Welcome to the Ujiyari Rajasthan Current Affairs notes for 27 August 2026, prepared for RPSC and other State PCS aspirants. The Rajasthan High Court quashed land acquisition proceedings for an NHAI rest area within one kilometre of the Sariska Tiger Reserve, the Supreme Court’s Aravalli definition committee is due to report on 31 August, and CM Bhajan Lal Sharma detailed the state’s sports assistance at the Prime Minister’s Khelo India Samvad. Each item below carries a Prelims fact set and a Mains angle, followed by five practice MCQs.

1. High Court Quashes NHAI Land Acquisition Near Sariska

Why in News: The Rajasthan High Court, through Justice Anand Sharma, quashed land acquisition proceedings for a parcel at Shahpura, Alwar, lying within one kilometre of the Sariska Tiger Reserve, in Buddalal and Others v. Union of India and Others, 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 353, reported on 25 August 2026.

What happened: The National Highways Authority of India had acquired the land for a “rest area”, a public utility facility comprising a fuel station and kiosks. The Court held that the label of public utility cannot override forest and wildlife law, observing that “the expression ‘public utility’ cannot by itself operate as a legal solvent capable of dissolving all statutory restrictions.”

The Court found that the Forest Department’s one-kilometre buffer restriction had been disregarded, that alternative sites earlier agreed upon had been abandoned without justification, and that the competent authority under Section 3C of the National Highways Act, 1956 had merely reproduced the objections and rejected them without applying its mind or communicating reasons.

Rajasthan Relevance:

  • Prelims: Case name and citation, Buddalal v. Union of India, 2026 LiveLaw (Raj) 353; Justice Anand Sharma; the acquisition was under the National Highways Act, 1956, with Section 3C governing objections. Note carefully that this was a land acquisition matter, not an environmental clearance, and the site was near rather than inside the reserve.
  • Prelims: Sariska Tiger Reserve, Alwar district, in the Aravalli range; declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1958, brought under Project Tiger in 1978. Sariska lost its entire tiger population by 2004, reported in January 2005, and became the first reserve in the world to successfully relocate tigers, the first tiger airlifted from Ranthambhore on 28 June 2008.
  • Prelims: The NTCA is a statutory body under Section 38L of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, inserted by the 2006 amendment following the Tiger Task Force. Section 38V governs the notification of tiger reserves and their core and buffer areas.
  • Mains: Whether procedural safeguards around land acquisition function as an effective substitute for substantive environmental review near protected areas, and the standard of reasoned decision-making expected of a competent authority (GS3 environment and infrastructure, GS2 judiciary and administrative law).

2. Rajasthani Pilgrims Among Those Out of Contact After the Nepal Flood

Why in News: A flash flood on 26 August 2026 in Nepal’s Rasuwa district left large numbers of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra travellers out of contact, with Indian nationals from several states, Rajasthan among them, on the affected route.

What happened: The flood destroyed the Rasuwagadhi customs post, swept away more than 300 queued vehicles, damaged six hydropower stations and cut the principal overland road linking Kathmandu to Tibet. Note that Rasuwagadhi is the principal crossing but not the only one; Tatopani and Kodari, reopened in 2019, is the second.

The Ministry of External Affairs stated on 27 August that 288 Indian nationals were uncontactable, released state-wise details, opened a control room, and reported 21 Indians rescued, all from Tamil Nadu. “Out of contact” reflects destroyed communications rather than a casualty count, and every figure from this event should be treated as provisional.

