William Carey arrived in India in 1793 and lived for six years in North Bengal before moving to Serampore, a Danish settlement in 1800 to join fellow Baptist missionaries Joshua Marshman and William Ward, popularly referred to as the ‘Serampore Trio.’

The missionaries realized the importance of education in disseminating the gospel in India. Carey, Marshman, and Ward started several schools for both boys and girls. In addition to starting educations, preaching and translation works, the trio also made a notable contribution to social and cultural development in India.

William Carey was engaged in translating the Bible into the native languages. As missionaries realised  the importance of native languages. Through printing the gospel was spread to a wider social class living in far remote areas, where physical presence was not possible.

According to Carey ‘setting up of a press was essential to publish these gospel in Bengali, which can be circulate through the country.

He purchased a wooden printing press in 1798 for his mission. The establishment of the Serampore Mission Press, started by William Carey, Joshua Clark Marshman and William Ward in 1800, may be considered a watershed in the movement from scribal to the printed word.

This centre later became one of the most famous missionary centres in India and one of the greatest influences in Indian education and culture.

A.K. Priolkar, in his pioneering work, “ Printing Presses in India, on the history of printing in India traced the genealogy of printing and its early development. He argued that although Jesuit missionaries introduced printing in Goa in 1556, it did not help in the establishment of printing presses in other parts of the country.

Printing activities were discontinued in Goa before it could fan out in other parts of the country because of the short sightedness of the political leaders in Goa.

B.S.Kesavan, in his work, “History of printing and publishing in India”, provided the intellectual breakthrough in Indian languages, publication of translation, commentaries, collections and selection, composing grammars and dictionaries, lexicography, prose and poetry.

According to Ulrike Stark, the arrival of protestant missionaries following the East India company charter of 1813 paved the way for the burgeoning of print and publishing production in India

It was the missionaries who introduced print and printed text and opened up a space for the interaction between Europeans and the natives through the medium of print. It helped to cross the social & communal barriers existing in India.

Ulrike Stark, claimed that, natives first come in contact with printed text through the missionary tracts and school books as there was no any printing press before the arrival of the missionaries.

Education was most effectively used by Christian missionaries as an instrument for evangelisation. George Smith also remarked that, ‘Carey’s missionary organisation would not have been complete without schools.’

Shortly after arriving in Calcutta, Carey started a school in his locality at Mudnabaty in 1794, Carey said, ‘I had some months ago set up a school, but the poverty of the natives often caused them frequently to take their children to work. To prevent this, we intend to clothe and feed them.’

In 1800 Carey moved to Serampore to join Joshua Marshman and William Ward. In the same year a Bengali a Bengali Elementary school was opened with 40 boys at Serampore.

William Carey was appointed as the professor of Bengali and Sanskrit at Fort William College in 1801, this appointment offered him more opportunity to expand his educational venture. By 1809 there were many schools in rural areas of Jessore district and one Dinajpur.

The most significant educational venture of the missionaries was the establishment of ‘Benevolent Institution’ in 1809-10 for Eurasian poor. Until 1813, the initiation of missionary activities within British territory was prohibited. The renewal of this act gave a great boost on education and printing activities in India.

In 1816- 1818, about 100 elementary schools  and a Serampore College for higher education established in Bengal. East India company prohibited from carrying out any mission activities in their territories.

The first publication issued from this pioneering press was the Cary’s translation of gospel of Matthew in Bengali. Printing gave a great impetus in the growth of Bengali literature.

The Calcutta school book society, setting up in 1817, responsible for supplying vernacular text to elementary schools at a very cheap rate were printed here, Dig-Darshan the first Bengali news paper Samachar Darpan and informative magazines for young readers were also issued from this press.

In 1801, Carey’s appointment as Bengali teacher at the Fort William College enable him to undertake various translation works, composing grammars, and dictionaries besides publishing school text books in vernacular for students.

Printing gave a great impetus in the growth of Bengali literature. The Calcutta school book society, setting up in 1817, responsible for supplying vernacular text to elementary schools at a very cheap rate were printed here, Dig-Darshan the first Bengali news paper ‘Samachar Darpan’ and informative magazines for young readers were also issued from this press.

Through the establishment of printing press in Serampore, Carey gave an immense stimulus to modern Bengali literature. Thus, began a fertile period for publishing, fostered by Governor General Warren Hasting and led by Sir William Jones and his generations of great Orientalist.

The first native who set up a press in Calcutta was Baboo Ram in 1807. He was followed by Ganga Kishore, formerly employed in the Serampore press. Later many more printing presses were set up in different parts of the country.   This was reported by the missionary journal the Friend of India in 1820.

Serampore Mission Press was involved with printing textbooks for the Fort William College and elementary vernacular schools on various subjects. The first Bengali newspaper Samachar Darpan and Digdarshan which was educational periodical for juvenile or young people with English and Bengali were issued from this press beginning in 1818. The Serampore College set up in 1818 was among the first to disseminate modern ideas of education in India.

Nevertheless, missionaries became the pioneers of vernacular printing in India. The first book printing in India was in Tamil in 1577 by the Portuguese.

Opened in 1802, the Serampore mission soon grew into the largest printing press in south Asia. The removal of the press law by the Governor General Lord Metcalf in 1835 was the opening of floodgates of printing for the native printers. From 1805 to 1834 William Carey printed and published Marathi books in Serampore mission press. The Bible in 1807 and the Marathi English Dictionary in 1810 are two notable publications.

Opened in 1802, the Serampore mission soon grew into the largest printing press in south Asia. The removal of the press law by the Governor General Lord Metcalf in 1835 was the opening of floodgates of printing for the native printers. From 1805 to 1834 William Carey printed and published Marathi books in Serampore mission press. The Bible in 1807 and the Marathi English Dictionary in 1810 are two notable publications.

The US & Ukraine have signed a deal that will give Washington access to some of the war-torn country’s natural resources.  It sets up an investment fund that Ukraine hopes will cement US assistance as the country struggles to repel Russia three years after the invasion.

Trump has previously demanded that Ukraine pay back the $350bn (£264bn) of aid that he claims has been provided by the US during the war  – a condition that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the agreement did not dictate that his country pay back any supposed “debt”. Trump has styled the agreement as a win for his side as well, saying his country will get back “much more in theory” than the billions that were provided to Ukraine by his predecessor Joe Biden.

The agreement refers to “Russia’s full-scale invasion” and the US Treasury Department adds that “no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine”.

The agreement designates the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) as the U.S. partner in the deal.

WHAT’S THE DEAL?

