Himalayan yak gets food animal tag (GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Himalayan yak has earned the food animal tag from the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI).
Background:
- The National Research Centre on Yak (NRC-Y) based in Dirang in Arunachal Pradesh had submitted a proposal to the FSSAI in 2021 for considering the yak as a food animal.
Key Highlights:
- The yak plays a multidimensional socio-cultural-economic role for the pastoral nomads who rear it mainly for earning their nutritional and livelihood security due to the lack of other agricultural activity in the higher reaches of the region where it is difficult for animals except the yak to survive.
- The categorisation is expected to help check the decline in the population of the high-altitude bovine by making it a part of the conventional milk and meat industry.
Current Status:
- According to a census carried out in 2019, India has some 58,000 yaks – a drop of about 25% from the livestock census of 2012.
- The drastic decline could be attributed to less remuneration from the bovid and discouraging the younger generations from continuing with nomadic yak rearing.
- The sale of yak milk and meat is limited to local consumers.
Way Forward:
- The commercialisation of yak milk and meat products will lead to entrepreneurship development.
Scientists discover new species of black corals near Australia
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Using a remote-controlled submarine, researchers at Smithsonian Institution, Washington, discovered five new species of black corals living as deep as 2,500 feet (760 metres) below the surface in the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea off the coast of Australia.
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Key Highlights:
- Among the many interesting specimens were five new species including one that was found growing on the shell of a nautilus more than 2,500 feet (760 metres) below the ocean’s surface.
- Similarly to shallow-water corals that build colourful reefs full of fish, black corals act as important habitats where fish and invertebrates feed and hide from predators in what is otherwise a mostly barren sea floor.
- For example, a single black coral colony researchers collected in 2005 off the coast of California, United States, was home to 2,554 individual invertebrates.
Characteristics of black corals:
- Black corals can be found growing both in shallow waters and down to depths of over 26,000 feet (8,000 metres), and some individual corals can live for over 4,000 years.
- Many of these corals are branched and look like feathers, fans or bushes, while others are straight like a whip.
- Unlike their colourful, shallow-water cousins that rely on the sun and photosynthesis for energy, black corals are filter feeders and eat tiny zooplankton that are abundant in deep waters.
- In the past, corals from the deep parts of this region were collected using dredging and trawling methods that would often destroy the corals.
Background:
- The researchers first sent a robot down to these particular deep-water ecosystems, allowing the team to actually see and safely collect deep sea corals in their natural habitats.
- They then removed the corals from the sandy floor or coral wall using the rover’s robotic claws, placed the corals in a pressurised, temperature-controlled storage box and then brought them up to the surface.
- The researchers then examined the physical features of the corals and sequenced their DNA.
India is the lone absentee at China’s Indian Ocean forum of 19 countries
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Why in news?
- Recently, China convened a first “China-Indian Ocean Region Forum” bringing together 19 countries from the region and all of India’s neighbours, except for India itself, the lone absentee.
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Key Highlights:
- China proposed to establish a marine disaster prevention and mitigation cooperation mechanism between China and countries in the Indian Ocean region, and stood ready to provide necessary financial, material, and technical support to countries in need.
- China also proposed the establishment of a blue economy think tank network for China and countries in the Indian Ocean region with the support of Yunnan.
- The participating countries agreed to cooperate to strengthen policy coordination, deepen development cooperation, increase resilience to shocks and disasters, and enhance relevant countries’ capacity to obtain economic benefits through use of marine resources such as fisheries, renewable energy, tourism, and shipping in a sustainable way.
- China, which has set up a China-Africa Satellite Remote Sensing Application Centre, also called for countries to jointly address non-traditional security challenges and participate in global development cooperation, so as to forge a united, equal, balanced and inclusive global development partnership.
Participating countries:
- The forum held in Kunming in southwestern Yunnan province.
