Current Affairs August 2016 - Environment

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News 1 - WII to house India’s first Tiger Repository

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) will house the India’s first repository on tigers, under its new Tiger Cell in Dehradun. The repository will consist of huge database on tiger conservation and population estimation which has been prepared with collaborated effort with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

The Dehradun-based WII has about 23,000 images of tigers. Y.V. Jhala, a wildlife scientist at the WII will head the Tiger Cell. The cell will house a database of tigers as well as DNA and stripes samples from over 50 tiger reserves.

News 2 - Over 10000-Year-Old Camping Site Discovered in Ladakh

An ancient camping site dating ninth millennium BC has been discovered by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on the way to Saser La which leads to the Karakoram Pass in Ladakh.The site was unearthed at 14,000 feet above the sea level.

The camping site dates 8500 BC and indicates human camping in the area 10,500 years ago. It was noticed by a team led by ASI Joint Director General SB Ota while exploring in Nubra valley during 2015-16.

News 3 - New species of Eel found in the Bay of Bengal

Scientists have discovered a new species of Eel, Gymnothorax Indicus, from the northern Bay of Bengal along the West Bengal coast. The Eel is slender-bodied, about one feet-long and edible. It was discovered after it was collected in a trawl net by fishermen in northern Bay of Bengal.

The scientist said that the Eel has 194 vertebrae and proposed its name as “Indian unpatterened moray”. Scientists believe that these newly discovered eel species may contribute to food security in the future.

News 4 - Humans have been causing global warming for almost 180 years: Study

An international research project has found human activity has been causing global warming for almost two centuries. The results of the study suggest that global warming began during the early stages of the Industrial Revolution. The warming was first detectable in the Arctic and tropical oceans around the 1830s.

The researchers evaluated climate histories preserved in corals, cave decorations, tree rings and ice cores across the world. They also evaluated thousands of years of climate model simulations, including data used for the latest report by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

News 5 - Nine breeds of livestock and poultry registered with NBAGR

Indian Council of Agricultural ResearchNational Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBAGR) announced that it has registered 9 new breeds of indigenous farm animals which include one breed of cattle, two breeds each of goat and sheep, three breeds of pig, and one breed of chicken.