UPSC Prelims 2026 Revision Checklist: Top 25 places in news aspirants shouldn’t miss

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Other Revision Checklists: Top 30 Environment topics | Top 20 Reports and Indices | Top 25 places in News | Top 30 Geography topics

Here’s a checklist of important places, rivers, straits, Islands, and venues you shouldn’t miss. Are they part of your Prelims revision plan yet?

Major Straits important for UPSC Prelims 2026 (File photo)

#1 Strait of Hormuz

— The Strait of Hormuz became a central battlefield since the outbreak of the Iran vs US-Israel war. It handles approximately one-fifth of global liquid petroleum consumption and global LNG trade.

— It lies between Iran in the north and Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the south. It links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. It is between 48 and 80 km wide (35–40 kilometres at its narrowest point), with only a few kilometres available for actual shipping lanes.

Maritime chokepoints	Location
Strait of Malacca	It lies between Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, linking the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean
Bab el-Mandeb Strait	It is between Africa and West Asia connecting the Indian Ocean with the Red Sea through the Gulf of Aden.
Suez Canal	This is a 193-km artificial sea-level waterway linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea.
Panama Canal	It connects two vast oceans i.e., Atlantic in the east and Pacific in the west, shortening the maritime distance between New York and San Francisco by 13,000 km.
Strait of Bosporus	It is a narrow waterway in Türkiye that connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara

#2 Litani River

— Israel is enforcing a defence line in southern Lebanon,  reaching up to the Litani River as a security buffer against Hezbollah attacks.

— According to the National Litani River Authority, “Litani River is the longest and largest river in Lebanon, with a length of 170 km, and its water capacity is approximately 750 million cubic meters per year.”

— Blue line, set up by the United Nations, has been the demarcating line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israeli forces withdrew to the Blue Line when they left South Lebanon in 2000.

Diego Garcia and Chagos.

#3 Diego Garcia

— Diego Garcia has been in the news since the UK government announced its plans to return the islands in October 2024. In the ongoing West Asia war, Iran fired two ballistic missiles in an attempt to target Diego Garcia, which is 4,000 km away from the Iranian mainland.

— Diego Garcia is the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago. The Chagos archipelago, comprising 58 islands, lies roughly 500 km to the south of the Maldives archipelago in the Indian Ocean and around 2,000 km north-east of Mauritius. It lies in the central Indian Ocean, south of India and southwest of Sri Lanka.

— The Chagos archipelago comprises more than 60 low-lying islands in the Indian Ocean roughly 1,600 km to the northeast of the main island of Mauritius.

— Chagos has a land area of only 56.1 sq km, with Diego Garcia alone spread over 32.5 sq km — which is about the same as the land area of Lakshadweep.

— Including the lagoons within its atolls, however, Chagos has a total area of more than 15,000 sq km. The Great Chagos Bank, spread over 12,642 sq km, is the world’s largest atoll structure.

Islands	Locations
Kharg Island	Referred to as the “orphan pearl” of the Persian Gulf, Kharg Island, which sits barely 25 kilometres off Iran’s coast, processes 90 per cent of Tehran’s crude oil exports and serves as the jugular of the country’s cash-strapped economy.
North Sentinel Island	It is one of the Andaman Islands and home to one of the last tribes that remain disconnected from the outside world – The Sentinelese.
Spratly Islands	Disputed islands which are located in the South China Sea of the Pacific Ocean. They are located north of insular Malaysia and are roughly midway between Vietnam and the Philippines.
Barren Island	It is located about 140 kilometres northeast of Port Blair, is part of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. It is the only active volcano of South Asia which erupted in September 2025.
Senkaku Islands	The islands are referred to as the “Senkaku”, the “Diaoyu”, and the “Diaoyutai” by Japan, China and Taiwan, respectively, with Japan administering them. They are located in the East China Sea, close to China, Taiwan and Japan, and claimed by all three.

#4 Damage to historical sites 

(i) Isfahan: The US and Israeli forces struck an ammunition depot in Iran’s Isfahan on March 31. Earlier, UNESCO confirmed damage to the 17th-century Chehel Sotoun palace and the Masjed-e Jāme, the country’s oldest Friday mosque, both located in Isfahan.

(ii) Golestan Palace: Following military strikes by American and Israeli forces, Iran’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage confirmed catastrophic damage to the Golestan Palace (Kākh-e Golestān), a UNESCO World Heritage site dating back to the 16th century.  It is a lavish monument of the Qajar era (1789 to 1925). It became a centre of Qajari arts and architecture, of which it is an outstanding example and has remained a source of inspiration for Iranian artists and architects to this day.

