Environment & Biodiversity Current Affairs MCQs

Notes:
Tropical Cyclone Dikeledi hit Mayotte in January 2025, causing severe flooding and displacing 14,500 people. It followed Tropical Cyclone Chido in December 2024, which devastated Southeast Africa with 260 km/h winds, killing 39 and displacing thousands. Mayotte, a French territory in the Mozambique Channel, is part of the Comoros Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. It comprises two islands: Grande Terre and Petite Terre. Colonized by France in 1843, Mayotte chose to remain French in a 1974 referendum. It is the poorest territory of France and the EU, despite its French overseas department status.

Notes:
The Asan Wetland in Dehradun, Uttarakhand hosted the Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) in January 2025. The census recorded 5,225 birds from 117 species. The census is part of the International Waterbird Census (IWC), which is a global program that monitors waterbirds and their habitats. Asan Wetland is located in Dehradun district at the confluence of the Asan River and Eastern Yamuna Canal, near the Uttarakhand-Himachal Pradesh border. The wetland was created in 1967 due to the damming of the Asan River during the construction of the Dhalipur powerhouse.

Notes:
India is deploying its first human-operated underwater submersible under the Deep Ocean Mission. Initially operating at 500 meters, it will later reach depths of 6,000 meters. It aims to explore underwater resources, identify critical minerals, rare metals, and marine biodiversity, and enhance the blue economy. The Deep Ocean Mission, launched on September 7, 2021, by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, is a Central Sector Scheme.

Notes:
The State Board of Wildlife has conditionally approved the Sharavathy Pumped Storage Project in the Sharavathy Lion-Tailed Macaque Sanctuary. The sanctuary is in the Sharavathi River Valley, Sagar taluk, Shivamogga District, Karnataka. It lies in the Western Ghats, with evergreen and semi-evergreen forests in valleys and grassy patches on hilltops. It was formed by merging Sharavathi Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, Aghanashini Lion-Tailed Macaque Conservation Reserve, and adjoining reserve forests. It shares its southwestern boundary with Mookambika Wildlife Sanctuary.

Notes:
A 2-year-old tigress was found dead in Kanha Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh. Kanha Tiger Reserve, also called Kanha National Park, is the largest national park in Madhya Pradesh. It is located in Mandla and Balaghat districts and lies in the Maikal hills, east of the Satpura range. Established as a national park in 1955, it became a tiger reserve in 1973. The forest in Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” is believed to be inspired by this region. The Gond and Baiga tribes inhabit the area.

Notes:
Mount Taranaki in New Zealand was granted legal personhood, becoming the second natural feature to receive this status. The mountain’s legal identity, Te Kāhui Tupua, includes Taranaki and surrounding land. The recognition acknowledges the historical theft of land from the Māori people after colonization. A newly created entity, with members from Māori tribes and the Conservation Minister, will represent the mountain. This law aims to protect the mountain’s health, cultural significance, and traditional practices. New Zealand previously granted personhood to Te Urewera and the Whanganui River.

Notes:
Kerala Water Authority confirmed that the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) approved the use of 0.0442 hectares of Anamudi Shola National Park for constructing a weir across the Silandhi River. Anamudi Shola National Park is located in the Western Ghats, Kerala. It is surrounded by Eravikulam National Park, Pampadum Shola National Park, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, and Mathikettan Shola Park. Anamudi, the tallest peak in South India, is within this park.

Notes:
A new plant species, Strobilanthes gigantra, was discovered in Arunachal Pradesh within the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). It is exceptionally large, sometimes growing into a tree, with unique floral features like densely imbricate bracts and a curved corolla tube. Strobilanthes is the second-largest genus in the Acanthaceae family, with 167 species in India. Arunachal Pradesh is a biodiversity hotspot with 41 Strobilanthes species. The discovery highlights the rich but understudied flora of the region, reinforcing its importance in botanical research.

Notes:
Human activities outside protected areas are causing biodiversity loss. Extinction filtering removes species sensitive to human disturbances, leaving only those that adapt to degraded habitats. Species evolved in high-disturbance environments are more likely to survive habitat loss and fragmentation. In tropical forests, human overpopulation has driven sensitive mammals to local extinction, while adaptable species persist. This process leads to less diverse and more uniform species in forests. Over time, it weakens ecosystems and reduces their ability to recover from environmental changes.

Notes:
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, also called the Arctic Doomsday Vault, received over 14,000 new seed samples. It is located on the Norwegian Arctic Island and owned by Norway. It is managed by the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food, NordGen, and the Crop Trust. It stores duplicate seeds from global genebanks as a backup against disasters like nuclear war, conflict, or climate change.