• The mineral deal will create a U.S. controlled investment fund that would receive revenue from Ukraine’s natural resources
• Ukraine managed to get some of what it wanted, but not everything.
• White House demanded  Ukraine to repay assistance given during the war with its mineral wealth .
• The idea of treating that aid as debt was removed in the final deal.
• The door  kept open for Ukraine to eventually join the European Union.
• There was no mention of a U.S. security guarantee in the text of the nine-page deal
• Kyiv & Washington will jointly manage the fund, which will be financed with revenues from new projects in critical minerals, oil and gas — not from projects that are already operating.
• Although the agreement does not treat past aid to Ukraine as debt that the country needs to repay, it does say that future military aid, including weapons and training, will be treated as a U.S. contribution to the fund — meaning that Ukraine will need to match future aid with resource wealth.
• The agreement does not change the management of Ukraine’s state-owned energy companies.
• All natural resources will still be considered Ukraine’s property.
• The agreement says that the United States and Ukraine want to ensure that countries “that have acted adversely to Ukraine in the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine” 
• Ukraine’s parliament still has to ratify the agreement.
• Ukraine was demanding post-war  support & security guarantees.
• Without those guarantees, Ukraine said, Russia could quickly violate any cease-fire or restart the war

In all cases, the resources stay in Ukrainian ownership, even though the US will get joint access.The inclusion of oil and gas has been seen as a softening of the Ukrainian position, since they were not in earlier drafts of the deal.

Ukraine has long aspired to join the European Union and accession talks formally began last June. There were some concerns in Kyiv that the resources deal could hinder Ukraine’s ability to join the EU, if it gave preferential treatment to US investors, as Kyiv and Brussels already have a strategic partnership on raw materials.

But the deal’s text says that the US acknowledges Ukraine’s intention to join the EU and the need for this agreement not to conflict with that.

It also says that if Ukraine needs to revisit the terms of the deal because of “additional obligations” as part of joining the EU, then the US agrees to negotiate in good faith. Additionally, Kyiv says the US will support additional transfers of investment and technology in Ukraine, including from the EU and elsewhere.

The US has framed the deal as an essential one to sign if Ukraine is to continue to receive its military assistance. Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko – who flew to Washington DC to sign the deal – said it envisaged the US contributing new assistance in the future, such as air defence systems.

This, too, would mark a change in strategy for Trump – who has sought to wind down military support for Ukraine since returning to the White House. One outstanding question is what the accord will ultimately mean for the state of the war. The Kremlin has not yet responded to the agreement. 

It appears there are no concrete security guarantees from the US, which is something Ukraine and Europe have long been pushing the White House to provide. Trump has long been reluctant to give the same military commitment that Biden had given.

Instead, his interest in staying the course with US support for Ukraine is more implicit, due to the economic commitments set out in this deal. That means there would still be a fragility about the commitment of Ukraine’s most important ally.

One intriguing point highlighted by Ukraine’s government is that for the first decade of the reconstruction investment fund, profits will be “fully reinvested in Ukraine’s economy“, either in new projects or reconstruction. This could be potentially significant if there is no financial benefit for the US for 10 years.

However, this provision does not appear to be in the agreement signed in Washington, although it might later be part of an additional “technical” deal. Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on social media that “these terms will be subject to further discussion”.

After that initial 10-year period, Kyiv says profits may be distributed between the partners. US treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the deal was a signal to the American people that “we have a chance to participate, get some of the funding and the weapons, compensation for those and be partners  with the success of the Ukraine people”.

WHAT MINERALS DOES UKRAINE HAVE?

Kyiv estimates that about 5% of the world’s “critical raw materials” are in Ukraine.

This includes some 19m tonnes of proven reserves of graphite, which the Ukrainian Geological Survey state agency says makes the nation “one of the top five leading countries” for the supply of the mineral. Graphite is used to make batteries for electric vehicles

Ukraine has 7% of Europe’s supplies of titanium, a lightweight metal used in the construction of everything from aeroplanes to power stations.

Other elements found in Ukraine include beryllium and uranium, which are both crucial for nuclear weapons and reactors.

Deposits of copper, lead, zinc, silver, nickel, cobalt and manganese are also significant.

Further, Ukraine has significant deposits of rare earth metals. These are a group of 17 elements that are used to produce weapons, wind turbines, electronics and other products vital in the modern world. Some of the mineral deposits, however, have been seized by Russia.

According to Svyrydenko, resources worth $350bn (£277bn) remain in occupied territories today. In 2022, SecDev, a geopolitical risk consultancy based in Canada, established that Russia had occupied 63% of Ukrainian coal mines, as well as half of its manganese, caesium, tantalum and rare earth deposits.

Dr Robert Muggah, principal of SecDev, says that such minerals add a “strategic and economic dimension” in Russia’s continued aggression. By seizing them, he says, Moscow denies access to revenue for Ukraine, expands its own resource base and influences global supply chains.

According to Dr. Muggah, Critical minerals “are the foundation of the 21st Century economy. They are key to renewable energy, military applications and industrial infrastructure and play a growing strategic role in geopolitics and geoeconomics.

The US has been keen on a deal for Ukraine’s mineral resources because it wants to reduce dependency on China, which controls 75% of rare earth deposits in the world, according to the Geological Investment Group. In December, China banned the export of some rare earth minerals to the US, having previously limited mineral exports to the US the previous year.

Beijing then imposed more export controls on rare earth minerals as part of an escalating trade war with the US, sparked by Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs in April. China has now also imposed export controls on a range of critical rare earth minerals and magnets, dealing a major blow to the US.

China has a near monopoly on extracting rare earths as well as on refining them. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that China accounts for about 61% of rare earth production and 92% of their processing.

That means it currently dominates the rare earths supply chain and has the capacity to decide which companies can and cannot receive supplies of rare earths. All rare earth resources also contain radioactive elements, which is why many other countries, including those in the EU, are reluctant to produce them. 

Radioactive waste from production absolutely requires safe, compliant, permanent disposal. Currently all disposal facilities in EU are temporary. In response to tariffs imposed by Washington, China  began ordering restrictions on the exports of seven rare earth minerals – most of which are known as “heavy” rare earths, which are crucial to the defence sector.

From 4 April, all companies now have to get special export licenses in order to send rare earths and magnets out of the country. That is because as a signatory to the international treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, China has the ability to control the trade of “dual use products”. According to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), this leaves the US particularly vulnerable as there is no capacity outside China to process heavy rare earths.

A US Geological report notes that between 2020 and 2023, the US relied on China for 70% of its imports of all rare earth compounds and metals. This means that the new restrictions have the ability to hit the US hard. Heavy rare earths are used in many military fields such as missiles, radar, and permanent magnets.

