Articles Covered:

1. Another ‘atmospheric river’ storm to hit California with potentially deadly floods
2. Motion of Thanks
3. At least 46 dead in Chile as forest fires move into densely populated central areas
4. Forest Owlet
5. 15 km from Jewar airport, a wetland awaits protection- Dhanauri as Ramsar site
6. RBI Report on Panchayati Raj Finance
7. UNCLOS
8. Aroma Mission
9. Ergosphere

Another ‘atmospheric river’ storm to hit California with potentially deadly floods:

• Forecasters have warned of life-threatening floods and landslides to hit Southern California this weekend due to a powerful atmospheric river storm.

A second, more powerful atmospheric river storm was headed for Southern California recently, threatening to unleash life-threatening floods and landslides.

Atmospheric Rivers:

1. Atmospheric rivers are long, concentrated regions in the atmospherethat transport moist air from the tropics to higher latitudes.
2. They are responsible for 90 percentof the movement of moisture from the tropics toward the poles.
3. They are the largest transport mechanisms of freshwateron Earth.
4. They form when large-scale weather patterns align to create narrow channels, or filaments, of intense moisture transport.
5. Ten or more atmosphericriverscan be happening at once across the globe.
6. A well-knownand strong one is the Pineapple Express, with moisture transported from the tropical Pacific around Hawaii to the US and Canadian West Coasts.

Features: Typically,250 to 375 miles wide, atmospheric rivers can stretch more than a thousand miles long. They are more frequent on the East Coast than they are on the West Coast. They primarily occur during the winter of the respective hemisphere, when extratropical cyclones are most prevalent.  The average atmospheric river carries an amount of water vapor roughly equivalent to the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River (second-longest river in North America).

1. When atmospheric rivers run up against mountains or run into local atmospheric dynamics and are forced to ascend, the moisture they carry cools and condenses, so they can produce intense rainfall or snowfall.
2. While they are an incredibly important source of rainfall, they can also bring flashflooding, mudslides, and landslides, sometimes killing people and destroying property.

• When atmospheric rivers pass over land, they can cause conditions similar tothose of hurricanes with intense and rapid rainfall, cyclone-force winds, and significantly increased wave heights. 

Motion of Thanks:

1. Article 87provides for the special address by the President.
2. The article provides that at the commencement of thefirst session after each general election to the House of the People and at the commencement of the first session of each year, the President shall address both Houses of parliament assembled together and inform Parliament of the causes of its summons.
3. Such an Address is called‘special address’, and it is also an annual
4. This Address has to be to both Houses of Parliament assembled together.

Significance of Motion of Thanks:

• The Motion of Thanks must be passed in the House.Otherwise, it amounts to the defeat of the government. It is one of the ways through which the Lok Sabha can also express a lack of confidence in the government. The other ways are:

1. Rejection of a money bill
2. Passing a censure motion or an adjournment motion.
3. The defeat of the government on a vital issue.
4. Passing a cut motion

Other Motions in Indian Parliament
Privilege Motion	It is moved by a member when he feels that a minister has committed a breach of privilege of the House or one or more of its members by withholding facts of a case or by giving wrong or distorted facts. Its purpose is to censure the concerned minister. It can be moved in Rajya Sabha as well as Lok Sabha.
Censure Motion	It should state the reasons for its adoption in the Lok Sabha. It can be moved against an individual minister or a group of ministers or the entire council of ministers. It is moved to censure the council of ministers for specific policies and actions. It can be moved only in Lok Sabha.
Call-Attention Motion	It is introduced in the Parliament by a member to call the attention of a minister to a matter of urgent public importance, and to seek an authoritative statement from him on that matter. It can be moved in Rajya Sabha as well as Lok Sabha.
Adjournment Motion	It is introduced in the Lok Sabha to draw the attention of the House to a definite matter of urgent public importance. It involves an element of censure against the government. It can be moved only in Lok Sabha.
No-Day-Yet-Named Motion	It is a motion that has been admitted by the Speaker but no date has been fixed for its discussion. It can be moved in Rajya Sabha as well as Lok Sabha.
No Confidence Motion	Article 75 of the Constitution says that the council of ministers shall be collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha. In other words, the Lok Sabha can remove the ministry from office by passing a no-confidence motion. The motion needs the support of 50 members to be admitted. It can be moved only in Lok Sabha.
Cut Motions	A cut motion is a special power vested in members of the Lok Sabha to oppose a demand being discussed for specific allocation by the government in the Finance Bill as part of the Demand for Grants. If the motion is adopted, it amounts to a no-confidence vote, and if the government fails to jot up numbers in the lower House, it is obliged to resign according to the norms of the House. A motion may be moved to reduce the amount of a demand in any of the following ways: Policy Cut Motion: It is moved so that the amount of the demand be reduced to Re.1 (represents disapproval of the policy underlying the demand). Economy Cut Motions: It is moved so that the amount of the demand will be reduced by a specified amount. Token Cut Motions: It is moved so that the amount of the demand is reduced by Rs.100 (expresses a specific grievance). It can be moved only in Lok Sabha.

