Atlas Agenda - 2.0 Ep - 4 ft. Gowtham A R | Places in News | UPSC | Shankar IAS Academy | #upsc

Hi, this is Gautam. Welcome to the fourth episode of Atlas Agenda. So, in for this episode, we'll be dealing with the important events which is related to map and geography in the fourth week of July. >> [music] >> So, there are four areas which we'd like to cover. First is the conflict which is on the border between Lebanon and Israel. Second is regarding the Assam floods. The third issue, of course, as many of you would have noted is regarding the Sikkim town collapse which happened in the southern part of the state. And the fourth one is the reappearance of an old issue, that is the project of Ken and Betwa river linking. So, we'll start with the international issue, and each of them has both prelims and mains perspective. And as usual, we start with world affairs. So, this was the issue. The Israeli army accuses Hezbollah of truce violation launching drone in southern part of Lebanon. Now, Lebanon is one country which is usually not discussed when it comes to your geography. The primary reason being Iran takes most of the importance in international affairs, and most of your discussion is with reference to what is the position of Iran. But if you look at the truce agreement which is in negotiation between Iran, United States, and Israel, one of the important points of contention is what will be the position in Lebanon. So, we just want to look at where is Lebanon, and why is Lebanon strategically important? And does it have any major physical features which will be directly helpful for our prelims examination? So, let's start with our West Asia map. So, instead of looking at the entire region, let's focus on the portion of the Mediterranean Sea. As you would all know, there are four countries of West Asia which border Mediterranean Sea, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and Turkey. And the point of contention is right here. That is the boundary between Israel and Lebanon. And uh Israeli forces have aggressively moved in into southern part of Lebanon. So, that's where you see most of the conflicts. And uh we just want to make sure and look at the important physiographic features. Lebanon's physiography is fairly simple. It has a coastal boundary with parts of Mediterranean Sea. Then it has two mountain ranges called as the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon mountains. Between those these two mountain ranges, you have a rift valley system actually. Now, if you recall from uh your geography discussions, Africa is one of the major examples of divergent plate margins. So, you have two rift valleys in Africa where you have the western rift system and then the eastern rift system. And usually when we prepare rift systems, we uh study localized with only reference to Africa. What we forget is that rift valley doesn't end with Africa. It extends into Red Sea. And it also extends into part of Israel and Lebanon. And this which you see right here, the Beqaa Valley. Valley is a depression, right? Between two different mountain ranges. So, this Beqaa Valley is a depression between the two large mountain ranges of Lebanon, the Lebanon mountains and Anti-Lebanon mountains. And this is part of the larger African rift system which extends from from your Red Sea into parts of Lebanon and Israel. So, in terms of physiography, it is already an area which is not in a you know, which is not which is seismically active. That's something you should keep it in mind. Now, let's go into the important rivers which are present in Lebanon. The conflict is majorly fought across this river. I'll trace a line for you. So, this river flows across the Beqaa Valley and then enters into the Mediterranean Sea. The river's name is Litani. Israeli forces have advanced across this river and they are already holding their positions with reference to this river. And the truce agreement is regarding the areas which you know has been have been controlled by Israel. Will Israel continue to remain there? Or will Israel return to their country only after the disbanding of the terrorist organization Hezbollah which is closer to the regime in Iran. The second river which you want to understand is that in the northern part of Lebanon there is a river Orontes. And this river starting from Lebanon enters into the country of Syria. And after Syria it enters into Turkey. So that is the flow. And one more important event from current affairs as the war is raging on UNESCO had declared an important area in Lebanon as a world heritage site. It was one among the six world heritage sites which was declared recently primarily to protect the areas from armed conflicts. The area which you're looking at is Mount Amil Qasim. Because in this year prelims examination UPSC has asked about UNESCO Geopark. So we just want to make sure at least strategic and important areas you just know that this UNESCO world heritage site is in Lebanon. That will be more than enough. So it is constitutes five fortified states. And these fortifications have architectural establishments you know right from your late ancient to your medieval time to up to your early modern time period. That is why it was just declared as a UNESCO world heritage site. To wrap up we have two rivers in Lebanon. River Litani and then river Orontes. And then we have a small lake here along this river that called Lake Qaraoun. So most likely a match the following question if it comes with any chance please remember that it's in Lebanon. Okay. So just to summarize two rivers Lake Qaraoun and Bekaa Valley is part of your East African Rift System. So, let me start with the first question for today's discussion. So, consider the following countries: Syria, Israel, and Jordan. How