— The Golestan Palace is protected under international law, the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

(iii) Al-Nuri Mosque: Iraq’s historic Al-Nuri Grand mosque and its leaning minaret were reopened on 1st September 2025 after militants from the Islamic State group destroyed the mosque. The mosque, famous for its 12th-century leaning minaret, was destroyed by the Islamic State in 2017 and has been a focal point of UNESCO’s restoration efforts since 2020.

(iv) Preah Vihear temple: Preah Vihear temple is one of the disputed centers between Thailand and Cambodia. It is an 11th-century Hindu temple of Preah Vihear, located between Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province and Thailand’s Sisaket province. Both countries have claimed the temple dedicated to Lord Shiva as their own.

— Apart from the temple complex, other archaeological sites are related to the temple but are situated in Thailand. These include Sa Trao, an ancient reservoir, and a small bas-relief engraved on natural sandstone depicting a Shiva Lingam enclosed within a Yoni Base.

— Preah Vihear temple is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site in Cambodia.

(v) Prasat Ta Muen Thom

— The temple is located about 400 km northeast of Bangkok (capital of Thailand), along the border of Thailand’s Surin province and Cambodia’s Oddar Meanchey province. It was also a center of dispute between Cambodia and Thailand.

— The temple is a Khmer archaeological complex built by King Jayavarman VII and comprises three buildings. The main temple, Prasat Ta Muen Thom, is made of sandstone and features a shivalinga, as well as libraries.

(Note: It is not a UNESCO site and is located on the disputed land between Cambodia and Thailand. Don’t confuse it with Preah Vihear temple, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.)

Not to scale. Credit: Ritesh Kumar

#5 Lipulekh Pass

— In May 2026, Nepal objected to India and China announcing the reopening of border trade through the Lipulekh Pass, citing its claims over the region.

— In an official statement, the Government of Nepal said that Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh, and Kalapani — located east of the Mahakali River — are integral parts of Nepal.

— Lipulekh pass lies at an altitude of 5,115 metres, on the border between Uttarakhand and the Tibet Autonomous Region, near the trijunction with Nepal. It is an ancient passageway between the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan Plateau, frequented by traders and pilgrims alike.

#6 World’s First Repository of Mountain Ice Cores in Antartica

— Scientists have inaugurated the first global repository of mountain ice cores at the Concordia station in the Antarctic Plateau on 14th January, 2026. It preserves the history of Earth’s atmosphere in an Antarctic vault for future generations to study as global warming melts glaciers worldwide.

— The Ice Memory Foundation, a consortium of European research institutes, inaugurated the frozen sanctuary after boxes containing 1.7 tons of ice arrived via ice breaker on a 50-day refrigerated journey from Trieste, Italy.

— An ice core is something of a time capsule, containing the history of the Earth’s past atmosphere in a frozen climate archive.

— The first two samples of Alpine mountain ice core, drilled out of Mont Blanc in France and Grand Combin in Switzerland, are now being stored in a snow cave at the Concordia station in the Antarctic Plateau at a constant temperature of around -52°C/-61°F.

— The Ice Memory project was launched in 2015 by a consortium of research institutes: From France, the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) and the University of Grenoble-Alpes; from Italy the National Council of Research (CNR) and
the Ca’Foscari University in Venice, and Switzerland’s Paul Scherrer Institute.

#7 Somaliland

— Israel became the first country to formally recognise the self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state on December 26, 2025, drawing swift condemnation from Somalia and its neighbours.

— Somaliland is located on the Horn of Africa, with Hargeisa as its capital. Somaliland is located in the northwestern part of Somalia. It is bordered by the Gulf of Aden to the north, Puntland to the east, Ethiopia to the south and southwest, and Djibouti to the northwest.

— The present-day republic claims itself the legal successor of the erstwhile British Somaliland or the Somaliland Protectorate. It comprised self-ruled sultanates under British protectorate between 1884 and 1920 before coming under the Crown’s jurisdiction. It was formally established as a British colony in 1920.

— British Somaliland gained independence and became the State of Somaliland, which existed for five days between June 26 and July 1, 1960. The state then voluntarily merged with the former Trust Territory of Somaliland, its Italian-administered neighbour, to form the Somali Republic (1960-69).

— This nation collapsed after a military coup, and the Somali Democratic Republic formed, with General Siad Barre as the leader. The present-day Somaliland came under Somali National Movement (SNM)’s control and was formally established in 1991.

