Recently, the world’s largest CAES facility commenced full operation in China.

Compressed Air Energy Storage

• About: It is a technology used to store energy by compressing air into sealed locations often in underground mines or caverns created inside salt rocks. 
  • Stores electrical energy in the form of potential energy (compressed air). 
  • Energy is stored during off-peak hours and is released back to the grid when the demand is high. 

Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC) notified Environment Protection (End-of-Life Vehicles) Rules, 2025.

• Notified under Environmental Protection Act, 1986, the rules will come into force from 1st of April, 2025.
• End-of-Life Vehicles (EoLV) means all vehicles which are no longer validly registered or declared unfit through Automated Fitness Centres or their registrations have been cancelled.

Key Highlights 

• Applicability: Apply to producer, registered owner of vehicles, Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility (RVSF), automated testing stations etc. involved in testing of vehicles, handling, processing and scrapping of EoLV.
• Exception: Not apply to
  • Waste batteries covered under Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022.
  • Plastic packaging covered under Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.
  • Waste tyres and used oil covered under Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016.
  • E-waste covered under E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022.
• Responsibilities of Producer: Fulfil Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) either through purchase of EPR certificate generated by its own RVSF or by any entity having RVSF.
• EPR certificate: Issued by Central Pollution Control Board through centralised online portal in favour of RVSF. 
• Responsibilities of registered owner and bulk consumer: They must deposit EoLV at any of the producer’s designated sales outlet or designated Collection Centre or RVSF within 180 days.
• Implementation Committee: Constituted by Central Government and chaired by CPCB Chairman for effective implementation of rules. 

World’s First Cryo-Born Baby Corals Successfully Settled on the Great Barrier Reef.

• This groundbreaking advancement in coral conservation and restoration is a collaborative effort led by Australian researchers.

About Cryo-born coral

• Cryo-born corals: They are created using cryopreservation techniques, which involve freezing coral cells and tissues at very low temperatures.
• Cryopreservation Process:
  • Coral cells and tissues contain water, which forms damaging ice crystals when frozen.
  • Cryopreservation uses cryoprotectants to remove water from cells during freezing & Support cell structures when thawed.

Significance of the Breakthrough

• Climate Change Resilience: The project aims to deploy millions of heat-tolerant corals onto the reef annually to combat the effects of climate change.
• Selective Breeding:
  • Cryopreservation allows researchers to bypass the limitations of natural coral spawning, which occurs only once a year.
  • It enables selective breeding and the use of colonies for reproduction multiple times.

About Coral Reefs

• Corals are invertebrates from the class Anthozoa, phylum Cnidaria.
• They form reefs through colonies of polyps that secrete limestone skeletons and rely on symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) for nutrition.
• Distribution: Mainly found in shallow, sunlit waters between 30°N and 30°S latitude, with a preferred temperature range of 16-32°C.
  • Depth: They typically grow at depths less than 50 meters, where light levels are high.

Madhya Pradesh to translocate 15 Tigers to Rajasthan, Odisha and Chhattisgarh 

• The tigers will be translocated from Bandhavgarh, Panna, Kanha, and Pench tiger reserves.
• Translocation would be done under the animal exchange programme.
• It would be the biggest relocation of big cats from any state. 
• Madhya Pradesh is facilitating this project because it has the largest tiger population (785) in the country. 

About Inter-state Tiger Translocation Projects

• Objective: 
  • Re-introduction of a tiger population in an area once part of its historical range, but from which it has been extirpated or become extinct. 
  • Reinforcement/Supplementation of tigers to an existing population to enhance its long-term viability. 
• The first tiger relocation project was initiated in 2018 wherein two big cats, from Kanha Tiger Reserve and Bandhavgarh, were relocated to Satkosia Tiger Reserve (Odisha). 
• National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is key in facilitating such projects. 

Benefits of Translocation 

• Ecological Balance: Restores predator-prey dynamics in underpopulated reserves.
• Human-animal Conflict Mitigation: Reduces human-tiger conflicts in overcrowded reserves.
• Rewilding Landscapes: Revives areas where tigers were locally extinct.

Concerns associated with Translocation 

• Protests from local communities: Villagers living near tiger reserves fear that the tiger will endanger their lives, etc. 
• Territorial disputes with existing Tigers: This pushes new tigers into human-dominated areas.
• Other: Poor forest management such as prey augmentation, etc.

Recently, the standing committee of National Board for Wildlife approved a proposal to carry out oil and gas exploration in the eco-sensitive zone of the Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary. 

Hollongapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary

• Location: Located at Jorhat district of Assam.
  • Officially extends to the Dissoi Valley Reserve Forest, Dissoi Reserve Forest, and Tiru Hill Reserve Forest. 
• Establishment: 1997. 
• Significance:  Contains India's only gibbons - the hoolock gibbons and Northeastern India's only nocturnal primate - the Bengal slow loris.
  • Other non-human primates found here are Capped Langur, Rhesus Macaque, Assamese Macaque, Pigtailed Macaque & Stump tailed Macaque.

Government of India has designated areas around Shikari Devi Wildlife Sanctuary as Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs).

