UPSC Quiz – 2024 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 29th June 2024

·       It is a freshwater marsh and partly saline wetland situated about 20 kilometres south of the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

·       It is one of the last remaining natural wetlands in Chennai city.

·       It serves as an aquatic buffer of the flood-prone Chennai and Chengalpattu districts.

·       It drains an area of 250 sq.km, encompassing 65 wetlands, through two outlets, viz., Okkiyam Madavu and the Kovalam Creek, and falls into the Bay of Bengal.

·       On its eastern periphery, the Marsh is flanked by the Buckingham Canal.

·       Parts of the Marsh are well below the mean sea level and qualify as low-lying basins.

·       It is one of the Ramsar sites in India.

·       The diverse ecosystem of the marshland supports some 115 bird species, ten mammals, 21 reptiles, ten amphibians, 46 fish, nine molluscs, five crustaceans, and seven butterfly species.

·       These include notable species such as Russell’s viper (Daboia siamensis) and birds such as the glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), grey-headed lapwings (Vanellus cinereus), and Pheasant-tailed jacana (Hydrophasianus chirurgus).

·       Although tropical in bio-climate, the influence of the Bay of Bengal has been significant on the Marsh.

·       Dramatic changes in its hydrology and biodiversity witnessed annually may be attributed to the maritime influence and the vagaries of the North East Monsoon.

Buckingham Canal

·       The Buckingham Canal is a 796 kilometres (494.6 mi)-long fresh water navigation canal, that parallels the Coromandel Coast of South India from Kakinada City in the Kakinada district of Andhra Pradesh to Village near Chidambaram, Cuddalore District of Tamil Nadu, India. The canal connects most of the natural backwaters along the coast to Chennai (Madras) port.

·       It is an online geospatial data and services dissemination platform to support integration and utilisation of space-based information into governance and research initiatives involving spatial planning up to Gram Panchayat level.

·       It enables visualisation, analysis, sharing of web map service (WMS) services of all thematic data products generated at 1:10k under the Space based Information Support for Decentralized Planning (SISDP) project.

National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM) portal

·       It provides a comprehensive uniform, structured, multi-scale scale geospatial database for the entire country for situational assessment and effective decision-making during disasters/ emergency situations.

·       It acts as a national level geo-portal to provide space-based information with the amalgamation of DSS tools and services of disaster forecasting organisations with value addition addressing all natural disasters in all phases of disasters for an effective Disaster Risk Reduction in the Country.

The 13 Asian Elephant countries include:

·       Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

·       The overall aim of the AsESG is to promote the long-term conservation of Asia’s elephants and aids in the recovery of their populations to viable levels.

·       There are currently over 110 volunteer members from 18 countries.

·       Apart from the members, the Group also has Ex-officio officials from all Range States nominated by the Ministry looking after elephant conservation in the country.

·       Membership is reviewed and reappointed approximately every four years.

·       The AsESG acts as the Red List Authority for the Asian Elephant, carrying out Red List assessments for inclusion in the IUCN Red List.

·       Bornean Elephant – Are the smallest subspecies of Asian elephant, endemic to the island of Borneo.

·       Borneo is the world’s third largest island, shared by Malaysia and Brunei in the north and Indonesia in the south.

·       Borneo elephants are populations are under constant threat due to deforestation and other human activities.

·       Microwave Obscurant Chaff (MOC) is a niche technology developed by DRDO’s Defence Laboratory, Jodhpur.

·       It obscures radar signals and creates a microwave shield around platforms and assets, thus reducing radar detection.

·       Special type of fibres, with diameter of a few micrometers and unique microwave obscuration properties, has been assembled in the medium range chaff rocket.

How does it function?

·       When the rocket is fired it forms a microwave obscurant cloud in space spreading over a sufficient area, with adequate persistence time, thus creating an effective shield against hostile threats having Radio Frequency seekers.

·       DRDO has indigenously developed three variants of this critical technology namely Short Range Chaff Rocket (SRCR), Medium Range Chaff Rocket (MRCR) and Long Range Chaff Rocket (LRCR).

·       It inhabits at an elevation of 200 to 3000 metres.

·       The animal is distributed from the Himalayan belt to southern China and Sumatra.

·       Its populations are fragmented, isolated and rapidly declining due to poaching and habitat loss.

·       The horns are only characteristic of the males and are light-coloured, approximately six inches in length, and curve slightly towards the animal’s back.

·       It is protected under CITES Appendix I and listed as Vulnerable (VU) in the IUCN red list.

·       The three species of the animals are Japanese serow, red serow and Taiwan or Formosan serow.

·       Red serow is found in eastern India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

·       It was recently recorded at 96 metres above the mean sea level in western Assam’s Raimona National Park.

·       The Himalayan serow is a sub species of mainland serow.

·       Himalayan serow inhabits hilly forests above an elevation of 300 m, but descends to 100 m in winter.

·       It is listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.