 Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu news analysis by Shankar IAS Academy. The list of articles that has been chosen for today's analysis are provided here. The link for the handwritten notes in the PDF format and the time stamping for the given articles is provided in the description box below. And for the benefit of smartphone users, the time stamping is also provided in the comments section. Let's move on to the first article analysis. This discussion is about the addition of six new migratory species from India under the convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals which is nothing but the CMS convention. Six new migratory species from India have been added in the CMS appendices during the COP13 which was held in February 2020. So in this context, let us see what were the migratory species that were added to CMS appendices. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. As we know the CMS aims to conserve terrestrial, aquatic and avian migratory species throughout the range. So during the COP meeting, the parties to this convention review and assess the conservation status of the migratory species and they also assess the progress made towards such conservation. And in this 13th meeting of COP which was held in India, the theme was migratory species connect to the planet and together we welcome them home. In this 13th COP, Gandhinagar declaration has been adopted which calls for the migratory species protection. Now as a result of this meeting, 10 new species were added to the CMS appendices. And in this seven species were added to appendix one, three species were added to appendix two. Now already we have covered about CMS convention, the appendices under the CMS and what do they mean, etc. On our February 11th in the news and houses, please first have a look at it to have a better understanding of this discussion. Now in this, the seven species which are added to appendix one are Asian elephant, Bengal, Florican, Great Indian Bustard, Oceanic White Tip Shark, Little Bustard, Jaguar and Antipodian albatross. These are the species that are in danger of extinction throughout all of their range or in a significant portion of their range and hence they needed strictest protection and that is why they have been added in the appendix one of CMS convention. Now the three species which are added to appendix two are the Uriel smooth hammerhead shark and the top shark. And as we know appendix two covers the species that have an unfavorable conservation status. So if a species is added to this appendix, it would benefit from international cooperation and conservation actions. Now among these 10 species, six migratory species have been added from India. They are Asian elephant, Great Indian Bustard, Bengal Florican, Oceanic White Tip Shark, Uriel and smooth hammerhead shark. So with the addition of these species, now the total number of migratory species from India has increased from 451 to 457. And totally if you see the CMS appendices has around 650 migratory species and 450 sun species are from India itself. So India plays a very important role in the conservation of these species. Now out of the 457 species around 380 species that is around 83 percentage of the species are birds. Birds make up the bulk of migratory species. And before this COP13 it was 378 but after the addition of Great Indian Bustard and Bengal Florican to CMS, now totally 380 species of birds are from India. Now among the birds, the bird family mussy capidae has the highest number of migratory species. It is followed by the bird family asypid 3-day. These asypid 3-day are raptors that is they are birds of prey such as eagles, owls, vultures and kites. Now similar to this some 41 species which belong to another group of birds known as vaders or shorebirds, they also migrate in large numbers. And this is followed by duck species which belong to the family anatidae. So we can say that India is temporary home to several migratory animals and birds. Now this is because India remains in the core central region of central Asian flyway that covers areas between the Arctic ocean and Indian ocean. And also India lies along the path of two other flyways across the globe. So what is a flyway? Generally flyways are the flight parts that is used by birds while migrating from one place to another throughout their annual cycle. It includes the breeding areas, migration stopovers and also non-breeding sites that is the wintering sites. Now as per this CMS convention there are eight flyways in the world and three flyways are in the American region. They are the Pacific America flyway, Central America flyway and Atlantic America flyway. Then there are three other flyways which are along Europe and Africa. They are East Atlantic flyway, then Mediterranean or Black Sea flyway and then Asia East Africa flyway. Some sources say it is East Asia East Africa flyway and some sources say it is West Asian East Africa flyway. So commonly we can say that it is Asia East Africa flyway. Then the seventh flyway is the Central Asian flyway. It is the shortest flyway in the world. It connects the Arctic region with the Indian subcontinent. But fewer species use this route because of the presence of Tibetan Plateau and Himalayas in between as a barrier. And the eighth flyway is the East Asia Australasia flyway which extends from Arctic Russia and North America to New Zealand. And as you can see in this pictures India lies along three of the eight flyways. They are Central Asian flyway, Asian East Africa flyway and then East Asian Australasian flyway. And this is cited as one of the reasons why India is a temporary home to several