Justification: Kuttanad (a Ramsar site) is a delta region of about 900 sq. km situated in the west coast of Kerala State, India.

• The area is a larger mosaic of fragmented landscape patches and varied ecosystems such as coastal backwaters, rivers, vast stretches of paddy elds, marshes, ponds, garden lands, edges, corridors and remarkably networked water ways.
• The Kuttanad Below Sea-level Farming System (KBSFS) is unique, as it is the only system in India that practices rice cultvation below sea level.
• The major land use structure of KBSFS is at stretches of rice elds in about 50,000 ha of mostly reclaimed delta swamps.
• The rice fields, which are popularly known as "Puncha Vayals" exist in three landscape elements: Karapadam (upland rice elds), Kayal (wetland rice elds) and Kari (land buried with black coal like materials).
• Farmers of Kuttanad have developed and mastered the spectacular technique of below sea level cultivation over 150 year ago.
• They made this system unique as it contributes remarkably well to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services including several livelihood services for local communities.
• The below sea-level farming practised in Kuttanad is of great interests to countries such as Malaysia, Bangladesh and the Maldives.

Q Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/global-centre-for-below-sealevel-farming-soon/article8047556.ece

• National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 (NGT) is an Act of the Parliament of India which enables creation of a special tribunal to handle the expeditious disposal of the cases pertaining to environmental issues
• The NGT has been given the power to regulate the procedure by itself. It does not follow the principles of civil procedure code instead it follows principles of natural justice.
• It will have the same power as of the civil court in deciding the matter falling within these seven legal acts.
• Even the NGT will not be bound by the rules of evidence as mentioned in the Indian evidence act.

• Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope as a sort of time machine, researchers plan to investigate how new stars are born, with the help of a natural phenomenon called "gravitational lensing".
• What is gravitational lensing? How it works?
  • Gravitational lensing is an effect of Einstein's theory of general relativity - simply put, mass bends light.
  • The gravitational field of a massive object will extend far into space, and cause light rays passing close to that object (and thus through its gravitational field) to be bent and refocused somewhere else.
  • The more massive the object, the stronger its gravitational field and hence the greater the bending of light rays - just like using denser materials to make optical lenses results in a greater amount of refraction.

Refer: Insights Pt 2020 Exclusive (Science and Technology): "

• Kondana Rat, Pangolin, Siberian Crane, Gharial are categorised as critically endangered species.

Refer: Facts for Prelims: "