Map showing Greenland and its resources.

#8 Greenland

— The United States is regularly holding talks with Denmark as it plans to expand its military presence in Greenland, the BBC confirmed from multiple officials familiar with the discussions (May, 2026).

— Located in the Northern Hemisphere, Greenland is surrounded by the Arctic Ocean in the north, the North Atlantic Ocean in the south, Baffin Bay in the west, and the Greenland Sea in the east.

— Greenland spans approximately 2,166,086 km², making it larger than many countries combined. About 80% of its surface is covered by ice caps and glaciers, making it the second-largest ice sheet after Antarctica.

— Despite its massive size, Greenland has one of the smallest populations of any country or territory. It has a population of about 56,000 people, out of which around 20,000 live in the capital city, Nuuk, as per World Bank data.

— Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) is the official language, while Danish and English are also widely spoken. June 21st is the longest day of the year and is celebrated as Greenland’s National Day.

— Politically, Greenland gained home rule in 1979 and expanded self-government in 2009, giving it authority over domestic affairs like healthcare and education. Denmark retains control over defense, foreign policy and monetary policy.

— The Greenlandic parliament operates under a democratic system, with 31 members serving every four years. The Prime Minister of Greenland, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, is the head of government, while the Danish monarch, King Frederick X, remains the Head of State.

— Notably, Pituffik Space Base (formerly the Thule Air Base) in Greenland is the U.S. Space Force’s northernmost installation, established after an agreements between the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark to address mutual defense.

Chabahar port location.

#9 Chabahar port, Iran

— The United States has said it is withdrawing the sanctions waiver granted to Iran’s Chabahar port, which is being developed by India. The waiver expired on April 26, 2026.

— Chabahar, which sits at the mouth of the Gulf of Oman, is Iran’s first deepwater port that puts the country on the global oceanic trade route map. The port lies to the west of Iran’s border with Pakistan, about as far as Gwadar (a competing port developed by China in Pakistan), which lies to the east of the border.

— The port is also part of the proposed International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a multi-modal transportation project linking the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea via Iran, and onward to northern Europe via St Petersburg in Russia.

— There are two distinct ports in the Chabahar project, Shahid Beheshti and Shahid Kalantari. India’s investment is restricted to the Shahid Beheshti port.

— India, Iran, and Afghanistan signed a trilateral agreement in April 2016, after which the Indian Shipping Ministry worked at a rapid pace towards developing the port. In December 2017, the first phase of Shahid Beheshti port was inaugurated, and India sent its first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan through Chabahar that same year.

#10 Natanz enrichment plant 

— The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed entrances to Iran’s underground Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) were bombed during the US-Israel attack on Iran.

— Long regarded as Iran’s main enrichment site, Natanz, located 220 km southeast of Tehran, is home to two enrichment plants- Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) and Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP)- that were operational at the start of Israeli attacks in June 2025.

— FEP was a vast underground facility designed to house 50,000 centrifuges, the uranium-enriching machines. It had 17,000 installed centrifuges, of which 13,500 were operational and enriching uranium up to 5% in June.

— However, the plant’s electricity infrastructure was destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, with the IAEA telling the BBC last June that all operational centrifuges were likely “severely damaged if not destroyed altogether”. The ISIS report confirmed that the site remained destroyed with no repairs or reconstruction for the damage from the bunker-busting GBU-57 bomb.

Nuclear Enrichment Sites in Iran

* FORDOW ENRICHMENT SITE: The major share of uranium enrichment had occurred at a site buried deep within a huge mountain at Fordow, nearly 190 km southwest of Tehran. The facility is completely underground.

* ISFAHAN: Iran’s nuclear complex at Isfahan, located 350 km southeast of Tehran, is home to three Chinese research reactors and labs under the Iranian atomic programme.

* KARAJ: Karaj, located 42 km northwest of Tehran, houses two enrichment sites: TABA (Towlid Abzar Boreshi Iran) and TESA (Iran Centrifuge Technology Company). Both facilities manufacture centrifuge components for uranium enrichment, alongside the UN-sanctioned Kalaye Electric Company (KEC), located in eastern Tehran. (The KEC was struck and destroyed in the June conflict.)

Attacks on energy infra in West Asia. (Express photo)

#11 South Pars 

— Israel has struck Iran’s key offshore South Pars natural gas field. It is in the Persian Gulf and accounts for up to three-fourths of Iranian gas production. It is shared between Iran and Qatar.