migratory animals and birds. So being an important country in CMS, India has also pledged on the conservation of migratory birds along the Central Asian flyway. India also announced in the COP 13 that it will establish institutional facility for undertaking research and assessment of conservation of migratory birds, the conservation of marine turtles. It will undertake research and assessment for reduction of pollution from microplastic and single use plastic etc. Now apart from birds, the CMS appendices also covers mammals, fish species and reptiles. And among the mammals the largest migratory species is bats which belong to the family Vespurtilione day. And the second largest migratory species among mammals is the dolphins which has nine migratory species that are listed in the CMS appendices. So before the mammals in India that were listed in CMS were 44. Now with the addition of Asian elephant and Uriel to appendix 1 and appendix 2 respectively this number has become 46. Now next if we see the fish species which is another important group of migratory species. Before there were 22 species in the CMS list. Now after the addition of oceanic white tip shark and smooth hammered shark the total migratory fish species from India is now 24. And also know that there was no new addition of reptiles during the COP 13 and already from India there are seven reptiles which are listed in CMS and this five species are of turtles and then another species is Indian gharil and the another species is salt water crocodile. So in this discussion we saw about the addition of new migratory species to the CMS convention and we also saw in specific about what were the species that were added from India. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The split practice question will be discussed in the last session. Now moving on to the second discussion for today which is based on US Taliban peace deal. We know that US had signed a deal with Taliban to end the 18 year long war in Afghanistan and yesterday we discussed the important provisions of this deal and today many news articles have appeared including two editorials on this deal. So we will discuss each article and editorial one by one. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now this US Taliban deal has been hailed by many sections as a successful deal but this editorial that is a big bad deal points out the dangers involved in this deal and as we discussed yesterday the US troops entered Afghanistan after 9-11 attacks only and they entered with two goals. One is to defeat the terrorists and the second is to rebuild and stabilize Afghanistan. So did US achieve these goals when they have signed the deal to leave Afghan soil. Now this is a big question which we will answer at the end of this editorial. Now first of all let us discuss why US is desperate to leave Afghanistan. The author says that Afghan war have costed USA very much. It has been estimated around 2 trillion dollars. In addition to this more than 3500 American and coalition soldiers were killed during these years and apart from these Afghanistan has lost hundreds of thousands of people both civilians and also soldiers. But after all these the Taliban which the US was supposed to eliminate is still at its strongest now. And according to the author Taliban either directly controls or it threatens the authority of the government in half of Afghanistan. Taliban mainly control the hinterlands or remote areas which is very difficult to access. So even though US entered Afghanistan in 2001 the successive US presidents such as Barack Obama and Donald Trump they have tried their best to eliminate the Taliban by sending additional troops but this did not help. So now the US just wants to leave Afghanistan since it has costed much and they have lost many soldiers. So in this regard the authors of the opinion that the peace deal signed by US is out of desperation and this deal is problematic. So what are the problems with this peace deal? Firstly the deal was signed between the US special envoy and Taliban political chief. So the fundamental issue with this deal is that the deal deliberately excluded the legitimate government in Afghanistan. We know that the Taliban does not accept the legitimacy of the Afghan government and hence by not making them a party to this deal the US has also questioned the legitimacy of the Afghan government and not just this the deal further strengthens Taliban's claim as the real representative of Afghan people. And the second problem with this deal is that the provisions in the deal gives several concessions to Taliban. Firstly as Taliban expected the US has agreed to pull out its troops from Afghanistan but in a phased manner and in contrast Taliban must assure that it will sever ties with other terrorist groups and Taliban must make sure that Afghan soil is not used against the US and its allies and in addition to this the Taliban will also have to start talks with Afghan government as a confidence building measure but according to the author of this editorial this will not help the Afghan people. It is because the Taliban has roughly ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 that is for a five-year period and this period was known for the strict imposition of religious laws which denied women the right to work and it denied girls the right to go to school. In addition to this women were also banished from public life and several schools were shut down. Ethnic religious minorities were highly discriminated so the same Taliban if it again comes to rule in Afghanistan then it is very unlikely that it will respect civil liberties and it will accept the Afghan