A CSIS report notes that defence technologies including F-35 jets, Tomahawk missiles and Predator unmanned aerial vehicles all depend on these minerals. Prices for critical rare earth materials are expected to surge, increasing the immediate costs of components used in a wide range of products, from smartphones to military hardware.

If such a shortage from China persists in the long-run, the US could potentially begin diversifying its supply chains and scaling up its domestic and processing capabilities.

CAN’T THE AMERICA PRODUCE ITS OWN RARE EARTHS?

The US has one operational rare earths mine, but it does not have the capacity to separate heavy rare earths and has to send its ore to China for processing. There used to be US companies that manufactured rare earth magnets – until the 1980s, the US was in fact the largest producer of rare earths. Another place Trump has had his eye on is Greenland – which is endowed with the eighth largest reserves of rare earth elements. 

Trump has repeatedly showed interest in taking control of the autonomous Danish dependent territory and has refused to rule out economic or military force to take control of it.

The challenge the US faces is two-fold, on the one hand it has alienated China who provides the monopoly supply of rare earths, and on the other hand it is also antagonising many nations that have previously been friendly collaborators through tariffs and other hostile actions.

UKRAINE EXPECTING INVESTMENTS

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that the fund created by the agreement would “attract global investment into our country“. Some commentators described the initial US offer as “colonial”, but Kyiv is interested in joint exploration of its resources.

According to the World Economic Forum, Ukraine has about 20,000 mineral deposits covering 116 types, but only about 15% of sites were being actively exploited at the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

The country’s sizeable lithium deposits are still largely untapped. Likewise, rare earth deposits are known to exist, but none of them have yet been mined, because of a lack of investment.

If Ukraine can attract US investors to help develop its natural resources, it will be highly beneficial for the country’s economy. Ukraine state is expecting technology transfer in the wake of this deal for rare earth minerals. It may help in generation of employment and revenue.

Trump has previously suggested the presence of US contractors in Ukraine would act as a security guarantee to deter Russian aggression in the future, but Ukraine and European leaders have insisted that would not be enough.

Support for Ukraine has become a key issue since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

President Trump has made a number of claims about how much the United States has spent compared to European countries. But some of his claims are questionable – with no evidence to back them up – President Trump has made this claim on a number of occasions – including when he hosted France’s President Macron in the White House recently.

The US Department of Defense has provided a figure looking at all spending on Operation Atlantic Resolve – a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It says $182.8bn has been “appropriated” – a figure that covers US military training in Europe and replenishment of US defence stocks. President Trump has claimed: “We’ve spent more than $300bn and Europe has spent about $100bn – that’s a big difference” Figures suggest Europe has spent more when all aid is included and , we can’t find any evidence for the $300bn figure.

The United States is, by some margin, the largest single donor to Ukraine. But Europe combined has spent more money than the United States, according to the Kiel Institute. Between 24 January 2022 and the end of 2024, Europe as a whole spent $138.7bn on Ukraine.

In the same period, the United States spent $119.7bn, according to their figures. The European Union says EU countries have provided around $145bn in aid so far and that just 35% of that has been loans.

Large carnivores worldwide are experiencing a significant decline, primarily due to habitat destruction and deliberate persecution by humans. Although extinction is primarily a demographic process, influenced by changes in mortality & fertility rates that lead to a decline in population growth.

Consequently, the study of breeding sites, which directly contributes to understanding species demography, is crucial for the formulation of effective population management programs

The wolf population in India is around 3,100 individuals in the wild. Extensive habitat loss due to human expansion and retaliatory killings have significantly contributed to the decline of wolf populations throughout their range.

The Indian Wolf Canis lupus pallipes is found in various habitats, mostly human-dominated areas. They are social animals and use dens and rendezvous sites for rearing pups.

Wolves survive with humans because of their ability to exploit human-modified landscapes (Habib, 2007). However, they also prey upon livestock, allowing the potential for conflict, especially with the shepherd community (Singh & Kumara, 2006).

Coexistence may be vital for the conservation of this species, while co-adaptation is essential for promoting peaceful relations between humans and large carnivores. Promoting coexistence requires managing the complex interactions between people and wildlife.

Moreover, tribal traditions and cultural practices can play a pivotal role in understanding coexistence mechanisms and contribute to species conservation, such as that of the wolf. Many tribes follow practices like totemism, which fosters the protection of biodiversity by revering certain species and habitats as sacred

Such belief systems, which incorporate taboos and spiritual connections with the land, promote the conservation of flora and fauna, some of which are endangered or threatened. Jharkhand, with its rich biodiversity and significant tribal population (26.3% of the state’s total), exemplifies this connection between indigenous cultures and conservation.

The region’s tribal communities adhere to taboos that prevent the exploitation of natural resources, ensuring the regeneration and protection of forests and creating spaces for wildlife to thrive. 

These traditions create disturbance-free zones that wildlife can utilize, indirectly supporting ecosystem stability and biodiversity. Wildlife managers throughout the wolf range, particularly in heavily populated nations such as India, encounter considerable difficulties in reducing human disturbances.

Interestingly, this is not the case in the Mahuadanr Wolf Sanctuary, where the Sal tree (Shorea robusta) dominates, and interestingly, the local tribal people, who worship the tree, strictly avoid entering the forest during winter until the Sal flowers begin to bloom.

Human disturbance at wolf dens and rendezvous sites continues to be a concern. However, the influence of cultural factors on wolves den site selection remains understudied and needs further exploration.

Additionally, den sites are a vital component of wolf ecology & gaining insights into how wolves select these locations is crucial for wildlife managers to make informed decisions about their management and conservation.

Dens are vital for the survival of wolf populations, serving as a limited resource for some groups. The stable microclimate provided by dens is particularly important for the survival of young pup.

Another significant factor is the topography of canid den sites, which plays a role in predator avoidance. It is essential to understand the topographical characteristics of den sites, as most pup mortality happens within the first six months of life. 

The placement of dens affects the susceptibility of both pups and adult wolves to predators. Topographical features, particularly slope, are considered “energy-expensive terrains” where movement incurs higher energy costs due to the effects of gravity, as compared to flat terrain.

In response to inclined surfaces, animals tend to adopt energy-efficient movement strategies, such as altering their speed, direction, and avoiding steeper slopes. This behaviour allows wolves to access relatively safer areas by utilizing their long-term understanding of how competitors use the space.

There is a lack of research dedicated to understanding the energy-efficient movement patterns of large carnivores in India, particularly concerning slope. 

