UPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS – 7 SEPTEMBER 2026

Context: Ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, Chinese Ambassador Xu Feihong proposed a ‘POWER’ framework for Greater BRICS, calling for stronger Global South cooperation, closer India-China coordination, and collaboration on AI and supply chains.

About The BRICS ‘POWER’ Framework:

What it is?

• The BRICS grouping—following its historic expansions (BRICS+)—has evolved from an economic dialogue forum into a leading multilateral platform for the Global South, offering an alternative to traditional Western-dominated institutions such as the G-7.
• As India (2026 chair) and China (incoming 2027 chair) hold successive presidencies, the proposed ‘POWER’ architecture outlines five foundational pillars to guide political, financial, technological, and developmental cooperation across emerging markets.

Key Data:

• Demographic Reach: Greater BRICS members encompass nearly half of the global population, providing vast domestic consumer bases and labor markets.
• Economic Share & Growth Advantage: The expanded grouping contributes approximately 30% of global GDP (PPP share exceeding one-third).
  • According to IMF projections, Greater BRICS is set to expand nearly three times faster than the G-7 economies through 2028.
• Trade Integration: BRICS economies account for one-fifth (20%) of global trade turnover, controlling vital global production nodes in electronics, steel, critical minerals, and agriculture.
• Bilateral Normalization Metrics: Reflecting improved bilateral ties following diplomatic consensus, India and China have resumed five direct commercial mainland flight routes and reopened border trade after a six-year hiatus.

The Five Pillars of BRICS ‘POWER’:

• P — Principle (Sovereign Equality & International Law):
  • Uphold the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter, including sovereign equality, mutual non-interference in internal affairs, and the peaceful resolution of territorial disputes.
  • Counter hegemonic law of the jungle unilateralism by advancing Beijing’s Global Security Initiative (GSI) and Global Governance Initiative.
• O — Openness (Safeguarding Multilateral Trade):
  • Defend the rules-based multilateral trading system centered around the World Trade Organization (WTO), preserving non-discriminatory Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) treatment.
  • Resist geopolitical decoupling, de-risking, and punitive tariff walls, while deepening cross-border cooperation in infrastructure, energy, and critical mineral supply chains.
• W — Win-Win (Development-Centric Global Agenda):
  • Place socioeconomic development at the core of multilateral dialogue, driving forward the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and shaping the post-2030 global development architecture.
  • Expand local-currency settlements, cross-border payment interoperability, and reciprocal credit arrangements to insulate member states from external financial sanctions and currency volatility.
• E — Engine (Propelling Global Growth & Industrialization):
  • Serve as the growth engine for the world economy by accelerating collaboration in digital public infrastructure, green tech, and smart manufacturing.
  • Advance cross-sectoral integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) through platforms such as the China-BRICS AI Development and Cooperation Center and the China-BRICS New Quality Productive Forces Research Center.
• R — Responsibility (Successive Presidencies & Global South Leadership):
  • Leverage the consecutive rotating presidencies of India (2026) and China (2027) to provide policy continuity and structural stability to the expanded 10-member BRICS mechanism.
  • Champion the institutional reform of Bretton Woods financial institutions and the UN Security Council to amplify the voice of developing nations.

Key Challenges in Realizing the Vision:

• Divergent Strategic Trajectories: India views BRICS as a non-Western coalition dedicated to strategic autonomy and multilateral reform, whereas China and Russia often frame the expanded bloc as an anti-Western counterweight.
• Asymmetries in Bilateral Commerce: Despite shared calls for open trade, India faces a severe, structural trade deficit with China exceeding $85 billion, alongside tariff and non-tariff access barriers for Indian pharmaceuticals and agricultural products.
• Geopolitical Frictions on Unresolved Borders: Tactical confidence-building measures (flight resumptions and hotline activations) remain vulnerable to unresolved Line of Actual Control (LAC) delimitation disputes and upstream dam infrastructure along trans-border rivers.
• De-Dollarization vs. Local Currency Mechanics: While member states favor local currency invoicing to minimize exchange volatility, creating a functional, liquid common settlement architecture or common currency remains constrained by capital control disparities and currency convertibility limits.
• Internal Cohesion Across BRICS+: The rapid accession of diverse Middle Eastern and African economies introduces disparate foreign policy priorities, complicating consensus on international security and trade agendas.

