The Budget 2025-26 has expanded the tonnage tax scheme.

Tonnage Tax Scheme

• The Scheme was previously available to sea going ships.
• Now it is available to inland vessels registered under the Indian Vessels Act, 2021 to promote water transport.
  • Inland Vessels Act, 2021 aims to promote safe, economical inland water transport, ensure legal uniformity and vessel procedures.
• Ministry: Ministry of Shipping (now part of the Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways).
• Genesis: Introduced in 2004 under the Indian Finance Act, 2004.
• Significance: Encourage more cargo movement; will further incentivises shipping companies to invest in inland waterways vessels.

Recently New Zealand recognized Mount Taranaki, a stratovolcano as a legal person in New Zealand.

• A stratovolcano is a tall, steep, cone-shaped volcano with explosive eruptions due to its viscous magma and trapped gases.

About Mount Taranaki

• Mount Taranaki (also known as Mount Egmont) is  located in Egmont National Park, New Zealand
• It is considered sacred & an ancestor of the local Māori people.
  • Māori are the native aboriginal and Indigenous ethnicity of Aotearoa/New Zealand. 
• New Zealand was the 1^st country in the world to grant living rights to natural features in 2014, granting legal personhood to Te Urewera Forest.

Union Budget 2025 announced ‘Mission for Cotton Productivity’. 

• 5-year mission aims to boost cotton farming productivity and sustainability, & promote extra-long staple (ELS) cotton varieties.

Extra Long Staple (ELS) Cotton

• It is a premium cotton variety with a fiber length of 34.925 mm or more.
• Cultivated in about 10% of the cotton area, contributing 4% of global production.
• Major producers: USA, Egypt, Sudan, India, Peru, Israel, China etc.
• Key ELS types: Pima (USA), Peru (Israel), Giza (Egypt), Suvin & DCH-32 (India), Barakat (Sudan).
• Major ELS Producing states in India: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh etc.

Department of Biotechnology has launched GARBH-INi-DRISHTI at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) in Faridabad (Haryana)

What is GARBH-Ini-DRISHTI?

• It is a data dashboard that provides a comprehensive overview of one of South Asia's largest maternal and child health databases.
• Significance: Access to clinical data, images, and biospecimens collected from over 12,000 pregnant women, newborns, and postpartum mothers.
• This platform developed under the GARBH-INi program.
  • It is a flagship programme supported by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
  • Aim: To reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Supreme Court restrained until further orders the Center and the states from taking any step that would reduce forest areas.

• The decision comes amidst a series of petitions challenging recent amendments made in 2023 to the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
  • The amendment was challenged on ground that it left out nearly 1.99 lakh square kilometers of forest land from the ambit of "forests".
• In 2024, SC directed the government to follow the definition of forest as laid down in the 1996 judgment in T.N. Godavarman Thirumalpad v. Union of India.
  • The 1996 judgment defines all areas recorded as “forest” in any government (Union and State) record, irrespective of ownership, recognition, and classification.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) organised the World Wetlands Day 2025 celebrations at the Parvati Arga Ramsar Site.

About World Wetlands Day (WWD):

• WWD is observed to commemorate the signing of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance in 1971. 
• Theme of 2025: ‘Protecting Wetlands for our Common Future’
• India is a party to the Convention since 1982. 

Parvati Arga Bird Sanctuary

• Location: Tarabganj Tehsil, Uttar Pradesh.
• Habitat: Two oxbow lakes, a permanent freshwater wetland.
  • An oxbow lake is a crescent-shaped lake formed when a meander of a river is cut off from the main flow, creating a standalone body of water.
• Biodiversity:critically endangered white-rumped vulture and Indian vulture; also, the endangered Egyptian vulture.
• Ecological Role: Vital for roosting, breeding, and groundwater recharge.
• Threat: Invasive water hyacinth.

The proposed oil exploration activities within the eco-sensitive zone of the Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, may negatively impact local wildlife.

About Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary

• Location: Located in Jorhat district of Assam, it is famous for its non- human primate diversity.
• Vegetation: Evergreen and Semi-evergreen forest.
• Flora: The upper canopy of the forest is dominated by Hollong tree (Dipterocarpus macrocarpus), while Nahar (Mesua ferrea) dominates middle canopy.
• Fauna:  India's only gibbons – hoolock gibbons, & Northeastern India's only nocturnal primate –Bengal slow loris are found here.
• It is also recognized as Important Bird Area by Bird Life International. 

Golden-headed Cisticola (least concerned) found in Mathikettan Shola National Park (Shola National Park)

Mathikettan Shola National Park

• Location: Idukki, Kerala.
• Declared as National Park: 2003 for its unique shola forest and elephant corridor.
• Vegetation: Evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, shola grasslands.
  • Shola grasslands: Unique high-altitude ecosystems found in the Western Ghats, characterized by a mix of stunted forests (sholas) and grasslands.
• Biodiversity: Lion-tailed macaque, an endemic and threatened species; also, Gaur, wild boar, sambar, langur, etc.
• Water Sources: Uchillkuthi Puzha, Mathikettan Puzha, Njandar (tributaries of Panniyar).
• Cultural Significance: Muthavan tribal colony at Aduvilanthankudy.