Rajasthan Relevance:

  • Prelims: The Devasthan Department administers temples and pilgrimage schemes in Rajasthan, including the Senior Citizen Pilgrimage Scheme (Varishth Nagrik Tirth Yatra Yojana), which covers pilgrims above 60 selected by lottery, with rail and air components. Its Pashupatinath air pilgrimage from Jaipur to Kathmandu began on 28 July 2026 with about 2,860 pilgrims; being an air route, it does not use the damaged Kathmandu-Tibet overland road.
  • Prelims: The official Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is run by the Ministry of External Affairs through Lipulekh in Uttarakhand and Nathu La in Sikkim. The Nepal route via Kerung is operated by private tour operators, which is the route most affected here.
  • Prelims: Two different Nepali rivers are called the Bhote Koshi. The one that flooded is the upper Trishuli in Rasuwa, fed by the Lhende Khola from Tibet’s Gyirong county, draining to the Narayani (Gandaki) and entering India as the Gandak. The other, the Poiqu or Matsang Tsangpo at the Kodari crossing in Sindhupalchok, joins the Sun Koshi and thence the Koshi, the “Sorrow of Bihar”.
  • Mains: State responsibility toward citizens on privately operated overseas pilgrimage, and the coordination required with the Ministry of External Affairs during a foreign disaster (GS2 governance and welfare schemes, GS3 disaster management).

3. Heavy Rain Closes Schools in Jaipur

Why in News: Heavy rainfall closed schools and anganwadi centres in Jaipur on 25 and 26 August 2026 on India Meteorological Department warnings.

What happened: District administrations acted on orange and yellow alerts, with waterlogging in low-lying urban areas and several seasonal streams in spate. No district-level closure order for 27 August was reported as of that date, and such decisions rest with individual District Collectors rather than being announced statewide. Aspirants should note that a state-level holiday and a collector’s local order are different instruments, and reporting frequently conflates them.

Rajasthan Relevance:

  • Prelims: IMD colour codes are green (no action), yellow (be updated), orange (be prepared) and red (take action). Rajasthan’s monsoon is dominated by the Bay of Bengal branch reaching the state late, with the Arabian Sea branch largely passing parallel to the Aravalli, which is the standard explanation for western Rajasthan’s aridity.
  • Prelims: The Chambal rises at Janapav hill in the Vindhya range, Madhya Pradesh. Its Rajasthan reservoirs include Rana Pratap Sagar, Jawahar Sagar and Kota Barrage, with Gandhi Sagar in Madhya Pradesh.
  • Mains: Urban flood preparedness in a state whose planning assumptions are built around drought, and the shift in rainfall distribution recorded in recent monsoon seasons (GS1 geography, GS3 disaster management).

4. Aravalli Definition: ICFRE Committee Report Due 31 August

Why in News: The Supreme Court-appointed five-member High-Powered Committee headed by Kanchan Devi, Director General of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), is due to submit its report on the definition and demarcation of the Aravalli range by 31 August 2026.

What happened: Aspirants should record the current legal position precisely, because it is widely misstated. On 29 December 2025 the Supreme Court stayed its own judgment of 20 November 2025, which had adopted a uniform criterion of 100 metres above local relief for identifying the Aravalli, and directed a fresh scientific assessment across Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat and Delhi. The stay holds until the proceedings reach finality, so as to prevent irreversible measures.

The uniform definition is therefore currently stayed, not operative. A complete ban on new mining leases and on renewals in the range remains in force in the meantime.

Rajasthan Relevance:

  • Prelims: Committee headed by Kanchan Devi, DG ICFRE; report due 31 August 2026; proceedings titled In Re: Definition of Aravalli Hills and Ranges; the stayed criterion was 100 metres above local relief; notices issued to the Union and to Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat.
  • Prelims: The Aravalli is the oldest fold mountain range in India, running roughly 692 km from Gujarat through Rajasthan and Haryana to Delhi, with Guru Shikhar on Mount Abu, at about 1,722 m, its highest point. Roughly 80 per cent of the range lies in Rajasthan.
  • Prelims: The Aravalli Green Wall Project, announced in 2023, targets a green buffer across the range in the four states. Rajasthan’s own instrument is the Mukhyamantri Aravali Sanrakshan Yojana.
  • Mains: Why a uniform definition matters at all, given that a hill counted as Aravalli in one state and not in the adjoining one produced regulatory arbitrage in mining leases, and why the Court nonetheless stayed its own criterion pending fresh scientific assessment (GS3 environment, GS2 judicial process and Centre-state coordination).

