Environment & Biodiversity Current Affairs MCQs

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A rare golden tiger, also called a golden tabby tiger, was recently seen and photographed in Kaziranga National Park in Assam. The golden tiger is not a separate subspecies but a rare colour variant of the Bengal tiger caused by a genetic mutation. This mutation affects the production of black pigment, giving the tiger a pale golden coat with light orange stripes. Only four golden tigers are known to exist in the wild, and all are found in Kaziranga National Park. Their presence highlights the rich biodiversity and conservation success of the park.

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Marine scientists have captured the world’s first video of a colossal squid swimming freely in the wild. This event comes nearly 100 years after the species was first discovered by researchers. The colossal squid is one of the largest and most mysterious invertebrates on Earth. Its scientific name is Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni. It is found in the cold, deep waters of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. Despite its size and rarity, the colossal squid is listed as Least Concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

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A rare and nearly complete fossil of Alamosaurus was recently discovered by geology students at Big Bend National Park in the United States of America. Alamosaurus was one of the largest herbivorous dinosaurs and lived during the late Cretaceous period around 100.5 to 66 million years ago. It was a sauropod with a long neck, long tail, and pillar-like legs, and had armoured spikes on its back for protection. Alamosaurus is the only known sauropod from North America’s Upper Cretaceous period and was the largest land animal in the region at that time. It stood about 11 meters tall, stretched 30.5 meters long, and weighed up to 80 metric tons, rivaling the size of Argentinosaurus from South America. Alamosaurus went extinct during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, making it one of the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist.

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The Poas volcano in Costa Rica, one of the country’s top tourist spots, erupted recently, drawing global attention. It is one of the most active volcanoes in Costa Rica and is located inside the Poás Volcano National Park. The volcano is a composite stratovolcano with an irregular shape and a base covering around 400 square kilometers. It stands 2,708 meters above sea level and features a huge main crater about 1.5 kilometers wide and 300 meters deep. This crater is one of the largest active volcanic craters in the world.

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Rajasthan has joined India’s first inter-state cheetah conservation corridor with Madhya Pradesh. This wildlife corridor is designed to connect protected areas in both states, allowing reintroduced cheetahs to roam safely across a vast ecosystem. The corridor covers 17,000 square kilometers, with 10,500 square kilometers in Madhya Pradesh and 6,500 square kilometers in Rajasthan. Key locations include Palpur Kuno National Park and Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, which will serve as cheetah habitats. Mukundara Hills Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, along with several districts like Kota and Sawai Madhopur, has been identified as a cheetah habitat.

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The American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have recently launched formal hydrogen exploration initiatives. Hydrogen is seen as the fuel of the future due to its ability to help decarbonize the global economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Natural hydrogen, or white hydrogen, is hydrogen that naturally occurs in the Earth’s crust, unlike industrially produced hydrogen. It forms through geological processes such as serpentinisation, where water reacts with iron-rich rocks, radiolysis, the breakdown of water by radioactive rocks, and the decomposition of organic matter in deep geological formations.

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A recent breakthrough came as an international team of scientists successfully mapped the genome of the Saola using tissue fragments from hunter-collected remains. The Saola, scientifically named Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, is one of the rarest land mammals and is nicknamed the “Asian Unicorn” because of its secretive nature. It was first discovered in 1992 during a joint survey by the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). It is listed as Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, with only about 50 to 300 individuals estimated as of 2015. The Saola lives in the evergreen forests of the Annamite Mountains along the Vietnam–Laos border, a region rich in biodiversity and rainfall.

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A recent peer-reviewed study published in the journal PLOS ONE found that Ladakh has the highest recorded density of snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in the world. Out of India’s estimated 709 snow leopards, about 477 individuals, nearly 68 percent, were found in Ladakh. Hemis National Park reported the world’s highest density at 2.07 snow leopards per 100 square kilometers. Snow leopards in Ladakh occupy around 47,572 square kilometers of mountainous terrain. Around 39 percent of snow leopards are mostly active in protected areas, while 57 percent use them for movement.

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A proposed ₹23.7 crore ecotourism project in Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary, Meghalaya, has recently faced strong opposition from local groups and environmental activists. Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya and lies within the Eastern Himalayan Global Biodiversity Hotspot. The sanctuary’s landscape includes undulating plains, low hills, and rugged terrain shaped by the Umtrew River and its tributaries like Umran, Umling, and Umtasor. Umtrew River forms the western boundary of the sanctuary. It is home to over 400 bird species including the endangered Rufous-necked Hornbill, and mammals like the Clouded Leopard, Elephant, and Himalayan Black Bear.

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The pre-monsoon estimation of tigers and other animals has recently begun in the Pollachi and Tiruppur divisions of Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR). It is located in the Anamalai Hills at an altitude of 1400 metres in the Pollachi and Coimbatore districts of Tamil Nadu. It lies on the southern side of the South Western Ghat landscape. It is bordered by Parambikulam Tiger Reserve to the east and Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and Eravikulam National Park to the southwest. It is also surrounded by Nenmara, Vazhachal, Malayattur, and Marayur reserved forests of Kerala. UNESCO has identified Kariyan Shola, Grass Hills, and Manjampatti within ATR as a World Heritage Site.