many of the above countries border Lebanon? So, those who want to try the answer, you can pause the video for a few seconds, and then try to answer this question. Right. So, for those of you who would got it correct, congratulations. The answer for question as all of you know is Syria and Israel, so it'll be Bombay, only two. Let me go back to the map and show you. There it is. So, Lebanon, keep it in mind that uh it is bordered by Syria on 3/4. Syria almost uh covers Lebanon, and you have a small boundary with Israel. That was an easy giveaway, because that's where the conflict goes on. Jordan clearly does not border Lebanon. So, congratulations to those who got the first question correct for this episode. Now, let's go to Indian geography, and this was the issue. Close to 1.35 lakh were affected, and still affected by floods, and three more deaths take the total amount of toll to 85. So, we just want to ask ourselves some questions. Every monsoon season, one of the severely affected states in India is Assam. So, what are the major reasons why Assam is highly flood-prone compared to other states in India? And secondly, is it only a result of physiographic and climatic factors? Do we have anthropogenic factors impacting this particular phenomenon? So, let's start with the physiography of Assam. Whenever we prepare about Assam, the first thing which strikes us is the Brahmaputra Valley. But keep it in mind that Brahmaputra is not the only physiographic regime in Assam. Brahmaputra is the largest one. So, you can clearly see that this river uh kind of slices Assam into two, and it's after crossing into Assam that it enters into Bangladesh. So, that's your physiographic region number one. The larger part of the state of Assam is a plain and it is surrounded by the Eastern Himalayan mountains. If you go to Arunachal Pradesh, you're in Nagaland, you're in Manipur, or you're in Mizoram, every you know, Mizoram, every state you take, all of them are mountainous. So, Assam is technically lying as a depression and we are talking about the largest physiographic region. So, Brahmaputra plain is region number one. Second part is that there are hilly regions in Assam. The physiographic regions are right here, the Mikir and Rengma hills. So, these are part of your peninsular plateau, not part of Himalayas. And after these two ranges, I want you to know like that something which we usually miss when we prepare, is the southern part of Assam right here. That is your Cachar plain, that's zone number three. And it is through the Cachar plain that we have this river Barak. Like that. Barak river becomes Surma as many of you would know. And this river Surma becomes Meghna in Bangladesh. This is an important river system which you have in southern part of Assam. So, not only region number one is prone to flooding, but please keep it in mind that even the southern part of Assam, bordering the region of Manipur and Mizoram, Tripura right here, is also highly vulnerable because if rainfall increases, this has good potential to flood. Now, let's look at both your natural and anthropogenic factors. Now, this fact, approximately 45 40% age of the state is uh on the total geographical area of the state as platform is from the Assam flood report. And there are natural reasons why. As we told you, the first is your physiographic region itself. It is largely covered by the Brahmaputra plain, which is surrounded by mountains, which makes it flood prone. That's reason number one. Second reason, heavy rainfall. If you look at Assam's all the districts, the average rainfall is between 140 cm to 420 cm. Now you know this this is exceptionally high rainfall. Okay, so there are many parts in India which do not even receive 75 to 80 cm part of your dry land agriculture in the central part of India. And when you say 140 to and the minimum amount of rainfall is 140 cm. So go it can go up to 420 in certain districts. The second issue is about the character of monsoon climate. As all of you know over a time period starting from January to December most of your rainfall is concentrated in the months of June, July, August and now due to climate change we have slight shift of the rainfall regime to September. So when most of your rainfall instead of being diversified or you know spread over a 12-month time period, if it is concentrated only for 3 to 4 months you create a situation where there is high intensity. So that is reason number three after your physiography. So more rainfall and heavy rainfall concentrated in a short span of time. This is amplified by high intensity disaster events like cloud bursting. And the fourth important one which slightly makes Assam different from your middle Ganga plain or lower Ganga plain is the power of this river Brahmaputra. Braided is usually a term which you use for a river which is completely loaded by a lot of sediments. So if you take both river Ganga Just a second. Yeah. If you take both river Ganga and if you compare river Ganga with Brahmaputra the difference comes in sediment load. Brahmaputra carries tremendous amount of sediment load, you know, which will dwarf Ganga. Now what is issue with sediment loads? Now if you go to Brahmaputra river you don't have a very clean channel. Because there is too much of sediments within the same river, you have large amount of sediment and deposition creating many riverine islands. So, instead of having a linear flow, you have turbulent flow where within a single channel, you have multiple river channels. The second issue, these deposition and the islands which you find here is highly unstable. Every time you have monsoon rainfall, the river redirects its course. And because of heavy rainfall, the sediments keep shifting and the position of riverine islands