{"id":13089,"date":"2023-07-14T07:31:22","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T02:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=13089"},"modified":"2025-04-02T00:15:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T18:45:36","slug":"kaas-plateau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/kaas-plateau\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaas Plateau"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What are the key findings?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sediment profile dating back to 8000 years which helped decode <strong>climatic signatures<\/strong> indicated a relatively <strong>reduced rainfall and weak southwest monsoon<\/strong> during the late Holocene (around 2827 years BP).<\/li>\n<li>The seasonal lake in the Kaas Plateau is probably a product <strong>of an erosional localized shallow depression<\/strong> on a pediment (rock debris) developed over the crust.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>During the early <strong>to mid-Holocene<\/strong>, at around 8664 years ago, pollen, as well as diatom data, indicated a change in the climate from freshwater to drier conditions with low rainfall.<\/li>\n<li>Surprisingly, there was a significant rise in the number of diatoms in between.<\/li>\n<li>This suggests a major shift in the Indian summer Monsoon activity during that time, possibly resulting in <strong>intermittent humid periods amidst the dry spells<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>There was a decrease in rainfall and a weakened southwest Monsoon during the <strong>late Holocene (around 2827 years BP).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>During the <strong>recent past<\/strong> (around last 1000 years), pollen, as well as the presence of a high number <strong>of planktonic and pollution-tolerant diatom<\/strong> taxa indicated lake eutrophication, possibly due to human impact and cattle\/livestock farming in the catchment.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h3>About Kaas Plateau:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>It is nestled in <strong>the Western Ghats<\/strong> is about 140 km from Pune.<\/li>\n<li>It is <strong>part of the Western Ghats<\/strong> which was declared as <strong>world natural heritage<\/strong> site by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 2012\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>It is known as Kaas Pathar in Marathi, its name is derived from the Kaasa tree, botanically known as Elaeocarpus glandulosus (rudraksha family).<\/li>\n<li>It is also known as valley of flowers which is situated at a mighty altitude of 1200 metres.<\/li>\n<li>It is a major <strong>biodiversity hotspot<\/strong> owing to the many varieties of endemic flowers and butterflies that are found here.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What are the characteristics of the Holocene?<\/h3>\n<p>The Holocene is characterized by the relatively stable and warm climatic conditions following the last major glacial period, known as the Pleistocene. It is a time of interglacial climate, marked by a general trend of increasing temperatures.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1939276\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Sediments decode climate and environmental changes on Kaas Plateau around 8664 years BP<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kaas Plateau  is nestled in the Western Ghats and is about 140 km from Pune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":13090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}