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An ancient terracotta temple in West Bengal’s Sundarbans, which has survived the ravages of time for a millennia, is now facing a very modern threat.
The impact of climate change, especially the increase in air salinity, is gradually eroding the outer wall of Jatar Deul, an 11th century Shiva temple, which is located at Raidighi in South 24 Parganas, only a few kilometres from the sea.
For the past several years, we have noticed that the outer brick wall of the temple is getting eroded, with the edge of bricks suffering steady corrosion. We have deduced that this is due to increase in air salinity.
The ASI plans to carry out restoration and conservation work at the temple later this year. “We are going to remove the damaged bricks and replace them with new bricks of similar size.
While the temple is 98 feet high, the archaeologist said the erosion is particularly seen in the bricks on the outer wall up to a height of 15 feet.
The temple stands on a vacant site. There are some trees to provide a barrier to coastal winds, particularly on the upper part of the temple, and that can be the reason that erosion is less on the upper side of the temple.
Amphan, the tropical cyclone that ravaged coastal West Bengal, particularly the Sundarbans, in May 2020, had destroyed three trees at Jatar Deul, further exposing the temple to the gusty salt-laden coastal winds.
Mughal Gardens is now Amrit Udyan (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
The Rashtrapati Bhavan gardens, popularly known as the Mughal Gardens, was renamed Amrit Udyan.
On the occasion of the celebrations of 75 years of Independence as Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the President of India is pleased to give a common name to the Rashtrapati Bhavan gardens as Amrit Udyan.
The garden is thrown open to the public for a limited period during spring each year. In presence of the President, the garden will be opened for public and it will remain open till March 26.
Designed by Edwin Lutyens — the iconic garden is spread across 15 acres and it incorporates both Mughal and English landscaping styles.
The main garden has two channels intersecting at right angles dividing the garden into grid of squares — a Charbagh (a four-cornered garden) — a typical characteristic of the Mughal landscaping.
There are six lotus-shaped fountains at the crossings of these channels rising to a height of 12 feet. The garden houses nearly 2,500 varieties of dahlias and 120 varieties of roses.
Architect K.T. Ravindran said the decision to rename the garden is “certainly inappropriate”. The garden is designed in Persian or Mughal style.
In fact, Edward Lutyens who designed the Viceroy’s House, what we call Rashtrapati Bhavan, had deliberately used Mughal architectural details as part of the British appeasement plan.
States
Researchers offer tips to save Kerala’s sinking island (Page no. 4)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
A study conducted by the National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) has revealed anthropogenic interventions as the main reason for the plight of Munroe Thuruthu residents, Kerala’s first set of climate refugees.
The islanders are facing steady land subsidence, tidal flooding and lower agricultural productivity, all of which have triggered a mass exodus from the region.
The study by the research organisation proposes reverse landscaping, a plan integrating all aspects of earth and social sciences, to retrieve the landscape’s original geomorphic state.
Since Ashtamudi Lake is emerging as an important tourist destination, the study stresses for sustainable management plans to protect the Ramsar-listed wetland.
Apart from strict regulatory measures to control sand mining from Ashtamudi Lake and the Kallada river, the current construction methods on the island should be replaced with well-studied engineering techniques.
An artificial sedimentation process to eradicate the saline banks of deep basins is also suggested as a method and the study recommends using the sediments deposited in the Thenmala reservoir and those removed through dredging navigation channels for the purpose.
The multidisciplinary research conducted during the last five years calls for suitable strategies to protect the highly vulnerable estuarine ecosystem.
According to the study, almost 39% of the land area has been lost with Peringalam and Cheriyakadavu islands recording a land depletion of around 12% and 47% respectively.
Though the degradation started in 1980s, its severity was felt only in the 2000s. Unregulated sand mining and the resultant riverbed pools in the Kallada river have largely contributed to the current degradation.
News
GACs to handle complaints against social media firms from March 1: IT Ministry (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The grievance appellate committees (GACs) set up by the government to look into users’ complaints against large social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will commence operation from March 1, the Ministry of Electronics and IT.
The Centre on Friday notified three GACs under an amendment tothe IT Rules, 2021 notified in October. “Keeping in view the transition period required for the intermediaries as per their requests and technical requirement, the online platform will be operational in one month of this notification of the Grievance Appellate Committee, i.e. from March 1, 2023.
