Category Geography

What type of structure is the Burj Khalifa?

There are few buildings in the world that share the kind of popularity that the Burj Khalifa enjoys. A towering skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Burj Khalifa’s total height is 829.8 m and its roof height (excluding antenna) is 828 m. That makes it the tallest structure and building in the world, since its official launch ceremony in January 2010.

The spider lily

Such a massive structure is naturally an engineering Marvel. What makes it even more special is its design. The Burj Khalifa has a triple-lobed footprint, an abstraction of the Hymenocallis flower. The Hymenocallis or spider lily is a regional desert flower from which the architects drew inspiration for the iconic tower’s design. While this beautiful choice maximises window viewing, the architects didn’t go for it purely for Aesthetic or ornamental reasons. This design ensures that the tower is composed of different features that are arranged around a central core. This provides for an inherently stable configuration, vital for super-tall buildings.

Biomimetics

The modular, Y-shaped structure has setbacks along each of its three wings and affords lateral bending resistance. The central core, which emerges on top and culminates in a sculpted spire, provides strong torsional resistance.

The Burj Khalifa thus serves as a great illustration of biomimetics or biomimicry – the science or art of emulating systems and elements of nature in order to solve complex human problems.

 

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Why Periyar Tiger Reserve is famous?

Spanning over 725 sq. km., the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala is one of the rich biodiversity hotspots of the Western Ghats. Comprising a range of tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, grasslands and eucalyptus plantations, it is amply nourished by rivers such as the Periyar running through the region. The reserve is a green zone that’s home to more than a 100 varieties each of grasses and orchids – perfect to welcome several species of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and butterflies. The region also hosts a large number of Asiatic elephants, making it one of the most significant elephant reserves of the country.

Wildlife

Garganeys, little grebes, nightjars, swift, coucal, malkohas, crakes, bitterns, cormorants, snipes, sandpipers, harriers, hornbills, woodpeckers, barbets, bee-eaters, falcons, minivets, orioles, woodshrikes, shrikes, treepies, flowerpeckers, sunbirds, leaf birds, munias, pipits, wagtails, tits, larks, prinias, warblers, swallows, babblers, starlings, nuthatches, flycatchers, robins and thrushes are among the species of birds that can be seen here. In addition to the Royal Bengal tiger and the Asiatic elephant, one can spot mammals such as leopard, bison, sambar, barking deer, Indian wild dog, wild boar, Nilgiri marten, Nilgiri langur and otter. A variety of reptiles such as cobra, viper, krait, and Indian monitor lizard, and amphibians such as frogs and toads too are found in the region.

Cause for concern

report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in 2019 A said that the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), an autonomous body that manages 1,248 temples including the Sabarimala Ayappa Temple, has been violating the Master Plan for Sabarimala for over a decade. This is affecting the ecology of the Periyar Tiger Reserve”. The report on the implementation of Wildlife Protection Act in Kerala says that the “impact of Sabarimala pilgrimage ranked first in the list of 18 major threats identified by Periyar Tiger Reserve authorities in Tiger Conservation Plan”. It added that due to the lack of drainage facilities, overflowing waste water and sewage was mixing with the rivers in the region. Further, electric lines had not been laid underground, and the existing “overhead cables without insulation” could pose a threat to wildlife species in the area.

Poachers to protectors

The Periyar Tiger Reserve is an example of an unusual success story. According to Mongabay, a conservation and environment news and features service, the story begins towards the end of the 20th Century, when a forest brigand operating near the reserve is captured. He led a 23-member gang of poachers and sandalwood smugglers. And was willing to give it all up if they were assured of a job with a steady income. However, back then there was no provision to include poachers and smugglers in forest management. Several discussions happened and a few years passed before Vidiyal Vanapathukappu Sangam was set up. It would be the country’s first eco-development committee constituted solely of former poachers and sandalwood smugglers””. The group underwent training and was exposed to the need for conservation. It’s been 17 years since. The members have helped crack at least “230 cases of poaching and smuggling”. In addition to patrolling, they also double up as tourist guides and elephant safari providers. Most importantly, they have managed to educate their children – some are postgraduates today! The success of this model has been so encouraging that several other reserves and sanctuaries too have emulated it.

 

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What is the rarest naturally occurring element in Earth’s crust?

Astatine is the rarest, naturally occurring element in the Earth’s crust, occurring only as the decay product of various heavier elements. There are only about 25 grams of naturally-occurring astatine in Earth’s crust at any given time. It is a radioactive chemical element with symbol At and atomic number 85. It is the heaviest known halogen (a non-metal), but it has more metallic character than other elements in the halogen group.

The bulk properties of astatine are not known with certainty. Many of them have been estimated based on the element’s position on the periodic table as a heavier analog of iodine, and a member of the halogens (the group of elements including fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine). Astatine is likely to have a dark or lustrous appearance and may be a semiconductor or possibly a metal; it probably has a higher melting point than that of iodine. Chemically, several anionic species of astatine are known and most of its compounds resemble those of iodine. It also shows some metallic behavior, including being able to form a stable monatomic cation in aqueous solution (unlike the lighter halogens).

 

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Why Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve included in UNESCO?

The Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve – spanning more than 3,500 sq.km. and the two States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu – comprises tropical forests, and houses more than 2,000 species of vascular plants, including about 400 that are endemic. It also hosts a variety of spices, including cardamom, nutmeg, and pepper. The Reserve nurtures more than 300 species of birds, 70 species of mammals, over 80 species of reptiles, 45 species of amphibians, and more than 45 species of fishes. Importantly, many these species are endemic to the region. The Reserve also includes three wildlife sanctuaries – Shendurney, Peppara and Nayar, in addition to the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. It is also an important biogeographical hotspot within the Western Ghats, where it is located.

Wildlife

Francolins, ducks, piculets, barbets, trogons, malkohas, coucals, swiftlets, needletails, frogmouths, nightjars, crakes, waterhens, swamphens, coots, snipes, sandpipers, thickknees, plovers, stilts, lapwings, terns, buzzards, kestrels, grebes, darters, cormorants, bitterns, ibises, spoonbills, pelicans, leafbirds, shrikes, treepies, minivets, flycatchers, woodshrikes, thrushes, robins, starlings, bushchats, nuthatches, tits, martins, prinias, munias, robins, warblers, larks, flowerpeckers, spiderhunters, wagtails and weavers can be spotted here. Among the animals found here are the Bengal tiger, leopard, sloth bear, the Asian elephant gaur, sambar, Nilgiri tahr, spotted deer, mouse deer, Nilgiri langur, slender loris, bonnet macaque, lion-tailed macaque, brown mongoose, Malabar giant squirrel, Nilgiri marten, Indian pangolin, king cobra, python, monitor lizard, and pit viper.

A treasure trove of new species

  • In 2014, as many as six species of golden backed frogs found in the Western Ghats were declared new – till then they were wrongly grouped as Hylarana temporalis, usually found in Sri Lanka. One of them – the large golden-backed frog (Hylarana magna) – was found in Agasthyamala Meanwhile, it seems Hylarana temporalis never really existed in India and it was a case of mistaken identity!
  • In 2017, another new frog species would be found in Agasthyamala Vijayan’s night frog (Nyctibatrachus pulivijayani) is extremely tiny – only 13.6 mm that it barely covers a thumbnail and sits effortlessly on a coin, with lots of space to spare. This was one of the four thumbnail-sized frog species discovered in the Western Ghats back then.
  • In 2018, a new plant species got its name from the place it was discovered in – Fimbristylis agasthyamalai is. This grass-like plant is said to have a range of only “about two square km with less than 50 known individuals”, and “highly threatened by grazing”.

 

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Who is the last Mughal Empire?

The last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah II, also known as Zafar, died in a British prison in Burma in 1862. As the last of the dynastic line that extended back to the sixteenth century, he had in his earlier years presided over a culturally sophisticated court, but as the British East India Company extended its control over more of India, his rule was clearly coming to an end. Then the mutiny of the sepoys against their British officers led to the siege of Delhi, the establishment of direct British colonial rule, and the end of any pretensions of Zafar as emperor. Dalrymple has mined the Persian and Urdu archives to capture the culture of Zafar’s court life — a culture of artists and intellectuals, of Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Dalrymple has little to say about what triggered the mutiny, but he does add greatly to the standard picture of the horrors of the fighting that destroyed a great deal of the city of Delhi.

Zafar’s father, Akbar II, had been imprisoned by the British and he was not his father’s preferred choice as his successor. One of Akbar Shah’s queens, Mumtaz Begum, pressured him to declare her son, Mirza Jahangir, as his successor. However, The East India Company exiled Jahangir after he attacked their resident, in the Red Fort, paving the way for Zafar to assume the throne.

Bahadur Shah Zafar was a noted Urdu poet, having written a number of Urdu ghazals. While some part of his opus was lost or destroyed during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a large collection did survive, and was compiled into the Kulliyyat-i-Zafar. The court that he maintained was home to several prolific Urdu writers, including Mirza Ghalib, Dagh, Mumin, and Zauq.

 

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Who is the founder of Mughal Empire?

Babar is the great grandson of Tamerlane and Genghis Khan, was the first Mughal emperor in India. He confronted and defeated Lodhi in 1526 at the first battle of Panipat, and so came to establish the Mughal Empire in India. Babar ruled until 1530, and was succeeded by his son Humayun.

The Mughal imperial structure, however, is sometimes dated to 1600, to the rule of Babur’s grandson, Akbar. This imperial structure lasted until 1720, until shortly after the death of the last major emperor, Aurangzeb, during whose reign the empire also achieved its maximum geographical extent. Reduced subsequently, especially during the East India Company rule in India, to the region in and around Old Delhi, the empire was formally dissolved by the British Raj after the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Although the Mughal Empire was created and sustained by military warfare, it did not vigorously suppress the cultures and people it came to rule; rather, it equalized and placated them through new administrative practices, and diverse ruling elites, leading to more efficient, centralised, and standardized rule. The base of the empire’s collective wealth was agricultural taxes, instituted by the third Mughal emperor, Akbar. These taxes, which amounted to well over half the output of a peasant cultivator, were paid in the well-regulated silver currency, and caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets.

 

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