Flooding Along the Sutlej River in Punjab

Sutlej River

• It is the longest of the five tributaries of the Indus River.
• It is also known as "Satadree".
• Origin: It rises on the north slope of the Himalayas in Lake Rakshastal in southwestern Tibet at an elevation above 15,000 feet (4,600 metres).
• Course:
  • The river enters India by flowing west and south-westwards through the Shipki La Pass in Himachal Pradesh at an altitude of 6,608 metres.
  • The river then flows through Punjab near Nangal before meeting the Beas River. The merger of these two rivers goes on to form 105 Km of the India-Pakistan border.
  • The river continues to flow for another 350 Km before joining the Chenab River.
  • The combination of the Sutlej and Chenab Rivers form the Panjnad, which finally flows into the Indus River.
• Length: It has a total length of 1550 km, out of which 529 km is in Pakistan.
• Tributaries: It has many tributaries, with Baspa, Spiti, Nogli Khad and Soan River being its main ones.
• Water from the Sutlej River has been allocated to India according to the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960.
• There are several major hydroelectric projects on the Sutlej, including the 1,000 MW Bhakra Dam, the 1,000 MW Karcham Wangtoo Hydroelectric Plant, and the 1,530 MW Nathpa Jhakri Dam.

Reroute railway track running through Assam gibbon sanctuary, suggest scientists

• Primatologists have suggested rerouting a 1.65-km-long railway track that has divided an eastern Assam sanctuary dedicated to the western hoolock gibbon (Hoolock hoolock) into two unequal parts.
• Wildlife Institute of India (WII) on designing an artificial canopy bridge to facilitate the movement of the hoolock gibbons across the broad-gauge line within the Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary. The track is yet to be electrified.

‘Bridge’ design sought

In 2015, the Northeast Frontier Railway constructed an iron canopy bridge but it was not found suitable for the gibbons to swing across the track. The Forest Department and Aaranyak joined hands four years later to grow a natural canopy bridge but regular pruning of the trees by the railways during track maintenance affected the movement of the apes.

Hoolock Gibbon

• The tailless Hoolock Gibbon is the only ape found in India.
• The primate is native to eastern Bangladesh, Northeast India and Southwest China.
• The Hoolock Gibbon is categorised into two types:
  • Western hoolock gibbon:
    • It inhibits in all the states of the north-east, restricted between the south of the Brahmaputra river and east of the Dibang river. And outside India, it is found in eastern Bangladesh and north-west Myanmar.
    • It is listed as Endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
  • Eastern hoolock gibbon:
    • It inhabits specific pockets of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India, and in southern China and north-east Myanmar outside India.
    • It is listed as Vulnerable under the IUCN Redlist.
• In India, both the species are listed on Schedule 1 of the Indian (Wildlife) Protection Act 1972.

White-tailed deer in Ohio found to be reservoir for rapid SARS-CoV2 mutation, say scientists

White-tailed deer

• They are the smallest members of the North American deer family.
• Distribution: They are found in North America from southern Canada through Central America.
• Habitat:
  • Includes areas along streams and rivers, mixed woodlands, farms, forests, and burned shrub fields.
  • Open areas are used only when thick shrubs or forests are nearby.
• Appearance:
  • It is tan or brown in the summerand greyish brown in winter.
  • It has white on its throat, around its eyes and nose, on its stomach, and on the underside of its tail.
  • Only male deer grow antlers, which are shed each year.
  • They are excellent runners. They can run at speeds of up to 30 miles an hour.
• Conservation status:
  • IUCN Status: Least Concern

August 2023 witness huge surge in active vacancies on NCS

National Career Service (NCS)

• NCS aims to bridge the gap between those who need jobs and those who want to hire them, between people seeking career guidance and training and those who can provide the counselling and training.
• It was launched in the year 2015.
• It provides a host of career-related services such as dynamic job matching, career counselling, job notifications, vocational guidance, and information on skill development courses, internships and alike.
• The focus areas for the NCS platform are listed below:
  • Enhancing Career and employment opportunities;
  • Counselling and guidance for career development;
  • Focusing on decent employment;
  • Enhancing female labour force participation;
  • Encouraging entrepreneurial endeavours;
• It aims to reach out to people across the country, particularly youth, through a well-designed structure comprising an ICT-based portal, a countrywide set-up of career centres, a multilingual call centre, and a network of career counsellors.
• Nodal Agency: The project is being implemented by the Directorate General of Employment, Ministry of Labour & Employment.
• NCS portal:
  • The NCS Portal links job-seekers, employers, counsellors and training providers, all through Aadhaar-based authentication.
  • Registration is online and free of charge.
  • The portal provides information on over 3000 career options from 53 key industry Sectors - from IT to Textiles, Construction to Automobiles, Pharma and much more.
  • Job-seekers also have access to industry trends in a user-friendly way.