This aspect is vital to denning ecology and could provide important insights into the factors influencing den site selection, especially regarding interspecific competition.

The MWS is situated in the Mahuadanr block of Latehar district, an area largely populated by tribal communities  more than 80 per cent of whom follow “Sarna Dharma”.

The cultural practices of the local tribes, particularly their avoidance of the Sal-dominated forests during winter—coinciding with the wolves’ breeding season. Along with the area’s topographical features, there are two other factors considered as important in the wolf conservation . 

1.Wolves preferentially select den sites located in areas with challenging topographical features, which are energetically demanding for other predators to access. This selection behavior reduces the likelihood of encounters with co- predators, thereby increasing the survival chance of the wolves.

2.The Sal Forest serves as a refugia for wolf den sites as tribal people avoid entering these areas during winter, resulting in a disturbance free zone that enhances the suitability of the forest for denning.

Most of these den sites are located between 501 and 1000 m from the nearest human settlement & within 501 to 1500 m from the nearest water source.  The combination of Sal abundance, slope, and average shrub cover yielded the best fit.

Dens serve as central hubs within a wolf’s home range, playing a crucial role in vital activities such as feeding and breeding, both of which are fundamental to the species’ survival.

According to khan et al.,most dens were located in grasslands and were burrowed into the ground in Maharashtra.  But in Mahuadanr, all the dens in our study area were located in rock caves, and no burrows were found to be occupied by wolves.

This variation could potentially be attributed to the differences in habitat types between the two regions. However, many species show a preference for rocky refugia, which are considered to provide advantages over burrows. Unlike burrows, which are susceptible to flooding and structural damage, rocky refugia remain dry, retain their structure, and offer a more stable microenvironment.

The smaller openings may facilitate easy escape for wolves while making it more difficult for larger predators to enter the den. Human presence, often described as the “super-predator,” can induce fear and avoidance behaviours even in large carnivores, leading to shifts in their behaviour to minimize risky encounters. 

Mahuadanr is having a badland topography and was a wasteland. The Quest for bauxite in the bordering areas of Chhattisgarh-Jharkhand poses a threat to the future of the Mahuadanr Wolf Sanctuary.

Bauxite mining started in Jharkhand’s Orsa village, approximately 2.5 kilometres from the wolf sanctuary, in 1986 over an area of 309.36 hectares. Initially, the lease was granted till 2006 but was extended in 2017 on about 196 hectares of non-forest land till 2036. 

In 2019, the final ESZ specifying the extent of the ESZ around the sanctuary was notified by the Indian government’s environment ministry. But the locals from Orsa stood against mining.

Spread over an area of 63.256 square kilometres and about 194 km from the state capital Ranchi, the sanctuary is in the Latehar district of Jharkhand. The wolf sanctuary is also home to sloth bears and has a healthy population of leopards as well.

The final ESZ declaration is limited to Jharkhand but mining is continuing in Chhattisgarh in the bauxite mines of Hindalco that are operational over an area of 3,741 ha. This mining is also affecting the flow of the perennial Burha river.

The Burha river after entering Jharkhand flows from near the Orsa village and then passes through the middle of the Palamau Tiger Reserve (PTR) and is considered its lifeline. In Orsa, though the mining has stopped the abandoned pit is still lying open, posing a danger to humans as well as animals living nearby.

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, became the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013. Known for his humility and progressive views, he focused on issues such as climate change, poverty, and interfaith dialogue. On April 21, 2025, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had died aged 88.

Pope Francis, the Argentine Jesuit who became the first Roman Catholic pontiff from Latin America and eleventh Non-European pope.

His predecessor, Benedict XVI, was the first Pope to retire voluntarily in almost 600 years and for almost a decade the Vatican Gardens hosted two popes.

Pope Francis inherited a Church in disarray and worked hard to overhaul the Vatican’s central administration, root out corruption and confront the scourge of child abuse within the ranks of the priesthood – with mixed results.

During his papacy, Francis often clashed with conservatives, nostalgic for a traditional past, who saw the pope as overly liberal and too accommodating to minority groups, such as the LGBTQ community.

When Francis became the pope, Europe had largest share of cardinal electors. It was 52% in 2013 but now reduced to 39% in 2025.

The second largest group of electors is from Asia and Oceania, with about 20%.

Francis appointed nearly 80% of the cardinal electors who will choose the next pope, increasing, but not guaranteeing, the possibility that his successor will continue his progressive policies.

In his 12 year papacy, Pope Francis would go on to become a key figure in the global climate movement. As political leaders debated the technical and economic dimensions of the climate policy agenda, Francis, served as a voice of moral clarity, speaking and writing about the social consequences of human influence on the planet.

Francis’ most influential intervention came in 2015, when he published an encyclical—or a papal letter to his bishops meant to guide them in their work—focused on our changing environment 

Francis shunned regal trappings, including the papal apartments. His habits favored simplicity. He was known to treat Vatican staff more as co-workers than employees

Francis famously called the Church a ‘field hospital,’ not a fortress. His openness to gay and lesbian Catholics — inconceivable during the era of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI — was one example of his interest in meeting people where they were, not where they doctrinally should be.

Francis was beloved among many progressive Catholics who saw him as an opponent of culture wars, a vindicator of social justice, and a champion of the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, which modernized and liberalized the church under Pope John XXIII in the 1960s.

Francis fiercely rebuked the “globalization of indifference” and the “idolatry” of money. He explicitly condemned “trickle down” economics as based on “a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.

His approach generated many enemies on the Catholic right. Breaking with their long habit of deference to Rome, some conservatives, including bishops, excoriated him, sometimes even referring to him as heretical. But Massimo Faggioli argued that the burden for the splits did not rest on Francis.

He did not divide the Church,” Faggioli said. “The divisions were there already.” Francis made them “visible” because “he was not afraid to open a debate on issues that were considered taboo until very recently.”

Francis battled openly with American conservatives — including Catholics — particularly on the rights of migrants. In a letter about immigration to American Bishops on Feb. 10, he was unmistakably critical of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, without mentioning them by name.

He was critical of mass deportation drive. While remaining a steadfast foe of abortion, Francis sharply altered church priorities. Early in his pontificate, he declared that the church “cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible.”

Francis did not escape criticism from his allies. Like many leaders from the Southern Hemisphere, he was slow to criticize Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though he later toughened his stance. He made only modest moves toward enhancing the power of women in the church. And though he eventually recognized the need for ongoing atonement by the church for the sexual abuse scandals, he did so only after early missteps.