5. CM Details Rs 52 Crore in Sports Assistance at Khelo India Samvad

Why in News: Speaking at the Prime Minister’s MY Bharat and Khelo India Samvad on 27 August 2026, Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma said Rajasthan has provided about Rs 52 crore in financial assistance to 3,540 athletes and appointed 186 medallists to government service.

What happened: The Chief Minister also cited 50 Khelo India centres in the state, the Maharana Pratap Sports University at Jaipur established at about Rs 101 crore, an increase in the monthly mess allowance for trainee athletes from Rs 2,600 to Rs 4,000, and 60 medals at the Khelo India Youth Games 2025, placing Rajasthan third nationally. He launched a “Suyog” platform for village and ward level youth.

Rajasthan Relevance:

  • Prelims: Rs 52 crore to 3,540 athletes; 186 out-of-turn government appointments; 50 Khelo India Centres; Maharana Pratap Sports University, Jaipur, about Rs 101 crore; mess allowance raised from Rs 2,600 to Rs 4,000 a month; 60 medals at Khelo India Youth Games 2025, third nationally; “Suyog” platform launched.
  • Prelims: National-level instruments to pair with this are the Khelo India scheme, the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) and the National Sports Governance Act, 2025.
  • Mains: Whether cash awards and out-of-turn appointments for winners, or sustained grassroots infrastructure, produce better long-run sporting outcomes for a state, and the fiscal design question that follows (GS2 welfare and governance).

Practice MCQs

1. Sariska Tiger Reserve, subject of the recent High Court order, holds which distinction in tiger conservation?

a) It is India’s largest tiger reserve by core area b) It was the first reserve in the world to successfully relocate tigers after losing its population c) It was the first reserve notified under Project Tiger in 1973 d) It is the only tiger reserve located entirely in the Thar desert

Answer: b Explanation: Sariska lost its entire tiger population by 2004 and became the first reserve in the world to successfully relocate tigers, the first being airlifted from Ranthambhore on 28 June 2008. It was brought under Project Tiger in 1978, not in the 1973 first batch.

2. The National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body created under which provision?

a) Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 b) Section 4 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 c) Section 6 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 d) Section 38L of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972

Answer: d Explanation: The NTCA was constituted under Section 38L of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, inserted by the 2006 amendment following the Tiger Task Force. Section 38V of the same Act governs the notification of tiger reserves and their core and buffer areas.

3. The August 2026 Nepal flash flood that damaged the Rasuwagadhi crossing occurred on a river belonging to which basin?

a) The Gandaki basin b) The Koshi basin c) The Karnali basin d) The Mahakali basin

Answer: a Explanation: The river that flooded is the upper Trishuli in Rasuwa, locally called the Bhote Koshi and fed by the Lhende Khola from Gyirong in Tibet. It drains to the Narayani and enters India as the Gandak. A different river also called Bhote Koshi, the Matsang or Poiqu in Sindhupalchok, belongs to the Koshi basin. The two are routinely confused.

4. Guru Shikhar, the highest point of the Aravalli range, is located in which district of Rajasthan?

a) Udaipur b) Rajsamand c) Sirohi d) Pali

Answer: c Explanation: Guru Shikhar, at about 1,722 metres, is on Mount Abu in Sirohi district. The Aravalli is India’s oldest fold mountain range, running about 692 km, with roughly 80 per cent of its extent in Rajasthan.

5. Under IMD warning protocol, an “orange” alert signifies which level of advisory?

a) No action needed b) Be prepared c) Be updated d) Take action

Answer: b Explanation: IMD uses four colour codes: green means no action, yellow means be updated, orange means be prepared, and red means take action. Jaipur closed schools and anganwadi centres on 25 and 26 August 2026 under such warnings.