one of the planks of demanding a separate code “to save religious identity”— as various tribal organisations put it.
• It is believed that 50 lakhs tribal in the entire country put their religion as ‘Sarna’ in the 2011 census, although it was not a code.
• Many of the tribals who follow this faith have later converted to Christianity—the state has more than 4% Christians most of whom are tribals.

• Pangong Lake is perched at a height of 14,270 ft above sea level.
• Lying almost on the Indo-Chinese border, a part of it falls in India, while the other is in China. 
• Pangong Tso is an endorheic lake.
• Endorheic (i.e., closed or terminal) basins and lakes are land locked drainage networks where water does not drain into large water bodies such as rivers connected to oceans.
• Endorheic lakes are generally saline as a result of being unable to get rid of solutes left in the lake by evaporation.
• Pangong tso is said to be one of the highest brackish water lake in the world.

Exorheic

• Exorheic regions are open systems in which surface waters ultimately drain to the ocean in well-defined patterns that involve streams and rivers temporarily impounded by permanent freshwater lakes. 

• Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh has been declared as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve recently.

Panna Tiger Reserve

• It is a prime tiger-land Located in Vindhyan Hills in northern Madhya Pradesh.
• It is fragile though dynamic dry deciduous forest.
• It has been characterised by extensive plateaus and gorges.
• It is the land of the Ken river, which lends it unparalleled beauty.
• It is the northern most boundary of natural distribution to teak (Tectona grandis) and the eastern limit of teak-kardhai (Anogeissus pendula) mixed forests.
• It Links the eastern and western populations of wild animals through the NE-SW running Vindhyan Hill ranges.

• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently launches Food Coalition to lift food access, sustainable agri-food systems.

Food Coalition

• A "network of networks", the Food Coalition is a voluntary multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral alliance set up to support innovative initiatives to ensure global food access, increase the resilience of agri-food systems and put them on a more sustainable course.
• It aims to face COVID19 pandemic together to avoid the health crisis becoming into a food crisis.
• Proposed by Italy and led by FAO, the global alliance aims to help countries get back on track to achieve the UN-mandated Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, especially the ones on ending hunger and poverty. More than 30 countries have already expressed interest in joining the coalition.