Way Ahead:

• Strengthening India-China Multilateral Coordination: Leverage the New Delhi (2026) and Beijing (2027) summits to harmonize a common Global South development agenda while keeping bilateral border management on a stable, de-escalated track.
• Operationalizing Independent Settlement Infrastructure: Enhance the financial resilience of the New Development Bank (NDB) and develop interoperable cross-border payment rails linking national digital currencies (CBDCs) and domestic payment systems (such as UPI).
• Establishing Open Technology Guardrails: Institutionalize transparent, human-centric multilateral frameworks for Artificial Intelligence governance to prevent algorithmic monopolies while bridging the Global South digital divide.
• Prioritizing Critical Supply Chain Diversification: Build diversified, reciprocal supply partnerships within BRICS in renewable energy manufacturing, fertilizer production, and critical minerals to shield member economies from unilateral export controls.
• Advancing Comprehensive Multilateral Reform: Maintain collective pressure for restructuring voting quotas within the IMF and World Bank, while building a unified consensus on expanding permanent and non-permanent representation in the UN Security Council.

Conclusion:

However, transforming rhetorical consensus into durable global governance requires overcoming acute internal strategic divergences and bilateral friction between its two largest members, India and China. If grounded in sovereign equality, mutual economic accommodation, and tangible institution-building, the expanded BRICS partnership can serve as a steady stabilizer for global development and multilateral peace.

Context: Marking 10 years of RBI’s Flexible Inflation Targeting (FIT), economists argue that India’s Phillips curve is largely flat and inflation expectations remain poorly anchored, questioning whether rate hikes effectively control inflation without hurting growth and employment.

About 10 Years of Flexible Inflation Targeting: Does India Need a Rethink?

What it is?

• Inflation Targeting (IT) is a monetary policy framework where the central bank publicly announces an explicit quantitative target for the medium-term inflation rate (in India, 4% with a tolerance band of ±2%, under the amended RBI Act, 1934).

Both transmission channels rely theoretically on the New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC):

where current inflation (πₜ) is a positive function of future expected inflation (Eₜ[πₜ₊₁]) and the output gap (yₜ − yₜ).* Mainstream theory presumes that as economic output expands, tighter labor markets empower workers to negotiate higher nominal wages, which firms pass into prices via markups. When inflation flares, monetary tightening slides the economy down along the NKPC, exchanging lower output for reduced price pressure.

Key Empirical Data:

• Flat Phillips Curve: IIP and CPI data from April 2012 to March 2026 show an almost flat relationship (κ ≈ 0). This suggests that higher output in India does not necessarily lead to higher inflation.
• Large Informal Workforce: Nearly 92% of Indian workers are in the informal sector, where wage bargaining is limited. So, an increase in economic activity may not result in strong wage-led inflation.
• Gap in Inflation Expectations: RBI’s IESH shows that households generally expect inflation to be around 4 percentage points (400 bps) higher than RBI projections.
• Food Dominates Inflation: Food and beverages make up 45.86% of the CPI basket. Rate hikes have limited impact on inflation caused by crop failures, supply shortages or global commodity prices.

Core Criticisms Raised Against the Framework:

• The Flat Phillips Curve Dilemma: Because the NKPC is flat, hiking policy interest rates reduces domestic output and stalls capital formation without producing a commensurate decrease in inflation, risking monetary-induced stagflation.
• Failure of the Wage-Push Premise: Mainstream NKPC models assume that high output strengthens worker bargaining power. In India’s informal labor market, wages remain stagnant while workers absorb price shocks as price takers.
• Ineffective Inflation Tethering: The expectation channel fails because household perception is anchored heavily in daily retail food and fuel costs rather than the central bank’s published numerical path.
• Disproportionate Burden on the Real Economy: High borrowing costs disproportionately squeeze micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and prospective homeowners, curbing employment creation in manufacturing and construction.
• Neglect of Supply-Side Volatility: Raising the cost of credit cannot address seasonal vegetable crop failures, geopolitical crude oil surges, or domestic supply disruptions.

