QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 24 DECEMBER 2017

Solution: d.

According to the Wildlife Institute of India’s website (http://wiienvis.nic.in/Database/IBA_8463.aspx), Doyang reservoir is designated as a ‘Potential IBA’ (but the Hindu article mentions otherwise). Nevertheless, if and when it is designated as an IBA, it will in all likelihood be under the criteria mentioned in option ‘d’, as this reservoir is associated with the migratory bird Amur falcon (designated by IUCN as a species of ‘least concern’)..

• The IBAs (http://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/programme-additional-info/important-bird-and-biodiversity-areas-ibas) are “places of international significance for the conservation of birds and other biodiversity” and are “distinct areas amenable to practical conservation action,” according to BirdLife International.
• Declaring a site as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area does not ensure that the site gets legal protection or becomes inaccessible to people. Instead BirdLife International encourages national and State governments to recognise the areas as sites of vital importance for conservation of wildlife and to empower local community-based conservation initiatives.

Global IBA criteria: http://datazone.birdlife.org/site/ibacritglob;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/the-amur-falcon-goes-to-school/article22239227.ece

Solution: a.

“The Biju Janata Dal today accused the NDA government of compromising its neutrality in Odisha’s dispute with Chhattisgarh over Mahanadi river water-sharing and sought an urgent debate in the Lok Sabha over setting up of a tribunal to resolve differences between the two states. Raising the issue during Zero Hour, BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab alleged that the BJP-led government has gone back on its word on establishing a tribunal as it had promised over a year ago. Mahtab said the central government has conveyed to the Supreme Court that no tribunal would be set up to resolve the Mahanadi water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh.”

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/centres-neutrality-compromised-in-mahanadi-water-dispute-bjd/articleshow/62171922.cms;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/mahadayi-farmers-up-pressure/article22269483.ece;

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Solution: b.

• The ICG has been accordingly nominated in 1986 as the Central Coordinating Authority for oil-spill response in the Maritime Zones of India.
• The ports are responsible for oil-spill clean-up within port limits, and oil-handling agencies are responsible for oil-spill clean-up upto 500 meters around the oil-handling installations.
• The Coastal States and Union Territories are responsible for shoreline clean-up, whenever the oil-spill reaches the shore, and threatens the shoreline.

http://www.indiancoastguard.gov.in/content/246_3_MarineEnvironmentProtection.aspx;

Source/Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/disposing-of-toxic-chocolate-mousse-scooped-in-buckets-safely/article22268042.ece;

Solution: a.

A GK Question.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/in-defence-of-national-health-service/article22267403.ece;

Solution: b.

It is a large peninsula jutting out in a southwesterly direction from the southern coastline of Liaoning province, northeastern China. It partly separates the Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli) to the west from Korea Bay to the east, and, with the Shandong Peninsula to the south, it forms the Bo Hai Strait.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Liaodong-Peninsula;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/platform-created-to-connect-chinese-hardware-with-indian-software/article22080815.ece;

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Solution: d.

Most scientists define the Arctic as the area within the Arctic Circle, a line of latitude about 66.5° north of the Equator. Within this circle are the Arctic ocean basin and the northern parts of Scandinavia, Russia, Canada, Greenland, and the U.S. state of Alaska.

Additional Information:

• The Arctic Report Card (hereafter ‘ARC’) has been issued annually since 2006. It is a timely and peer-reviewed source for clear, reliable and concise environmental information on the current state of different components of the Arctic environmental system relative to historical records.
• Despite relatively cool summer temperatures, observations in 2017 continue to indicate that the Arctic environmental system has reached a ‘new normal’, characterized by long-term losses in the extent and thickness of the sea ice cover, the extent and duration of the winter snow cover and the mass of ice in the Greenland Ice Sheet and Arctic glaciers, and warming sea surface and permafrost temperatures.

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/arctic/;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/frozen-no-more/article22269187.ece;

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Solution: c.

Asiatic cheetahs were once widespread across the continent but were eradicated in India, where they were hunted for sport. The spread of farming also greatly reduced numbers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Eventually the animal was wiped out in all the nations of Asia to which it was once native – with the exception of a few areas of Iran.

It is on the verge of extinction, according to conservationists, with less than 50 of the critically endangered species still alive. Iran, home to all these cheetah, has already witnessed the extinction of the Asiatic lion and the Caspian tiger. The warning comes in the wake of the United Nation’s decision (UNDP) to pull funding from the protection of the second-rarest cat species.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/16/asiatic-cheetah-brink-extinction-iran-un-funding;

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/asiatic-cheetah-on-verge-of-extinction/article22269183.ece;

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