Category Geography

Have you heard about a tree that looks like a painting?

Have you heard about a tree that looks like a painting? Legend even has it that Robin Hood took shelter in a tree. Here we bring you some of the unique trees in the world.

AFRICAN BAOBAB – AFRICA

These ancient trees have been around even before humans walked the earth. They date back thousands of years and are endemic to the African savannah. These baobabs grow into colossal sizes and are life-sustaining trees. This tree species is referred to as the Tree of Life for the shelter, food and water it provides during inclement weather conditions.

THE MAJOR OAK TREE- THE UK

This is Robin Hood’s tree. Remember the legend of Robin Hood and how he took shelter in a tree and hid from the Sheriff of Nottingham? Well, this Oak tree, which is the largest in the U.K., is the infamous tree that provided shelter. The tree is hollow inside and has a hole in its trunk. Nuzzled in the Sherwood Forest Country Park, this 1,000-year-old hollow oak tree gets many visitors. Seen here is the Robin Hood’s Larder tree from an 1880 postcard.

LONE CYPRESS TREE – THE U.S.

Lone Cypress is perhaps the most photographed tree in the world. As the name suggests, this tree stands all alone, standing sentinel on the Californian coast. The tree is believed to be over 250 years old and is perched on the rocky ledge along the 17 Mile Drive on Pebble Beach in Monterey County.

RAINBOW EUCALYPTUS

Northern Hemisphere Picture this. A tree cloaked in a rainbow. The tree looks like a painting with a multitude of colours splashed right across it. Christened the rainbow eucalyptus, these rare eucalyptus trees are indigenous to the northern hemisphere. When the bark of the tree peels off during each season, out pops the coloured bark which ages as it with the elements producing the brilliant hues. Commonly called Rainbow Eucalyptus, the species goes by the name Eucalyptus deglupta. The tree is commonly found in Philippines, New Guinea, and Indonesia.

WANAKA TREE – NEW ZEALAND

Hundreds flock to this place every year to get a picture of the Wanaka Tree that seems to rise out of the placid waters of lake Wanaka, New Zealand. Evenings are the best time to visit the place as it always offers postcard-perfect views. The tree is often called That Wanaka Tree’. This loner of a willow tree set against a panoramic vista of the mountains of the Southern Alps makes for a resplendent sight.

THE BOAB ‘PRISON’ TREE-AUSTRALIA

This is a huge Boab tree with a large hollow. The tree is believed to be more than a thousand years old and is found in Derby, Kimberley, Western Australia. Known for decades as the Boab Prison Tree, the tree gets its name after the legend that it was used as a lockup for Aboriginal prisoners. But researchers have maintained that there is no evidence for this and have been pushing for appropriately naming the tree.

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What are the specialities of Goa, the smallest state in India?

Goa is located on the west coast of the Indian peninsula. It is the smallest state in the country by area and has a total area of 3,702 square kilometres, which makes up only 0.11 percentage of the total land area of the country. Panaji is the capital of Goa and Vasco da Gama is its largest city.

Goa shares boundaries with Karnataka and Maharashtra, where the Terekhol River separates Goa from Maharashtra in the North. In the East and the South, the boundaries are defined by the state of Karnataka. The Arabian Sea marks Goa’s borders in the West. The state is 594 km away from Mumbai city by road.

Konkani is the official language of Goa, which is spoken by the majority population. Goa is known for its white-sand beaches, active nightlife, places of worship, and World-Heritage-listed architecture. These factors attract many tourists from across the globe to Goa every year. Goa is also renowned for the wealth of flora and fauna it possesses as it lies close to the North Western Ghat rainforests, which is one among the rarest biodiversity hotspots of the world.

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Why is the Ganga said to be the longest river in India?

As per the overall distance covered by a river within the country, the Ganga is the longest river in India. Even though Brahmaputra and Indus are longer than the Ganga in total length, distances these two major rivers of the Indian subcontinent cover within the country is shorter than that of the Ganga.