Counter-Arguments: Why the RBI & Mainstream Economists Defend FIT:

• Macroeconomic Stability & Lower Risk Premia: Since adopting FIT in 2016, India’s headline inflation has averaged lower and displayed significantly less volatility than during the double-digit episodes of 2009–2013, anchoring sovereign bond yields.
• Preventing Generalization of Price Shocks: While interest rates cannot grow vegetables, tightening prevents temporary food and energy price shocks from embedding into core inflation and broader inflationary psychology.
• External Sector Resilience: A transparent, predictable interest rate framework defends the external value of the Rupee by maintaining stable real interest rate differentials against the US Federal Reserve, mitigating capital flight.
• Counter-Cyclical Flexibility: India practices Flexible Inflation Targeting rather than rigid strict targeting. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) accommodates temporary supply shocks by utilizing the full width of the 2%–6% band to support growth during downturns.

Way Ahead:

• Re-Evaluating the Output-Inflation Trade-Off: The Monetary Policy Committee should formally account for labor market informality and the flat Phillips curve when determining the output sacrifice ratio during rate-hiking cycles.
• Prioritizing Coordinated Supply-Side Interventions: Complement monetary policy with fiscal supply management, including targeted market interventions, dynamic food buffer-stock offloading, and strategic strategic fuel excise adjustments.
• Addressing Food Price Volatility Structurally: Invest in climate-resilient cold chains, modern warehouse infrastructure, and decentralized agro-processing to stabilize perishables before price shocks require monetary tightening.
• Refining Inflation Expectations Measurement: Develop nuanced surveying methodologies that distinguish between short-term grocery price perceptions and broader underlying inflation expectations.
• Modernizing the CPI Consumption Basket: Accelerate the revision of the CPI weighting structure (currently using the outdated 2011–12 base) to reduce the disproportionate weight of food items in line with current household consumption trends.

Conclusion:

While the RBI’s framework has fostered macro-financial stability, an overwhelming reliance on monetary demand contraction in an economy marked by a flat Phillips curve and food-driven price swings risks curbing growth. Combining monetary vigilance with active supply-chain management and public investment is essential to stabilizing prices without compromising job creation.

Context: A Special NIA Court in Jagdalpur convicted 10 accused in the 2013 Jhiram Ghati massacre, one of India’s most consequential Maoist attacks.

• The verdict has renewed attention on the attack’s role as a turning point in India’s counter-Left Wing Extremism (LWE) strategy.

About The Jhiram Ghati Massacre:

What is it?

• The Jhiram Ghati massacre was a major Maoist ambush on May 25, 2013, targeting a convoy of Congress leaders returning from a Parivartan Rally in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region.

History and Background:

• Maoist Insurgency: Bastar had emerged as a core area of the CPI (Maoist), aided by difficult terrain, weak connectivity and limited state presence.
• Salwa Judum: In 2005, the controversial anti-Maoist mobilisation Salwa Judum emerged in Chhattisgarh, with Congress leader Mahendra Karma as one of its prominent faces.
• Supreme Court Intervention: In 2011, the Supreme Court restrained the State from arming tribal youth as Special Police Officers for counter-insurgency operations.
• Counter-LWE Strategy: By 2013, security forces were increasingly following a Clear, Hold and Develop approach—enter Maoist strongholds, secure territory and extend roads, communications and public services.
• Maoist Response: The Jhiram attack occurred as security forces were expanding camps into previously Maoist-dominated areas of Bastar.

• Political Targeting: Unlike many earlier attacks focused primarily on security personnel, Jhiram Ghati directly targeted the political leadership of a State.

Implications:

• Rather than forcing a retreat, the attack strengthened political resolve to penetrate and secure Maoist strongholds.
• It exposed the gap between expanding security presence and slower delivery of roads, telecom, healthcare and administration.
• The experience strengthened emphasis on night helicopter evacuation, intelligence coordination and deeper security camps.

Relevance in UPSC Examination Syllabus:

• GS Paper II: Centre-State coordination, governance in tribal and conflict-affected regions, development administration and institutional responses to extremism.
• GS Paper III: Internal Security — Left Wing Extremism, challenges posed by non-state actors, security-development nexus, intelligence and counter-insurgency strategies.
• GS Paper IV: Ethical dimensions of counter-insurgency, human rights, tribal welfare, use of force, accountability and development justice.

Context: The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has intensified regulatory action against food companies for using misleading 100% marketing claims.

About The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA):

What it is?

• The apex regulatory body established to regulate matters relating to the violation of consumer rights, unfair trade practices, and false or misleading advertisements that are prejudicial to public and consumer interest.

