• Two rare wildlife species - a rusty spotted cat and a coral red kukri snake - were spotted recently in Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, Uttar Pradesh.
• The rusty-spotted cat, known to be the smallest member of the cat family, was spotted in Mala range while the coral red kukri snake was sighted in the Haripur range.

Rusty Spotted Cat

• The rusty-spotted cat is classified as ‘threatened species’ in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• It is listed in schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
• This little carnivore survives on insects, birds and rodents.
• This cat is nocturnal by nature.
• It is merely 35-45 cm in length and weighs about 1.5 kg.
• Its survival is being threatened due to the loss of its habitat.

Coral Red Kukri Snake 

• Like rusty-spotted cat, the snake was also nocturnal in nature.
• It is rarely seen on the ground during the daytime.
• It normally preyed on earthworms and larvae. 
• Its innate characteristic was to remain underground most of the time.
• Coral red kukri is listed in schedule IV of the Wildlife Protection Act.

• The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind presented Nari Shakti Puraskar for the year 2019 at a special ceremony held in Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Nari Shakti Puraskar

• It is formerly known as Stree Shakti Puraskar, literally meaning "Woman Power Award".
• It is India's highest civilian award for recognizing the achievements and contributions of women.
• The awards are given away by the President of India every year on 8 March, International Women's Day at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
• The Nari Shakti Puraskar is conferred on individual women, public and private institutions and public departments for their activism and/ or their contributions to the cause of women's empowerment.
• The award, instituted in the year 1999 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, is given in six institutional categories and two individual categories.
• The award carries a cash prize of rupees one lakh (INR 100,000) and a citation.

Freedom in the World 2020 Report

• It was released recently by the America based Freedom House.
• It ranks India at the 83rd position, along with Timor-Leste and Senegal.
• This is near the bottom of the pile among the countries categorised as “Free”, with only Tunisia receiving a lower score.
• India’s score fell by four points to 71, the worst decline among the world’s 25 largest democracies this year.
• Top 5 Countries: Finland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are the top five countries in the free category.
• Bottom 5 Countries: Botswana, Peru, India, Timor-Leste and Tunisia.

• South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network (SAWEN) is an inter-governmental wildlife law enforcement support body of South Asian countries namely - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
• SAWEN was officially launched in January, 2011 in Paro Bhutan.
• It promotes regional cooperation to combat wildlife crime in South Asia.
• It focuses on policy harmonization; institutional capacity strengthening through knowledge and intelligence sharing; and collaboration with regional and international partners to enhance wildlife law enforcement in the member countries.
• SAWEN operates its activities from the Secretariat based in Kathmandu, Nepal.

• The Law Ministry has recently notified the delimitation commission for Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.
• The three-member commission will be headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai.

• ‘Sahyadri Megha’ is a new red variety of paddy that is resistant to blast disease and rich in nutrients.
• As part of its initiative to prevent decline in the area under paddy cultivation, the University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences (UAHS), Shivamogga, Karnataka has developed ‘Sahyadri Megha’.
• Sahyadri Megha has been approved by the Karnataka State-level Seed Sub-Committee and will be available for farmers from the coming kharif season.

Background

• The ‘Jyothi’ variety, which was widely cultivated in the command areas of the Bhadra and the Tunga reservoirs and in semi-arid areas in Sorab, Shikaripur, Hanagal and Sirsi taluks of Karnataka, had become vulnerable to blast disease and other infestations.
• There was a demand for a new paddy variety that is resistant to the infestations.
• Another objective of developing the new variety was to cater to the strong demand for red rice, rich in fibre and protein, by health-savvy consumers in urban areas.
• ‘Sahyadri Megha’ is developed under the hybridization breeding method by crossing the best among the ‘Jyothi’ variety with that of ‘Akkalu’, a native disease-resistant and protein-rich paddy variety.

WISTEMM program

• The Indo-U.S. Fellowship for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (WISTEMM) program of Department of Science and Technology (DST) in association with Indo-U.S. Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF) have provided international exposure to several women scientists.
• WISTEMM aims to provide opportunities to Indian Women Scientists, Engineers & Technologists to undertake international collaborative research in premier institutions in U.S.A, to enhance their research capacities and capabilities.
• Around 20 women scientists have visited 20 leading institutions across the United States of America for furthering their research work and to get trained in the state of the art technologies related to their research.
• The programme is run for two categories of women scientists--- Women Overseas Student Internship (Module I) for women students pursuing PhD, and Women Overseas Fellowship (Module II) for women with PhD degree and holding regular positionat any recognized institution/laboratory in India.

• The iconic and endangered Red Panda (ailurus fulgens) has fewer hunters because the younger generations of people across its Himalayan habitat are losing interest in animal products, a new study by wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC has found.

Red Panda (ailurus fulgens)

• It is a reddish-brown arboreal (predominantly stay in trees) (not a marsupial) mammal.
• It is slightly larger than a domestic cat with a bear-like body and thick russet fur.
• The belly and limbs are black, and there are white markings on the side of the head and above its small eyes.
• Red pandas are very skillful and acrobatic animals that predominantly stay in trees.
• The belly and limbs are black, and there are white markings on the side of the head and above its small eyes.
• Red pandas are very skillful and acrobatic animals that predominantly stay in trees.
• They use their long, bushy tails for balance and to cover themselves in winter, presumably for warmth.
• Primarily an herbivore, the name panda is said to come from the Nepali word ‘ponya,’ which means bamboo or plant eating animal.
• About 5,000-6,000 red pandas are estimated to be present in four Indian states – Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim and West Bengal.
• This is the second-largest population after China (6,000-7,000). 
• The only living member of the genus Ailurus, the Red Panda is listed as ‘endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.
• Almost 50% of the red panda’s habitat is in the Eastern Himalayas.
• Red pandas are often killed when they get caught in traps meant for other animals such as wild pigs and deer.
• They are also poached for their distinctive pelts in China and Myanmar. Red panda fur caps or hats have been found for sale in Bhutan.