Facts in News

Facts in News

Delta Variant (B.1.617.2)

Recently, scientists have noted that the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) is capable of creating “very fast-rising outbreaks”.

• SARS-CoV-2 variant’s B.1.617 lineage was detected in India earlier this year, 2021. 

• Its sub-lineage B.1.617.2 is more transmissible than contemporary lineages.
• The World Health Organization (WHO), which has given it the label Delta, has categorised it as a Variant Of Concern (VOC). 
  • WHO classifies a variant as a VOC when it is associated with an increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in Covid-19 epidemiology; increase in virulence; or decrease in the effectiveness of public health measures or available diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics.

What makes the Delta variant a VOC?

• Different variants are characterised by mutations — or alterations in the virus’s genetic material. 
• An RNA virus, such as SARS-CoV-2, is made of about 30,000 base pairs of amino acids, placed like bricks next to each other.
• An alteration in any of these bases causes a mutation, effectively changing the shape and behaviour of the virus. 
• The Delta variant contains multiple mutations in the spike protein. At least four mutations are important.
  • L452R was first reported in Denmark in March 2020. 
    • This mutation has been found more transmissible than wild-type strains and also has been associated with reduced antibody efficacy and reduced neutralisation by vaccine sera.
  • The mutation P681R has been associated with chemical processes that may enhance transmissibility.
  • The D614G mutation was first documented in the US early in the pandemic, having initially circulated in Europe.
    • There is evidence that variants with this mutation spread more quickly.
  • Another mutation in Delta is T478K.
    • This was present in around 65 per cent of occurrences in variant B.1.1.222, first detected in Mexico last year and associated with higher infectivity.

Source: TH

Anti-Hail Guns

The Himachal Pradesh government will be testing the use of indigenously developed ‘anti-hail guns’ to help out horticulturists who face crop damage due to hailstorms.

• It is a machine that generates shock waves to disrupt the growth of hailstones in clouds.
• It comprises a tall, fixed structure somewhat resembling an inverted tower, several metres high, with a long and narrow cone opening towards the sky. 
• The gun is “fired” by feeding an explosive mixture of acetylene gas and air into its lower chamber, which releases a shock wave (waves that travel faster than the speed of sound, such as those produced by supersonic aircraft). 
• These shock waves supposedly stop water droplets in clouds from turning into hailstones, so that they fall simply as raindrops.
• The shock waves from anti-hail guns try to disrupt in a radius of 500 metres so that the water droplets fall down before they can be lifted by the updrafts. 

• The machine is repeatedly fired every few seconds during an approaching thunderstorm.

• In 2010, the state government had imported three anti-hail guns from the US and installed them in three separate villages in the apple-growing belt of Shimla, where hail storms in summer cause severe damage to the fruit every year.

Image Courtesy: Tribune

Hail

• It is a form of precipitation consisting of solid ice that forms inside thunderstorm updrafts. 
• Hail can damage aircraft, homes and cars and can be deadly to livestock and people.

• Hail is produced by cumulonimbus clouds, which are generally large and dark, and may cause thunder & lightning. 
• In such clouds, winds can blow up the water droplets to heights where they freeze into ice.
• The frozen droplets begin to fall but are soon pushed back up by the winds and more droplets freeze onto them, resulting in multiple layers of ice on the hailstones.
• This fall and rise are repeated several times, till the hailstones become too heavy and fall down.

CIBER-2

A NASA-funded rocket’s launch window will open at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, USA on 6^th June.

• The European Space Agency (ESA) infrared space observatory Herschel also counted the number of galaxies in infrared and measured their luminosity previously.
• The Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment-2, or CIBER-2, the mission is the latest in a series of sounding rocket launches that began in 2009.
• This instrument will launch aboard a sounding rocket, a small suborbital rocket that will carry scientific instruments on brief trips into space before it falls back to Earth for recovery.
• Once above Earth’s atmosphere, CIBER-2 will survey a patch of sky about 4 square degrees, for reference, the full Moon takes up about half a degree, which includes dozens of galaxy clusters. 
• It will not count stars, but it will detect the diffuse, cosmos-filling glow known as the extragalactic background light.
• From all of this extragalactic background light, the CIBER-2 will focus on a portion of this called cosmic infrared background, which is emitted by some of the most common stars. 
• Aim: To count the number of stars that exist in the Universe.

Blue-Finned Mahseer

Recently, Blue-Finned Mahseer has been moved to the ‘least concern’ status in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Endangered Species.

• Scientific Name: Tor khudree
  • One of the subspecies of the Mahseer belonging to the genus Tor.
• Habitat: Rivers of the Deccan Plateau, mainly in Mota Mola river east of Pune.
• Features:
  • It is a migratory species that move upstream during rains.
  • It prefers clean, fast-flowing and well-oxygenated waters.
  • They act as freshwater ecosystem indicators due to high sensitivity to dissolved oxygen levels, water temperature and climatic changes.
• Threats: Over-harvesting, habitat destruction and competition from other fish species.
• Conservation: Mahseer are bred in an artificial lake at the Walvan Hatchery in Lonavala, and released at selected natural locations after a certain age.

(Image Courtesy: IE)

Section 51(b), Disaster Management Act, 2005

Recently, the former Chief Secretary of West Bengal has been served a show-cause notice by the Union Home Ministry under Section 51 of the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005.

• The DM Act came into existence after the 2004 tsunami and was invoked for the first time in the country in the wake of the Covid-19 in 2020.
• The Centre invoked the Act through the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), headed by the Prime Minister, to streamline the management of the pandemic, empowering District Magistrates to take decisions and centralise other decisions.
• Section 51 (b) prescribes “punishment for obstruction” for refusal to comply with any direction given by or on behalf of the Central Government or the State government or the National Executive Committee or the State Executive Committee or the District Authority under the Act.
• The violation shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term that may extend to one year or with a fine or both upon conviction.
• Imprisonment may be extended to two years if refusal to comply with orders result in loss of lives or imminent danger.

Devika River Project

Recently, suggestions have been welcomed on the Devika Project in Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir.

• It was started in March 2019 under the National River Conservation Plan (NRCP), with an outlay of Rs. 190 crore.
• Development Works Include
  • Bathing ghats on the banks of the Devika River, removal of encroachments, restoration of natural water bodies and development of catchment areas along with cremation ground.
  • Construction of three sewage treatment plants, sewerage network of 129.27 km, development of two cremation ghats, protection fencing and landscaping, small hydropower plants and three solar power plants.
• Significance: The project will reduce river pollution and improve water quality.
• Devika River
  • It originates in the hills near the Sudh Mahadev temple in Udhampur and flows down towards the west and merges with the Ravi river.
  • It holds religious significance as it is revered by Hindus as the sister of the river Ganga.