change. So, if you're living close to the Brahmaputra plains, there is a good chance you will experience both erosion and the deposition. And the combination of these factors makes it highly vulnerable for any type of human settlement and agriculture closer to this region. This is even a serious problem compared to your Ganga River Basin which you which you have in parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and even West Bengal. So, naturally, there are a lot of factors which contribute for that 40%. Now, let's look at the anthropogenic character. Assam has the lowest forest area percentage compared to all the other northeastern states. The highest forest area percentage, of course, is with the state of Mizoram as one of you know. But, if you go to most of the other states, you have forest area between 65, 70 to 75 to 80%. But, if you come to Assam, the forest area percentage is less. It's roughly 35 to 36. Now, this is from the uh forestry center forestry report which is taken recently few years back. But, if you look at the change in forest cover post independence, it is primarily high in Assam. That's because this place has high population density. So, for human settlement, for agriculture, there has been large-scale deforestation. The second issue is hydropower. And for hydropower and for control of water, there is increase in dam construction in of northeastern region. But you have to keep it in mind, dams has to be maintained. Maintained as such, it's not only about physical stability of the dam, but also monitoring the total amount of reservoir level in the dam. If there is sudden release of water from the dam, it can contribute to an anthropogenic induced flood. That's reason number two. And third is you have a lot of unplanned settlements and issues of encroachment where the poorer population are pushed to disaster zone. They have their housing there, they have their agriculture there. Now, this is not to blame the poor. It is more to do with the structure of how, you know, land is valued. So, anytime you have land value and if the land value is high and if it's not possible for the poor population to afford land in an area or housing in an area, then naturally poor population will be forced to move towards a disaster zone. So, poverty is an indirect reason where you have a lot of unplanned settlements in areas which are disaster prone because their land value is less. So, it's because of the combination of all these factors, you have both natural and anthropogenic factors exacerbating the flood flood condition. And we just want to wrap it up by showing the major districts in the state of Assam which are highly flood prone. Now, in this particular event, these three districts were severely affected. For example, Sivasagar, Jorhat, and Sonitpur. The what was reported several times in the newspapers is that these three districts are not heavily flood prone. You can look at the coloration. The pinkish areas show that these are the areas which have the highest amount of you know, vulnerability to flood. And if you look at these three districts, of course Sibsagar is flood prone, but if you look at the other two districts, they don't have high level of intensity as the other districts. Now, the highly vulnerable ones, the first one which I want to start is this one, Morigaon. You can clearly see the Brahmaputra river makes a sharp turn right there. So, Morigaon is one important district you have to keep in mind if you're quoting examples for your mains answer writing. The second one is this one, Lakhimpur. Now, I just mentioned that uh if dams are not maintained properly, that would be a cause of flood risk. So, that event happened in Lakhimpur where uh you know, large volume of water was released suddenly and that created floods. And you should also remember that we have the Cachar district which is highly flood prone. So, that wraps up the discussion on which parts of Assam were affected by the floods, but at the same time, which parts of Assam have high vulnerability to floods. So, now let's go to the third issue. So, this is specifically regarding the Sikkim tunnel accident. And we just want to ask ourselves what was the reason? Was it a tectonic reason? Uh was it a geological reason? Or was it hydrological? Or was it something else? And the second thing is what makes Sikkim highly vulnerable that in the last few years it has experienced a lot of disasters. So, let me start with description of this disaster. So, this was the main issue which happened. So, the issue was regarding a particular tunnel construction that is the headrace tunnel related to Teesta 6 Hydro Power Project. And the total capacity was 500 MW. And the cause of the disaster was not hydrological, was not tectonic. It was because of this reason. Methane. Which is not the expected reason. Because tectonic you know, if an area is tectonically unstable, if you know that it is hydrologically vulnerable, then automatically you can take measures. But this is not something which commonly occurs or you know, this is not something which you commonly expect when you go for tunnel construction. So we want to understand why was this a major reason and what conditions does this particular, you know, inflammable gas form. So for that, let me start with where Sikkim is located. Sikkim is part of Eastern Himalayas. I think this uh map pretty much tells you the elevation in Sikkim. You can see most of the areas are either brown in color or it is in, I know, white shade indicating that those areas are part of glaciers. So this is river Teesta. I'll try to shade it. So here we go. Just a second. Yeah. So this is river Teesta. The Teesta starts from northern part of Sikkim. And then it enters into parts of West Bengal before merging