 

At least 46 dead in Chile as forest fires move into densely populated central areas:

The deadliest of the fires were in the Valparaíso region, where authorities urged thousands of people to evacuate their homes.

forest Fire

• Also called bush or vegetation fireor wildfire, 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, which consumes the natural fuels and spreads based on environmental conditions (e.g., wind, topography).
• There arethree conditions that need to be present in order for a wildfire to burn: Fuel, Oxygen, and a Heat source.

Causes:

Natural Causes:

1. Any forest fires start from natural causes such asLIGHTNING which set trees on fire.
2. However, rain extinguishes such fires without causing much damage. High atmospheric temperatures and dryness (low humidity) offer favourable circumstance for a fire to start.

Man-made Causes:

• Fire is caused when a source of fire like naked flame, cigarette or bidi, electric spark or any source of ignition comes into contact with inflammable material.

forest fires – Surface Fire:

• A forest fire may burn primarily as a surface fire, spreading along the ground as the surface litter (senescent leaves and twigs and dry grasses etc) on the forest floor and is engulfed by the spreading flames.

Underground Fire: The fires of low intensity, consuming the organic matter beneath and the surface litter of forest floor are sub-grouped as underground fire. In most of the dense forests a thick mantle of organic matter is find on top of the mineral soil. These fires usually spread entirely underground and burn for some meters below the surface. This fire spreads very slowly and in most of the cases it becomes very hard to detect and control such type of fires. They may continue to burn for months and destroy vegetative cover of the soil.

Ground Fire: These fires are fires in the sub surface organic fuels, such as duff layers under forest stands, Arctic tundra or taiga, and organic soils of swamps or bogs. There is no clear distinction between underground and ground fires. The smouldering underground fires sometime changes into Ground fire. This fire burns root and other material on or beneath the surface i.e., burns the herbaceous growth on forest floor together with the layer of organic matter in various stages of decay. They are more damaging than surface fires, as they can destroy vegetation completely. Ground fires burn underneath the surface by smouldering combustion and are more often ignited by surface fires.

Forest Fire Incidents in India:

1. There has beena ten-fold increase in forest fires in the past two decades, and more than 62% of Indian states are prone to high-intensity forest fires.
2. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra are the most prone to high-intensity forest fire eventscaused by rapid CHANGE IN CLIMATE.
3. Mizoram has had the highest number of forest fire incidencesin the last two decades, with more than 95% of its districts being forest fire hotspots.
4. Districts that were earlier FLOOD prone have now become drought pronedue to a “swapping trend” as a result of climatic changes.
5. More than 75 % of Indian districts are extreme climate event hotspots, and more than 30 % of districts are extreme forest fire hotspots.

Forest Owlet:

Three back-to-back sightings of endangered Forest Owlet took place in the Melghat Tiger Reserve during a camp held recently.

Forest Owlet:

1. It is a member ofthe typical owl family, Strigidae.
2. Scientific Name: Athene blewitti 
3. It was first described in 1873. As it was not sighted after 1884, it was considered extinct for many years. In1997, it was rediscovered.
4. Distribution:

• It is endemic to the forests of central India.
• It was observed in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat, and at a few locations in the Melghat Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra.

Habitat: The natural ecosystems and habitats of these species include tropical and subtropical moist lowland woods, dense deciduous woodlands, open dry deciduous teak woods, and tropical and subtropical dry forests.

Features:

1. It is small and stocky. It measures 20 to 25 cm in length and weighing 240 gram.
2. It is a typical owlet with a rather unspotted crown, presence of full throat collar, thickly feathered legs, heavily banded wings, and a tail.
3. The upperparts are dark grayish brown. The underparts are whitish with dark barring.
4. The billof the owlet is short and pale yellow in color.
5. These birds are diurnaland have been observed to hunt during the day.
6. They eat rodents, reptilessuch as lizards and skinks, and insects.