constitution because these aspects were not discussed in the deal but if you see the Taliban had gained a lot from the deal. The Taliban hailed the deal as successful as it leads to the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan but as we know the Afghan government was heavily depended on the US troops so the withdrawal of US troops will significantly alter the balance of power in favor of Taliban. So the already weak Afghan government will now have to talk to a resurgent Taliban. So we can conclude by saying that the US in a desperate bid to exit the Afghan war it had practically abandoned the Afghan government and it had abandoned millions of Afghan people who opposed Taliban's rule. So the US deal leaves the Afghan people at the mercy of violent tribal Islamists. So from this discussion you can say that the two goals with which US troops entered Afghanistan has not been fulfilled that is neither US troops defeated the terrorists nor did they rebuild and stabilize Afghanistan. So these are the points that you can take from this editorial. Now the second editorial which is titled as a deal that increases uncertainty. This editorial focuses on the achievements of the deal as well as it focuses the uncertainty that is involved in this US-Taliban deal. So before going into the uncertainties of the deal let us first discuss what the deal has achieved. According to the author of this editorial the deal actually helped the leaders of US and Taliban to achieve their primary objectives. See the deal benefits the US because Taliban has agreed not to allow groups such as IS and Al Qaeda to operate from its territory and additionally as we know the current US president has been saying for a long time about bringing back the American troops from Afghanistan. So as per this agreement the US forces and the NATO forces will completely withdraw from Afghanistan in 14 months and within 135 days itself the US military forces in Afghanistan will be reduced to 8600. So this deal realizes the wish of the current US president. So this return of American force that too well before the upcoming 2020 presidential election will boost the current US president's chances to win again. And as we know this deal has also helped Taliban to achieve its primary objectives because this deal talks about the withdrawal of foreign troops and that too within a reasonable time frame. So this move will help the Taliban to expand their territorial base and that too at the expense of the weak government and the poorly trained forces of the weak government of Afghanistan. So in these ways this deal benefits US as well as Taliban. So what are the issues involved in this deal according to this editorial? The first issue is that the intra-Afghan dialogue that has been mandated by the deal between the Taliban and the Afghan government is unlikely to resolve the issues. It is because the current Afghan government is already weak and this weakness is further increased by the disunity within the government. And here you should note that the present president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani belongs to the Pashtun community which is the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. And if you see the majority of Taliban are also fundamentalist tribesmen from Pashtun community only. Now this fact is a problem because the main political challenger for Ghani is the chief executive of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah. He has already threatened to set up a parallel government in Afghanistan. And this rivalry is further dangerous because of the fact that the chief executive of Afghanistan is from Tajiks community which is the second largest group in Afghanistan. So according to the author even if Ghani's government enters into talks with Taliban this talk could be interpreted by the Abdullah supporters as an intra-Pashtun deal. So they might think that this deal has been reached at the expense of other ethnic groups such as Tajiks and Uzbeks. So in turn this might lead to a civil war or ethnic conflicts may happen in Afghanistan in the future. In addition to this author has pointed out another issue which is that the Taliban is not a well-knit force that is it is composed of various regional and tribal groups which are acting semi-autonomously. So some of them may not agree with this peace deal and they may continue to attack the government troops or even American forces during the withdrawal process. So this is also an issue. So till now we have discussed the difficulties with the US-Taliban deal and we also see how it is beneficial for US and Taliban. But this news article is about another issue with this deal which is about the exchange of prisoners. As we know the deal involves the release of 5,000 prisoners of Taliban by March 10 of this year. And after this the next stage that is the intra-Afghan talks between the government and the Taliban would start. But according to this news article the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has said that his government is not committed to release 5,000 prisoners before the intra-Afghan talks. So this stand of Ashraf Ghani makes the implementation of the deal more difficult. So far in the two editorials and this article we saw the issues with this deal. Now what we have to focus is how this deal will affect India. Now this aspect has been covered in this news article. You should know that the US-Taliban deal was signed in Qatar and Qatar had invited India to witness this US-Taliban deal. And India was represented at the event by the Indian ambassador to Qatar. So this signals India's acceptance of the deal. But some of the diplomatic and security