MAPS: PLACES IN NEWS

National Places In News

1 Eturnagaram Telangana is currently grappling with forest fires in Tadvai region of Eturnagaram
Wildlife Wildlife Sanctuary in Mulugu and Amrabad Tiger Reserve near Warangal. It lies on
Sanctuary the border of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh. It is traversed by
the rivers Dayyam Vagu and Godavari. The sanctuary is home to various flora
including bamboo, maddi, dry deciduous teak, thiruman, and madhuca.
2 Moyar Valley It is the biggest nesting colony of critically endangered Gyps vultures in the wild,
Also known as Maayar Valley, it stretches approximately 85 kms from Gudalur
through the core area of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve within the Nilgiri Biosphere
Reserve in Tamil Nadu.
3 Katchatheevu Recently PM have mentioned about it in public program. It is an uninhabited island
Island in the Palk Strait. In 1921, both India and Sri Lanka, claimed Katchatheevu island as
their own. Later as part of ‘Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime agreement’ Indian government,
under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, ceded the island to Sri Lanka in 1974
4 Kutch A human skeleton, along with pottery artifacts and animal bones has been found on
the slope of a hillock in Kutch, Gujarat. Archaeologists excavated a site called Padta
Bet, it was 1.5 km from the mass burial ground of JunaKhatiya, an Early Harappan
necropolis
5 Paradip port Paradip Port Authority (PPA) has achieved a significant milestone by becoming the
top cargo-handling major port in India, surpassing Deendayal Port, Kandla. It is
located in Odisha and is a vital deep-water port on the East Coast of India, situated
at the convergence of the Mahanadi River and the Bay of Bengal. It holds the

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 distinction of being the first major port on the East Coast established after
independence.
6 Satpula Dam It was in news due to its unique character of reliable source of water and acting as a
defence against possible intruders in mediaeval times. Satpula, a magnificent
Tughlaq-era dam, is a historical marvel nestled in the heart of Delhi
7 Sukhna Wildlife MoEFCC has issued a draft notification demarcating an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ)
Sanctuary around the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary on the Haryana side. It is situated in the
Chandigarh Union Territory and encompasses the Shivalik Hills’ Sukhna Lake
catchment area.
8 Andaman & The Islands saw a major military infrastructure upgrade with revamped airfields to a
Nicobar Islands robust surveillance infrastructure. They are a group of islands of India, located in the
Bay of Bengal. These islands form an arcuate chain (convex to the west).
9 Khavda Solar Khavda Solar Park in Gujarat’s Kutch, is the world’s largest renewable energy park. It
Park boasts of 2 GW of commissioned capacity with plans to add 4 GW in the current
fiscal year and 5 GW annually thereafter. The Khavda Solar Park is near Vighakot
village in Gujarat’s Kutch district. Situated near the Pakistan border, it aims to
generate 30 gigawatts of electricity from solar panels and wind turbines across
72,600 hectares of land when fully operational
10 Mudumalai Tiger Here Asiatic wild dogs are affected by mange disease, likely spread by feral dogs.
Reserve Tiger Reserve is located in the Nilgiri District of Tamil Nadu state at the tri-junction
of three states, viz, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is a part of the Nilgiri
Biosphere Reserve (1st Biosphere Reserve in India). The Reserve has tall grasses,
commonly referred to as ‘Elephant Grass’