Conservation Status:

1. IUCN Red List: Endangered
2. CITES: Appendix I

Key Facts about Melghat Tiger Reserve:

Location:

1. It is located in the Amaravati district of Maharashtra.
2. It is located on the southern offshoot of the Satpura Hill Rangein Central India, called Gavilgarh Hill.
3. It was the first tiger reserve in Maharashtra.
4. The name ‘Melghat’ meansthe confluence of various ‘ghats’ or valleys, as is typical of the landscape of this tiger reserve.
5. Vegetation: The forest is tropical dry deciduousin nature, dominated by teak.
6. Rivers: The reserve is a catchment area for five major rivers: the Khandu, Khapra, Sipna, Gadga, and Dolar, all of which are tributaries of the river Tapti.
7. The Tapti River and the Gawilgadh ridgeof the Satpura Range form the boundaries of the reserve.

Flora: Some of the common species are teak, Lagerstroemia Parviflora, Terminalia Tomentosa, Ougeinia Oojeinensis, Emblica Officinalis, Bamboo, etc.

Fauna:

• Apart from tigers, the other prominent animals are Sloth Bear, Indian Gaur, Sambar deer, Leopard, Nilgais, dhole, hyena, jungle cat, langur, etc.
• It is considered a stronghold of the endangered forest owlet. 

15 km from Jewar airport, a wetland awaits protection:

• The DFO also said acting on its letter, the UP-State Wetland Authority has written to the UP Ministry of Environment to clarify the position of the proponent department for declaring Dhanauri Wetland as a Ramsar site.

The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate change has asked Uttar Pradesh forest department,to propose Dhanauri in Greater Noida as a wetland of international importance under Ramsar convention.

If accepted by the RAMSAR CONVENTION Dhanauri will get legal protection from land use change.

Dhanauri as Ramsar site:

1. Dhanauri supports a large population of the vulnerable Sarus cranes.
2. The WETLAND meets two criteria (out of nine) to be declared a Ramsar site:
3. It has more than 1% of the biogeographic population of one species: the Sarus crane.
4. The area supports congregation of more than 20,000 waterfowl and other species.

Sarus Crane:

• The Sarus Crane is found in Southeast Asia, northern India, and northern Australia.
• The Indian Sarus Crane occurs in northern and central India, Terai Nepal and Pakistan.
• Once a common site in the paddy fields of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Assam, the population of the Indian sarus crane is now on the decline.
• They primarily inhabit wetlands such as canals, marshes, and ponds which are suitable for their forage and nesting.
• They are sometimes found near human settlements.
• They are found in Dhanauri wetland in UP .
• It was declared as the state bird of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in 2014.

Conservation Status: –

• IUCN: Vulnerable
• CITES:   Appendix II
• Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972: Schedule IV
• It receives legal protection in India.

RBI Report on Panchayati Raj Finance:

• Panchayats’ Own Sources of Revenue: They are limited, mainly property taxes, fees, and fines.
• Average Revenue of Panchayats: According to the report, the average revenue per Panchayat, encompassing taxes, non-taxes, and grants, was at 21.2 lakh in 2020-21, 23.2 lakh in 2021-22, and experienced a slight dip to 21.23 lakh in 2022-23.
• The own revenues of the Panchayats were only 1.1 per cent of their total revenue during the study period.
• Average Expenditure: Panchayat witnessed a decline from 17.3 lakh in 2020-21 to 12.5 lakh in 2022-23, attributed to elevated spending during the pandemic year.
• Devolution of Power: There are sharp inter-state variations in the devolution of powers and functions to Panchayats.
• States having higher devolution levels exhibit better outcomes in health, education, infrastructure development, water supply and sanitation.

Uneven Fiscal Data Availability: An assessment of the fiscal health of PRI s is challenging due to the uneven availability of data on their revenues and expenditures. 

Panchayati Raj:

1. Self-Government: The term Panchayati Raj in India signifies the system of rural local self-government.
2. Grass Root Level Democracy: It has been established in all the states of India by the Acts of the state legislatures to build democracy at the grass root level. 
3. advocated Gram Swaraj or village self-governanceas a decentralised form of governance in which villages would be responsible for their own affairs, serving as cornerstones of India’s political system.
4. 73^rd CAA -It was constitutionalised through the 73rd CAA of 1992. The act has given a practical shape to Article 40 of the Constitution.
5. This act has added a newPart-IX to the CONSTITUTION OF INDIA entitled as ‘The Panchayats’ and consists of provisions from Articles 243 to 243 O.
6. The act has also added a new Eleventh Scheduleto the Constitution. This schedule contains 29 functional items of the panchayats.