According to the notification, each of the three GACs will have a chairperson, two whole-time members from various government entities and retired senior executives from the industry for a term of three years from the date of assumption of office.
The GAC is a critical piece of overall policy and legal framework to ensure that the Internet in India is open, safe and trusted and accountable.
The need for GAC was created due to large numbers of grievances being left unaddressed or unsatisfactorily addressed by Internet Intermediaries.
GAC is expected to create a culture of responsiveness amongst all Internet Platforms and Intermediaries towards their consumers.
The GAC will be a virtual digital platform that will operate only online and digitally — wherein the entire process, from filing of appeal to the decision thereof, will be conducted digitally.
“Users will have the option to appeal against the decision of the grievance officer of the social media intermediaries and other online intermediaries before this new appellate body. The Committee will endeavour to address the user’s appeal within a period of 30 days.
Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar had said the compliance of rules and laws was not a “pick-and-choose” or “cherry-picking” option for the platforms.
He had cautioned that if and when rules are not followed, the “safe harbour protection” that these platforms enjoy falls away.
Noble’s Helen: Arunachal yields India’s newest butterfly (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
A swallowtail butterfly disappearing from its previously known ranges from Myanmar and southern China to Vietnam has been recorded for the first time in India.
Three butterfly enthusiasts — Atanu Bose, Loren Sonowal and Monsoon Jyoti Gogoi — recorded the “extremely rare” Noble’s Helen (Papilio noblei) from three locations in the Namdapha National Park of Arunachal Pradesh in the year to September 2021.
The Noble’s Helen, closest to Papilio antonio from the Philippines and characterised by a large dorsal white spot, was once common in the montane forest at moderate elevations in northern Thailand.
This species of swallowtail butterfly has also been reported from the Myanmar, Yunnan and Hubai regions of China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The species has not disappeared from Thailand but is now known to be very rare in the ranges it was previously recorded. The recording of Noble’s Helen for the first time in India is encouraging for nature lovers. Butterflies are considered vital indicators of the state of biodiversity and key ecosystem functions.
The trio of Mr. Bose, Mr. Sonowal and Mr. Gogoi photographed Noble’s Helen live from 19th Mile, Lunkai Nala, and near Deban Camp within the 1,985-sq.km Namdapha, also India’s easternmost tiger reserve.
The locations are approximately 80 km aerially from Putao of Myanmar’s Kachin State, where this species of swallowtail butterfly was last recorded in April 1999.
Mr. Sonowal said Noble’s Helen with a wingspan of 100-120 mm was initially thought to be an aberration of Papilio helenus, though the former has an extra white spot in the dorsum of the forewing.
Science & Tech
90 fossil nests belonging to India’s largest dinosaurs uncovered (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Researchers have uncovered 92 nesting sites containing a total of 256 fossil eggs in central India’s Narmada Valley belonging to titanosaurs, which were among the largest dinosaurs to have ever lived.
The finding, published in the journal PLOS ONE, reveals intimate details about the lives of titanosaurs in the Indian subcontinent.
The Lameta Formation, located in the Narmada Valley, is well-known for fossils of dinosaur skeletons and eggs of the Late Cretaceous Period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago.
Detailed examination of these nests allowed researchers at the University of Delhi, New Delhi and colleagues to make inferences about the life habits of these dinosaurs.
They identified six different egg species, suggesting a higher diversity of titanosaurs than what is represented by the skeletal remains from this region.
Based on the layout of the nests, the team inferred that these dinosaurs buried their eggs in shallow pits like modern-day crocodiles.
Certain pathologies found in the eggs, such as a rare case of “egg-in-egg”, indicate that titanosaur sauropods had a reproductive physiology that parallels that of birds and possibly laid their eggs in a sequential manner as seen in modern birds.
The presence of many nests in the same area suggests that these dinosaurs exhibited colonial nesting behaviour like modern birds.
However, the close spacing of the nests left little room for adult dinosaurs, supporting the idea that adults left the hatchlings (newborns) to fend for themselves.
These fossil nests provide a wealth of data about some of the largest dinosaurs in history, and they come from a time shortly before the age of dinosaurs came to an end. The findings contribute significantly to paleontologists’ understanding of how dinosaurs lived and evolved.