experts are of the opinion that this deal may be a cause of worry for India. The main area of concern is that the deal is silent about the constitution of Afghanistan, rule of law, civil liberties, democracy and periodic elections. And in this the first and foremost concern for India is the definition of the term the US and its allies. Because according to the deal Taliban agreed to prevent the use of Afghan soil by terrorist groups against US and its allies. So it is unclear whether India which is not a US ally is included in this definition or not. So whether the Pakistan-backed terrorist groups that are operating from Afghan against India will continue to do so or not is still a concern. And the second concern is regarding the release of political prisoners and lifting UN sanctions. As we already saw the deal involves release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners by March 10 of this year. So this might mainstream the terrorist Haqqani network that is operating in Afghanistan. And this Haqqani network is a part of Taliban only. And the Lashkar-e-Taiba which bombed Indian embassy in Kabul in the year 2008 operates with Haqqani network. So a strong Haqqani network will threaten India's security if the prisoners are released. In addition to this the deal also involves removing Taliban leaders from the UN Security Council's sanctions list by May 29 of this year. As we know Pakistan is under great list of FATF for harboring terrorists and funding them. So this move under this deal might bring down the number of terrorists who are harbored and funded by Pakistan. So this will help Pakistan in the upcoming FATF plenary meeting even though it did not do much against terrorists. Then another concern for India is the possible formation of a Taliban led government in Afghanistan. Because it will not be in favor of India as India supports the incumbent Ashraf Ghani government. So the chances of such a new government being a democracy is also very less. Hence by handing over the power to Taliban the deal has paved the way for a Taliban dominated government which might not be India friendly. So you may ask that whether the reduction of violence as a result of this deal is not a positive in this deal. Yes it is a positive and it will be a blessing for the Afghan people. But the US must make sure that the Taliban strictly adheres to the terms of the deal and it would be much better if US make sure that the future Afghan government is a democracy rather than the repetition of the cruel 1996-2001 Taliban government. So we can conclude by saying that a stable democratic government in Afghanistan is essential for India because we have invested heavily in Afghanistan. For example the new Afghan parliament in Kabul then the Afghan India friendship dam which was the former Salma dam then we have also invested in infrastructures such as schools roads electricity lines etc. And more importantly if the new government in Afghanistan is dominated by the hardcore Islamic ideology of Taliban then it is most likely to be a pro-Pakistan government only. So this will further threaten the security of India in the region. Hence India must use its diplomatic power and skill to ensure that it remains as an important player in the security architecture of the region. So that is all about this discussion. In this discussion we saw what are the positives in the US-Taliban deal we saw about the negatives and what are the issues in the deal and we also saw how this deal will affect India. With this we come to the end of this discussion that is split practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion this news article mentions that there is increasing water crisis in the Himalayan region. So in this context we will see about the sources of water in Himalayan region and the reasons for water crisis in the region and we will also see some measures in order to mitigate the water crisis. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. This news article is based on the survey that was conducted in eight towns in the Himalayan region of Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Pakistan. The researchers also surveyed about 13 towns across these countries to understand the challenges of the urban inhabitants of this region. Now based on this survey it was found that these areas are facing water deficiency in the range of 20% to 70%. The places that were surveyed are extremely dependent on springs and the survey also projected that under current trends the demand supply gap for water in the region may double by the year 2050. Now the springs which we have mentioned are major source of water for drinking and agriculture. Mountain springs are the primary source of water for rural households in the Himalayan region. For many people springs are the sole source of water in this region. So what is this spring? Spring is nothing but a natural discharge or emergence of water mainly in the hilly areas. So during rainy season the rain water percolates or slowly recharges the groundwater table and then this water reemerges or discharges at the suitable places as a spring as you can see in this picture. So like this springs are fulfilling the water needs of the Himalayan region. Other than spring there are also other sources of water in the region. They are ponds, lakes, canals, rivers etc. So what is the reason for water crisis in the Himalayan region? The reasons are unplanned urbanization, the encroachment and degradation of natural water bodies like springs, ponds, lakes, canals etc. And also the impact of climate change such as fluctuations in rainfall is also aggravating the situation. Therefore to mitigate the tremendous stress on water availability there is a need to focus on short term and long term measures. The short term measures include judicious use of groundwater or judicious extraction of groundwater and then as part of long term measures the focus shall be given to the effective management of springs, then restoration of traditional water bodies, then protection and conservation of Himalayan mountain ecosystem etc. So as a whole we can say that springs conservation is the need of the hour in order to deal with the growing water crisis in the Himalayan region. So that is all about this news article. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The split practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion, this news article mentions about the decision taken by the union ministry of culture to move some important state monuments to the central monument list. In this discussion we will see about central protected monuments, state protected monuments and also some examples. As we know in India the physical act of protection and preservation of the nationally important monuments remains the functions of both the central government and the state governments. And under the central government functions one such body which is the archaeological survey of India. This archaeological survey of India is an attached office under ministry of culture. The ASI acts as a regulatory body and the prime function of ASI is the maintenance of ancient monuments, maintenance of archaeological sites and archaeological remains of national importance. So under which laws ASI regulates these archaeological activities? There are certain legislations that enable the protection of important monuments under the central government and the notable legislations are ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains act of 1958 which is in short known as AMASR Act and the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act of 1972. The ASI regulates all the archaeological activities as per the provisions of these acts and in 2010 the AMASR Act got amended with strict rules for building and renovation activity in the vicinity of protected monuments. The major amendments are the inclusion of prohibited area around the centrally protected monuments and then the inclusion of regulated area to govern constructions, reconstructions, repairs or renovations around the centrally protected monuments. Now the 1958 act and the 1972 act both are central acts and similarly the state governments also have their acts which follows the central act in spirit and letters and generally if you see we can categorize the legislations that are relevant to the protection and conservation of art and the cultural heritage of our country into three types. First the international conventions and agreements, second one is the national laws and the third one is the loss of various states. So the 1958 act which was amended in 2010 and then the antiquities act of 1972 both are national laws and the ASI protects and preserves the list of monuments that are mentioned under these national laws. Hence they are called as monuments of national importance and they come under the union list of Seventh Schedule of Indian Constitution. As you can see that ancient and historical monuments and records and archaeological sites and remains which are declared by law made by the parliament to be of national importance is a subject under the union list. Now apart from the monuments of national importance list there is a list of state protected monuments under the archaeological survey of India. This list has monuments from each and every state of our country. These monuments are protected by the state governments and they are looked after by the concerned department of archaeology of the respective state governments. This is as per the state list of the Seventh Schedule of Constitution. As you can see that the ancient and historical monuments and records other than those which are declared by the law made by the parliament as of national importance they are taken care by the state governments. So the monuments of national importance are taken care by the central government through ASI. Now for the maintenance of ancient monuments and sites of national importance the entire country is divided into 24 circles. For example Chennai Circle covers Chennai district, Kanjapuram district and Madurai districts etc of Tamil Nadu. Then if you take the Trishur Circle it covers Kanyakumari district, Tirunelveli district and Nilgiri districts of Tamil Nadu. So these two circles take care of the monuments of national importance that is the central list of monuments in the state of Tamil Nadu and these two circles come under the archaeological survey of India and they are not under the Tamil Nadu state government. In addition to this also know that the Trishur Circle also takes care of national monuments in Trishur, Ernakulam, Tirunandapuram and Vainad districts of Kerala. Then similarly if you see the Delhi Circle takes care of the national monuments in the national capital territory. Now after this comes the list of state protected monuments of the respective states. These monuments are protected by the state governments and they are looked after by the concerned department of archaeology of the respective state governments. So each state has legislated its respective state laws for their protection and conservation. Here note that the ASA has no role to play. In case of state protected monuments the state governments have to take care of the protection and conservation. Now to understand the concept of central list of monuments and state protected monuments let us take one