Around 4,700 Konyak Naga women, in their colourful traditional attire came together on April 5, 2019, in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the “Largest Traditional Konyak Dance”.
In their attempt, Konyak people danced to the beats of traditional instruments and sang a ceremonial song for five minutes and one second.
The official declaration on the record to be announced by the Guinness authorities is expected within the five days.
Guinness World Records is a global brand, with offices in London, New York, China, Japan and UAE and with brand ambassadors on the ground around the world.
The programme was organised at Mon (Nagaland) during the Aoleang Monyu festival of the Konyak tribe which is celebrated every year in the first week of April to welcome the spring.
Konyak is one of the 16 Naga tribes and people of this community live mainly in the Mon district of Nagaland.
New World Bank President
David Malpass, a top U.S. Treasury official in Trump administration has been unanimously selected as the new President of the World Bank.
He will be the 13th President and will start his five year term from April 9, 2019.
He will succeed Jim Yong-kim, who stepped down on February 1, 2019. Kristalina Georgieva, chief executive officer of the bank, is acting as the interim President.
Since the bank’s creation, all of its Presidents have been from America.
The World Bank President is Chair of Boards of Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA).
The President is also ex officio Chair of Boards of Directors of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
Asteroid Ryugu
The Japan’s space agency, JAXA has announced that its Hayabusa 2 spacecraft released an explosive onto the asteroid Ryugu to make a crater on its surface and collect underground samples to find possible clues to the origin of the solar system.
Earlier, JAXA had announced that a group of scientists participating in the Hayabusa 2 mission had detected hydroxyl-bearing minerals on the asteroid by analyzing near-infrared spectrometer readings by the spacecraft.
This could help explain where the Earth's water came from.
Chytridiomycosis Disease
Deadliest disease of all times till now has wiped out 90 species of frogs and toads.
Chytridiomycosis is caused by a fungus—Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis—that attacks the skin of frogs, toads and other amphibians.
As the creatures use their skin to breathe and regulate their bodies’ water levels, the damage caused by the disease eventually leads to heart failure and death.
It spreads through contact and water.
The rapid global spread of the fungus is due to a lack of animal trade rules and airport surveillance, which allows wildlife to be imported without examination.
The fungus originated in Asia and gradually became pandemic in Latin America and Australia owing to trade (import and export of amphibians as pets) with Asia.
This can be termed as a negative externality of Globalisation on the wildlife.
Moreover, a genetic mutation of the fungus may have made it more dangerous.
Other factors leading to amphibians decline are:
Climate change,
Habitat destruction,
Draining of wetlands and
Changes to terrestrial ecosystems.
Importance of Amphibians:
Amphibians play a major role in maintaining aquatic environmental quality. They also feed on mosquitoes, which carry human diseases such as malaria and the Zika virus.
Governments and other agencies must focus on regulation and need to start taking biosecurity and the illegal wildlife trade far more seriously to prevent the spread of diseases.
