India Meteorological Department
Prelims- Geography
1. The India Meteorological Department’s Regional Meteorological Centre has started including cities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in its forecasts.
2. The IMD has started including Gilgit-Baltistan and Muzaffarabad, which are parts of PoK, under the Jammu and Kashmir meteorological sub-division.
3. India has maintained that the area under PoK belongs to India.
4. The inclusion of Muzaffarabad and Gilgit-Baltistan follows Pakistan’s Supreme Court order allowing elections in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Source: The Hindu
Luhman 16A
Prelims- Science & Technology
1. A group of international astrophysicists have identified cloud bands on the surface of Luhman 16A, one of a pair of binary brown dwarfs in the Vela constellation.
2. They have used an idea put forth by Indian astrophysicist Sujan Sengupta, that the light emitted by a cloudy brown dwarf, or reflected off an extrasolar planet, will be polarised.
3. A polarimetric technique could serve as a potential tool to probe the environment of these objects. The polarisation of brown dwarfs was also detected.
4. They have found the actual structure of the clouds — that they form bands over one of the pairs (Luhman 16A) of brown dwarfs.
5. Understanding the cloud system over a brown dwarf helps to understand the pressure, temperature and climate on the surface of the celestial body.
6. Luhman 16 is a binary star system and is the third closest system to the Sun after Alpha Centauri and Barnard’s star.
7. This pair of brown dwarfs referred to as Luhman 16A and Luhman 16B orbit each other, casting a dim light.
8. Brown dwarfs are also called failed stars as their masses are intermediate to the largest planets and the smallest main sequence stars.
9. With small masses, they are unable to sustain fusion of their hydrogen to produce energy. It is believed that some of the more massive brown dwarfs fuse deuterium or lithium and glow faintly.
10. The faintness of the glow proved to be providential in finding the cloud bands.
11. While Luhman 16A is found to have band-like clouds in its atmosphere, it is not in Luhman 16B.
Source: The Hindu
Sunderban Tigers
Prelims- Environment
1. The latest estimation of tiger numbers in the Indian Sundarbans indicates an increase in the population of Sunderban Tigers.
2. The Sunderbans delta, spread over India and Bangladesh, is the only mangrove forest in the world inhabited by tigers.
3. The Sundarban mangrove forest is spread over 2,585 sq. km and includes the Sundarban Tiger Reserve and the 24 Parganas (South) Division.
4. Sunderbans is a world heritage site as well as a Ramsar site.
5. Estimation of the number of tigers in the Sunderbans, has always been a challenge because of the difficult terrain that comprises dense mangrove forests, with creeks and rivulets, and floods twice a day during the high tides.
Source: The Hindu
Domestic Violence
Prelims-Miscellaneous
1. Emergency services have seen a sharp rise in domestic abuse calls under lockdowns imposed across the continent.
2. During lockdown, women and children are most vulnerable to abuse.
3. Countries are reporting up to a 60% increase in emergency calls by women subjected to violence by their intimate partners .
4. Domestic violence often increases in times of crisis and is exacerbated due to restrictions and containment measures put in place to limit the spread of the new coronavirus.
5. The UN agency for sexual and reproductive health (UNFPA) has estimated that there would be 31 million more cases of domestic violence worldwide if lockdowns continue for another six months.
Indian Law
1. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 was enacted to protect women from domestic violence.
2. The Act provides for the first time in Indian law a definition of "domestic violence", that is broad and includes physical and other forms of violence such as emotional/verbal, sexual, and economic abuse.
3. It is a civil law meant primarily for protection orders and not meant to be enforced criminally.
Source: The Hindu
Surge-type glaciers
Prelims- Geography
1. Scientists from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology(WIHG), Dehradun an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology have found a seasonal advancement in surge-type glaciers in the Karakoram Range of Ladakh.
2. ‘Surging’ or ‘Surge-type’ glaciers are a certain type of glaciers that have shown advancement in volume and length over a period of time.
3. The behaviour of these glaciers that represent 40% of the total glaciated area of the Karakoram goes against the normal trend of considerable reduction in volume and length of most glaciers in the Himalaya in recent decades.
4. Surging of glaciers is potentially catastrophic as it can lead to the destruction of villages, roads and bridges. It can also advance across a river valley and form an ice-dammed lake.
5. These lakes can form catastrophic outburst floods. So, monitoring of glacier surges, ice-dammed lake formation, and drainage is important.
6. The surge during winter is more hydrological controlled due to staggered subglacial flow and low amount of meltwater.
7. The surging terminates in summer due to channelized flow of meltwater and considerable heterogeneity in movement is also observed during summer and springtimes.
8. The study will help to understand the diversity of glacial behaviour and help make accurate assessments of individual glacier mass balances for disaster planning and management.
Source: PIB
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