The Supreme Court asks States and UTs to set up Special Investigation Teams (SITs) to examine cases of forest land being misused for non-forestry activities.

Procedure for Forest Clearance (as per Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980):

• Stage I – In-Principle Approval: Approval is granted if certain conditions are met like allocating funds for compensatory afforestation.
• Stage II – Final Clearance: Given after the State confirms compliance with all Stage I conditions.

Approval Authority:

• For projects up to 5 hectares (except mining), clearance is given by the Chief Conservator of Forests at the Regional Office.
• For projects above 5 hectares, or any mining proposals, clearance is granted by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change  based on the advice of the Forest Advisory Committee.

A new and revamped MAC with embedded AI/ML techniques was inaugurated by the Union Home Minister in New Delhi.

About Multi Agency Centre (MAC)

• It is a common counter-terrorism grid under the Intelligence Bureau (IB) that was made operational in 2001 post-Kargil war.
• It connects India’s island territories, insurgency areas, and high-altitude terrain, ensuring even district-level connectivity.
• As many as 28 organisations, including the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), armed forces and State police are part of the platform who shares real-time intelligence inputs.

Karnataka Government requested Electric Buses under the PM Electric Drive Revolution in Innovative Vehicle Enhancement (PM E-DRIVE) Scheme.

About PM E-Drive

• Launch: 2024 
• Ministry: Ministry of Heavy Industries.
• Aim: Faster adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), setting up of charging infrastructure & development of EV manufacturing eco-system in India.
• Duration: 2 years (2024 to 2026).
• Components :
  • Subsidies: Demand incentives for e-2W, e-3W, e-ambulances, e-trucks & other new emerging EV categories.
  • Grants for creation of capital assets: e-buses, establishment of a network of charging stations, etc.

Israel launched a strike on Hodeida and al-Salif ports in Yemen, controlled by Houthis.

About the Ports

• Location:  Western Yemen on the coast of Red Sea.
• Significance: Together with Ras Issa, the ports of Hodeidah and Salif handle about 70% of all Yemen’s imports and 80% of all humanitarian assistance.

Rajon ki Baoli Restored by Archaeological Survey of India in Collaboration with World Monuments Fund India.

About Rajon ki Baoli

• It is a four-tiered step-well built during the Lodi period to store water for drinking and cooking purposes. 
• Location:  In Mehrauli Archaeological Park (New Delhi).
• Built by: Daulat Khan, an Amir of the court of Sikander Lodhi in 1506 AD.
• Architecture Type: Indo-Islamic.

The first-ever chromosome-level genome of the Indian yak was assembled by specialists from four ICAR institutions.

About Indian Yak

• The Indian yak (Bos grunniens), known as the ‘ship of the Himalayas’, supports high-altitude communities with meat, milk, and transport.
• Habitat:Found across the Himalayan region, Tibetan Plateau, Pamir Mountains, Tajikistan, and up to Mongolia and Siberia.

Characteristics

• They have larger lungs and heart than cattle found at lower altitudes.
• Diet: Herbivorous, feeding mainly on grasses and alpine plants.

The World Health Organization has declared a polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea.

• Papua New Guinea was declared polio-free in 2000.

About Polio

• It is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis.
• Transmission: Person-to-person through the faecal-oral route, contaminated water or food, and multiplies in the intestine. 
• Initial symptoms: Fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness of the neck, and pain in limbs.
• Polio mainly affects children under 5 years of age. 
• There are two vaccines available: Oral polio vaccine & inactivated polio vaccine.
• India was officially declared polio-free in 2014.

Massive weather phenomena called twisters were observed in the US.

What is a twister?

• It is another name for tornadoes in the US which are violently spinning (at 250 Miles/Hr), funnel-shaped columns of air that stretch from the dark thunderclouds they form all the way to the ground. 
• Formation: They develop when moist and warm air collides with dry and cold air, creating atmospheric instability and strong updrafts within a thunderstorm. 
  • The resulting wind shear causes the air to spin, and if this rotation is tilted vertically and intensifies, a tornado (or twister) forms.
• Majority of these are formed around Gulf of Mexico as it acts as large source of moisture