— South Pars is the world’s largest gas field. The entire South Pars reservoir contains an estimated 1,800 trillion cubic feet of usable gas — enough to supply the entire world’s needs for 13 years — according to a Reuters report.

#12 Ras Laffan

— Hours after Israel hit South Pars, Iranian missiles on March 19 struck the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City.

— Qatar is India’s largest source of LNG. India depends on LNG imports to meet roughly half of its natural gas demand, and over two-fifths of the country’s LNG comes from Qatar — almost all of it from Ras Laffan.

#13 Kharg Island

— Kharg Island — an eight-km-long coral island in the Persian Gulf around 50 km from the Iranian mainland — was “heavily bombed” by the US in March 2026. Iran’s key oil export terminal is located at Kharg Island.

— Referred to as the “orphan pearl” of the Persian Gulf, Kharg Island, which sits barely 25 kilometres off Iran’s coast, processes 90 per cent of Tehran’s crude oil exports and serves as the jugular of the country’s cash-strapped economy.

— Apart from Kharg, there are at least three key islands in the region under Iranian control — Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb.

— Lesser Tunb, which Iran has controlled since 1971, is at the heart of a decades-long dispute with the neighbouring UAE

#14 Venues of Conference of the Parties (COP)

COP 30

— The 30th edition of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30), the annual two-week climate talks, was held in Belem, Brazil, in November, 2025.

— Belem is the northern city of Brazil, known as the gateway to the Amazon, the lungs of the world. It is situated on Guajará Bay, which is a part of the vast Amazon River delta.

— The Samauma tree is culturally significant here. It is a 50-metre tropical tree of the Malvaceae family. It is considered to be sacred and the queen of the entire tropical forest that covers 40 per cent of Latin America, including large parts of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, among others.

COP 31

— COP 31 will be held in Antalya, Türkiye in November 2026. Antalya is situated in southwestern Turkey, on the Gulf of Antalya.

— Türkiye’s capital is Ankara, and its largest city and seaport is Istanbul.

— Türkiye is bounded on the north by the Black Sea, on the northeast by Georgia and Armenia, on the east by Azerbaijan and Iran, on the southeast by Iraq and Syria, on the southwest and west by the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea, and on the northwest by Greece and Bulgaria.

COP 32

— The host for the COP32 was announced at Belem. Ethiopia has been confirmed as the host of the 32nd edition of the annual climate change conference (COP32) in 2027. It will be organised in its capital city, Addis Ababa.

— Ethiopia is a landlocked country located on the Horn of Africa. The capital city Addis Ababa, is situated almost at the center of the country. Addis Ababa is also the headquarters of the African Union.

— In November 2025, the Hayli Gubbi volcano in northeastern Ethiopia erupted, by all accounts for the first time in about 12,000 years.

COP 33

— Earlier, India has shown interest in hosting the COP 33. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made the offer in December 2023, during the COP28 meeting in Dubai. However, India has decided not to pursue this matter any further and not bid for COP33 when the time comes.

#15 Venue of FIFA World Cup 2026

— The FIFA World Cup will kick off on June 11 with Mexico taking on South Africa at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. The 2026 FIFA World Cup is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

— The World Cup is the international soccer tournament that has been held every four years by FIFA since 1930. The last FIFA World Cup was held in Qatar in 2022.

— Canada will host games in Toronto and Vancouver. Mexico will conduct these games in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey.

— It will be hosted across 11 cities in the United States. These cities are Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York New Jersey, Philadelphia, Seattle, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

#16 Sudan

— In November 2025, the Red Cross reported mass killings in the Darfur region of Sudan.

— Khartoum, Darfur, Kordofan, and Gezira have been the centers of violent clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

— Sudan was among the earliest African countries to gain independence from colonial rule. It participated in the landmark Bandung Conference in 1955 (of 29 Asian and African nations, including India), and was Africa’s largest country till South Sudan broke away in 2011.

— Sudan is strategically located at the crossroads of the Red Sea, the Sahel, and the Horn of Africa. The country is endowed with vast arable land and an array of abundant natural resources.

Places related to Important Summits/Conferences
2025 G20 Leaders’ Summit	Johannesburg, South Africa
2026 G20 Leaders’ Summit	Miami, Florida, USA
2025 G7 Summit	Canada
2026 G7 Summit	France
2025 BRICS Summit	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2026 BRICS Summit	India
World Trade Organization’s 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14)	Yaoundé, Cameroon (March 26 to 30, 2026)
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Conference of the Parties (COP)	Yerevan, Armenia (October 2026)

#17 Chenab Bridge

— PM Narendra Modi on 6th June, 2025, flagged off the Vande Bharat train service between Katra in the Jammu region and Srinagar in Kashmir, which passed through the Chenab bridge.