example. Now recently if you see the monuments of Mahabalipuram or Mahabalipuram was in use. Now this Mahabalipuram is in the Kanjapuram district of Tamil Nadu and this monument comes under the monuments of national importance and it is taken care by the ASI through the Chennai Circle. So the protection and preservation are not under the state government of Tamil Nadu. On the other hand if you take another monument in Tamil Nadu like Thirumalai Naikar Palace in Madurai or if you even take the gateway of India in the greater Mumbai of Maharashtra these are under the list of state protected monuments. So these are taken care by the state governments of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra through its department of archaeology. And if you see in case of Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu has enacted Tamil Nadu ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains act of 1966 and like that even Odisha has an act which is the Odisha ancient monuments and preservation act of 1956. Then there is Rajasthan monuments and archaeological sites and antiquities act of 1961 and so on. So with this example we hope that you would have understood the difference between the monuments of national importance and the state protected monuments. Now today's news is that the Union Ministry of Culture is planning to move the important sites from the state protected list under the state government to the monuments of national important list which is under the central government. The news article even mentions that there might also be a possibility of moving certain central list sites to the state list and if you see at present around 3691 monuments are protected by ASI across the country and the highest number of sites is in the state of Uttar Pradesh which has more than 740 monuments. But till now if you see there is no incidents where a state protected monument is taken up for central protection and according to the news article there is no substantial increase in the list of centrally protected monuments in many years. So certain important sites from the state list could be added to the central list. So that is all about this news article. In this discussion we discussed about the monuments of national importance list and the state protected monuments list. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The respect practice question will be discussed in the last session. Now let us take one question. The question asks the wetland ecosystem is the natural habitat of the animal species. The animal's existence is threatened due to a destruction of its habitat. Which of the following could be that animal or animals? Three animals are given. Eurasian otter, fishing cat, smooth coated otter. Now we have taken this question because in today's newspaper there is one news article which mentions about a study in Odisha's Chilika Lake. This study has found the presence of a viable breeding population of a fishing cat in the brackish water lagoon which is the Chilika Lake. They have also found smooth coated otter and Eurasian otter in the Chilika Lake. Now even though Eurasian otter is spread globally very little is known about the distribution of the species and its abundance in India. So based on this news article only we have framed this question. Now to answer this question you should know the distribution of these species globally and also in India. Here you can see that fishing cat is spread across south and southeast Asia. It is widely distributed from Pakistan in the west to Cambodia in the east and from the Himalayan foothills in the north to Sri Lanka and Peninsular Thailand in the south and its distribution is always patchy because of its strong association with wetlands because wetlands are the favorite habitats of fishing cat and if you see in India fishing cats are mainly found in the mangrove forests of Sundarbans and also on the foothills of Himalayas along the Ganga and Brahmaputra river valleys and also they are found in western guards and one of the major threats that is faced by fishing cat is the destruction of wetlands. As a result of human settlement agriculture pollution and wood cutting most of the wetlands in India are under threat of destruction. So this description of fishing cat fits in the criteria mentioned in this question that is it belongs to wetland ecosystem and it is threatened due to destruction of its habitat. So our answer should contain fishing cat. So from the given options you can say that option D is the correct answer to this question 1, 2 and 3. Now normally if you would have seen this question you would have thought fishing cat may not prefer wetland ecosystem but it is not so. So let us see some facts about this fishing cat. This fishing cat is twice the size of a typical house cat. This fishing cat is a feline with a powerful build and stocky legs that is it has heavy built legs and this fishing cat is an adept swimmer and it enters water frequently to prey on fish that is why it is named as fishing cat. It is even known to dive to catch fish and apart from fish it also preys on frog, crustaceans, snakes, birds and it also scavenges on carcasses of larger animals and the swimming capability of fishing cat is due to its specialized features like partially web defeat and it has water resistant fur. These features helps it to thrive in the wetlands and also know that this fishing cat is a nocturnal species that is it is active in the night. Then apart from destruction of habitat there are also other threats to this species such as depletion of its main prey that is fish is also a threat to the species because of unsustainable fishing practices that is