About Shikari Devi Wildlife Sanctuary

• Location: Middle altitudinal range of the Himalayas in Mandi District, Himachal Pradesh.
• Named after the goddess Shikari Devi, to whom a temple is dedicated in the sanctuary.
• Streams: Juni Khud, a tributary of Beas River. 
• It is recognised as an Important Bird Area by Birdlife International. 
• Vegetation: Alpine pastures and Temperate Deciduous Forest.
• Fauna: Asiatic Black Bear, Leopard, Barking Deer, Giant Flying Squirrel etc.

Kerala has launched the Kerala Warnings, Crisis, and Hazard Management System (KaWaCHaM) for real-time disaster alerts. 

About KaWaCHaM

• It is developed by the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) with support from the National Disaster Management Authority and the World Bank.
• It is supported under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP). 
• It offers hazard assessment, alert issuance, and threat-based action planning.
• Provides updates for extreme weather events such as heavy rain etc.

The Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) has declared Wayanad landslides as a ‘calamity of severe nature’.

Calamity of Severe Nature

• Legal provision: No specific criterion is given in the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) or National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) guidelines for declaring a natural calamity as a calamity of severe nature.
  • However, based on the intensity and magnitude of losses to life and property, the Central government treats it as a calamity of severe nature, mostly based on the recommendations of the IMCT.
• Funding Support: For a "calamity of severe nature," additional funding comes from the NDRF in excess of the balances available in the state's own SDRF.

Karnataka launched the ‘Garudakshi’ online FIR system to curb wildlife crimes.

About Garudakshi

• It is software to enable an online FIR system similar to that of the Police Department.
• It will allow the public to register complaints on forest offences using mobile phones or email addresses
• Developed in collaboration with the Wildlife Trust of India.

India's coastline has been recalculated from 7,516 km in 1970 to 11,098 km in 2023-24, reflecting a 48% increase over the past 53 years. 

• Upward revision is attributed to a new methodology to measure India's maritime established by National Maritime Security Coordinator. 
  • It measures complex coastal formations like bays, estuaries, and inlets, unlike older methods that used straight-line distances.

Key Findings 

• West Bengal recorded highest percentage increase (357%) while Kerala (5%) reported the smallest increase. 
  • Puducherry's coastline contracted by 4.9 km. 
• Gujarat retains its position as the state with the longest coastline followed by Tamil Nadu which overtaken Andhra Pradesh (now 3^rd).

Experts attribute the severity of the wildfires in USA to hydroclimate whiplash, a phenomenon intensified by climate change.

About Hydroclimate whiplash

• It is a rare meteorological Hydro climatic volatility condition wherein an extremely wet season is succeeded by an extremely dry season.
• Impact 
  • Amplification of hazards like flash floods, wildfires, landslides, disease outbreaks etc.
  • Affect water quality via harmful algal blooms or the influx of excess organic and/or mineral content.
  • Affect food security through decreased plant productivity, crop failures, livestock mortality etc.

The ongoing extreme cold spell in USA & Canada is attributed to arctic blast due to southward expansion of the polar vortex.

What is Polar Vortex?

• Definition: It is a large area of low-pressure and cold air that swirls like a wheel (counter-clockwise) around both of the Earth’s poles. 
• Types: 
  • Tropospheric Polar Vortex: It forms in the lowest atmospheric layer, 
  • 10-15 km.
  • Stratospheric Polar Vortex: It forms at around 15 km to 50 km high. 
    • Unlike tropospheric polar vortex, the stratospheric polar vortex disappears during summer & is strongest during the autumn.

Impacts of Polar Vortex

• Arctic Blast: It is sudden and intense surge of cold air in US due to disruptions in the polar vortex, which usually keeps cold air confined to the Arctic region. 
• Extreme Weather Events: A weakened vortex can cause the jet stream to dip southward, bringing cold Arctic air to lower latitudes & triggering extreme weather events.
• Ozone Depletion: The trapped cold air in the vortex accelerates ozone depletion, particularly over Antarctica, leading to the ozone hole.
• Impact on India: A weakened polar vortex results in more western disturbances, bringing heavy snowfall to the western Himalayas and colder temperatures to northern India.

Musi River historic buildings have been kept on World Monuments Watch 2025.

• World Monuments Watch is a biennial program which aims to raise awareness and mobilize action for the preservation of cultural heritage worldwide.

About Musi River

• Origin: Ananthagiri hills, Rangareddy district (Telangana).
• It is one of the major tributaries of Krishna river and flows into the Osmansagar and Himayatsagar reservoirs.
• It consists of 2 rivulets Esi (8 kms) and Musa (13 kms) which then converge into Musi River.
• Importance: major water sources for Hyderabad.

Indonesia’s Mount Ibu, on the remote island of Halmahera, erupted 1,000 times this month. 

About Mount Ibu:

• As an active volcano, Mount Ibu is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a region known for frequent volcanic activity and earthquakes. 
  • The Ring of Fire, also called the Circum-Pacific Belt, is a path along the Pacific Ocean characterized by numerous active volcanoes and seismic activity.
• Indonesia has numerous volcanoes due to its location on converging tectonic plates, particularly the Pacific, Eurasian, and Australian plates. 
• Other Recent Eruptions in Indonesia: Mount Sinabung and Mount Merapi.