International Places In News

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1 Syria Officially known as the Syrian Arab Republic, it is a country in West Asia located in
the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea
to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south,
and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. The capital and largest city is Damascus
2 Combodia Hundreds of Indians were rescued from cyber-scam factories in Cambodia after
being promised jobs but forced into illegal online work (ranging from money
laundering to love scams). Cambodia is a Southeast Asian nation whose landscape
spans low-lying plains, the Mekong Delta, mountains and the Gulf of Thailand
coastline. In the country’s northwest are the ruins of Angkor Wat, a massive stone
temple complex built during the Khmer Empire.
3 Taiwan Taiwan experienced its strongest earthquake of 7.2 magnitude in nearly 25 years.
Taiwan has a long history of earthquakes due to its location along the ‘Pacific Ring of
Fire’, a line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world’s
earthquakes occur.
4 Romania Research centre in Romania has developed the world’s most powerful laser. It is
located in the geographic centre of Europe. It neighbours Ukraine in North,
Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, and the Black Sea in the east, Bulgaria in the south,
Serbia and Hungary in the west.
5 Saudi Arabia World’s First 3D-Printed Mosque was built in Saudi Arabia. It is the largest country in
the Arabian Peninsula. It is located in the southwest corner of Asia. It is surrounded
by the Red Sea on the West, by Yemen and Oman on the South, the Arabian Gulf
and the United Arab Emirates and Qatar on the East, and Jordan, Iraq and Kuwait on
the North.
6 Port of Baltimore Cargo ship leaving the Port of Baltimore struck the (I-695) Francis Scott Key Bridge
which caused a collapse of the bridge. It is strategically located in the Mid-Atlantic
region of the U.S. east coast. It is one of the busiest harbours in the U.S.
7 Sittwe Port India has secured the rights to operate the Sittwe port in Myanmar, marking its
second overseas port endeavour after Chabahar. It is a deepwater port situated at
the Kaladan River’s estuary in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
8 Zaporizhzhia Drone attack damaged the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, with three
Nuclear Plant hits on the main reactor containment. Zaporizhzhia, the largest nuclear plant in
Europe, is located in southeast Ukraine, on the banks of the Dnipro or Dnieper River
(which drains into the Black Sea). It is currently under the control of the Russian
forces.
9 Ural River Russia declared an emergency in the Orenburg region near Kazakhstan after the
Ural River (Europe’s third longest river) burst through a dam embankment in the city
of Orsk. It originates in the southern Ural Mountains. It embarks on a journey of
2,428 kilometres, making it the third-longest river in Europe after the Volga and the
Danube.
10 Botswana Botswana’s President recently made headlines by threatening to export 20,000
elephants to Germany in response to Germany’s proposal for stricter limits on the
import of hunting trophies. It is a landlocked country in Southern Africa,
predominantly inhabited by the Tswana ethnic group. It borders South Africa,
Namibia, and Zimbabwe, and is connected to Zambia via Kazungula Bridge. It is one
of the world’s most sparsely populated countries

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Famous Volcanoes In World

1 Mount Ruang It is situated in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province. It is a strato-volcano,

Volcano characterized by a tall, steep, cone-shaped structure. Stratovolcanoes are known
for their explosive eruptions due to the build-up of gas pressures in their more
viscous lavas
2 Mauna Loa It is among Earth’s most active volcanoes. One of the largest single mountain
masses in the world, Mauna Loa (meaning “Long Mountain” in Hawaiian) rises to
13,677 feet above sea level and constitutes half of the island’s area. It is located on
the Pacific Ocean and rises from the sea bed. It is an active shield volcano formed
by the eruption of highly fluid lava. It has gentle slopes formed by the flow of the
thin layer of lava which is low in viscosity.
3 Mount Etna It is an iconic site encompassing 19,237 uninhabited hectares on the highest part
of Mount Etna, on the eastern coast of Sicily. Mount Etna is the highest
Mediterranean island mountain and the most active stratovolcano in the world
4 Kilauea World’s most active volcanic mass, located on the south-eastern part of the island
of Hawaii,U.S. It is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and has been
continuously erupting since 1983.

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5 Mount Nyiragongo It is an active volcano in the Virunga Mountains of east-central Africa. It lies in the
volcano region of Virunga National Park, Congo (Kinshasa), near the border with
Rwanda. Nyiragongo main crater contains a liquid lava pool. Some older craters on
the mountain are noted for their plant life.
6 Mount Shasta 6.: It is the peak (14,162 feet of the Cascade Range in the Shasta-Trinity National
Forest, northern California, U.S. The peak lies 77 miles (124 km) north of the city of
Redding. An impressive double-peaked dormant volcano, it dominates the
landscape (a vast panorama of tumbled mountains and valleys) for a hundred
miles and is a main feature of Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation
Area.
7 Sangay It is one of Ecuador’s most active ones. Sangay is the southernmost stratovolcano
(a volcano built up of alternate layers of lava and ash) in the northern volcanic
zone of the Andes. Sangay National Park is located in the central part of Ecuador
on the Andes mountains’ eastern side. It is a world heritage site.
8 Mount Merapi It is located near the center of the island of Java, Indonesia. The volcano is located
north of Yogyakarta and somewhat farther south of Semarang. Merapi (“Mountain
of Fire”) has steep slopes with dense vegetation on its lower flanks. It is the most
active of Indonesia’s 130 active volcanoes.
9 Mount Yasur It is a volcano on Tanna Island (Vanuatu) 1,184 ft high above sea level, on the coast
near Sulphur Bay, northeast of the taller Mount Tukosmera, which was active in
the Pleistocene. It has a largely unvegetated pyroclastic cone with a nearly circular
summit crater
10 Vesuvius It is an active volcano that rises above the Bay of Naples on the plain of Campania
in southern Italy. Its western base rests almost upon the bay. The height of the
cone in 2013 was 4,203 feet but it varies considerably after each major eruption.
At about 1,968 feet, a high semicircular ridge, called Mount Somma, begins, girding
the cone on the north