depletion of fish and sometimes this fishing cat is also occasionally poached for its skin and if you see the conservation status it is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN red list and on the sites convention that is the convention on international trade in endangered species it has been listed in appendix 2 and in India this fishing cat is included in schedule 1 part 1 of WPA Act of 1972 and therefore it is protected from hunting. Now if you see the other two species they both are otter species one is smooth coated otter and the second one is Eurasian otter and as you can see from this table smooth coated otter is also listed as vulnerable in the IUCN red list and it is listed in the appendix 1 of sites and it is also protected under the wildlife protection act in the schedule 2 part 1 and one of the major threats to this species is also loss of wetland habitats it is happening due to the hydroelectric projects in the region due to agriculture and due to human settlements and there is also reduction in prey its main prey is fish even this otter it is known as fish specialist and they are also threatened due to the contamination of waterways by pesticides then they are also poached believing that their pelt that is their skin and fur and other body parts possesses therapeutic properties because of this belief they are poached and then few nomadic hunting tribes eat otter flesh also so for that also they are hunted. Now the next species is Eurasian otter this Eurasian otter is also known as common otter this Eurasian otter is an elusive that is it is very difficult to find or catch and it is a solitary animal and this species has one of the widest distribution of all palliartic mammals in this palliartic means zoo geographical region that comprises of Eurasia that is north of Himalayas and it also comprises north Africa and the temperate part of Arabian peninsula so this species has one of the widest distributions of all palliartic mammals it is distributed from Ireland to China and even down to southeast Asia also but still its population is declining many countries in which it is not protected and in some other countries its status is unknown and it is a playful otter it has varied diet which includes fish to worms and it is usually nocturnal that is it is active in night like the fishing cat and it can be found in many freshwater environments including wetlands and one of the major threats to this species is habitat destruction both on land and also in water in land the building of roads and the loss of previously undisturbed riverbank systems is a threat because it leads to destruction of the habitat of the species and in the water particularly in the seas these otters may be caught in fishing nets and there they are ultimately drowned so it is also a reason for decline in its population then sometimes traffic injuries are also happening because new roads are being built in their habitats then they are also affected by pollution from pesticides mercury and oil because it severely damages the otter's health even one research published in 2013 reported that pollutants may now be affecting the reproductive system of main species which obviously has serious implications for breeding so whenever such a news article appears in newspaper know about the conservation status of the species and also know what are the threats to that particular species now let us take up another question now this question is based on gear forest we have taken this question based on this news article which mentions that a lioness in gujarat's gear national park gave foster care to a leopard cub now this is a very rare case of foster care between the species because these two are competing feline species now in this article what you have to focus is the gear national park so let us take this question and discuss some facts about the gear forests the first statement is gear wildlife sanctuary and metheala wildlife sanctuary are part of gear protected area network now this statement is correct because the gear protected area network comprises of gear national park and then gear sanctuary panya sanctuary metheala sanctuary and gear nar sanctuary the second statement is at present gear forests are the last natural habitats of indian wild ass and asiatic lion in the world now see the gear forests are dry deciduous forests which are located in gujarat as we know and at present gear forests of gujarat is the only place where asiatic lion is found in its natural habitat so half of the statement is correct but the other half is incorrect because the indian wild ass is mostly present in runoff catch not in gear forests since statement 2 is incorrect and the question asks for the correct statement you can eliminate option b and d now the next statement is the maldharis the pastoral tribes sharing common territory with asiatic lions in gear forests are recently designated as particularly vulnerable tribal group see the maldhari tribes have a symbiotic relationship with asiatic lions and as the statement mentions they are pastoral tribes which means that this tribe travels with a herd of domesticated animals which they rely on for food and the lions often eat maldharis catalungi and these maldharis consider the taken cows as an offering to the lions and that is why we say they share a symbiotic relationship but are they particularly vulnerable tribal groups no they are not not yet they have been designated as pvtgs so this statement is also wrong the correct answer to this question is option a one only and also know that in gujarat kathori tribe kubalia tribe paddhar tribe siddhi tribe kolga tribe they are designated as pvtgs and as