But Francis’s papacy cannot be defined by American political feuds. More important was his reorientation of the church toward Latin America, Africa and Asia. His appointments altered the regional and philosophical balance of power within the College of Cardinals, which will pick his successor. Historical judgments of his tenure will rest in part on whether the forces he represented prevail in the coming conclave.

The pope is an institutional leader and a global political actor. Francis certainly played those roles, yet his worldview was antithetical to casting the papacy in this light. He was a spiritual rebel and happy troublemaker, pushing the church relentlessly away from clericalism and worldliness.

He criticised “spiritual worldliness”, which means, “being self-centred”. He never relaxed his sober approach or his strict lifestyle, which some have defined as almost “ascetic”.

He cracked down over the paternalistic government in Mexico, in 2016, he expressed shame over the exploitation of Indigenous peoples and prayed at the tomb of a bishop who adhered to liberation theology, a movement in which priests actively engaged in improving the lives of the poor — sometimes to the point of taking up arms as guerrillas.

On a visit to Cuba in 2015, Francis met with leaders Fidel and Raúl Castro, and went to Holguín, the first time a pope had visited the city. And in 2016, on a brief stopover in Cuba on his way to Mexico, Francis met in Havana with the Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, the first encounter in history between a Roman Catholic pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch.

After attacks by Muslim militants, he said it was not right to identify Islam with violence. “If I speak of Islamic violence, then I have to speak of Catholic violence too,” he declared. As a Spanish-speaking Latin American, he provided a crucial service as mediator when the US government edged towards historic rapprochement with Cuba. It is difficult to imagine a European Pope playing such a critical diplomatic role.

On many of the Church’s teachings, Pope Francis was a traditionalist. He was as uncompromising as Pope John Paul II… on euthanasia, the death penalty, abortion, the right to life, human rights and the celibacy of priests,

In November 2016 he gave priests the power to forgive women who undergo abortions. Still, Francis has kept some traditional aspects of the Church in place, including a ban on female clergy members. He said the Church should welcome people regardless of their sexual orientation, but insisted gay adoption was a form of discrimination against children.

K2-18 b is a super Earth exoplanet that orbits an M-type star. It takes 32.9 days to complete one orbit of its star, and is 0.1429 AU from its star. Its discovery was announced in 2015.

A new investigation with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope into K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, has revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide.

Webb’s discovery suggested that K2-18 b could be a c, one which has the potential to possess a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a water ocean-covered surface.

The planet’s name is K2-18b, meaning it is the first planet in the 18th planetary system found by the extended NASA Kepler mission, K2. Astronomers assign the “b” label to the first planet in the system, not “a,” to avoid possible confusion with the star. 

It’s only about half as dense as Earth. In other words, it must have a lot of water, which isn’t very dense, or a very big atmosphere, which is even less dense.

Astronomers thought that this could either be a smaller version of our solar system’s ice giant Neptune, called a mini-Neptune, or perhaps a rocky planet with no water but a massive hydrogen atmosphere, called a gas dwarf.  

Mini-Neptunes and gas dwarfs are not  to be hospitable for life, because they probably don’t have liquid water, and their interior surfaces have enormous pressures. But a hycean planet would have a large and likely temperate ocean.

K2-18 b orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18 in the habitable zone at 120 light-years distance from Earth in the constellation Leo. Exoplanets such as K2-18 b, which have sizes between those of Earth & Neptune, are unlike anything in our solar system.

These ‘sub-Neptunes’ are poorly understood, and the nature of their atmospheres is a matter of active debate among astronomers.

A “hycean planet” is a type of exoplanet, a planet outside of our solar system, characterized by a thick hydrogen-rich atmosphere and a global ocean, making them potential candidates for habitability. The name “Hycean” is derived from the words “hydrogen” and “ocean”

The suggestion that the sub-Neptune K2-18 b could be a Hycean exoplanet is intriguing, as some astronomers believe that these worlds are promising environments to search for evidence for life on exoplanets.

According to Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge these  findings underscore the importance of considering diverse habitable environments in the search for life elsewhere.

Traditionally, the search for life on exoplanets has focused primarily on smaller rocky planets, but the larger Hycean worlds are significantly more conducive to atmospheric observations. The abundance of methane and carbon dioxide, and shortage of ammonia, support the hypothesis that there may be a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere in K2-18 b. There is a possible detection of a molecule called dimethyl sulfide (DMS)..

On Earth, this is only produced by life. The bulk of the DMS in Earth’s atmosphere is emitted from phytoplankton in marine environments.The inference of DMS is less robust and requires further validation.

According to Madhusudan, Upcoming Webb observations should be able to confirm if DMS is indeed present in the atmosphere of K2-18 b at significant levels.

While K2-18 b lies in the habitable zone, and is now known to harbor carbon-bearing molecules, this does not necessarily mean that the planet can support life.

The planet’s large size — with a radius 2.6 times the radius of Earth — means that the planet’s interior likely contains a large mantle of high-pressure ice, like Neptune, but with a thinner hydrogen-rich atmosphere and an ocean surface. 

It is also possible that the ocean is too hot to be habitable or be liquid. According to Subhajit Sarkar of Cardiff University, although this kind of planet does not exist in our solar system, sub-Neptunes are the most common type of planet known so far in the galaxy,” “We have obtained the most detailed spectrum of a habitable-zone sub-Neptune to date, and this allowed us to work out the molecules that exist in its atmosphere.”

Characterizing the atmospheres of exoplanets like K2-18 b — meaning identifying their gases & physical conditions — is a very active area in astronomy. However, these planets are outshone — literally — by the glare of their much larger parent stars, which makes exploring exoplanet atmospheres particularly challenging.

K2-18 b is a transiting exoplanet, meaning that we can detect a drop in brightness as it passes across the face of its host star. This is how the exoplanet was first discovered in 2015 with NASA’s K2 mission. 

This means that during transits a tiny fraction of starlight will pass through the exoplanet’s atmosphere before reaching telescopes like Webb.

The starlight’s passage through the exoplanet atmosphere leaves traces that astronomers can piece together to determine the gases of the exoplanet’s atmosphere.

According to Madhusudan, this result was only possible because of the extended wavelength range and unprecedented sensitivity of Webb, which enabled robust detection of spectral features with just two transits,”.

For comparison, one transit observation with Webb provided comparable precision to eight observations with Hubble conducted over a few years and in a relatively narrow wavelength range.

These results are the product of just two observations of K2-18 b, with many more on the way,” explained team member Savvas Constantinou of the University of Cambridge. “This means our work here is but an early demonstration of what Webb can observe in habitable-zone exoplanets.” The team’s results were accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The team now intends to conduct follow-up research with the telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) spectrograph that they hope will further validate their findings and provide new insights into the environmental conditions on K2-18 b.

