Tughlaqabad Fort

 

News: The Delhi High Court directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to remove encroachments in the Tughlaqabad Fort. 

 

About Tughlaqabad Fort:

• It was built by the Ghiyasudin Tughluq (1321-25) who belongs to the Tughluq dynasty

• The successor of Ghiyassudin Tughlaq, Muhammad Tughluq (1325-51), added the small fortress of ‘Adilabad on the hill south of Tughluqabad.

• It is built on the rocky terrain, as a defence mechanism.

• The tomb of Ghiyassudin is located in the south of fort.

• It is faced with red sandstone relieved by marble, and with batter on the exterior, it is enclosed within high walls forming an irregular pentagon.

• It is in two parts, the citadel and palaces along the southern walls forming one unit and the city to the north the other.

• The citadel is still intact, and the walls of palaces can also be discerned

 

 

Temperature distribution anamolies

Issue:  

• March 2023 was the second warmest March

• The warmest March occurred in 2016, when the biggest El Niño of the 21st century triggered a ‘mini’ global warming. 

• However, the January-to-March average temperature anomaly ranks 2023 as the fourth warmest such period on record.

• The Arabian Sea has also warmed more than expected this March, this can favour a stronger monsoon but may also enhance cyclogenesis (i.e. birth of cyclonic circulation) over the Arabian Sea.

Why such high temperature?

• Natural climate variability caused by events like El Niño, can temporarily spike temperatures.

  • A year is an ‘El Niño year’ if warmer water spreads in a band from west to east over the equatorial Pacific Ocean. 

  • In a ‘La Niña year’, cooler water spreads east to west in the same region.

•  Both phenomena have distinct and significant effects on the global climate. 

  • (Global mean temperatures themselves represent the increasing amount of additional energy we are trapping in the earth system and preventing its escape to space by, among other things, increasing the atmospheric concentration of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.)