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 MAPS: PLACES IN NEWS
International Places in News

1. Mount Mount Erebus, located in Antarctica, is spewing out approximately 80 grams of gold
Erebus worth $6000 daily. It is situated on Ross Island, Antarctica. It’s a strato-volcano,
characterized by a conical shape and layers of hardened lava.
2. Schengen Indian nationals can now obtain long-term multi-entry Schengen visas with a validity of
Area: two years, provided they have lawfully used two visas within the previous three years.
It is the world’s largest free travel area, encompassing 27 countries. This includes 23 of
the 27 EU members and all members of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland,
Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland)
3. Atacama Researchers have found microbes thriving 13 feet beneath the scorched surface of
Desert: Chile’s Atacama Desert. The Atacama Desert is the driest hot desert in the world
located in Chile in the Yungay Valley. Argentina, Peru, and Bolivia border the Atacama
Desert.
4. South China Second Thomas Shoal (located near the Spratly Islands) is a submerged reef in the
Sea: South China Sea. The shoal is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) but
is also claimed by China. It is a vast area of the western Pacific Ocean, stretching from
Singapore and the Strait of Malacca in the southwest to the Strait of Taiwan in the
northeast. It is a region of significant geopolitical tension due to various territorial
disputes.
5. La Cumbre La Cumbre is a shield volcano on Fernandina Island in the Galápagos Islands. Volcanic
volcano: emissions from Galápagos volcanoes are typically rich in sulfur dioxide and have little
ash. The La Cumbre volcano is located around 1,125 kilometres off mainland Ecuador.
6. Great Rift At least 42 people died when a dam burst its banks near a town in Kenya’s Rift Valley,
Valley: as heavy rains and floods battered the country recently. The Great Rift Valley is a series
of contiguous geographic trenches, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in
Southeast Africa. There are deep, elongated lakes known as ribbon lakes, such as Lake
Malawi and Lake Tanganyika.

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 7. Indonesia: India and Indonesia celebrate 75 years of diplomatic ties, forged by the Treaty of
Friendship in 1951. Both nations were part of the Bandung Conference in 1955, leading
to the Non-Aligned Movement. They established a Strategic Partnership in 2005, later
elevating it to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
8. Mount Indonesia’s Mount Ruang volcano recently erupted, triggering the highest level of alert.
Ruang: Indonesia is home to many volcanoes due to its location along the Pacific Ring of Fire,
where several tectonic plates meet and interact. This convergence creates intense
geological activity, including the subduction of oceanic plates beneath continental
plates, which leads to volcanic eruptions.
9. Hopen The first case of a walrus dying from bird flu was recorded on Hopen Island in the
island: Svalbard archipelago (Norway). However, it’s unclear whether it was the H5N1 or H5N8
strain, and there’s a possibility that other walruses found also had bird flu. Hopen island
was discovered in 1596 during Willem Barentsz’s expedition.
10. Darfur: The UN warns of imminent starvation in Darfur, Sudan, as escalating violence worsens
the country’s hunger crisis. Civil war since April 2023 has led to a devastating
humanitarian situation, with people resorting to eating “grass and peanut shells” to
survive, according to the World Food Programme. It is a region in western Sudan that
has been plagued by violent conflict and humanitarian crises. The area has experienced
ethnic tensions between Arab and African communities, leading to widespread violence
and human rights abuses.

National Places in News

1. Pulicat Recently, there was a concern arising from the fact that the State government plans to
Wetland: denotify a sizable area of the Pulicat wetland and sanctuary. It is located in the
northern part of Tamil Nadu and the southern part of Andhra Pradesh. It is the
second-largest brackish water ecosystem in India. The Pulicat Ecosystem supports a