Established in: Constituted in July 2020 under Section 10(1) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Aim: To protect, promote, and enforce the rights of consumers as a collective class, preventing exploitative commercial conduct and ensuring marketplace integrity.

Key Functions and Powers:

• Suo Motu Inquiries and Investigations: Holds broad investigative powers to inquire into consumer rights violations, either suo motu, upon receiving complaints, or upon directions from the Central Government, supported by a dedicated Director-General–led Investigation Wing.
• Discontinuation and Penalties for Misleading Ads: Empowered under Section 21 to order the modification or withdrawal of false advertisements and impose financial penalties on manufacturers, traders, and endorsers.
• Product Recalls and Refunds: Can direct the recall of dangerous, hazardous, or unsafe goods, mandate the withdrawal of deficient services, and order full refunds to consumers.
• Enforcement of Guidelines and Safety Alerts: Issues binding guidelines to curb deceptive practices (such as dark patterns, surrogate advertising, and hidden service charges) and issues consumer safety notices.
• Class Action Advocacy: Authorized to file interventions and formal complaints on behalf of consumers before the District, State, or National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions.

Significance:

• Moves consumer dispute resolution from a purely reactive, post-injury adjudicatory process to an institutional regulatory regime capable of intervening before mass harm occurs.
• Empowers the state to take legal action on behalf of all consumers collectively, eliminating the burden on individual citizens to litigate against corporate deceptive practices.

Context: A three-judge Supreme Court Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant directed the Central government to clearly state its position on introducing totaliser machines for counting Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) votes.

About Totaliser:

What is a Totaliser?

• A totaliser is a specialized hardware interface designed to aggregate and count votes recorded across a cluster of approximately 14 EVMs simultaneously. It was jointly engineered by public sector undertakings Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bengaluru, and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Hyderabad.

How It Works and Preserves Voter Secrecy?

• Cluster Connection: The control units of up to 14 EVMs from different polling stations are connected via cables to the totaliser interface.
• Consolidated Tally: When the result button on the totaliser is pressed, it displays the combined votes obtained by each candidate across the entire group of 14 booths as a single consolidated figure.
• Masking Booth Trends: By pooling the results, it eliminates individual, booth-by-booth vote tallies. Because polling booths in India are organized geographically, individual booth counts make it easy to identify how specific neighborhoods, villages, or demographic clusters voted. Totalisers effectively obscure these micro-level voting patterns.

Centre’s Position: Why It Opposes Totalisers

• Targeted Governance: Booth-level results help representatives identify areas needing greater development and welfare attention.
• Limited Risk of Victimisation: The Centre argues that widespread voter intimidation is unlikely amid strong media and public scrutiny.
• Technical Concerns: Linking totalisers may require de-sealing EVMs, creating potential security and data-leak risks.

Election Commission of India’s Stand:

• Supports Ballot Secrecy: The ECI proposed totalisers in 2008 and supported them before the Supreme Court in 2018 to strengthen voter secrecy.
• Legal & Audit Challenges: Implementation requires amendments to the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961. Aggregated counting may also complicate VVPAT verification, Form 17C reconciliation, and identification of booth-specific discrepancies.

Supreme Court’s Stand

• Protect Voter Secrecy: The Court observed that revealing booth-wise voting patterns could expose communities to harassment or retaliation.
• Asked for Review: It sought the Centre’s technical, legal and logistical concerns and asked the ECI to submit its updated proposal.

Significance:

• Eliminates the vulnerability of isolated or caste-segregated rural settlements and urban slums that are prone to selective deprivation of municipal amenities when voting trends are revealed.
• Removes leverage from local political leaders who attempt to intimidate residents with threats of water, electricity, or welfare fund cutoffs.

Context: The United Nations General Assembly passed the Correct the Map resolution (164 votes in favor, 1 against, 6 abstentions), formally endorsing the adoption of the Equal Earth projection.

About Equal Earth Map:

What it is?

• The Equal Earth projection is an equal-area, pseudocylindrical world map projection created in 2018 by cartographers Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson, and Bernhard Jenny.
• It was designed specifically to display the entire globe’s surface while preserving relative landmass sizes accurately without causing the severe, aesthetically jarring shape distortions common in earlier equal-area maps like the Gall-Peters projection.