Live 8-cm long worm found in brain of Australian woman

• It is the first-ever human case of Ophidascaris robertsi roundworm.

Ophidascaris robertsi

• It is a parasitic roundworm typically found in carpet pythons.
• It typically lives in a python’s oesophagus and stomach and sheds its eggs in the host’s faeces.
• Humans infected with Ophidascaris robertsi larvae would be considered accidental hosts.
• Roundworms are incredibly resilient and able to thrive in a wide range of environments.
• In humans, they can cause stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, appetite and weight loss, fever and tiredness.
• This infection is not transmitted between people.

carpet pythons

• Morelia spilota, commonly referred to as the carpet python, is a large snake of the family Pythonidae.
• It is found in Australia, New Guinea (Indonesia and Papua New Guinea), the Bismarck Archipelago, and the northern Solomon Islands.
• Conservation status
  • IUCN: Least concern

Poland and the Baltic nations have formally requested Belarus to expel the Russian mercenary group Wagner.

Baltic Nations

• The Baltic nations, often collectively referred to as the "Baltic States," are a group of three countries in Northern Europe located along the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea.
• They are Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
• They are bounded on the west and north by the Baltic Sea, on the east by Russia, on the southeast by Belarus, and on the southwest by Poland and an exclave of Russia.
• Capitals: Tallinn (Estonia), Riga (Latvia) and Vilnius (Lithuania).
• Languages: Spoken languages are Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian. In Estonia and Latvia, about one-quarter of the population are ethnic Russians.
• Independence: They gained their independence first from the Russian Empire at the end of World War I in 1918 and later from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
• The Baltic States have been members of the European Union (EU) since 2004.

Wagner Group of mercenaries

• The Wagner Group, also known as PMC Wagner, is a Russian paramilitary organisation.
• Origin: The group is believed to have been founded in 2014 by a Russian veteran of the Chechen war who so admired Hitler he named the group after Richard Wagner, the führer''s favourite composer.
• The skull is the symbol of the Wagner Group.
• The organisation first came to the world''s attention in 2014, fighting alongside Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
• The organisation has also been active across Africa in recent years — Libya, Sudan, Mozambique, Mali and the Central African Republic.
• Today, there are thought to be some 10,000 Wagner Group members.
• The U.S. government has called Wagner a "proxy force" of Russia''s defence ministry.

Loco detached from tourist train at the entry point of the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary

Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary

• Location:
  • It is situated in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal.
  • It is located on the foothills of the Himalayas and in between the Teesta and the Mahananda rivers.
• It was started as a game sanctuary for children in 1955. In 1959, it got the status of a sanctuary mainly to protect the Indian Bison and Royal Bengal Tiger.
• The Sanctuary reaches up to a high elevation at Latpanchar in Kurseong Hill.
• Terrain: The terrain is undulating, with moderate to steep slopes and high ridges towards the north.
• Vegetation: It varies mainly from riverine forests to dense mixed-wet forests due to the difference in altitude.
• Flora:
  • Mainly, Sal, Shisu, Teak and Jarul forests are available here.
  • Other plantations include Udal, Champ, Lali, Jarul, Gamar, Mandane, Bamboos, Ferns, Orchids, Sidha etc.
• Fauna:
  • The important mammalian species include the Royal Bengal Tiger, Indian elephants, Indian bison, spotted deer, barking deer, many species of lesser cat, Himalayan black bear, etc.
  • The Sanctuary also holds hundreds of feathered species. It includes endangered species like fairy bluebird, Himalayan pied hornbill, etc.

