UPSC CALENDAR- 2026
Prelims - 24 May
Mains - 21 Aug.

🔆 Grasslands of South America

📍 Pampas
✅ Located in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil
✅ Temperate Grassland
✅ Fertile plains known for extensive agriculture (wheat, corn, soybeans) and cattle ranching; home to the gaucho culture

📍 Llanos
✅ Located in Venezuela, Colombia
✅ Tropical Grassland
✅ Seasonally flooded grasslands; rich in biodiversity; major source of cattle grazing and oil reserves

📍 Campos
✅ Located in Southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay
✅ Subtropical Grassland
✅ Includes regions like Campos Gerais; used for livestock grazing and agriculture

📍 Gran Chaco
✅ Located in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil
✅ Woodland Savanna
✅ A semi-arid region with grasslands interspersed with thorny shrubs; rich in wildlife and a critical ecological zone

🔆 ARCTIC CIRCLE

📍 Water Bodies

✅ Chukchi Sea: Connected to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait at its southernmost end.

✅ East Siberian Sea: One of the least studied water bodies in the area, experiencing an extremely harsh climate.

✅ Laptev Sea: Surrounded on three sides by land.

✅ Kara Sea: Located north of Siberia, between the Barents Sea and the Laptev Sea.

✅ Barents Sea: Off the northern coasts of Russia and Norway; relatively shallower than other parts of the Arctic Ocean.
▪️ The sea is important for the exploration of hydrocarbon resources.
▪️ It is a productive fishing area.
▪️ The Pechora Sea and the White Sea are parts of the Barents Sea.

✅ Wandel Sea: Stretches from Greenland’s northeast to Svalbard.

📍 Note:
HIMADRI – India’s research laboratory in Svalbard, Norway; near the North Pole.

🔆SOUTH EAST ASIA

South East Asia is divided into 2 parts:

📍 1. MAINLAND PART – Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia
✅ Capitals in North to South: Hanoi, Nay Payi Taw, Vientiane, Bangkok, Phnom Pehn
✅ Capitals in East to West: Nay Payi Taw, Bangkok, Vientiane, Phnom Pehn, Hanoi

📌 NOTE – LAOS
✅ All countries of mainland except Laos are on the coast
✅ Laos is the only landlocked country and the only one which shares borders with all 4 other mainland Southeast Asian countries

📍 2. MARITIME PART – Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines
✅ Indonesia: Largest archipelago of the world

📌 Note –
✅ Myanmar: Part of both Maritime and Mainland South East Asia
▪ Arakanyoma and Pegu-yoma mountains in Myanmar
✅ ASEAN: All these 10 countries are part of ASEAN
✅ Equator: Passes only through Indonesia

Consider the following statements about Karewas:

1. These are the lacustrine deposits of the Pleistocene period.

2. These are found along the lower slopes of Pir Panjal.

3. Karewas are well known for the cultivation of saffron, almond and walnut.

🔆New Caledonia:

✅It is a French overseas territory located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, approximately 1,500 km east of Australia.
✅It comprises the main island of Grande Terre (where the capital, Nouméa, is situated), the four Loyalty Islands (Ouvéa, Lifou, Tiga, and Maré), the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and some remote islands.
✅Just over 270,000 people live in New Caledonia (2019 census).
✅Approximately 39 percent are indigenous ('Kanak'). The remainder are Caledonians of European, Polynesian and other (including Vietnamese, Indonesian and Algerian) origins.
✅It is one of the European Union's Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs), but is not part of the European Union, the Euro or Schengen zones.

📍History of Island:
✅New Caledonia, originally inhabited by the Kanaks, came under French control in 1853.
✅Post-WWII, Kanaks gained French citizenship, but 1960s French migration made them a minority, sparking an independence movement.

✅Tensions led to the Matignon Agreements (1988) and Nouméa Accord (1998), promising three independence referendums.
✅The 2018 and 2020 referendums favoured France. ✅Despite COVID-19 concerns, the 2021 referendum also favoured France, angering the Kanaks.

#mapping