— This is the world’s highest rail bridge over the Chenab river, and the country’s first cable-stayed bridge at Anji Khad, as well as the long tunnel between Khari and Sumber.

— It is the highest arch bridge in the world, with a deck height of 359 meters from the riverbed — making it 35 meters taller than Paris’s iconic Eiffel Tower.

— Connecting the Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country, the bridge forms a critical part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project, which is being developed at a cost of Rs 35,000 crore.

— The Chenab railway bridge is a steel-and-concrete marvel spanning 1,315 meters across the river gorge. It consists of a 530-meter-long approach bridge and a 785-meter-long deck arch bridge (the part of the bridge on which vehicles run)

#18 Gangaikonda Cholapuram

— PM Modi on July 27, 2025, offered prayers at the ancient Shiva temple of Gangaikonda Cholapuram in Tamil Nadu.

— The Gangaikonda Cholapuram Shiva temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is often considered the pinnacle of Chola architecture.

— Rajendra Chola I, who reigned for 30 years (1014 to 1044 AD), built Gangaikonda Cholapuram as his capital after his Army marched right up to the Ganga river, defeating the Pala kingdom of Bengal, and returned victorious.

— In this new town, he built a grand water tank and a grander temple. The tank, Cholagangam, was meant to be a Ganga-jalamayam jayasthambham, or “a liquid pillar of victory”.

#19 Punjab’s 3 new ‘Holy Cities’

— The Punjab government has granted the “Holy City” status to Amritsar, Anandpur Sahib, and Talwandi Sabo through an official notification in December 2025.

— These three cities are the hosts of Sikh Takhts: the Akal Takht (Amritsar), Takht Keshgarh Sahib (Anandpur Sahib), and Takht Damdama Sahib (Talwandi Sabo). Akal Takht, considered the supreme among the five, was set up in 1606 by Guru Hargobind.

— “Takht” in Persian means an imperial throne. There are five takhts in Sikhism. The other two takhts are the Takht Patna Sahib in Bihar, and the Takht Hazur Sahib in Nanded, Maharashtra.

— The new Holy City status will lead to a ban on the sale of liquor, tobacco and cigarettes, and meat within the cities. Additional facilities, such as mini buses and e-rickshaws, will be provided for devotees arriving in the cities to boost religious tourism.

Important sites of Harappan Civilization. (File photo)

#20 Harappan site of Rakhigarhi

— The Central Government has allocated Rs 500 crore in the Union Budget for the development of Rakhigarhi, a site of the ancient Harappan civilisation, with an aim of elevating it “into a global landmark of historical and cultural importance”.

— Rakhigarhi is the largest Harappan site in the Indian Subcontinent. It is situated in the Hisar district of Haryana and is located in the Ghaggar-Hakra river plain.

— The site was first excavated by Amarendra Nath of ASI. Earlier Mohenjodaro (Pakistan) was considered to be the largest Harappan site until Prof. Vasanth Shinde and his team started fresh excavations at Rakhigarhi.

— In April 2025, the Haryana government declared two sites of Harappan civilization, situated at two neighbouring villages of Tighrana and Mitathal of Bhiwani district, as protected monuments and archaeological sites.

— Ratadiya Ri Dheri: A new Harappan site was discovered last year in the Thar desert of Rajasthan. It is the first Harappan site in the Rajasthan desert region.

— Lothal: In November 2024, Lothal came to the limelight when a 23-year-old researcher from IIT Delhi lost her life while trying to collect soil samples from the trench that collapsed.

— Lothal was one of the southernmost sites of the Indus Valley civilization, located in the Bhāl region of what is now the state of Gujarat. It is situated between the Sabarmati and Bhogavo rivers in Gujarat’s Saurashtra region. The port city is believed to have been built in 2,200 BC.

#21 Virat Ramayana Temple

— The formal installation of 33-ft-long and 210-tonne Shiva Lingam at the underconstruction ‘Virat Ramayana Temple’ in Kaithwalia in East Champaran, Bihar was completed on January 17, 2026.

— The Lingam has traveled more than 3,000 km from Tamil Nadu to reach East Champaran.

