UPSC Quiz – 2021 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 7th September 2021

Solution (d)

Birds of prey, also known as raptors, include species of bird that primarily hunt and feed on vertebrates that are large relative to the hunter.

Raptors prey on a wide range of vertebrates and thus, facilitate long-distance seed dispersal. This indirectly increases seed production and pest control.

The presence of raptors in the wild serves as a barometer of ecological health. Birds of prey are predators at the top of the food chain; because threats like pesticides, habitat loss, and climate change have the most dramatic impact on top predators, we refer to them as indicator species. 

Researching the population trends of raptors provides a cost-effective and efficient means to detecting environmental change, allowing us to take conservation action that is driven by the latest scientific data. Raptors also play an important ecological role by controlling populations of rodents and other small mammals.

Article Link: Raptor attention: 160 species of birds of prey endangered worldwide

Solution (c)

The Kasai River is a tributary (left side) of the Congo River, located in Central Africa. 

The river begins in central Angola and flows to the east until it reaches the border between Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where it turns north and serves as the border until it flows into the DRC.

The Kasai basin consists mainly of equatorial rainforest areas, which provide an agricultural land in a region noted for its infertile, sandy soil. It is a tributary of Congo river and diamonds are found in it.

Article Link: Toxic spill at Angola diamond mine pollutes Congo River tributary in DRC

Solution (c)

Hemis National Park is a high altitude national park in Ladakh, India. Globally famous for its snow leopards, it is believed to have the highest density of them in any protected area in the world.

It is the only national park in India that is north of the Himalayas, the largest notified protected area in India (largest National park) and is the second largest contiguous protected area, after the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve and surrounding protected areas. 

The park is home to a number of species of endangered mammals, including the snow leopard. 

Hemis National Park is India’s protected area inside the Palearctic realm, outside the Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary northeast of Hemis, and the proposed Tso Lhamo Cold Desert Conservation Area in North Sikkim.

The park is bounded on the north by the banks of the Indus River, and includes the catchments of Markha, Sumdah and Rumbak, and parts of the Zanskar Range.

Article Link: Ladakh adopts State animal and bird

Solution (b)

Perform, Achieve and Trade’ (PAT) scheme is a regulatory instrument to reduce specific energy consumption in energy intensive industries, with an associated market based mechanism to enhance the cost effectiveness through certification of excess energy saving which can be traded.

This scheme is been implemented by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency to make India’s industrial sector energy efficient.

PAT has been launched under the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency, one of the eight missions under the umbrella National Action Plan on Climate Change, launched in June 2008.

Article Link: PAT scheme sets industries on path of energy efficiency

Solution (a)

Houthis are an armed rebel group belonging to the Zaidi Shia sect fighting against the government of Yemen. Traditionally, the Houthis have been concentrated in the northwestern Saada Province of Yemen.

Article Link: At least 30 killed in Houthi strikes on Yemen base