Supermassive black hole gives astronomers a glimpse of star’s innards after a messy feast

Tidal Disruption Event (TDE)

• TDE is a phenomenon in astronomy that occurs when a star passes too close to a supermassive black hole or a massive stellar-mass black hole.
• The intense gravitational forces from the black hole cause tidal forces that can tear the star apart. This process is also known as "tidal disruption."
• How does a TDE typically unfold?
  • Close Approach: A star in a galaxy approaches a black hole on a very close trajectory due to gravitational interactions within the galaxy.
  • Tidal Forces: As the star gets closer to the black hole, the gravitational forces acting on it become increasingly uneven due to the difference in gravitational pull on the near side and far side of the star. These tidal forces can be strong enough to disrupt the star.
  • Stellar Disruption: When the tidal forces exceed the self-gravitational forces holding the star together, it undergoes a process called "tidal disruption." The star is stretched and eventually torn apart into a stream of gas and debris.
  • Accretion Disk Formation: The debris from the disrupted star forms an accretion disk around the black hole. This disk is composed of hot gas and dust, and it spirals inwards towards the black hole.
  • Energy Release: As the material in the accretion disk spirals inwards, it releases a tremendous amount of energy in the form of X-rays and ultraviolet radiation.
  • Flares and Observations: TDEs are often observed as bright flares of radiation from the centre of a galaxy. These flares can last for several months to years, gradually fading as the disrupted star''s material is consumed by the black hole.

Blackhole

• A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space.
• This can happen when a star is dying.
• Because no light can get out, people can''t see black holes. They are invisible. Space telescopes with special tools can help find black holes.
• Event Horizon: The event horizon is the boundary around a black hole beyond which nothing can escape, not even light. It marks the point of no return. Anything that crosses this boundary is inevitably drawn into the black hole.
• Supermassive Black Holes: These are found at the centres of most galaxies and have masses ranging from millions to billions of times that of our Sun.

New study says cinnamon may prevent prostate cancer

Cinnamon

• It is one of the earliest known spices mainly cultivated for the dried inner bark of the tree.
• It is a native of Sri Lanka and is cultivated in lower elevations of Western Ghats in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• It is a hardy plant and tolerates a wide range of soil and climatic conditions.
• Soil and climate:
  • The tree is grown on laterite and sandy patches with poor nutrient status.
  • It comes up well from sea level to an elevation of about 1,000 m.
  • Since it is mostly raised as a rainfed crop, an annual rainfall of 200-250 cm is ideal.
• Health benefits
  • Researchers observed that cinnamon and its active components could mitigate oxidative stress and decrease the spread of cancer cells in the prostate gland.
  • They also observed beneficial effects on bone mineral content and a decrease in bone degeneration in rats.

Somatic genetic variants: A genomic revolution hiding inside our cells

Somatic genetic variants

• It is also known as somatic mutations, which refer to alterations in the DNA sequence that occur in the cells of an individual’s body after conception.
• Somatic genetic variants are important for a number of normal physiological processes. For example, the immune cells in our body, which produce antibodies, undergo an enormous amount of somatic changes to create diverse proteins.

Somatic mutations

• The change to a person’s DNA during a somatic mutation happens after fertilisation in any cell of their body that isn''t a sperm or egg cell (germ cells).
• Cells continuously copy and replace themselves in humans.
• If a mutation occurs, all cells that form from that affected cell will have that mutation in their DNA.
• These mutations don’t pass from parents to their children (not hereditary) and happen sporadically or randomly.
• Common somatic mutation conditions include Skin cancer, Lung Cancer, Sturge-Weber syndrome, etc.

What Terai tigers eat and what it tells about the habitat

Terai-Arc Landscape

• It is an 810km stretch between the river Yamuna in the west and the river Bhagmati in the east.
• It comprises the Shivalik hills, the adjoining bhabhar areas and the Terai flood plains.
• It is spread across the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and the low-lying hills of Nepal.
• About 22% of the wild tiger population in India is found across the TAL, living amidst some of the highest human and livestock densities on the subcontinent.
• The landscape boasts of some of India’s most well-known Tiger Reserves and Protected Areas, such as Corbett Tiger Reserve, Rajaji National Park, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, Valmiki Tiger Reserve and Nepal’s Bardia Wildlife Sanctuary, Chitwan National Park, Sukhla Phanta Wildlife Sanctuary.
• These forests are home to three flagship species: the Bengal tiger(Panthera tigris), the greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) and the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus).

Wildlife Institute of India

• It is an autonomous Institution of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India.
• It was established in 1982.
• It offers training programs, academic courses and advisory in wildlife research and management.
• The Institute is actively engaged in research across the breadth of the country on biodiversity-related issues.