Jharkhand
- Palamu reserve brings captive sambars to increase tiger prey base
- The Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) authority has brought 16 sambars from Ranchi’s Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park, popularly known as Birsa Zoo, to increase the prey base for the big cats in Jharkhand’s lone tiger den.
- However, food, public distribution and consumer affairs minister Saryu Rai has raised objection over shifting.
- Now, the authorities have decided to increase the population of sambar in the reserve so that fodder could be provided to the tiger.
- This was not the first case where zoo animals were shifted to wild in Jharkhand. In 2013, Hazaribag sanctuary had brought deer and sambar from the Birsa zoo.
INTERNATIONAL
- NASA’s Hubble detects Exoplanet with glowing water atmosphere.
- NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope discovered the strongest evidence to date for the stratosphere on a planet outside our solar system, WASP-121b.
- The stratosphere is a layer of atmosphere in which temperature increases with higher altitudes.
- The discovery was made by an International team of researchers led by the University of Exeter by observing glowing water molecules in WASP-121b’s atmosphere.
- The WASP-121b exoplanet is gas giant commonly referred to as a ‘hot Jupiter’. It has 1.2 times greater mass and 1.9 times greater radius than Jupiter.
NATIONAL
- Around 750 projects awaiting environmental clearance: Government.
- Around 750 projects in various states are awaiting environmental clearance, with a maximum of 194 from
- A total of 741 proposals are awaiting environmental clearance of which 194 are from Maharashtra.
- 95 proposals from Gujarat and 86 from Uttar Pradesh were awaiting environmental clearance.
- The Environment ministry has taken various steps to speed up the process of disposing the applications for environmental clearance.
- They include dedicated online portal for effective monitoring, standardisation of terms of reference for preparation of EIA reports and the Environment Management Plan, exemption from public consultations to certain projects, streamlining the procedure among others.
- Gk bit – The proposals for forest clearances under the provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, for diversion of forest lands, for non-forestry use are considered in the Ministry and is accorded in two stages.
- Environment ministry is on stage I or in principle approval, which mandates conditions to be complied with for the issue of the subsequent stage II or final approval, which is the prior approval of the central government.
- Vijender won the WBO Oriental Super Middleweight title.