Recently the government of Australia has officially declared the first known extinction of a mammal as a result of human-induced climate change.
The rat-like Bramble Cay melomys, whose only known habitat was a tiny sand island in the Torres Strait, near the coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has not been spotted in a decade.
The key factor in its disappearance was the dramatic habitat loss because of repeated ocean inundation of the cay. A cay is a small, low-elevation, sandy island on the surface of a coral reef.
The Melomys, considered the Great Barrier Reef’s only endemic mammal species, was first discovered on the cay in 1845 by Europeans who shot them for sport.
Continuation of Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin
The Union Cabinet has approved the implementation of Phase-2 of the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G), under which the government has set a target of constructing 1.95 crore houses by 2022.
The PMAY-G in Phase-2 till 2019-20 will continue as per the existing norms of PMAY-G Phase-l, with a target of 60 lakh houses involving financial implication of Rs 76,500 crore shared between Centre and States.
Launched in 2016, PMAY-G aims to fill the gaps in rural housing programme by providing a pucca house, with basic amenities, to all homeless householders and those households living in kutcha and dilapidated house, by 2022.
