1) Beating Retreat: The Beating Retreat Ceremony was held at the end of Republic Day celebrations.
- It is a military ceremony that was performed for the first time in India in the 1950s.
- The ceremony consists of musical performances by the bands.
- According to the Union Ministry of Culture website “It traces its origin to the early 1950s when Major Roberts of the Indian Army indigenously developed this unique ceremony of display by the massed bands”. the idea was inspired by a centuries-old military tradition when the troops ceased fighting, sheathed their arms and withdrew from the battlefield to return to their camps at sunset at the sound of the Retreat.
2) Dhole: Dhole or Asiatic Wild Dog is found in three clusters across India namely the Western and Eastern Ghats, the central Indian landscape and North East India. The Western and Eastern Ghats are stronghold regions for dholes.
- IUCN Red List: Endangered, The Wildlife Protection Act 1972: Schedule II, CITES: Appendix II
- Recently a partial albino dhole has been photo-documented in Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary.
- Albinism is the result of cells that can’t produce melanin, the pigment needed to colour skin, scales, eyes and hair. This genetic condition gets passed to offspring when both parents carry the recessive gene. When albinism is present, the animal can appear white or pink.
- The production of melanin occurs within melanocytes, specialized cells that are present but not fully functional in albino mammals.
3) Asian golden cat: It is a medium sized cat with relatively long legs. Called the “fire cat” in Thailand and Burma, and the “rock cat” in parts of China.
- found in Southeast Asia, from Nepal and Tibet to Southern China, Sumatra and India.
- It prefers forest habitats that are interspersed with rocky areas, being found in deciduous, tropical and subtropical evergreen rainforests.
- IUCN: “Near threatened”, Wildlife (Protection) Act of India, 1972: Schedule 1
- Recently found in Buxa Tiger Reserve.
4) Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR): Located in Alipurduar sub-division of Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal.
- It is contiguous to Phibsoo Wildlife Sanctuary in Bhutan in the north while Manas National Park of Assam lies in the east.
- It is the easternmost extension of extreme bio-diverse North-East India & represents the highly endemic Indo-Malayan region. The fragile “Terai Eco-System” is a part of this Reserve.
- BTR serves as an international corridor for elephant migration between India and Bhutan.
- The reserve encompasses as many as eight forest types.
- Tiger Census report 2018 stated: “Tigers were not recorded from Buxa (West Bengal) and Dampa (Mizoram)”. However, tigers have been sighted here now, after 23 years.
5) Geothermal Energy: It is an energy source that is stored in the form of heat beneath the earth’s surface, which is clean, renewable, sustainable, carbon-free, continuous, uninterrupted, and environment-friendly. It is the only renewable energy available 24×7 to mankind not requiring storage and unaffected by day-night or seasonality variance.
- Geothermal resources in India have been mapped by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and a broad estimate by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) suggests that there could be 10 GW of geothermal power
