Beachgoers in Chennai take part in green pledge and signature campaign against littering and the need to live in harmony with nature

National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM)

• It is an autonomous institution.
• Ministry – It is established by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in 2011.
• It is approved by the Central government and located in Chennai.
• Aim - To support the protection, conservation, rehabilitation, management, and policy advice of the coast.
• Vision - To promote sustainable coasts through increased partnerships, conservation practices, scientific research, and knowledge management for current and future generations.
• Approach - It supports the nationwide adoption of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) approach.
• The Government of India embarked upon the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project (ICZMP) for the holistic development of the coast.
• It is based on the regulatory framework of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification, 2011 and the Island Protection Zone (IPZ) Notification, 2011.

Scientific Divisions of NCSCM

• Coastal Environmental Impact Assessment (CIA)
• Integrated Island Management (IIM)
• Coastal and Marine Resources Conservation (CMR)
• Integrated Social Sciences and Economics (ISE)
• Futuristic Research (FTR)
• Knowledge, Governance and Policy (KGP)
• Geospatial Sciences (GEO)

Recently, Arab government representatives in Cairo (Egypt) voted to return Syria to the Arab League after a 12-year suspension.

Arab League

• It is a regional organization of Arab states in the Middle East and parts of Africa.
• It is formed in Cairo (Egypt) on 1945, as an outgrowth of Pan-Arabism.
• Aim - To strengthen and coordinate the political, cultural, economic, and social programs of its members and to mediate disputes among them or between them and third parties.
• Founding Members - Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.
• Currently, the League has 22 members.
• Syria's participation was suspended from 2011 to 2023, it was reinstated recently.
• The signing on April 13, 1950, of an agreement on joint defense and economic cooperation also committed the signatories to coordination of military defense measures.
• In its early years the Arab League concentrated mainly on economic, cultural, and social programs.
• In 1959 it held the first Arab petroleum congress and in 1964 established the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO).

Tribes of Kerala

Cholanaikkans

• The Cholanaikkans are an ethnic group of India.
• They primarily inhabit the southern Kerala State, especially Silent Valley National Park.
• They are one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer tribes of the region.

Malayarayan

• They are members of a tribal community in parts of Kerala state.
• Majority of the Population follows Hindu religion.
• Some of the Malai Arayans turned their religious belief to Christianity.
• They usually practice agriculture, but most of them lost their farm land due to exploitation.

Eravallan

• They are inhabitants of the Palghat District, Kerala.
• They are either agriculturists or farm labourers.
• Even now there are many who practice primitive animism, and worship animals, trees and stones and claim origin from them.

Kharia

• Kharia tribes have mainly concentrated in Jharkhand, they can also be found in Odisha and West Bengal.
• Being a part of the 'Proto-Austroloid' family group, the language of the Kharia tribes are known as Kharia language.
• The major source of livelihood for the Kharia tribe is agriculture.

Bhutia

• It is a community of Sikkimese people living in the state of Sikkim.
• They speak Sikkimese, a Tibetic language fairly mutually intelligible with standard Tibetan.

India’s farm trade surplus was lower in 2022-23 than in the previous year.

Food Price Index (FPI)

• It is released by UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
• It is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities.
• It crashed from an average of 119.1 points in 2013-14 to 90 points in 2015-16.

Trends in Imports and Exports (2022-23)

• Department of Commerce data shows that Total farm exports and imports during 2022-23 is higher than their previous year’s records.
• Agricultural Trade Surplus has marginally dipped because of global prices and domestic food inflation.
• The FPI has increased gradually across the years.

Major Export Items (2022-23)

• Marine products, Rice, Sugar, Basmati Rice, Spices, Buffalo meat, Raw cotton, Oil meals, Wheat, Fruits and Vegetables.

Major Import Items (2022-23)

• Vegetable oils, Fresh fruits, Pulses, Spices, Cashew, Raw Cotton, Natural rubber.

Crude oil imports in 2022-23 rose year-on-year gradually.

Recently, Wildfires occurred on inaccessible hilltops in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary.

Wildfire

• It is also called as forest, bush or vegetation fire.
• It can be described as any uncontrolled and non-prescribed combustion or burning of plants in a natural setting such as a forest, grassland, brush land or tundra.
• Wildfire can be incited by human actions, such as land clearing, extreme drought or in rare cases by lightning (IRDR).
• There are 3 conditions that need to be present in order for a wildfire to burn: fuel, oxygen, and a heat source.

Causing Factors

• Deficient Rainfall
• Unusual High Temperatures
• Low Moisture
• Humidity

Types of Wildfires

• Crown fires – It burn trees up their entire length to the top.
• These are the most intense and dangerous wildland fires.
• Surface fires – It burn only surface litter and duff.
• These are the easiest fires to put out and cause the least damage to the forest.
• Ground fires – It occur in deep accumulations of humus, peat and similar dead vegetation that become dry enough to burn.
• These fires move very slowly, but can become difficult to fully put out, or suppress.
• It is also called as underground or subsurface fires.