IAS VIKRANT

👉Chanhudaro was a Harappan city without a citadel.

• Major findings: ⚡️Inkpot, lipstick, metal workers, shell ornament makers and bead-makers shops,imprint of dog's paw on a brick, terracotta model of a bullock cart, bronze toy cart.

👉

Rakhigarhi

is located in Hisar district (Haryana), in the Ghaggar-Hakra river plain. ⚡️It is the largest Harappan site in the India. 👉

Surkotada

is in Kutch district,

Gujarat

⚡️It is the only Indus site where the remains of a horse have actually been found.

👉

Dholavira site

is in the

Kutch District, Gujarat.

⚡️It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021. ⚡️Major findings: A unique water harnessing system and its storm water drainage system, a large well and a bath (giant water reservoirs). ⚡️Only site to be divided into 3 parts. ⚡️Largest Harappan inscription used for civic purposes.

Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM 46)

👉The 46th edition of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) commenced in Kochi, Kerala, on Monday (May 20). Often referred to as the "Antarctic Parliament," the treaty serves as a framework for peaceful coexistence and scientific collaboration on the continent. 👉Initially signed by 12 countries on December 1, 1959, the treaty came into effect in 1961, with a total of 56 countries joining since then. 👉India became a signatory in 1983. 👉India's first Antarctic research station, Dakshin Gangotri, was established in 1983 in Queen Maud Land, operating until 1990. 👉The second station, Maitri, in the Schirmacher Oasis, was established in 1989 and remains operational to this day. 👉In 2012, India inaugurated its third Antarctic research station, Bharati, located on the Prydz Bay coast.

Copernicus Emergency Management Service

👉The European Union (EU) activated its rapid satellite mapping service in response to a helicopter crash involving Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on May 19. 👉The EU's Copernicus programme, a key part of its space initiatives, facilitated this response. 👉Copernicus aims to monitor the Earth's environment through data collected by a network of satellites called the Sentinels, playing a critical role in emergency management and environmental monitoring. 👉Earlier it was called Global Monitoring for Environmental Security (GMES). 👉Currently, it is implemented by the European Commission (EC) with support from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Environment Agency (EEA).

👉Deepthi Jeevanji is an Indian para-athlete from Telangana (Jeevanji was born in Kalleda village, Warangal district) 👉She takes part in the women’s 400 meters T20 run. 👉In the Para Athletic World Championship 2024 at Kobe, Japan, she set a world record in the 400m T20 category clocking 55.06 sec on 20 May 2024. 👉She also qualified for the Paris Paralympics. 👉Earlier, she set the Asian Para Games record in 2023. 👉She broke the record of American Breanna Clark, which stood at 55.12s.

Explanation :

Reasons for the lack of cyclone formation in the South Atlantic

👉Sea surface temperatures run a shade cooler than the one ideal for tropical cyclone formation. 👉Climatologically high values of vertical wind shear across that basin throughout the year even in summer. Vorticity: Lack of pre-existing centres of rotation in the area. 👉Absence of tropical waves. 👉The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITZC), which shifts toward the north in northern summer and toward the south in the southern summer, usually stays at or north of the equator. 👉The tropospheric vertical wind shear is much too strong and there is typically no inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) over the ocean. 👉Without an ITCZ to provide synoptic vorticity and convergence resulting in large-scale spin and thunderstorm activity as well as having strong wind shear, it becomes very difficult to generate tropical cyclones. 👉ITCZ stays at or near the equator and does not shift southward over the south Atlantic or South Pacific region. 👉Therefore, these regions do not have the ITCZ over them which is a major cause of the lack of cyclones. 👉Lower sea temperatures are also a reason.

Cyclone Remal, which has developed in the Bay of Bengal, is expected to make landfall between Sagar islands in West Bengal and Khepupara in Bangladesh.

👉North and South 24 Parganas, Purba Medinipur, Howrah, Hooghly districts in West Bengal have been placed under red alert, as the storm gets closer Sunday. Extremely heavy rainfall (over 204mm in 24 hours)with gusty winds over these districts. 👉Cyclone Remal is a tropical cyclone. The name Remal, meaning 'sand' in Arabic, was chosen Oman, and assigned according to the standard convention of naming tropical cyclones in the region. 👉The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) classifies cyclones broadly into two categories: extratropical cyclones and tropical cyclones. 👉A "Cyclonic Storm' or a "Cyclone" is an intense vortex or a whirl in the atmosphere with very strong winds circulating around it in anti-clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere and in clockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. 👉Tropical cyclones are also referred to as'Hurricanes' over Atlantic Ocean, 'Typhoons' over Pacific Ocean, 'Willy-Willies' over Australian Seas and simply as 'Cyclones' over north Indian Ocean (NIO).Also known as mid-latitude cyclones, extratropical cyclones occur outside the tropics (that is beyond the areas that fall under the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn). 👉They have "cold air at their core, and derive their energy from the release of potential energy when cold and warm air masses interact", according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

About half of the world's rangelands are degraded and need policy interventions, and communities depending on them need focused support, according to a new report of the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD). 👉The UNCCD report defines rangelands as natural or semi-natural ecosystems that are grazed by livestock or wild animals. 👉Vegetation in rangelands includes grasses, shrubs, bushes, open forests, and agroforestry systems (land with trees, crops, or pastures). 👉Rainfall, temperature, and other climate variables all have an impact on the vegetation in rangelands. 👉Rangelands currently occupy 80 million square kilometres of the Earth's terrestrial surface area (more than half of all land), making them the world's largest land cover or land use type, according to the UNCCD research. 👉They serve as carbon sinks (absorbing more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit), freshwater storage facilities, and prevent land desertification. Millions of people worldwide rely on rangelands for food security and livelihoods. 👉Rangelands provide 16% of world food output and 70% of feed for tamed herbivores, primarily in Africa and South America. 👉According to the UNCCD report, rangelands in India cover around 1.21 million square kilometres, stretching from the Thar Desert to Himalayan meadows. 👉According to the UNCCD assessment, over half of the world's rangelands are "degraded" and suffering a "silent demise" 👉Climate change, inappropriate land and livestock management practices, biodiversity loss, and the conversion of rangelands to farmlands are among the key causes of rangeland degradation.