Between 1809 and 1823, hundreds of Asiatic lions were killed in today’s Haryana by British officers, soldiers and Indian princes aligned with them.

Haryana

• Haryana today is a primarily agrarian landscape between the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers and the Aravalli hill range.
• But in the first three decades of the nineteenth century, the state was home to arid savannahs and dense scrub jungle where lions, leopards and tigers cohabited.

The Treaty

• The area known as Haryana came under British control as a result of a treaty signed in 1809 between the East India Company and the Sikh Empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
• The Sutlej river was declared the border between the two sides, which they were expected to respect and not cross.
• The British-era Hurrianah territories today cover the state of Haryana and the regions of Malwa and Puadh in southern Punjab (between the Sutlej and Ghaggar rivers).
• At the time, these also included the Cis-Sutlej princely states of Patiala, Nabha, Jind, Kaithal and Thanesar.

Asiatic Lion

• Today, the Asiatic lion (Panthera Leo persica) is singularly identified with the Gir forest of Kathiawar and is the symbol of Gujarati Asmita.
• But history was very different. These lions ranged across the western, central and northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, including the present-day state of Haryana, reveals a recent academic paper.

In a first in India, rare clouded leopard spotted in Nagaland mountains.

Clouded Leopard

• Clouded leopards are known for its spotted coat and inhabit in the primary evergreen rainforests.
• Clouded leopards roam the hunting grounds of Asia from the rain forests of Indonesia to the foothills of the Nepali Himalayas.
• It is categorized as vulnerable by the IUCN.

Arboreal Adaptation

• Arboreal animals are very well adapted to staying or hanging on to trees.
• Most cats are good climbers, but the clouded leopard is near the top of its class.
• These big cats can even hang upside down beneath large branches, using their large paws and sharp claws to secure a good grip.
• Clouded leopards have short, powerful legs equipped with rotating rear ankles that allow them to safely downclimb in a headfirst posture—much like a common squirrel.
• Sharp eyesight helps them judge distances well, and the cats use their long tails to maintain balance.

The bhikkhus of a Buddhist monastery in the 152-year-old ChalapatherShyamgaon had bemoaned the near-extinction of bhungloti, a creeper that in combination with the pith of the roots of a jackfruit tree yielded a saffron dye for their robes.

Bhikkhus

• Bhikkhu literally means "beggar" or "one who lives by alms".
• In the Dhammapada commentary of Buddhaghosa, a bhikkhu is defined as "the person who sees danger in samsara or cycle of rebirth".
• He therefore seeks ordination to obtain release from it.
• A bhikkhu is an ordained (to make somebody a priest) male in Buddhist monasticism.
• Male and female monastics are members of the Sangha (Buddhist community).
• The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules called the pratimoksa or patimokkha.
• Their lifestyles are shaped to support their spiritual practice: to live a simple and meditative life and attain nirvana.
• A person under the age of 20 cannot be ordained as a bhikkhu or bhikkhuni but can be ordained as a Sramanera or Sramaneri.
• Buddha accepted female bhikkhunis after his step-mother MahapajapatiGotami organized a women's march to Vesali.
• Buddha requested her to accept the Eight Garudhammas.
• So, Gotami agreed to accept the Eight Garudhammas and was accorded the status of the first bhikkhuni.
• Subsequent women had to undergo full ordination to become nuns.

Tipping point in Humboldt Current off Peru leads to species shift.

Humboldt Current

• Peru Current, also called Humboldt Current, cold-water current of the southeast Pacific Ocean, with a width of about 900 km.
• It is an eastern boundary current similar to the California Current of the North Pacific.

The Study

• Fundamental changes in the ocean, such as warming, acidification or oxygen depletion, may have significant consequences for the composition of fish stocks, including the displacement of individual species.
• Researchers have reconstructed environmental conditions of the warm period 125,000 years ago (Eemian interglacial) using sediment samples from the Humboldt Current System off Peru.
• They were able to show that, at warmer temperatures, mainly smaller, goby-like fish species became dominant and pushed back important food fish such as the anchovy (Engraulisringens).
• The trend is independent of fishing pressure and fisheries management.
• According to the study, the greater warming of the Humboldt Current System as result of climate change has more far-reaching implications for the ecosystem and the global fishing industry than previously thought.

Treaty of Amritsar, 1809

• Treaty of Amritsar, (April 25, 1809), pact concluded between Charles T. Metcalfe, representing the British East India Company, and Ranjit Singh, head of the Sikh kingdom of Punjab.
• The treaty settled Indo-Sikh relations for a generation.
• The immediate occasion was the French threat to northwestern India, following Napoleon’s Treaty of Tilsit with Russia (1807) and Ranjit’s attempt to bring the Cis-Sutlej states under his control.
• The British wanted a defensive treaty against the French and control of Punjab to the Sutlej River.
• Although this was not a defensive treaty, it did fix the frontier of lands controlled by Ranjit broadly along the line of the Sutlej River.