Breast cancer: more insights on how hormonal therapy works (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Work carried out by researchers from the Integrated Cancer Genomics Laboratory atthe Advanced Centre for Training, Research, and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) in Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Centre has shed more light on the molecular mechanism through which progesterone treatment prior to breast cancer surgery is quite likely to increase the survival rates of patients.
In 2018, a team led by Dr. Amit Dutt at the ACTREC found through in vitro studies that when breast cancer cell lines were treated with progesterone, two genes — SGK1 and NDRG1 — were produced in excess amount (overexpressed). They also found that the expression of a few microRNAs was reduced (down-regulated) in response to the hormone treatment. Two particular microRNAs that were down regulated were found to also regulate the expression of the SGK1 gene.
Since the normal function of the two microRNAs is to reduce the amount of SGK1 enzyme produced, when the level of microRNAs drops, the amount of SGK1 enzyme produced increases.
Through the action of SGK1 and two other genes, and the two microRNAs, the ability of the breast cancer cells to migrate and invade is reduced, thus increasing the survival rates of patients undergoing hormone therapy prior to surgery.
In a recently published study in the journal,Breast Cancer Research, the team led by Neelima Yadav in Dr. Dutt’slabexpanded the scope of their previous work to focus on the role of non-coding genes; non-coding genes do not produce any proteins but regulate the expression of other genes.
The work was to uncover the molecular mechanism of any non-coding gene in providing therapeutic advantage of progesterone on breast cancer cells.
The study found that treatment of breast cancer cells with progesterone results in a down-regulation of a long non-coding linc RNA known as the Down Syndrome Cell Adhesion Molecule (DSCAM-AS1).
As with progesterone therapy, we found that with silencing of DSCAM-AS1 expression, the ability of breast cancer cells to invade and migrate is slowed down.
In breast cancer patients, the amount of DSCAM-AS1 present is elevated. The team also found that DSCAM-AS1 behaves like a sponge and depletes the availability of another non-coding microRNA called the miR-130a. And the level of estrogen receptor in breast cancer cells is increased, which serves as an indicator to begin hormonal therapy.
But when progesterone is provided from externally, the amount of DSCAM-AS1 that is available reduces, and thereby the sponging effect of DSCAM-AS1 also sees a dip.
This results in elevated levels of the microRNA (miR-130a) that are freely available. As the level of the microRNA increases, there is more of them binding to the estrogen receptor.
FAQ
Why is SC examining marriage laws for minors? (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court announced that it would examine whether minor girls, as young as 15 years, can marry on the basis of custom or personal law when such marriages are considered an offence in statutory law.
The legal age for marriage is 18 years for women and 21 years for men. Marriage below this age is considered to be child marriage, and hence an offence.
In 2017, the Supreme Court had ruled that sexual intercourse by a man with his wife, who is below 18 years, is rape, reading down Exception 2 to Section 375 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code which allowed the husband of a girl child — between 15 and 18 years of age — to have non-consensual sex with her.
On January 13, the Supreme Court said it would examine whether girls as young as 15 years old can enter into wedlock if their personal law allows it.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud issued a formal notice on a petition filed by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) against a recent order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court that said a girl, on attaining puberty or the age of 15 years and above, could be married on the basis of Muslim personal law, irrespective of the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
The Supreme Court said the High Court order would not act as a judicial precedent for other courts. The NCPCR argued that when girls as young as 14 and 15 are being married off, a plea of personal law and custom cannot be used when the POCSO Act and the Indian Penal Code make such marriages an offence.
The Supreme Court has also appealed to Parliament to lower the age of consent under the POCSO Act and the IPC which set it at 18 years, thus criminalising all adolescent consensual sexual activity. Last December, the government told Parliament that it does not plan to do that yet.
The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2021 has sought to amend the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, to increase the minimum age of marriage for women from 18 to 21 years.
In December 2021, it was referred to a parliamentary standing committee for further deliberations, and it has already got three extensions to submit its report, the last being in October 2022.
Last December, the Supreme Court had asked the government to respond to another petition filed by the National Commission for Women (NCW) to make the minimum age of marriage for Muslim women on par with persons belonging to other faiths.