Current Affairs 19 April 2026
River Basin
- About: A river basin is the area of land drained by a river and its tributaries. Its key features include tributaries (smaller streams joining a main river), confluence (the point where rivers meet), watershed (highland boundary separating basins), source (origin of the river), and mouth (where it drains into a sea, lake, or ocean).
- A river basin is regarded as the basic hydrological unit for planning and development of water resources in India.
- River Basins of India: India’s drainage system is classified into 20 river basin groups, comprising 12 major and 8 composite river basins.
- Major river basins, each with a drainage area exceeding 20,000 sq km, include the Indus, Ganga–Brahmaputra–Meghna, Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery, Mahanadi, Pennar, Brahmani–Baitarani, Sabarmati, Mahi, Narmada, and Tapti.
- The Ganga–Brahmaputra–Meghna basin is the largest, with a catchment area of around 11.0 lakh km², accounting for over 43% of the total catchment area of major rivers.
National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary
- About: The National Chambal Sanctuary, also known as the National Chambal Gharial Wildlife Sanctuary, is one of India’s most ecologically significant riverine protected areas.
- It is the first and only tri-state protected area (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh) in the country, spanning approximately 5,400 sq km along a 600 km stretch of the Chambal River (960-km).
- Biodiversity: It harbors nearly 90% of the world’s remaining wild Gharial population and a significant number of endangered Ganges River Dolphins. Other key species are Marsh crocodile (mugger), Red-crowned roof turtle, Smooth-coated otter, striped hyena, and over 330 bird species e.g., Indian skimmer.
- It forms part of India’s Project Crocodile initiative launched in 1975 to address the severe decline of crocodilian populations.
- Conservation Status: It is recognized as an Important Bird Area (IBA). It is a proposed Ramsar Site, a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage Site status, and classified as an IUCN Category IV protected area (habitat/species management area).
- Ecological Uniqueness: The Chambal River remains one of India’s cleanest and most unpolluted rivers, creating a unique lotic ecosystem of deep channels, sandbanks, and ravines (beehad).
International Outlook and Foreign Policy
- Mahatma Gandhi: His outlook was primarily spiritual and focused on India’s internal moral regeneration, though he expressed moral sympathy for the democratic nations fighting totalitarianism during World War II.
- Subhas Chandra Bose: A sharp military and geopolitical strategist. He viewed the Second World War not as a moral crisis, but as India’s golden strategic opportunity to strike a distracted British Empire.
- Jawaharlal Nehru: A dedicated internationalist with a profound understanding of global currents.
- Long before independence, Nehru was shaping India’s foreign policy based on anti-imperialism and anti-racism. His staunch refusal to align with either Cold War bloc eventually birthed the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).