Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon- September 1

Statement 1 and 2 are Correct: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) came into force in 1975 and is the oldest and largest convention for protection of biodiversity.

It is also known as Washington Convention

Statement 3 is Incorrect: It is a legally Binding treaty on the Parties. We note here that CITES does not take place of the national laws on protection of wild flora and fauna. Rather it provides a framework to be respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented at the national level.

All statements are correct

• Savanna or Sudan climate is a transitional type of climate found between the equatorial forests & trade wind hot deserts.
• It covers much of Africa (Keya, Nigeria, Gambia) as well as large areas of Australia, South America (Brazilian highlands), and India

• Sudan climate is characterized by an alternate & distinct hot, rainy season (from May to Sep) & cool, dry season (Oct – April) in N – Hemisphere & vice versa in S – Hemisphere.
• The savanna climate has a temperature range of 18° – 30° C.
• In winters, it is usually about 18° – 25° C & in summers, the temperature ranges from 25° – 30° C.
• Like the monsoon climate, the maximum temperature tends to occur in late spring to early summer prior to the onset of the rainy season, with Daily temperature range greater during the dry season & annual temp. range increasing towards poleward from equatorial region.
• Both the length of the rainy season as well as annual total rainfall decreases from equatorial region to polewards.
• On the whole, the annual precipitation (~100 cm annually) is less than the tropical monsoon climate & length of wet & dry seasons differs with the locality.

All Statements are correct:

The Guinness World Records has declared Majuli in Assam as the largest river island in the world. It has toppled Marajo in Brazil to clinch the record. The beautiful river island is situated on the Brahmaputra river.

1. It is formed by Brahmaputra river in the south and KherkutiaXuti, an anabranch of the Brahmaputra, joined by the Subansiririver in the north.
2. The island is inhabited by Mising tribes, Deori and SonowalKachri tribes
3. The people of the island speak Mising, Assamese and Deori language
4. It covers an area of around 880 sq km
5. It is one of the important tourist destinations of Assam
6. Due to the frequent flooding of the Brahmaputra river, Majuli suffers heavy erosion. In the last 30-40 years it is estimated that it has lost about one third of its area
7. It is the hub of Assamese neo-Vaishnavite culture
8. It was recently declared a district and was earlier a subdivision under Jorhat district
9. It has been included in the tentative list of World Heritage Site by UNESCO

Statements 1 and 3 are Correct:

The Pygmy Hog is the smallest and the rarest wild suid in the world. This species is dependent on early successionalriverine communities, typically comprising dense tall grasslands, commonly referred to as ‘thatchland’.

Today, this species is at the brink of extinction and are categorized under Critically Endangered list of IUCN , as only a few isolated and small populations survive in the wild. In fact, the only viable population of the species, with a few hundred individuals, exists in small grassland pockets of Manas National Park (500 km²) and an adjacent reserve forest in the Manas Tiger Reserve and nowhere else in the world.

Statement 2 is Incorrect:

In the past, this species was confirmed from only a very few locations in northern West Bengal and north-western Assam in India, but is believed likely to have occurred in tall, wet alluvial grasslands extending in a narrow belt south of the Himalayan foothills from north-western Uttar Pradesh and southern Nepal to Assam, possibly extending at intervals into contiguous habitats in southern Bhutan. However, it is now confined to a very few locations in and around Manas National Park in north-western Assam.

Cartagena Convention:  Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Area (known as the Cartagena Convention) was adopted in Cartagena, Colombia in 1983 and entered into force in 1986. At the time it was the only legally binding environmental treaty in the Wider Caribbean.  The Wider Caribbean Region includes 28 countries that border the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida, and the Caribbean Sea out to a distance of 200 nautical miles from shore.

Basel Convention: The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, usually known as the Basel Convention, is an international treatythat was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries(LDCs). It does not, however, address the movement of radioactive waste. The Convention is also intended to minimize the amount and toxicity of wastes generated, to ensure their environmentally sound management as closely as possible to the source of generation, and to assist LDCs in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate.

The Convention was opened for signature on 22 March 1989, and entered into force on 5 May 1992. As of November 2016, 184 states and the European Union are parties to the Convention. Haiti and the United States have signed the Convention but not ratified it

Ozone depleting substances (ODSs) are those substances which deplete the ozone layer and are widely used in refrigerators, airconditioners, fire extinguishers, in dry cleaning, as solvents for cleaning, electronic equipment and as agricultural fumigants.

Ozone depleting substances controlled by Montreal Protocol include:

• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
• Halon
• Carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄), Methyl chloroform (CH₃CCl₃)
• Hydrobromofluorocarbons (HBFCs)
• Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs)
• Methyl bromide (CH₃Br)
• Bromochloromethane (CH₂BrCl)

There are other ozone depleting substances, but their ozone depleting effects are very small in comparison to these controlled substances.