Environment & Biodiversity Current Affairs MCQs

Notes:
The Flamingo Festival recently attracted many families to Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary, which is located near Sullurpeta in Andhra Pradesh. It is located close to Pulicat Lake, the second-largest salt lake in India. The sanctuary is an important breeding site for the spot-billed pelican. It has rich vegetation, including Barringtonia swamp forests and southern dry evergreen scrub.

Notes:
The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change chaired a meeting of NIRANTAR, the National Institute for Research & Application of Natural Resources to Transform, Adapt and Build Resilience. NIRANTAR is a collaborative platform of institutions under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) aimed at strengthening coordination and cooperation. The platform is organised into four verticals that focus on research, assessment, and utilisation of natural resources, with special emphasis on bioresources. NIRANTAR seeks to promote sustainable use of bioresources to support development while ensuring ecological balance.

Notes:
The Miyawaki method is increasingly used in cities where green cover has declined over decades, and it is often seen in recent urban greening drives. It is an afforestation technique developed in the 1970s by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. Trees and shrubs are planted very close together, also called the pot plantation method. Only native species are planted, creating a resilient and balanced ecosystem. Forests grow nearly 10 times faster and become very dense with high biodiversity. Recent municipal projects have used this method to convert polluted and barren urban land into green spaces, reducing pollution, improving soil, and enhancing ecological balance.

Notes:
Indian scientists discovered a rare subterranean amphibian species named Gegeneophis valmiki in the northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra. The species is named after Maharshi Valmiki Mandir located near the discovery site. It belongs to the genus Gegeneophis, commonly known as blind caecilians. Caecilians are limbless, worm-like amphibians that live underground with eyes hidden under skin and bone. They do not croak like frogs, making field identification very difficult. The Western Ghats host 26 endemic caecilians, and this is the first Gegeneophis discovery in over a decade.

Notes:
The Vishwamitri River flows through Vadodara in Gujarat and is called India’s Crocodile River due to mugger crocodiles. It is a small, non-perennial river originating from the western and southern slopes of the Pavagadh Hills in eastern Gujarat. The river flows westward through Vadodara, joins tributaries Dhadar and Jambuva, and drains into the Arabian Sea via the Gulf of Khambhat. It hosts the protected mugger crocodile (Crocodylus palustris).

Notes:
The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has launched a digital portal for issuing Certificates of Origin for cultivated medicinal plants. The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) functions under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The portal enables stakeholders to obtain Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) exemptions through an end-to-end online, single-window system.

Notes:
The Arunachal Pradesh government recently approved capturing a tiger that killed a head constable along the Roing–Mayodia road inside Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary. Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary is in Arunachal Pradesh and is named after the scenic Mehao Lake in its core zone. The terrain is hilly, with altitudes ranging from 400 m to 3,560 m. The sanctuary has four forest types: Tropical Evergreen, Sub-Tropical & Temperate, Temperate Broadleaf, and Temperate Conifer Forests.

Notes:
A new trapdoor spider species, Titanidiops kolhapurensis, was discovered in the grasslands of Kolhapur district, Maharashtra. It was found by researchers from Thackeray Wildlife Foundation and Shivaji University, Kolhapur. The spider creates vertical or slanted burrows in flat or sloping grassy meadows. Its burrow entrances are highly camouflaged, blending with soil and grass. The species thrives in natural forests and native grasslands. It is absent in areas dominated by exotic plantations like Gliricidia sepium (Undirmari). Due to rapid habitat degradation, it faces the risk of local extinction.

Notes:
Supreme Court of India allowed construction of a road through Rajaji National Park with condition that no commercial vehicles will operate on it. It is located in Uttarakhand between the Shivalik ranges and the Indo-Gangetic plains. It was formed by merging Rajaji, Motichur and Chilla wildlife sanctuaries. It is named after C. Rajagopalachari, a freedom fighter known as Rajaji.

Notes:
A lone Ferruginous Pochard was recently sighted at Amoor Lake in Chennai along with a flock of Common Pochards. The Ferruginous Pochard, also called the ferruginous duck or white-eyed pochard, is a medium-sized diving duck native to the Eurosiberian region. It prefers shallow freshwater wetlands with rich submerged and floating vegetation and dense emergent plants along the margins. The species is distributed across Europe, Asia and parts of Africa, and winters mainly around the Mediterranean Basin and Black Sea. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), it is classified as Near Threatened.