Vulnerable tribal villages set to benefit from Centre’s scheme.

• The Central government will extend basic facilities to the endangered Kolam tribe under the Jan Jati Adivasi Nyay Maha Abhiyan, with a focus on health and education.
• Kolam tribes, also known as Kolamboli, Kulme and Kolmi, occupy a major portion of Madhya Pradesh.
• The main concentration of this tribe is on the plains and in the mountainous region.
• These tribal groups are reckoned as scheduled tribes and apart from Madhya Pradesh they reside in some parts of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
• They are listed as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) in the state of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
• The Kolam people are divided into different clans, like Chal Deve, Pach Deve, Saha Deve, and Sat Deve.
• Marriages between the same clans are not permissible.
• The Kolams use the name of their clans as their surnames.
• Their society is patrilineal, meaning that the line of descent is traced through the males.
• The Kolam are mainly farmers and forest worker In times past, they used shifting cultivation on the hill slopes. Today, they primarily live as settled farmers and use plough cultivation.
• They speak a Dravidian language called Kolami, and nearly all of the adults also speak Marathi, Telugu, or Gondi.
• They also speak other languages like Marathi, Telugu or Gondi.
• For writing, this Kolam tribal community uses the Devanagari script.

History:

• Around the twelfth century, the Kolam served as priests for the Gond, representing some of their important gods.
• It is generally accepted that the Kolam descended from the original population in the area.
• Since they now live near the Gond, they have adopted much of the Gond lifestyle.

South American nations showing interest in Pinaka, DRDO working on developing it with strike ranges up to 200 km.

• Pinaka is a Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL).
• The Pinaka MBRL is designed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), a laboratory of the DRDO.
• It was first used during the Kargil War, where it successfully neutralised Pakistan Army positions on the mountain tops.
• It delivers lethal and responsive fire against a variety of area targets, such as exposed enemy troops, armoured and soft-skin vehicles, communication centres, air terminal complexes, and fuel and ammunition dumps.

Features:

• It consists of a multi-tube launcher vehicle, a replenishment-cum-loader vehicle, a replenishment vehicle, and a command post vehicle.
• The launcher system is supported on four hydraulically actuated outriggers at the time of firing.
• It has a range of 60 to 75 kilometres.
• The system is mounted on a Tatra truck for mobility.

Mind-blowing: 22-Million-Year-Old Lost Forest Discovered in Panama Canal.

• Scientists stumbled upon a lost forest in the Panama Canal, dating back around 22 million years.
• Panama Canal is an artificial waterwaythat connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean.
• The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade.
• It was cut through one of the narrowest saddles of the isthmus that joins North and South America.
• It is one of the two most strategic artificial waterways in the world, the other being the Suez Canal.
• It is approximately 80 kilometres long.
• It consists of a series of locks that raise and lower the water level to facilitate the passage of ships through the continental divide.

History:

• France began work on the canal in 1881, but financial troubles and diseases made the initiative fail.
• The United States took over the project on May 4, 1904, and opened the canal on August 15, 1914, and then managed the waterway until 1999.
• On December 31, 1999, Panama took over full operation, administration, and maintenance of the Canal, in compliance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties negotiated with the United States in 1977.

In Assam, creeper conservation rides revived Karbi traditional game.

• A dying traditional game, given a fresh lease of life at the ongoing Karbi Youth Festival (KYF) in central Assam’s Karbi Anglong district, has fuelled a drive for conserving a creeper known as the African dream herb.
• A perennial climbing vine that is used by African traditional healers to induce vivid dreams that enables them to communicate efficiently with their ancestors.
• Common names: Giant sea bean, African dream herb, snuff box and Entada rheedii
• Distribution and habitat: It is indigenous to Africa, Asia, Australia and Madagascar. It grows in tropical lowlands, along the coastline and river banks, in woodland, thickets and riverine rain forests.
• This creeper yields a dark brown and spherical seed, almost the size of a human patella or kneecap, used to play ‘Hambi Kepathu’. Associated with the origin of the Karbi community.

Uses

• A paste made from the leaves, bark and roots is used to clean wounds, treat burns and heal jaundice in children.
• Tea made from the whole plant is used to improve blood circulation to the brain and heal the after-effects of a stroke.
• The bark is used to treat diarrhoea, dysentery and parasitic infections.

What is Hambi Kepathu?

• It is also known as Simrit in some parts of Karbi Anglong, is played on three rectangular courts by two teams comprising three members each.
• Each member of a team has to place a ‘hambi’, or the glazed creeper seed, vertically on the midpoint of the boundary line of his court for a player of the rival team to hit with his ‘hambi’.
• Hambi Kepathu, whose name is derived from the first syllables of the names of a Karbi sister-brother duo, is a male-only game like other traditional Karbi games such as ‘Pholong’ (spinning top), ‘Thengtom Langvek’ (torch swimming), and ‘Kengdongdang’ (bamboo stilt race).

Arunachal Pradesh’s Pakke Paga Hornbill Festival gears up for its 9th Edition.

• The 9th edition of the Pakke Paga Hornbill Festival (PPHF), a state festival of Arunachal Pradesh, will take place at Seijosa in the Pakke Kessang district from January 18-20, 2024.
• The first-ever PPHF was held in 2015. The aim was to recognise the role played by the Nyishi tribal group in conserving hornbills in Pakke Tiger Reserve (PTR).
• Other objectives were to raise alternative sources of income for the region and to create awareness in the rest of India about the wonders of PTR and its surrounding areas.
• This year, the festival’s theme is Domutoh Domutoh, Paga hum Domutoh. It translates to ‘Let Our Hornbills Remain’ in the Nyishi language.
• This year’s festival aims to underscore the critical need for preserving these iconic birds.

Key points about Pakke Tiger Reserve:

• It is located in the East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.
• It is surrounded by the Tenga Reserve Forest to the North, Doimara Reserve Forest on the West, Nameri National Park and Tiger Reserve (Assam) on the South.
• The landscape has high species diversity and endemicity as it forms the transition zone between the Indian and Malayan ecoregions.
• It is situated North of the river Brahmaputra in the transition zone between the Assam plains and the hilly forests of Arunachal Pradesh.
• Vegetation: It consists of tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen forest.
• Flora: Polyalthia simiarum, Pterospermum acerifolium, Sterculia alata, Stereospermum chelonioides, Ailanthus grandis and Duabanga grandiflor. About eight species of bamboo occur in the area.
• Fauna: Tiger, Elephant, predators like Leopard and Clouded leopard etc.