— The Lingam has been made from a single black granite rock, obtained from hills near Mahabalipuram, with a group of local artistes chiselling it into shape and carving 1,008 Shiva Lingams on it — the whole process taking over three years.

Temples in the News	Description
Jagannath Temple	After 48 years, the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ (Treasure trove) at Shree Jagannath Temple was opened. It is believed that Raja Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva of Odisha ordered the construction of the temple in Puri, Odisha in the 12th century CE.
Somnath Temple	On May 11, PM Modi went to Gujarat to mark 75 years of the inauguration of the restored Somnath temple. Located in Prabhas Patan, Veraval, Somnath is an important Hindu pilgrimage site. The temple faced the most damaging attack by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1026 CE.
Thiruparankundram Temple	A Division Bench of the Madras High Court in January upheld an earlier single-judge order of Justice G.R. Swaminathan, directing the Subramaniya Swamy Temple management to light the Karthigai Deepam at a stone pillar, identified as the deepathoon, atop Thirupparankundram Hill in Tamil Nadu.

#22 Great Nicobar Island Project

— In February 2026, a six-member National Green Tribunal (NGT) special bench has given nod to the Great Nicobar mega infrastructure project.

— The Great Nicobar Island (GNI) infrastructure project was conceived by NITI Aayog and launched in 2021. The project involves construction of an international container transshipment terminal, a township and area development, a 450 MVA gas and solar-based power plant, and a dual use civilian and military airport. The project will be spread over 166 sq km.

— The project is being implemented by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO). It aligns with India’s Maritime Vision 2030 and is one of the key projects under the Amrit Kaal Vision 2047.

— The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a cluster of 836 islands, split into two groups — the Andaman Islands to the north and the Nicobar Islands to the south — by the 150-km wide Ten Degree Channel.

— Great Nicobar is the southernmost and largest of the Nicobar Islands, a sparsely inhabited 910-sq-km patch of mainly tropical rainforest in the southeastern Bay of Bengal. Indira Point on the island, India’s southernmost point, is only 90 nautical miles (less than 170 km) from Sabang at the northern tip of Sumatra, the largest island of the Indonesian archipelago.

— Great Nicobar has two national parks, a biosphere reserve, small populations of the Shompen and Nicobarese tribal peoples, and a few thousand non-tribal settlers. Notably, the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve was included in the list of Man and Biosphere (MAB) Program of UNESCO in 2013.

#23 Maratha Military Landscapes 

— At the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) in July 2025, the Maratha Military Landscapes were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, taking the total number of world UNESCO World Heritage sites in India to 44.

— The Maratha Military Landscapes include 12 forts of Chhatrapati Shivaji, including forts of Salher, Shivneri, Lohgad, Khanderi, Raigad, Rajgad, Pratapgad, Suvarnadurg, Panhala, Vijay Durg and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, and Gingee Fort in Tamil Nadu.

— The Indian government has sent Ancient Buddhist Site, Sarnath (2025-26) and JingkiengJri / Lyu Charai Cultural Landscape (2026-27) as proposals to the World Heritage Centre for consideration for inclusion in the World Heritage List.

#24 Lohit River

— A Union Environment Ministry expert panel has recommended environmental clearance (EC) for the 1,200-MW Kalai-II hydroelectric project on the Lohit River in Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw district.

— The Lohit River is a habitat for the critically endangered White-Bellied Heron which has been accorded Scheduled-I status, the highest protection, under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

— The Lohit River is a tributary of the Brahmaputra River. It is also called “River of Blood” as it turn deep red due to the rich, lateritic soils it flows through across Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

— There are six major river basins in Arunachal Pradesh viz. Kameng, Subansiri, Siang (Dihang), Dibang, Lohit, and Tirap, with a large number of their tributaries draining the waters of a vast catchment area into the Brahmaputra.

Ayni air base.

#25 Ayni airbase in Tajikistan

— In October 2025, it came to light that India no longer operates its erstwhile overseas Ayni airbase in Tajikistan that gave it a strategic heft in central Asia.

— Ayni was India’s only full-fledged overseas base, and its location offered India a military foothold in central Asia and leverage over Pakistan. Its presence projected influence in the region dominated by major powers like Russia and China.

— The airbase was also used by India to evacuate its nationals after the Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021.

— It is located around 20 km from Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor, which shares a boundary with the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and with China’s Xinjiang province.

— It is understood that the Tajikistan government was reluctant to renew the lease for the airbase owing to pressure from Russia and China. The withdrawal of Indian presence was carried out subsequently, but quietly. The matter only came to light last month.

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