“The ultimate goal of the mission is the identification of life on a habitable exoplanet, which would transform our understanding of our place in the universe,” concluded Madhusudhan. “Our findings are a promising step towards a deeper understanding of Hycean worlds in this quest.”

There is an opposite current of opinions. It is not strong evidence,” says Stephen Schmidt, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. “It’s almost certainly not life,” says Tessa Fisher, an astrobiologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

They found evidence for the presence of two simple carbon-bearing molecules — carbon monoxide and methane — and showed that the planet’s upper atmosphere lacked water vapor. This atmospheric composition supported, but did not prove, the idea that K2-18b could be a hycean world. In a hycean world, water would be trapped in the deeper and warmer atmosphere, closer to the oceans than the upper atmosphere probed by JWST observations.

The reason many researchers infer that the planet has a vast liquid ocean is the absence of the gas ammonia in K2-18b’s atmosphere. Their theory is that the ammonia is absorbed by a vast body of water below.

But it could equally be explained by an ocean of molten rock, which would preclude life, according to Prof Oliver Shorttle of Cambridge University.

WHY OTHER RESEARCHERS ARE SKEPTICAL?

In 2023, the researchers reported similar findings in the follow-up work, the scientists conducted a search using a different set of wavelengths and found a stronger and cleaner signal that the molecules are present. If DMS and DMDS do exist in the planet’s atmosphere, and if they were formed by biological activity, the findings would be groundbreaking. 

“A lifeless mini-Neptune scenario remains the most parsimonious explanation,” says Joshua Krissansen-Totton, a planetary scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Then there’s the issue of whether DMS or DMDS is actually present, or whether the signal is spurious. The measurement reported by the Cambridge team is “really pushing the limit of what JWST can do”, says Laura Kreidberg, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany.

Schmidt and his colleagues this year re-analysed the 2023 claim from the Cambridge team and found no evidence of biosignature molecules in the data. Schmidt says that the new observations are “pretty noisy, and any reported features could still just be statistical fluctuations”. The Cambridge researchers, however, say that there is just a 0.3% probability that the signal is due to chance.

A team of five scientists successfully perceived a colour never before seen by human eyes, after use of lasers and tracking technology to selectively activate certain cells in their retinas.

The blue-greenish shade has an intensity , outside the natural range of colours seen by humans. According to Kimberly Jameson, a colour-vision scientist at the University of California, this is an “extraordinary achievement”,

Even before this researchers have stimulated individual cone cells, which are the photoreceptors in the eye whose signals the brain interprets as colour. But this time it was done across an area large enough to alter a person’s vision substantially.

“What is novel in this study is the evidence that such new colours can, in fact, be perceived,” says Sérgio Nascimento,  a physicist specializing in human vision at the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal.

OFF THE CHARTS INTENSE

The researchers, who published details of the technique in Science Advances , call the imperceptible colour ‘olo’. A computer scientist and vision researcher at the University of California, Berkeley Ren Ng said that, It is something like a peacock blue or teal, “but the level of saturation is off-the-charts.  Ren was both a co-author of the study and one of the test participants. 

The participants looked into a device called Oz which consists of mirrors, lasers and optical devices and run by software called Wizard — works by controlling the precise doses of light delivered to each cell in the retina, to generate the signals the brain uses to interpret colour or to create signals it has never experienced before.

Ng says the technique has the potential to perceive more new colours, even for colorblindness, for which there are no effective treatments, to perceive differences in shades.

It may need more efforts and inputs . So far, the research workers can carefully control colour in just a small area of vision and the method requires high technology available to very few labs. 

Jenny Bosten, a visual neuroscientist at the University of Sussex in Brighton, said that, despite its narrow scope of applicability, the research is “an impressive technical achievement. There is a wide scope & potential for future research using the technique.

IMPRINTS OF LIGHT

The perception of colour comes from the brain comparing the signals it receives from three types of light-detecting cone cell. Each one is sensitive to a different but overlapping range of wavelengths. At shorter, bluer wavelengths, the S cone is most responsive, whereas the M, or medium, cone is activated most by greenish light.

The L cone is more sensitive than the others to longer-wavelength red light. Every colour that humans can see comes to the brain as a characteristic level of activation of these three cell types, analogous to a fingerprint or set of coordinates. 

Because the M cone is in the middle of the spectrum, light activating it always activates neighbouring S or L cones, as well. Ng and his colleagues wondered whether, if the M cone was stimulated by itself, it would create a new colour. 

The team first mapped the retinas of each trial participant, marking the position and type of each cell, using a technique developed by co-authors based at the University of Washington in Seattle. This allowed them to track each person’s eye movements and train laser light on individual cone cells.

They then stimulated just the M cones with microdoses of laser light. To test what the participants were seeing, the team asked them to match the colour they perceived with examples of light of a single wavelength.

There was no match — the olo colour seemed to be more intense than even the most vibrant blue-green colour possible in normal vision. Participants had to ‘wash out’ the olo colour by adding white light to make it match the closest natural colour, says Ng.

Prof John Barbur, a vision scientist at City St George’s, University of London, who was not involved in the study, said that while the research is a “technological feat” in stimulating selective cone cells, the discovery of a new colour is “open to argument”. 

He explained that if, for example, the red cone cells (L) were stimulated in large numbers, people would “perceive a deep red”, but the perceived brightness may change depending on changes to red cone sensitivity, which is not unlike what happened in this study.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has created the national resource data of whole genome sequencing of 10,074 healthy individuals from 83 heterogeneous populations from 99 different sites under the Genome India project to create a library of genetic variations. 

The data has been archived at the Indian Biological Data Center (IBDC), a national repository set up by DBT. It will facilitate seamless access to valuable genetic information, enabling researchers to explore genetic variations and design more accurate genomic tools.

WHAT IS INDIA GENOME PROJECT?

It is a flagship project funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology.

The project is implemented with nationwide scientific collaboration and innovation involving 20 national institutes which included 4 sequencing centres; 13 sample collection centres; and 8 method development centres .

The principal objective of the project is to develop a reference genome for the population of India, which may lead to a better understanding of the nature of diseases and specific interventions essential for various ethnic groups. It may help in designing genome-wide and disease-specific genetic chips for low-cost diagnostics and research.

The  project consortium completed the whole genome sequencing of 10,074 individuals in January 2024. The study has been ensured equitable sampling across linguistic, social, and regional groups in India.

Approximately, 36.7% of the samples were collected from rural, 32.2% from urban and 31.1% from the tribal populations.