with Brahmaputra. It is a major tributary of Brahmaputra as all of you know. So Teesta river is already present in an area which is, you know, geologically having a lot of seismic risk because this is at the convergent margin of your Indo-Australian plate with your Eurasian plate. And Sikkim is broadly divided into these districts. And the area where the tunnel explosion happened during the, you know, construction is this place Namchi. So this is where the hydropower project is also uh planned and you can clearly see it is southern part of Sikkim. So you have the movement of river from a high altitude area to low altitude area. So automatically there is a lot of hydraulic leak potential. So, now if you already know that it is geologically vulnerable, you take the respective measures. If you already know that you're going to work in this area, precautions are taken. So, how does methane come into picture? This because of how this particular region formed. As you would remember, this region was formed by the collision of your Indian plate with your Eurasian plate. The Himalayan mountains is a complexly folded mountains. So, you are creating a structure where not one single mountain range is, but you have multiple parallel ranges. In this type of complex Himalayan mountain systems, there are bound to be elevated anticlines. At the same time, there are bound to be synclines also. And you have enormous amount of compressional force between these two areas. Now, you could be asking me, uh well, why are we concerned about this? Anyway, the water body is not there. But, remember, whenever there is combination of both synclines and anticlines of complexly folded mountain, there is a very good chance that you create elevated areas and depressions. And in those depressions, it's very much possible for water to get trapped with sediments with organic matter. Now, what's the problem here? The problem is the type of decomposition. Now, there are two different types of decomposition, as you would know. One is aerobic, and the second is anaerobic. And whenever you do you prevent contact for, uh you know, organic matter with oxygen, microorganisms will definitely be present. And microorganisms start working on organic matter, and they start breaking it down. And when they do this in the absence of oxygen, you normally create methane. So, obviously, in those young geological formations, in those depressions, there is bound to be methane trapped because it is commonly found. And you have to keep it in mind that once you start trapping methane, methane tries to escape through areas where there are existing fractures. So, when you have a construction project, even if you've done your uh geological studies, even if you've done your hydrological studies, the presence of methane is not something which will normally show up in these results. That was, uh you know, quite sad about this disaster because uh in spite of the fact that uh this is an area where you expect methane to be, that's not something which usually comes up in a disaster management, uh you know, let us say vulnerability assessment. So, that is why it was quite sad that lives were lost, you know, unfortunately. And you should also remember that Sikkim has experienced quite a number of disasters within the last three, four years. And the biggest one is the glacial lake outburst flood in 2023. And let me just show you this damaged Teesta V hydropower project. And if I just go back, you see this, that the present construction is actually related to Teesta 6. So, uh we have a lot of effort in making sure that we stabilize this hydro electric power project here. And Teesta V was restored in 2026, the year we are in, but it did damage a 1,200 MW dam in Chungthang in Mangan. So, that's uh the lowdown on the tunnel disaster. And finally, we just want to make sure that uh we have a small review of Teesta river just for your uh prelims examination. So, here it is. Keep that in mind that it is a tributary of Brahmaputra. It originates in northern Sikkim. Okay, it is in India. It originates from Cholamu lake in northern Sikkim district, and it starts at Pauhunri glacier. So, if by any chance they ask a match the following question, just keep this in mind. So, close to this glacial lake. So, let me ask you the second question for today. Yeah, here it is. Consider the following states. This is an easier one. I think most of you will get it correct. Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. How many of the above states border more than two countries? There is it. So, feel free to pause the video and try to take this question. Right. For those of you who got it correct, congratulations. And the answer for this question, as all of you know, is only two. Because the state of Uttarakhand borders the country of Nepal. It borders the country of China. And that's it. Right? The question is, how many of them border more than two countries? Sikkim borders three, as you would easily know, it's because of the structure of Sikkim. It borders Nepal, Bhutan, and China. And if you take Arunachal Pradesh, which is on the eastern extreme side, you have China, you have Bhutan, and then finally you have Myanmar. This is a relatively easy question where the answer was only two. And let me take you the last issue for this week. There it is. This was regarding your Ken-Betwa project. And I say this that this is old news because the Ken-Betwa project already had a proper assessment. The government had already sanctioned the funds. The project is underway. And the protest has risen. You know, the protest were there before, but compensation has already been provided. But again, this has reappeared in news technically. So, we just want to look at it from mains perspective first, and then wrap it up with prelims. So, first we have to look at the location. As in, where is the project? And what are the rivers which are involved in this project? And then finally, what are the major reasons for the protest? So, let me start by showing you the state where it is in. And as all of you know, it is Madhya Pradesh. So, if you look at India, India is pursuing a ambitious program called as NRLP. NRLP stands for National River Linking Program. As part of this program, there are totally 30 projects planned. 