Originating from the Gangotri and Yamunotri glaciers in Uttarakhand, the Bhagirathi and Alaknanda rivers meet at Devprayag to form the Ganga. Ganga covers the states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and then enters Bangladesh. Rishikesh, Varanasi, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Haridwar, Patna, and Bhagalpur are some of the major cities along the banks of this river. Son, Yamuna, Gomti, Koshi, Ghaghara, and Gandak are some of its major tributaries. It covers 2,525 kilometres before merging with the Bay of Bengal.

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Which is the largest desert in India?

India’s largest desert is the Thar Desert, which is also famously known as the Great Indian Desert. Even though most of the Thar Desert is in India, around 15 percentage of its area is in Pakistan. It is the world’s 20th- largest desert and is also the world’s 9th-largest hot subtropical desert. Of its presence in India, more than 60 per cent is confined to Rajasthan.

Like most other deserts, the Thar Desert also has extreme temperatures. Thar witnesses unpredictable and variable amounts of rain, which falls between 100-500 mm during July and September. This vast desert is also home to rich biodiversity, which includes many large mammals like the blackbuck, blue bull, and the Indian gazelle or chinkara.

The Thar Desert accommodates around 40 per cent of Rajasthan’s population, making it one of the richest and most vibrant cultural centres of the state. The people living here do agriculture and animal husbandry for a living and are famous for their passion for folk music and folk poetry. Jodhpur is the largest city in the region and is located in the scrub forest zone at the perimeter of the desert. Bikaner and Jaisalmer are confined completely in the desert and are the largest cities of their kind in the Thar Desert.

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Which is the largest state in India?

The largest state in India, Rajasthan, covers a total of 342,239 sq km area, and forms 10.4 per cent of the country’s total area. Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are closely behind Rajasthan in terms of land area.

Its capital is Jaipur and Rajasthan is home to some of the important cities of the country like Jodhpur, Bikaner, Kota, Udaipur, Ajmer and Bharatpur. Rajasthan also has the Thar Desert.

Although it is the largest state, it is one of the least densely populated states as most of its population still lives in rural settlements. Rajasthan has sites of ruins of the Indus Valley civilisation at Kalibangan and Balathal, making it home to a very prominent archaeological region. The Dilwara Temple, a Jain pilgrimage site at Mount Abu, which is located in the ancient Aravalli mountain range in eastern Rajasthan, is another important destination. Apart from these, the Keoladeo National Park of Bharatpur, which is a World Heritage Site known for its bird life, is also part of Rajasthan.

The Ranthambore National Park in Sawai Madhopur, the Mukundra Hills Reserve in Kota, and Sariska Tiger Reserve in Alwar are the three national tiger reserves in the state.

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Why was the Arctic Ocean, the smallest of all oceans, in the news recently?

The Arctic Ocean, which is the smallest of the world’s oceans, lies close to the North Pole. Along with its marginal seas the Chukchi, East Siberian, Laptev, Kara, Barents, Greenland, and Beaufort, the Arctic Ocean has the least-known basins and bodies of water in the world’s oceans due to its remoteness, difficult weather, and perennial or seasonal ice cover.

About four million people live in the Arctic region. Many of them are indigenous groups that have thrived in this harsh climate for hundreds of years. They rely mostly on the ocean resources for surviving this harsh climate and generate livelihood through these activities. Fishing, sealing, whaling, and other activities are their livelihood means. The U.S., Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Russia all have territories that reach into the Arctic Ocean.

The Arctic Ocean is in the news these days because of its effects on global warming. Rising temperatures in the Arctic are expected to cause large amounts of fresh melt-water to enter the north Atlantic, an event that will possibly disrupt global ocean current patterns. This will lead to drastic changes in the Earth’s climate. When the extent of sea ice diminishes and the sea level rises, the effect of storms (such as the Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012) on open water increases. Reduced sea ice also leads to increased human-animal conflicts. It will, for example, cause polar bears to search for new sources of food, forcing them to move into human territories. Since December 2018, the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya has been under a mass invasion of polar bears, and in February 2019, a state of emergency was declared there. Dozens of polar bears were entering homes, public buildings, and inhabited areas in search of food. All this led to the Arctic Ocean being in the news.

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