Current Map Style (The Mercator Projection):

• Origins & Purpose: Formulated in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator specifically as a navigational tool for maritime sailors.
• Conformal Nature: It preserves local shapes, angles, and constant compass bearings (rhumb lines) as straight paths.
• Severe Area Distortion: To keep angles intact on a flat rectangular grid, latitude lines are stretched progressively wider toward the poles. Consequently, equatorial regions appear drastically shrunken, while high-latitude regions appear massive.
  • For instance, Greenland appears roughly equal in size to Africa, even though Africa is actually 14 times larger.

Need for Change:

• Visual and Cognitive Bias: The perpetual dominance of Mercator in classrooms, textbooks, and media creates a psychological impression of northern-hemisphere dominance, minimizing the perceived economic and geopolitical weight of Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.
• Misrepresentation of True Scale: On standard Mercator maps, the African continent’s true expanse—which can easily fit the US, China, India, Japan, and most of Europe within its borders—is drastically downplayed.
• Fixing Earlier Equal-Area Flaws: While the 1970s Gall-Peters map corrected area, it heavily distorted continental shapes. The Equal Earth projection was created to balance area accuracy with visually pleasing, recognizable landmass outlines.

Key Features of the Equal Earth Projection:

• True-to-Scale Surface Area (Equal-Area): Continents and nations are displayed in exact proportion to their true physical surface areas.
• Pleasing Continental Outlines: Inspired by the aesthetic curvature of the Robinson projection, it preserves familiar continental shapes and reduces extreme shearing at higher latitudes.
• Straight Parallels of Latitude: Parallels remain straight horizontal lines, making it easy to compare locations sharing the same latitude across the globe.
• Flexible Centering: Can be constructed with different central meridians, allowing regional variations such as Pacific- or Oceania-centered views instead of exclusively relying on the Greenwich prime meridian.

Significance:

• Addresses centuries of cartographic marginalization, restoring geographic dignity and fair representation to the Global South in international discourse.
• Provides school systems, universities, and public institutions with a realistic reference frame for global geography, natural resource distributions, and climate vulnerability.

Context: Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district have imposed a two-month ban on the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

About Virtual Private Network (VPN):

What it is?

• A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a networking and cybersecurity technology that establishes an encrypted, private communication link between a user’s device and a remote server over a public or unsecure network (such as the internet).
• It masks the user’s real IP address and location, ensuring data privacy and preventing external interception.

Aim: To secure sensitive digital traffic from unauthorized interception, surveillance, or tampering while in transit, enabling secure remote data transmission and private access to networked resources.

Types of VPNs:

• Remote Access VPN: Connects an individual user remotely to a private corporate network or cloud environment, authenticating the user and safeguarding data in transit.
• Site-to-Site VPN: Interconnects fixed network setups across multiple permanent physical locations.
• Client-to-Provider (Commercial) VPN: Used primarily by individual consumers to route standard public browsing traffic through an external intermediary server, encrypting consumer internet activity and masking geolocation.

How It Works?

A VPN operates on three core technical pillars:

• Authentication: Before establishing a session, the user and device credentials are confirmed by the VPN gateway to verify that only authorized endpoints are granted network access.
• Tunneling: The original data packets are encapsulated inside another transport packet through a process known as encapsulation, creating a private virtual tunnel across public internet infrastructure.
• Encryption: Plaintext data is scrambled into unreadable ciphertext using cryptographic protocols. Even if the traffic is intercepted by third parties or internet service providers, it cannot be read without the designated decryption keys.

Key Applications:

• Enterprise and Remote Work Security: Enables employees to securely access internal enterprise tools, private databases, and development servers from off-site locations without exposing them directly to the open internet.
• Secure Hybrid and Cloud Infrastructure: Connects on-premises corporate infrastructure with cloud platforms (such as virtual network gateways), ensuring secure multicloud workflows.
• Academic and Research Connectivity: Allows university students, researchers, and faculty to access proprietary digital libraries, laboratory resources, and internal campus databases from off-campus.
• Public Network Protection: Shields credentials, financial information, and personal communications from eavesdropping, packet-sniffing, and man-in-the-middle attacks on unsecured public Wi-Fi networks.

Context: The historic, fresco-adorned havelis of Rajasthan’s Shekhawati region across 14 key locations have been included in UNESCO’s Tentative List.

