Environment & Biodiversity Current Affairs MCQs

Notes:
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin initiated ‘Project Nilgiri Tahr’ from the Secretariat in Chennai, a venture designed to safeguard the State Animal.
This project, funded with ₹25 crore, seeks to enhance knowledge of the Nilgiri Tahr’s population, distribution, and habitat, reintroduce the species to its historical environments, address immediate threats, raise public awareness, and establish eco-tourism activities at specific locations.

Notes:
The Malvinoxhosan biota, an ancient group of aquatic creatures, is thought to have vanished from Gondwana over a span of five million years.
A recent study suggests that climate change played a significant role in their extinction. According to the study, a substantial drop in sea levels caused by climate change resulted in the disappearance of this group of marine animals.

Notes:
A new species of gecko has been discovered in the Western Ghats near Rajapalayam in Viridhunagar district of Tamil Nadu.
Senior scientist Amit Sayyed of Wildlife Protection and Research Society, Maharashtra, who led a team of researchers from different parts of the country, has named the previously undocumented species as Cnemaspis rashidi after his father, Prof. Rashid Sayyed.

Notes:
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu released a book on ‘Snakes of Himachal Pradesh’.
It was compiled and edited by Principal of State Institute of Health and Family Welfare. The book contains the photographs of snakes found at different places in the state. The team caught snakes in forests with the permission of the wildlife wing of the Forest department, took their venom and DNA samples before leaving them back in the same habitat.

Notes:
The central government has issued a notification approving the proposal to merge the Noradehi Sanctuary with the Durgavati Sanctuary of the Damoh district, creating a vast tiger reserve spanning 2,300 square kilometres.
Damoh district in Madhya Pradesh is set to become home to the country’s largest tiger reserve.

Notes:
A critically endangered species as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, has been recorded for the first time in Manipur’s Tamenglong district.
The Saurauia Punduana plant was recorded during a recent Rapid Biodiversity Assessment (RBA) field survey. The survey covered the key areas of the biodiversity heritage sites of Longku forest. The local people call this plant as Anoibang.

Notes:
India has declined to sign on to a global renewable energy pledge launched at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. The pledge commits 118 nations to tripling installed renewable energy capacity globally by 2030. However, India opted out, along with China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran.
India remains committed to its own national renewable energy targets but could not agree to the terms of this specific pledge which could potentially hurt development priorities. India aims to have 50% non-fossil fuel installed electric capacity by 2030.

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The draft text on the Santiago Network has been adopted by the Parties and sent to the Conference of the Parties and Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement.
The collaborative framework aims to connect vulnerable developing countries with technical support and resources to effectively address and manage loss and damage caused by climate change. The waste sector has seen the launch of LOW Methane, an initiative to drastically amplify global action to reduce methane emissions from the waste. It aims to deliver at least one million tonnes of annual waste sector methane reductions well before 2030.

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The researchers of Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have discovered a new species of plant from Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu. The plant has been named ‘Impatiens karuppusamyi’.
The species shows similarity with its alike species Impatiens Bicornis, but differs from it in terms of having small leaves, six to eight flowered, short scape, and small flowers. It also has a conical spur that is horizontally straight with an obtuse tip; base of the anterior lobe with two purplish, fleshy and erect auriculate projections to 1 mm long; stout biseriate purplish-blue hairs in front of the mouth; and orange-pinkish pollen grains. There are more than 1000 species of Impatiens worldwide, of which more than 280 are found in India.

Notes:
As many as 118 countries signed a renewable energy pledge at the ongoing COP28 climate summit to triple the world’s green energy capacity to 11,000 GW by 2030, thereby, reducing the reliance on fossil fuels in generating energy.
According to the “Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge”, countries have to “double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements from around 2% to over 4% every year until 2030”. The pledge is neither legally binding nor a part of the official COP28 calendar. COP28 also has the issue of tripling renewable energy on its agenda.