In death of Chandigarh student, concern over city''s ''heritage trees''

• The peepal (sacred fig) had been declared a “heritage property” by the Chandigarh administration. In Chandigarh, a tree with an estimated age of 100 years, or more, is declared a ‘heritage property’.
• Though the age of the tree can be calculated using a carbon dating technique, the age of Chandigarh’s heritage trees are based on other proof, such as old maps and records. The process to declare trees as heritage was completed after a three-year exercise in December 2017.
• Declaring a tree as heritage property accords it special status. Heritage trees are guarded. A board is installed near each tree with information on their age, life history and importance.

The Singalila National Park in West Bengal, will soon get new red pandas.

• A zoo in the picturesque Darjeeling Hills has started an ambitious programme to augment the wild red panda population.
• In the first rewilding programme of red pandas (Ailurus fulgens) in India, the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park will release 20 of these furry endangered mammals in about five years to the forests.
• The number of red pandas has been declining in the wild, even in the Singalila and Neora Valley National Parks, the two protected areas where the mammal is found in the wild in West Bengal.
• Recent studies estimate that there are 38 of them in Singalila and 32 in Neora.
• The Padmaja Naidu park, at a height of about 2,000 metres above the sea level, is one of the high-altitude zoos in the country and has been quite successful in captive breeding of the furry mammals.

NIXI''s 2 new Internet Exchanges to boost internet connectivity in West Bengal

• NIXI is a not for profit Organization under section 8 of the Companies Act 2013 and was registered on 19th June 2003.
• NIXI was set up for peering of ISPs among themselves for the purpose of routing the domestic traffic within the country, instead of taking it all the way to US/Abroad, thereby resulting in better quality of service (reduced latency) and reduced bandwidth charges for ISPs by saving on International Bandwidth.
• NIXI is managed and operated on a Neutral basis, in line with the best practices for such initiatives globally.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, put out a note, proposing amendments in the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

• The EPA establishes the “framework for studying, planning, and implementing long-term requirements of environmental safety and laying down a system of speedy and adequate response to situations threatening the environment.”
• With a set of amendments, the Environment Ministry proposes to modify provisions of the Environment Protection Act (EPA), by replacing clauses that provides for imprisonment with ones that only requires violators to pay a fine. These, however, don’t apply to violations that cause grave injury or loss of life.
• The changes proposed include the appointment of an ‘adjudication officer’ who will decide on the penalty in cases of environmental violations such as reports not being submitted or information not provided when demanded.
• Funds collected as penalties would be accrued in an “Environmental Protection Fund.” In case of contraventions of the Act, the penalties could extend to anywhere from five lakh to five crore, the proposal notes, but the clause on provision of a jail term for the first default has been sought to be removed.

Floods, landslides wreak havoc in India''s NE

• Almost half of them — 49 confirmed and 12 others missing with little chance of survival — died working on a railway project at the Tupul substation in Makhuam village of Manipur’s Noney district on June 30.
• The Railways have reportedly blamed jhum or shifting or slash-and-burn cultivation on hill slopes for the tragedy, sparking debates on the tendency to overlook geological challenges and not factor in climate change while executing major developmental projects.

Jiribam-Imphal railway

• Sanctioned in February 2005 as a national project, the 110.625 km Jiribam-Imphal line is considered a vital segment of the Trans-Asian Railway envisaged as an integrated freight railway network across Europe and Asia.
• The broad-gauge project entails connecting Manipur’s Jiribam, a town on the border with Assam, and State capital Imphal mostly across the fragile hills of Noney district, is expected to reduce the travel time from the existing 10-12 hours to three hours.

Ladakh’s glaciers threatened by growing vehicular emissions

• A recent study attributes this to the growing vehicular traffic in the region, which has been witnessing a massive military build-up on both the sides of Line of Actual Control (LAC) since 2020.
• The study is based on satellite images of 77 glaciers observed over two decades, from 2000 to 2020, in the Drass basin of the western Himalayas.
• The study reports that the glacier area decreased from 176.77 sq.km in 2000 to 171.46 sq.km in 2020, which is about 3% of the total glacier area.
• The study found that heavy vehicular movement is the main cause for the rapid pace at which glaciers are receding in the region. Debris cover had a significant impact on glacier melting, with clean glaciers losing 5% more than debris-covered glaciers.
• The study points out that 17 glaciers situated close to the highway showed higher glacier shrinkage (4.11%) and snout retreat (209 m) than the glaciers situated further away from the national highway, with glacier shrinkage (2.82%) and snout retreat (148 m).

Artificial diet, feeding device for mosquitoes

• The two products allow efficient and cost-effective mass-rearing of mosquitoes in laboratory as it is important to keep these mosquitoes healthy to investigate basic facets of their biology and to study vector-borne disease and measures to control it.
• Mosquito females require animal or human blood diet to produce eggs. For this, blood has to be obtained from blood banks or live animals. Regular supply of blood from blood banks is not easy.
• Considering these challenges and huge potential demand, we have zeroed in on four artificial diets for feeding.”
• These four diets prepared for female mosquitoes are like a baby formula food and have all the essential nutrients, which are present in the blood.

Impact of diabetes medicine sitagliptin going out of patent

• Sitagliptin is a blood sugar-lowering drug. It was first in the category called gliptins, where a protein called DPP-4 is restrained by it, and this impacts the metabolic system so that the pancreas is prompted to increase insulin secretion and regulate sugar in the blood.
• It was the drug of choice for treating type-2 diabetes where the body cannot regulate the blood sugar levels because it either does not produce enough insulin or resists its impact.
• It was toppled by a new class of drugs called SGLT-2 inhibitors, also known as gliflozins, which prevent the re-absorption of glucose from the blood when it is filtered by the kidneys, thereby reducing the blood glucose levels.

EU, US urge North Macedonia to move forward on EU bid

• North Macedonia is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It is a landlocked country bordering Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west.
• North Macedonia has been an EU candidate for 17 years. The country emerged from the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and sought to forge a strong national identity.
• The most recent obstacle is a veto by EU member Bulgaria.
• Bulgaria blocked the renamed nation’s attempts to join the EU, accusing Skopje of disrespecting shared cultural and historic ties.
• Among Bulgaria’s key demands were acknowledgment that the language of North Macedonia derived from Bulgarian, and the recognition of a Bulgarian minority.

Sudden, “highly-localised rains” in Amarnath, Jammu and Kashmir caused flooding

• A cloudburst refers to an extreme amount of rain that happens in a short period, sometimes accompanied by hail and thunder, and this has a precise definition.
• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) defines it as unexpected precipitation exceeding 100mm (or 10 cm) per hour over a geographical region of approximately 20 to 30 square km.
• Significant amounts of rainfall such as this can result in floods.