About Shekhawati Havelis:

What They Are?

• Large, elaborately decorated ancestral merchant mansions (havelis) renowned for their courtyard architecture, ornate carved wooden doorways, overhanging balconies (jharokhas), and extensive fresco murals.
• Often referred to as the world’s largest open-air art gallery, their walls and ceilings depict mythological epics, folktales, royal courts, and early modern technologies like railways and motorcars.

Located In: The semi-arid Shekhawati region in northern Rajasthan, primarily spanning the districts of Sikar, Jhunjhunu, and Churu.

History:

• Named after Rao Shekha (a 15th-century Rajput chieftain), the region emerged as a vital staging post along historical overland caravan trade routes linking northern India to sea ports on the Arabian Sea.
• Between the 18th and early 20th centuries, wealthy Marwari merchants (traders who made fortunes in major trading hubs like Calcutta and Bombay) channeled their wealth back home to build opulent, multi-courtyard residences as symbols of status and social prestige.
• Local artisans (chiteras) developed a distinct fresco technique (arā’ish and fresco-secco) using natural mineral and vegetable pigments that bonded directly into wet lime plaster.

Key Places and Clusters:

The UNESCO tentative submission covers havelis and heritage properties across 14 prominent settlements:

• Mandawa: Often termed a living art museum, famed for structures like the Hanuman Prasad Goenka and Murmuria havelis.
• Nawalgarh: Renowned for the dense clustering of well-preserved frescoes at the Poddar Haveli Museum, Anandilal Poddar Haveli, and the Aath Haveli complex.
• Fatehpur: Recognized as a premier cultural hub of the region, featuring the Nadine Le Prince cultural centre and Jagannath Singhania Haveli.
• Churu & Ramgarh: Known for monumental architecture, stepped wells (joharas), and mansions like Kanhaiyalal Bagla Haveli.
• Other Covered Locations: Alsisar, Bissau, Chirawa, Dundlod, Jhunjhunu, Khetri, Laxmangarh, Mahansar, and Sikar.

Significance:

• Features climate-responsive dual courtyards (chowks) separating public and private spaces while enabling natural ventilation.
• Murals trace the shift from religious and Rajput themes to colonial-era modernity, depicting aeroplanes, locomotives and phonographs.

Context: Hundreds of saltwater crocodile hatchlings have begun emerging from 117 nesting sites in Odisha’s Bhitarkanika National Park.

About Bhitarkanika National Park:

What it is?

• A protected national park spanning 145 km-sq nested within the larger 672 km-sq Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary. It encompasses India’s second-largest mangrove ecosystem and serves as a premier estuarine wetland reserve.

Located in: The northeastern corner of Kendrapara district in coastal Odisha, bounded by the Bay of Bengal and Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary to the east.

History:

• Originally declared as Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary in April 1975 under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, to rescue the vanishing saltwater crocodile population.
• The core zone of 145 km-sq was officially notified as Bhitarkanika National Park on September 16, 1998.
• Recognized globally as a Ramsar Site (Wetland of International Importance) on August 19, 2002, becoming Odisha’s second Ramsar site after Chilika Lake.

Key Geological Features:

• Deltaic Estuarine Confluence: Formed by the alluvial deltaic deposits of the Brahmani, Baitarani, Dhamra, and Pathsala river systems where freshwater mixes with tidal marine flows.
• Dense Tidal Creek Network: Intersected by a labyrinth of meandering brackish channels, tidal creeks, and mudflats shaped by daily high- and low-tide cycles.
• Active Accretion and Sedimentation: Characterized by dynamic alluvial land accretion, forming low-lying marshes, intertidal silt beds, and floodplains enriched by riverine silt.
• Protective Coastal Barrier Beaches: Flanked on its seaward boundary by barrier sandbars and coastal beaches—such as Gahirmatha and Hukitola—which buffer inland wetlands against marine waves.
• Salt-Rich Soils and Salinity Gradient: Features high-salinity hydromorphic soils that create specialized intertidal conditions required to sustain diverse mangrove species and specialized halophytes.

Significance:

• Saltwater Crocodile Stronghold: Supports one of the world’s densest populations of saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus), including individuals exceeding 6 metres.
• Olive Ridley Nesting Hub: Adjoins Gahirmatha Beach, a major global mass-nesting site for Olive Ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea).