KARNATAKA

Study shows link between deforestation and human-elephant conflict

A study carried out in the Western Ghats shows that deforestation has led to the loss of 6,761 sq km of elephant habitat over 40 years leading to increase in human-elephant conflict.

The study area spanned over 47,000 sq km across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and included Bhadra Tiger Reserve in the northern most point and the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve in the south — an area which hosts one of the highest densities and abundance of wild Asian elephants in the world.

Data shows that between 1960 and 2004, a total of 4,023 sq km of forests and 2,738 sq km of scrub amounting to 6,761 sq km (16,70,679 acres) of elephant habitat was lost to agriculture, infrastructure development, and other activities.

INTERNATIONAL

Indo-Lanka Joint Naval Exercise SLINEX 2019

The annual Joint Indo-Lanka maritime fleet exercise – SLINEX 2019 is scheduled to be held from 07 September 2019.

Sri Lankan Navy is sending two ships to India to participate in the exercise with the Indian Navy.

The offshore patrol vessels, SLNS Sindurala and Suranimala left Trincomalee on are scheduled to arrive at the port of Visakhapatnam.

The week-long exercise will be attended by 323 Sri Lankan navy personnel including the commanding flag officer of the naval fleet.

· Zimbabwe former President Robert Mugabe passed away

Zimbabwe’s former President Robert Mugabe passed away in Singapore at the age of 95 on 6 September. Mugabe is a country’s independence struggler. He was receiving treatment in a hospital in Singapore since April.

After the independence movement resulted in 1980, Mugabe was elected as the nation’s 1st black prime minister until 1987. He was ousted in a military coup in 2017 after 37 years in power.

· Russia to conduct 2019 Exercise TSENTR

Exercise TSENTR 2019is a component of the annual exercises part of the Russian Armed Forces like an annual coaching cycle. Exercise TSENTR 2019 is conducted by the Central military commission of Russia. This year the exercise is planned to be held between 9-23 September at Donguz coaching ranges in Russia.

TSENTR 2019 aims to evolve drills and give practice to the participating armies in the fight against the scourge of international terrorism.It also aims to ensure military security in the strategic Central Asian region. The exercise will also focus on evaluating the preparedness of the level of the troop, the acquisition of the required skills and raising the level of interoperability and demonstrate the readiness of the participating armie

NATIONAL

Communications from lander ‘Vikram’ lost: ISRO

In a huge disappointment, communications from Chandrayaan-2’s Vikram lander to ISRO’s ground station here was lost before touchdown while the nation eagerly awaited its soft landing on the hitherto unexplored lunar south pole.

GK bit : Mission Chandrayaan 2

The primary objective of Chandrayaan 2 is to demonstrate the ability to soft-land on the lunar surface and operate a robotic rover on the surface. Scientific goals include studies of lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, the lunar exosphere, and signatures of hydroxyl and water ice.

The lander, named Vikram, has a mass of 1471 kg (including the rover), and can generate 650 W of solar power. The lander can communicate directly to the Indian Deep Space Network, the orbiter, and the rover. The lander will carry a camera, seismometer, thermal profiler, Langmuir probe, and a NASA-supplied laser retroreflector.

The rover, Pragyan (also Pragyaan), is a 6-wheeled vehicle with a mass of 27 kg that runs on 50 W of solar power and can travel up to 500 m at a speed of 1 cm per second. The rover communicates directly with the lander. the rover will hold cameras, alpha-proton X-ray spectrometer, and a laser-induced ablation spectroscopy experiment.

· India ranks 9th among the top 10 individual nations in gold reserves

ð The World Gold Council (WGC) released the 2019 list of gold reserves. The country who topped the list was the United States(US). They have gold reserves of 8,133.5 tonnes, followed by Germany (3,366.8 tonnes) at second place. India entered the top 10 list this year ranking at 10th spot surpassing the Netherlands (612.5 tonnes) it ranked 9th position in terms of individual countries with 618.2 tonnes, as the International Monetary Fund(IMF) ranks third (2,451.8 tonnes) in the gold reserve list.

ð India’s gold reserve grown from 357.8 tonnes in the first quarter of 2000 to 618.2 tonnes at present. India’s neighbouring country Pakistan 45th position (64.6 tonnes) in 2019 list.

· Forty new Vande Bharat Express trains by 2022

India will have 40 newVande Bharata Expresstrains by 2022. Indian Railways finalized the timeline for manufacturing them again and started a tendering process for the purpose.
The production was stopped over allegations of favoritism and lack of transparency, earlier this year. The railway board has now started the tendering process for resuming manufacturing after railway minister Piyush Goyal’s intervention.
A tender will be out by October for the propulsion system of the trains.
Two rakes of Vande Bharat Express are currently available for operations and one of them runs between Delhi and Varanasi.

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