we know the criteria for designating tribes as pvtgs is first a pre-agricultural level of technology second a stagnant or declining population and third extremely low literacy and fourth a subsistence level of economy now let us discuss the other questions which were displayed in the previous discussions this question is with respect to himalayas the first statement is the average altitude of himalayas decreases from west to east now see himalayas are a result of convergence of eurasian and indo australian plates as a result of this convergence the sediments of tithi sea folded as a himalayan fold mountains therefore himalayas are composed of sediments of tithi sea so it is a sedimentary rock system now from this you can say that statement 3 is correct now the average altitude and width of himalayas decreases from west to east so the first statement is also correct now the second statement is the southern slopes are steeper than northern slopes and also thick vegetation is found in the southern slopes of himalayas see the rate of convergence or strength of converging forces is not uniform therefore himalayas are one of the best examples of asymmetrical fold mountains so the southern slopes are steeper and northern slopes are gentle and the southern slopes receive high amount of insulation as compared to the northern slopes insulation means exposure to the sun rays so there is thick vegetation in the southern slopes and there is sparse or scarce vegetation in the northern slopes so this makes second statement as the correct statement as the southern slopes are steeper and thick vegetation is found in southern slopes here the question asks for the correct statement so the correct answer to his question is option d 1 2 and 3 now this next question is based on monuments of national importance first statement is ma malapuram in tamallanadu and gateway of india in maharashtra are the monuments of national importance now this statement is incorrect because ma malapuram or maabalipuram in tamallanadu is a monument of national importance but gateway of india is not a monument of national importance but it is a state protected monument so this statement is incorrect the second statement is monuments of national importance is taken care by the central governments along with the respective state governments now this statement is also incorrect because monuments of national importance are only taken care by the central governments through its respective circles in the respective states state governments have no role to play here the question asks for the incorrect statements and as both the statements are incorrect the correct answer to this question is option c both 1 and 2 now this next question is based on cms recently the cop13 of cms was held in india in which some new species were included in cms appendices which of the following species were included from india first asian elephant the uriel three little bustered four great indian bustered fifth jaguar if you see all these five were added to the cms appendices in the cop13 but all are not from india for example the little bustered and jaguar are not from india from india only six species were added out of the total 10 species they are asian elephant great indian bustered bengal florecan oceanic white tip shark uriel and smooth hammerhead shark so the correct answer is option c 1 4 and 5 only now in this the asian elephant and great indian bustered are added to the appendix 1 but uriel is added to the appendix 2 of cms now let us see one main's question based on jas paper 2 the historic us thaliban peace deal signed in doha will bring an end to the 18 year long war and will help to stabilize afghanistan in this context discuss the important provisions of the us thaliban deal discuss the possible impacts of this deal on india's interest in the region now for answering this question you can mention the important provisions such as withdrawal of us troops in a phased manner then you can mention about the release of political prisoners from the thaliban side and also from the afghan government side then the commitment of thaliban to sever its ties with other terrorist groups then the commitment of thaliban to prevent the use of afghan soil against us and its allies then you can talk about the lifting of sanctions of thaliban leaders then you can talk about lifting of sanctions on thaliban leaders by us and united nations security council then you can also mention about the intra afghan dialogue and the permanent ceasefire between thalibans and afghan government now for discussing the possible impacts of this deal you can mention that this deal is not good for india because it is silent about values such as democracy rule of law etc which might result in the formation of a thaliban dominated religious government and it is also not clear whether india is included in the definition of allies of us then you can mention that the release of political prisoners will strengthen the hakani network of thaliban then you can also mention that the lifting of united nations security council sanctions will help pakistan in the fatf so that it can get rid of the gray list and as a conclusion you can mention that us needs to ensure that a democratic government is formed in afghanistan and india should also use its diplomatic power to remain an important player in the security of the region and india should protect its investments and interests in afghanistan with this we have come to the end of today's sessions if you like the video don't forget to like comment and share and do subscribe to shankar eyes academy youtube channel for more updates on civil service examination preparation