TMG in Shola Sky Islands of the Western Ghats have suffered big reductions due to invasions by exotic trees such as acacias, pines and eucalyptus. TMG are high elevation grasslands forming only 2% of all grasslands in the world. In India, TMG have even been classified as wastelands in forest management plans since they are …
ONGC Limited has begun crude oil production from Bengal Basin making Bengal basin India’s eighth producing basin. Other basins are: Godavari (KG), Mumbai Offshore, Assam Shelf, Rajasthan, Cauvery, Assam-Arakan Fold Belt and Cambay. According to Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, there are 26 sedimentary basins in India. Of these, 16 are onland basins, 7 located both …
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Solstice: It is a Latin word that means ‘stalled sun’. It is a natural phenomenon that occurs twice every year, once in the summer and again during winter, in each hemisphere of the earth. Winter Solstice: It is the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and is also known as the ‘first day of winter’ in the Northern Hemisphere as …
What are Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)? In 1973, the Dhebar Commission created Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) as a separate category, who are less developed among the tribal groups. In 2006, the Government of India renamed the PTGs as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs). PVTGs have some basic characteristics: they are mostly homogenous, with a …
What is a bomb cyclone? It is a mid-latitude cyclone that intensifies rapidly. It is a massive winter storm hammering the coast, bringing strong winds, flooding, ice and snow. It is a combination of rapidly declining pressure and extreme cold. This particular storm is the most explosive ever, observed on the east coast. It is …
Western Disturbances Impact on Cold Weather: Western Disturbances are eastward propagating wind streams, capable of inducing rain or snow-bearing weather systems along their path. Frequent and higher numbers of western disturbances are associated with La Niña. Until January 26th 2022, seven western disturbances had passed over India. These caused hail storms in northern Maharashtra and …
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Tsunamis are large waves that approach crashing on coasts due to seafloor movement, majorly associated with landslides or earthquakes. The word “tsunami” gets its name from the Japanese “tsu” means harbor and “nami” means wave. Tsunami is chain of huge waves created by disturbance created underwater. These waves are normally associated with earthquakes taking place …
Total lunar eclipses are sometimes called blood moons because of the reddish orange glow the moon takes on. The word “eclipse” means to obscure. When the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, it’s called a solar eclipse. When the Earth passes between the sun and the moon, it is a lunar eclipse. The Moon …
Madden-Julian Oscillation, discovered in the 1970s, starts when water vapor rises out of the Indian Ocean every 30 to 60 days to create a major ocean storm that travels west to east from near Seychelles off Africa toward India, crosses into the tropical Pacific Ocean and eventually affects weather patterns across America. The MJO …
El-Nino is a weather phenomenon, during which temperature at sea surface is warmer than normal sea-surface temperatures. El Nino is a warming of the Pacific Ocean between South America and the Date Line, centred directly on the Equator, and typically extending several degrees of latitude to either side of the equator. It accompanies high air surface pressure in the western Pacific. El Niño …