The generated data can be used for developing indigenous chips, diagnostics and therapeutics, benefitting healthcare system of the country and thus will contribute to the bioeconomy of the country.

The DBT is aspiring to fund translational research in which this information set will serve as a template.

This data will be accessible for the researchers under the provisions of the Biotech-PRIDE (Promotion of Research and Innovation through Data Exchange) Guidelines and ‘Framework for Exchange of Data (FeED) Protocols.

It aims to construct a comprehensive catalogue of genetic variations, that will record our unique diversity. About 0.1 % of the entire sequence differs between any two individuals on average. These genetic variations are crucial for understanding our disease predispositions and rare inherited disorders. They may determine our response to drugs & help track migration and evolutionary patterns of population groups.

Genetic makeup & environmental influences of the population are closely associated. The risk factors for complex genetic diseases and rare genetic variations contributing to specific disorders are crucial in population-specific studies.

The Indian population of 1.3 billion consists of >4600 population groups, and several thousand of them are endogamous.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

It is helpful in documenting the genetic structure of the nation’s population and create a database for researchers and doctors which is helpful in dealing with the genetic underpinnings of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative disorders and cancer. It will also help in recognising mutations conferring risk of monogenic disorders.

The database generated from genome sequencing can fuel  genetics research with greater precision, and  to develop precision healthcare and diagnostics at affordable costs.

This digital database being outcome of representative public will may help  democratise data, fostering large-scale human genetic studies and empowering nationwide research efforts.

Dr Mohd. Faruq, Scientist at CSIR-IGIB, explained, “This project provides a crucial baseline of population-specific genomic data, which helps in accurate diagnosis, risk prediction, and pharmacogenomics.

According to Dr Faruq , Many genetic variants influencing drug efficacy and adverse reactions are not found in international databases”.This highlights the need for a localised genomic reference to improve treatment outcomes and reduce adverse drug reactions.

One of the key promises of the Genome India Project is its potential to revolutionise healthcare through precision medicine. Dr Madhulika Kabra from AIIMS, New Delhi, stated, “Genome India offers a unique opportunity to identify population-specific genetic variants. This will help in targeted clinical interventions, such as identifying individuals at risk for genetic disorders and offering personalised treatment strategies.”

She also emphasised the project’s role in addressing rare diseases: “The availability of carrier frequency data for rare disorders will enable us to better define and manage these conditions in the Indian context.

The Genome India Project has uncovered over 135 million genetic variations, including 7 million novel variants not found in global databases. Many of these have clinical significance, such as predispositions to diseases like hypercholesterolemia and breast cancer.

Dr Arindam Maitra from BRIC-NIBMG, noted, “We’ve constructed polygenic risk scores (PRS) using this data, which will allow us to predict complex diseases more effectively. While genes cannot be modified, knowledge of genetic risks can help people make lifestyle changes to lower their risk.”

The absence of population-specific genomic data has often limited the success of genetic diagnostics in India. Dr Faruq remarked, “Commercial genetic diagnostic platforms often leave many cases undiagnosed due to the lack of Indian reference data. Genome India addresses this gap, improving diagnostic accuracy for monogenic and complex disorders.”

The Genome India Project, led by Y. Narahari of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, and K. Thangaraj of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, involved 20 institutions such as IIT Jodhpur, IIT Delhi, IISER Pune, and Mizoram University.

Thangaraj, one of the joint directors of the Genome India Project, said in his presentation: “Genome sequencing gives you everything you need to know about genetic material.

The 99 populations may be classified into eight broad groups —Austro-Asiatic tribe, Continentally admixed, Dravidian tribe, Dravidian non-tribe, Indo-European non-tribe, Indo-European tribe, Tibeto-Burman non-tribe and Tibeto-Burman tribe.

It will further lead to cost-effective genetic tests, carrier screening applications for expectant couples, enabling efficient diagnosis of heritable cancers and pharmacogenetic tests to prevent adverse drug reactions are some of the other benefits of this initiative.

Genomic research raises several ethical considerations, particularly concerning privacy, consent, and data sharing. The Genome India Project emphasizes ethical guidelines and stringent data protection measures to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of participants’ genetic information.

Additionally, the project prioritizes obtaining informed consent from participants and fostering transparent communication about the research objectives and potential implications.

CHALLENGES IN THE PROJECT & RESEARCH

One of the primary challenges is the sheer scale and diversity of India’s population, encompassing numerous ethnicities, languages, and socio-cultural backgrounds. Ensuring adequate representation from all population groups while maintaining ethical standards and data quality poses a significant logistical challenge.

Moreover, genomic research requires substantial infrastructural and technological capabilities, including high-throughput sequencing platforms, computational resources for data analysis, and bioinformatics expertise.

Collaborative efforts between academia, industry, and government are essential to address these challenges and build robust genomic research infrastructure in India.

American Deputy Director of National Centre for Human Genomic Research (NCHGR), criticised that, the Human Genome Projects are mediocre science & a terrible science policy.

According to him Human are narcissistic  species &   the thought of their molecular blueprint might be exciting for most of them. 

According to him this research is not arising from mass consensus . 95% of  the DNA,  does not code  for protein  and is thought by many junk .

CRITICISM

According to Goldstein & Brown in their seminal work on Cholesterol metabolism, mentioned that,  they did not require the map position of Human Genomic Profile. Even during the discovery of genes responsible for cystic fibrosis & muscular dystrophy , did not require detailed sequence information.

Knowing the amino acid sequence of a mutant gene product does not ensure the development of rational therapies. The amino acid sequences & detailed X-ray structures of Rat Sarcoma (RAS) products have been known since several years. 

Much of the work on the Human Genome Project was repetitive, the project interested and attracted more than just technicians. One of the most important legacies of the Human Genome Project is the role that interdisciplinary team science played in achieving the end goal.

The Human Genome Project brought together a diverse cohort of professionals from both the private and public sector. This included not only biologists, geneticists and medical professionals, but also computer engineers, bioethicists, legal experts, mathematicians, statisticians and many others.

“Big Science” is a term used, often pejoratively, to describe a large-scale, centralized scientific project usually funded by a government or large bureaucratic entity. This is in contrast to what can be called “small science,” or inquiry driven by individual investigators, which is done in smaller labs with a small staff led by a principal investigator.

Historically, “big science” projects were viewed by many scientists as wasteful and inefficient. They argued that the most fruitful scientific research required a more independent and focused approach driven by a hypothesis, or central question

The Wallace Line is an imaginary line that intersects the Lombok Strait between the Indonesian islands of Bali and Lombok to the south, and extends north through the Makassar Strait between Kalimantan (Borneo) and Sulawesi. 