30 large projects and each project is massive. You totally have uh 14 components in the Himalayas and then 16 components in Peninsula. The Ken-Betwa River Link is only one of the project. So, what are these two rivers? Well, these two rivers are starting in Madhya Pradesh. Both of them are tributaries of Yamuna and starting from the highlands in Madhya Pradesh, both of them flow north to join with Yamuna in Madhya Pradesh. Let me show you where they are. So, this is your Betwa River. That's number one. And this is your Ken. There you go. And both of them, as you clearly see, are merging with Yamuna. So, what is the purpose of this project? Well, the region where they flow through, which you see right here, is Bundelkhand. Bundelkhand is a dry land region. You know, when I was discussing about Assam, I told you, in Assam the average rainfall is between 140 to 420 cm, which is quite high. And there are several parts of India which struggle with 75-80 cm of rain. Bundelkhand is a dry land region. It is in central part of India. So, the main purpose of the project is diversion of water from you know, uh uh Betwa to Ken. And we have to make sure that this project helps in both irrigation and also for hydroelectric power generation. So, I have uh assumed in version of this region where the project goes on right here. And if you see this, that is your Betwa River and this is your Ken River. And the project involves the construction of the Daudhan Dam. It's clearly there. I'll just write it in here in letters. So, after construction of the Daudhan Reservoir, so from the Ken River, the uh water is transferred through a canal which has roughly a length of 221 km. So, the project has a direct objective direct straightforward objectives uh to help for both economic and human development. So, if you think about it, yes, this is the stated objective of the project. We are looking at an irrigation of close to 9 lakh acres in the Bundelkhand region. Number two, uh drinking water to serve close to 4.4 million people. And number three, is you're looking at a potential of 103 MW of hydropower. I did show you the position of the Daudhan Dam. At the same time, you're also looking at solar power. It's a dry land region with greater amount of sunlight. It intends to transfer surplus water from your Ken River to your Betwa River from the dam on the Ken River. So, we just saw that all the time. This is just a summary. If everything is fine, then what exactly are the issues? The issue is whenever you go for dam construction and diversion of water, there is bound to be submergence. Submergence of not only rural areas, but also forest areas. So, whenever there is submergence as part of, you know, the government's program, uh there is compensation which is actually provided. So, this was specifically regarding compensation that uh many of the families uh that the individuals in the families did not get proper benefits or the compensation for the submergence of the land area or for relocation and rehabilitation. The issue was primarily escalated because we were looking at an area with a higher concentration of tribal population. If you take Madhya Pradesh uh state as totality, the total tribal population is roughly around 15 to 20%. But, in this region where the project goes on, it is 33%. So, naturally, you have this question of you know, social justice. Uh because the purpose of dam construction is to help a larger section of people as we had mentioned in the previous slide. You're talking about irrigation. You're talking about providing a lot of water. There are a lot of benefits. But because of the project, the people who are largely affected were the vulnerable sections. And that is why there were greater, you know, voices for compensation. The government has already declared that, you know, they'll be working to solve this particular issue. At the same time, to close up, I just want to mention that this is an area where you have success in tiger conservation. Panna Tiger Reserve in the last 20 years has experienced significant increase in tiger population. And the construction of this project is definitely going to uh submerge substantial portions of Panna Tiger Reserve. But at the end of the day, you know that any type of development is always a balance between economic growth and uh ecological ecology and society. So, uh you have to remember that that success in Panna Panna Tiger Reserve, you know, the benefits will definitely uh be used for improving tiger population not only in Panna, but also to other regions. So, even if a portion is submerging, it's very much possible that the relocation uh through wildlife corridors is very much possible. So, with this, let me end the discussion with the third question. Consider the following. Vultures, mahseer fish, and gharial. Which of the above can be found in the Panna Tiger Reserve? Only one, only two, all three, and none. For this question, I recommend that you leave the answer in the comments. So, uh feel free to like, comment, and subscribe. And please make sure that you follow this particular program for all your updates weekly and fortnightly for your map and geography studies for UPSC preparation. This is Gautam Singh signing off. Thanks for your time. >> [music]