{"id":81208,"date":"2026-01-06T12:15:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T06:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=81208"},"modified":"2026-01-06T13:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:19:20","slug":"socotra-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/socotra-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Socotra Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Socotra Island Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hundreds of tourists are stuck on the Yemeni island of Socotra after flights were grounded over clashes on the mainland.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Socotra Island<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is an island in the <\/span><b>Indian Ocean<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about 340 km<\/span><b> southeast of Yemen, to which it belongs.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>largest of several islands extending eastward from the <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/horn-of-africa\/\" target=\"_blank\">Horn of Africa<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Socotra has an area of about 3,600 sq.km.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> Hajhir Mountains occupy Socotra\u2019s interior,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> whereas narrow coastal plains lie in the north and a broader plain in the south.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To the <\/span><b>southwest and west<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are the <\/span><b>smaller islands of Sam\u1e25ah and Darzah, called al-Ikhw\u0101n (\u201cthe Brothers\u201d),<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>\u02bfAbd al-K\u016br\u012b, all of which<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> also <\/span><b>belong to Yemen.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The island has a total population of around 70,000 people who speak their <\/span><b>Socotri language.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apart from the <\/span><b>main town of Hadibo,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> there exists little infrastructure on the island.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It b<\/span><b>roke off from the Arabian Peninsula <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">some 80 million years ago and is often <\/span><b>called the &#8220;Gal\u00e1pagos of the Indian Ocean.&#8221;\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Socotra is a <\/span><b>treasure trove of endemic flora and fauna<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, meaning they are found nowhere else on Earth.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example: <\/span><b>37% of Socotra\u2019s 825 plant species, 90% of its reptile <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">species,\u00a0 and<\/span><b> 95% of its land snail species do not occur anywhere else <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the world. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400; text-align: justify;\" aria-level=\"1\">In 2008, Socotra was recognised as a <b style=\"font-size: inherit;\">UNESCO World Heritage Site.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/nri\/latest-updates\/400-tourists-stuck-on-island-as-flights-halted-over-yemen-fighting\/articleshow\/126353242.cms?from=mdr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ET<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Socotra Island is an island in the Indian Ocean about 340 km southeast of Yemen, to which it belongs. Read more about Socotra Island, Location, Area, Significance, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":81246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,4585,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-81208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-socotra-island","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81208","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}