Assessment of Panchayati Raj Finance:

1. Successive CFC have recommended a consistentincrease in grants to PRIs, from 4,381 crore by the Tenth CFC to37 lakh crore by the FIFTEENTH FC
2. State Finance Commission (SFC):Article 243-I of the Constitution stipulates the establishment of a SFC every five years to assess the financial status of Panchayats and propose a framework for sharing taxes between the State and Panchayats.
3. The formation of these SFCs has, however, not been consistentacross different States.
4. Revenue Collection: Article 243-H of the Constitutionempowers Panchayats to impose, collect, and allocate taxes, duties, tolls, and fees.

to be decentralised to local governments are, however, mainly at the discretion of State legislatures.

Other Funding Sources: In addition to these revenue sources, Panchayats also receive grants from international organisations and funds for executing Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs) like the Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan, the SVAMITVA, the NHM etc.

UNCLOS:

• The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is an international treaty which was adopted and signed in 1982.
• It lays down a comprehensive regime of law and order in the world’s oceans and seas,establishing rules governing all uses of the oceans and their resources
• It replaced the four Geneva Conventions of April,1958,which respectively concerned the territorial sea and the contiguous zone, the continental shelf, the high seas, fishing and conservation of living resources on the high seas.
• The Convention has created three new institutions on the international scene:

1. The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea
2. the International Seabed Authority
3. the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

Secretariat: The Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS) of the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations serves as the secretariat of the Convention on the Law of the Sea.

United Nations High Seas Treaty:

1. It is known as the ‘Paris Agreement for the Ocean’, and the treaty to deal with Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdictionhas been under discussion for several years.
2. The proposed treaty concerns the ocean existing beyond the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) that lie from the coast of a country to about 200 nautical miles into the sea (Countries have special rights for exploration till 200 nautical miles).
3. The treaty was to be negotiated under the United Nations Convention on Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982.

Aroma Mission:

Objectives:
To promote the cultivation of aromatic crops for essential oils that are in great demand by the aroma industry.

1. To enable Indian farmers and the aroma industry to become global leaders in the production and export of some other essential oils on the pattern of menthol mint.
2. To provide substantial benefits to the farmers in achieving higher profits, utilization of waste lands and protection of their crops from wild and grazing animals.

Nodal Agencies:

• The nodal laboratory is CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CSIR-CIMAP), Lucknow.
• The participating laboratories are CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT), Palampur; CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM), Jammu etc.

Coverage:

• The scientific interventions made under the mission project provided assured benefits to the growers of Vidarbha, Bundelkhand, Gujarat, Marathwada, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and other stateswhere farmers are exposed to frequent episodes of weather extremes and account for maximum suicides.
• Aromatic Plantsinclude lavender, damask rose, mushk bala, etc.

Launch of Second Phase:

1. CSIR-IIIM-Jammu announcedAroma Mission phase-II in February, 2021 after the success of the first phase.
2. Itfocuses on setting up of cooperatives for marketing, promotion of cultivation and processing of high value medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs), development of superior varieties and their agro technologies, setting up of distillation units and processing facilities, skill and entrepreneurship development, value-addition and product development from MAPs.

Significance: Apart from being in sync with government policy of doubling farm incomes by 2022, the mission also provided employment to the women farmers thus giving impetus to inclusive growth.

Ergosphere:

1. The Ergosphere is a region surrounding a rotating black hole where the rotational energy of the black hole is transferred to the surrounding space-time.
2. The label ‘ergosphere’ comes from ‘ergon’, the Greek word for ‘work’.
3. It is named so because it is possible to extract matter and energy from the ergosphere, but not from beyond the event horizon.
4. One interesting feature of the ergosphere is that any object or particle entering this region is forced to rotate along with the black hole’s rotation. This means that within the ergosphere, it is impossible for an object to remain stationary relative to distant observers.

Key terms:

1. Black Hole: A black hole is formed when a really massive star runs out of fuel to fuse, blows up, leaving its core to implode under its weight to form a black hole.
2. Gravitational singularity: The black hole’s gravitational pull itself emanates from a point at its centre called the singularity. It is a point where the general theory of relativity breaks down, i.e. where its predictions don’t apply.
3. Event horizon:The event horizon describes a sphere around the singularity: when anything enters this sphere, it can’t escape unless it travels faster than light (which is impossible).

black hole:

• A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny space, this can happen when a star is dying.

Black holes are of four types, classified on the basis of their mass –

1. Stellar mass black holes,
2. Mid- size black holes,
3. Super Massive black holes
4. Miniature black holes.

A black hole has two basic parts:

1. The Singularity: It is at the centre and is where the mass resides.
2. Event Horizon:There is a region of space beyond the black hole called the event horizon. This is a “point of no return”, beyond which it is impossible to escape the gravitational effects of the black hole.