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 very rich and diverse biota and acts as a breeding ground for several species of bird
and marine life.
2. Kalesar The Supreme Court has halted the construction of four dams inside Haryana’s Kalesar
Wildlife Wildlife Sanctuary, citing concerns about its negative impact on wildlife and the
Sanctuary: ecosystem. It lies within the Shivalik foothills of Himalayas. Its name derives from the
Kalesar forest and Kalesar Mahadev temple situated within its bounds. Bounded by
Yamuna River to the east, it shares borders with Rajaji National Park to the northeast
3. Gandhisagar South African delegation recently visited the Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary in
Wlidlife Madhya Pradesh to assess its readiness for the release of five to eight cheetahs later
Sanctuary: this year. The Gandhi Sagar Wildlife Sanctuary is situated on the northern boundary of
Mandsaur and Nimach districts in Madhya Pradesh. It shares its border with the state
of Rajasthan.
4. Aravalli Range: The Supreme Court recently said that illegal mining in the Aravalli range in Rajasthan
must stop. The Aravalli Range, stretching in a northeastern direction, traverses the
Indian states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Haryana before culminating in Delhi, is the
oldest mountain range in India.
5. Shaksgam India has registered its protest against China’s “illegal attempts” to build a road into
Valley: the lower Shaksgam valley in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). The Shaksgam
Valley or the Trans Karakoram Tract is part of Hunza-Gilgit region of Pakistan Occupied
Kashmir (POK), and is a disputed territory claimed by India but controlled by Pakistan.
6. Sahyadri Tiger The Maharashtra forest department is gearing up for translocation of a few tigers from
Reserve: the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) in Chandrapur to Sahyadri. The Sahyadri
Tiger Reserve (STR) is located in the Sahyadri Ranges of Western Ghats in
Maharashtra. These ranges form a common boundary between Maharashtra,
Karnataka and Goa, and consist of rich evergreen, semi-evergreen and moist
deciduous forests.
7. Mullaperiyar Tamil Nadu accuses Kerala of obstructing Mullaperiyar dam work while expressing
dam: safety concerns. Kerala allegedly delays routine maintenance, hindering strengthening
efforts. TheMullaperiyar Dam, a 126-year-old structure in Kerala’s Idukki district, is
owned and maintained by Tamil Nadu for various purposes like irrigation and hydro-
power. Disputes over its safety and water levels have led to ongoing litigation.
8 Bhadra Tiger Bhadra Tiger Reserve in Chikkamagaluru is attracting more tourists, scientists, and
Reserve: photographers. Situated in the Western Ghats region of Karnataka, Bhadra Tiger
Reserve is unique for being nestled within several hill ranges. It has served as both an
Elephant Reserve and the 25th Project Tiger Reserve of India since 1998, boasting a
substantial tiger population.
9 Shinku La The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is set to begin work on the Shinku La tunnel,
tunnel: which will be the world’s highest, facilitating all-weather connectivity from Manali to
Leh. The tunnel will be the world’s highest tunnel at 15,800 ft, surpassing China’s Mila
tunnel. Spanning 4.1 km along the Nimmu-Padam-Darcha route, it will provide all-
weather connectivity from Manali to Leh, cutting the distance by 60 km.
10 Sundarban: Air pollution from Kolkata and the Indo-Gangetic Plain threatens the Sundarbans
mangrove ecosystem, revealed a recent study. Sundarbans is a mangrove area, in the
delta region formed by the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna
Rivers in the Bay of Bengal.

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Major Lakes in World

1. Lake Baikal: Located in Siberia, Russia. The deepest lake in the world. It is the world’s largest lake by
volume.
2. Lake The longest lake in the world. It is also the second largest by volume. It is the second
Tanganyika: deepest lake in the world, after lake Baikal.
3. Lake Victoria: Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. It is Africa’s largest lake by area, the
world’s largest tropical lake, and the world’s second-largest fresh water lake by surface
area after Lake Superior in North America.
4. Great Lakes: Great Lakes of North America are a series of interconnected freshwater lakes which
connect to the Atlantic Ocean through the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Consisting of Lakes
Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario [in the order of west to east]. Superior,
Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario [In the order of largest to smallest. Lake Superior is
the largest continental lake in the world by area, and Lake Michigan is the largest lake
that is entirely within one country.
5. Dead Sea: Also called the Salt Sea. It is landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, and
Palestine and Israel to the west. It is Earth’s lowest elevation on land.
6. Aral Sea: It was a lake lying between Kazakhstan in the north and Uzbekistan, in the south. Aral
Sea has been steadily shrinking since the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted
by Soviet irrigation projects.
7. African Great These are the Series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around
Lakes: the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second largest fresh water lake in
the world, and Lake Tanganyika, the world’s second largest (in volume as well as the
second deepest).
8 Lake Ladoga: It is a freshwater lake located in northwestern Russia, in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg.
It is the largest lake located entirely in Europe, the second largest lake after Baikal in
Russia, and the 14th largest freshwater lake by area in the world.
9 Lake Chad: It is a freshwater lake located in the Sahelian zone of west-central Africa at the
conjunction of Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Niger. It is situated in an interior basin
formerly occupied by a much larger ancient sea that is sometimes called Mega-Chad.

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