Wallace’s Line is not a static boundary—it has shifted over time due to the interplay of geological transformations and climate change. As sea levels fluctuate, land bridges appeared and disappeared, offering brief windows for species migration. The two regions are different continental plates that have been moving independently — the Asian and Australian plates

On the shoreline of Bali and its eastern part. Across the water channel, there is island of Lombok. There is a narrow 21-mile-wide stretch of ocean, known as the Lombok Strait, separates these two islands. In 1858, British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace wrote Charles Darwin a letter , from the Malay Archipelago. 

He had spent years documenting species across the region. The natural world was not a seamless blend of species, but a patchwork divided by invisible barriers. 

One of those barriers, the one running through the Lombok Strait was the most striking of all known as Wallace’s Line. Before the exploration of Wallace, in the 1850s, the general belief was that, species were static & distributed based on environmental conditions, with little or no consideration for Earth’s historical processes.

Wallace’s meticulous documentation of species distributions ended this assumption. He observed that, despite their proximity and environmental similarity, the islands of Bali and Lombok had vastly different fauna. 

Wallace identified the 250m depth of the Lombok Strait as the single most compelling explanation for the differences between Asian and Australian animals. It caused various species to remain isolated from each other on opposite sides of the Lombok Strait through centuries of migrations and evolution. 

The Sunda Shelf is a continental shelf that incorporates Borneo, Java and Sumatra, and is joined to peninsular Malaysia and the mainland nations of Vietnam and Thailand.

Bali is joined to the shelf but Lombok is separated from the shelf by the comparatively deep Lombok Strait. The Sahul Shelf in the east joins Australia and New Guinea.  Between the Sahul Shelf and the Sunda Shelf is a constellation of islands and seas known as Wallacea.

On the west side of the Wallace Line in Borneo, Sumatra and Java— there is a presence of creatures with deep Asian roots e.g. tigers, rhinoceroses, elephants and primates.

On the eastern side into the Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi and New Guinea,  the creatures belonging to Australian species like marsupials, such as tree possums climb through forests, cockatoos and lorikeets speckle the skies and egg-laying mammals like echidnas.

REASONS OF THIS DIVISION

The secret lies beneath the ocean’s surface. During the recent Ice Ages, when sea levels fell, land bridges connected many Southeast Asian islands to the mainland, allowing species to migrate freely.

But the deep waters of the Lombok Strait never dried up. It remained a formidable barrier, preventing species from crossing, leaving two distinct evolutionary worlds to develop independently.

CHANGING COURSE OF EVOLUTION

A highly adaptable primate like Macaca fascicularis, found on the west of Wallace’s Line,  it adopted an arboreal lifestyle by developing a long tail. They mark their presence across the forests from Thailand to Borneo, it has also successfully integrated into urban environments.

On the eastern side of of Wallace’s Line in Sulawesi, there is a species of  booted macaque, or Macaca ochreata, developed a more robust body and a shorter tail, adaptations suited to the island’s dense forests and differing food sources. 

This geographical isolation lead to change in their behaviour. Macaca fascicularis , a crab eating , macaque, living on the west side of Wallace line , are opportunistic and often raid crops and human settlements. are opportunistic and often raid crops and human settlements.

A nocturnal bird found in Southeast Asia, known as Sunda frogmouth (Batrachostomus cornutus)  belongs to an ancient lineage mostly confined to the Sunda region. This species shown  phenomenal adaptation for tropical forest , especially its camouflage.

However, on the Australian side  of Wallace’s Line, the tawny frogmouth (Podargus strigoides) and its relatives have evolved separately, adapting to comparatively drier ecosystem.

This divergent evolution  dates back to the Oligocene, period,  means 30-40 million years ago, considered as the oldest known vertebrate divergences across Wallace’s Line.

This long-standing  separation or geographical isolation suggests that island arcs and continental plate movement land  may have provided a land corridor for dispersal. 

Animals on the western side of Wallace Line if crosses the Wallace line and enters the eastern side, they may struggle for their existence due to change in the climate & vegetation. However some animals may survive if they cross the Wallace line. 

If protected from survival odds, like  competitors, predators, or disease—they may successfully colonize the new habitat & ecosystem, the way invasive species are doing.  Some species of bats, such as flying foxes, are found on both sides of the Wallace Line, as they can travel long distances in search of food and roosting sites.

THE HUMAN WALLACE LINE

Some anthropologists travelled to east Nusa Tenggara (the Timor Archipelago, including the islands of Timor, Flores and Sumba), where Alfred Russel Wallace had drawn a dividing line between the races of the east and the west of the archipelago.

These medically trained anthropologists aimed to find out if the Wallace Line could be more precisely defined with measurements of the human body. However anthropologists failed to find definite markers to quantify the difference between Malay and Papuan/Melanesian.

This, however, did not diminish the conceptual power of the Wallace Line, as the idea of a boundary between Malays and Papuans was taken up in the political arena during the West New Guinea dispute and was employed as a political tool.

The structuring concept for the human diversity in this region was the difference between people with frizzy hair and darker skins in the east and light brown people with straight hair on the western islands.  From the 1880s onwards, physical anthropologists were eager to measure the physical differences between Malays and Papuans

The human Wallace Line became salient, especially during the West New Guinea dispute, and was employed as a political tool by all parties involved to further their goals. The map was considered as, a visual tool  to abstract knowledge and to circulate it. It became  a tool  Not only for mapmakers and geographers but also for biologists, ethnologists and medical experts. 

Jane Camerini argues that, In racial science, maps simplified diversity and emphasised racial difference. Johann Reinhold and Georg Forster, travelled with James Cook have observed ‘two great varieties’, one ‘more fair, well limbed athletic, of a fine size and a kind benevolent temper; the other blacker, the hair just beginning to become woolly and crisp, the body more slender and low, and their temper, if possible more brisk, though somewhat mistrustful

In the nineteenth century, John Crawfurd and George Windsor Earl confirmed this division. But French  anthropologists Armand de Quatrefages and Ernest Hamy,  opined that, Wallace ignored,  the presence of so-called Negritos, groups of people of small stature who were found on each side of Wallace’s anthropological line. The anthropological practice of drawing lines was a forceful tool to establish racial categories. 

The imagined boundary between Malays and Papuans has been a consistent feature of our conceptions of Southeast Asia, even though the line has moved on the map over time. Anthropometrics hoped to find the right markers that could be used to define the difference between Malays and Papuans quantitatively, but it turned out to be impossible to link characteristics such as the cephalic index to one of the two groups.