Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Nearly 50% of India currently facing drought: IIT Gandhinagar scientists

News

• Nearly 50% of the country is currently facing drought with at least 16% falling in the “exceptional” or “extreme” category, according scientists managing India’s real time drought prediction system.

Findings

• This ongoing drought will pose a lot of challenges in water availability this summer.
• The real-time monitoring system collects weather and precipitation data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which is then used to simulate soil moisture and other factors that contribute to drought.
• The results of the simulations, prepared by the Water and Climate Lab at IIT Gandhinagar, are available on the website of the IMD.
• About 47% of the country is facing drought with 16% facing extreme, or exceptional category of drought which we show from our real time monitoring system that we have developed for the country.
• Arunachal Pradesh did not get good rain this year, and parts of Jharkhand, southern Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and northern part of Tamil Nadu are under drought.
• If these areas experience very hot summer before the onset of monsoon, it could lead to a crisis, he warned.
• Continuing drought will further burden the already depleting groundwater resources of the country.
• While famine-like conditions are not expected, the drought will have a massive impact on the economy.
• The scientist said global warming and climate change are likely to exacerbate drought in the coming years.
• Conserving water in urban homes is just a drop in the bucket compared to steps that can be taken in the agriculture sector.

Affected differently by climate change

News

• Coral reef communities are affected differently by climate change events and depends upon proximity to the mainland, finds a study.

Findings

• Researchers showed severe weather and environmental disturbances, like cyclones or thermal coral bleaching, affect specific areas of coral reefs differently.
• The team studied the effect of the natural disasters on the Great Barrier Reef. It showed the number of herbivorous fish species decreased following environmental events.
• After widespread loss of corals due to large storms or severe coral bleaching events, herbivorous reef fish are vital for removing seaweed that starts to grow over the dead corals, to let new corals grow and surviving corals recover.
• The study of these herbivorous fish response to environmental events indicates where reefs may be more vulnerable and possibly slower to recover.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Modify forest dwellers’ eviction order: Centre

News

• The Centre filed an application urging the Supreme Court to modify its February 13 order directing the eviction of thousands of Scheduled Tribes (STs) and other traditional forest dwellers whose claims for forest land rights have been rejected under the Forest Rights Act of 2006.

Beyond News

• In its application, the Centre said the claims of lakhs of forest-dwelling STs and other traditional forest dwellers had been rejected by the States without observing due process of law.
• Referring to its letter of September 12, 2014, which speaks of the various injustices meted out to the tribal populations and forest dwellers in States hit by left wing extremism, the Centre said such States also have high tribal populations.
• The forest land claims of these tribes and forest dwellers, who live off the forest, are mostly rejected by the States. Being poor and illiterate people who live in remote areas, they do not know the appropriate procedure for filing claims, the government submitted.
• The gram sabhas, which initiate the verification of their claims, are low on awareness about how to deal with these claims and rejection orders are not even communicated to the forest-dwelling STs and communities.
• The Centre said the 2014 letter had not produced any change on the ground and had been followed by a series of letters in 2015 highlighting issues like “high rate of rejection of claims, non-communication of rejection order, unrealistic timelines in deciding claims, irregular holding of State Level Monitoring Committee meetings, lack of support from the district administration concerned in providing revenue or forest maps, rejection of claims despite incomplete or insufficient evidence, etc.
• It was requested that technology such as satellite imagery may be used for consideration of claims, the Centre had suggested to the States.
• But no efforts seem to have been taken by the State governments to remedy the situation to effectively implement the 2006 Act, the Centre indicated.

Govt imposes ban on Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir

News

• Separatist group Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir was banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for alleged anti-national and subversive activities, officials said.

Beyond News

• A notification on the ban was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) after a high-level meeting on security, chaired by Prime Minister.
• The separatist group is alleged to be involved in anti-national and subversive activities in the country and is in close touch with militant outfits.
• Security forces launched a crackdown on separatist forces and arrested many leaders and cadres of the Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir after the terrorist attack in Pulwama, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Rhinos without borders is conservation credo

News

• The New Delhi Declaration adopted at the second meeting of the Asian rhino range countries that ended, underscored trans-boundary collaboration among India, Nepal, and Bhutan for the conservation and protection of the greater one-horned rhino. There are no rhinos in Bhutan, but some from the Manas National Park in adjoining Assamor Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal are known to cross over occasionally.

Beyond News

• Emphasis was also laid on expanding rhino domains within a country or between rhino range countries. Indonesia and Malaysia are the other Asian countries where the last of the rhinos live.
• The current global population of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros is 3,584. Assam’s Kaziranga National Park has the bulk of 2,938 rhinos in India while Nepal 646.
• Once ranging from China to Bangladesh, the Javan and Sumatran rhinos are nearing extinction.
• The Sumatran rhino, the smallest of all rhino species and the only Asian rhino with two horns, became extinct in the wild in Malaysia.
• Among the other decisions taken at the New Delhi meeting of the Asian rhino range countries was “making the best use of all available individuals and technologies” to accelerate natural and conservation breeding of the critically endangered Sumatran rhino.
• Part of the plan has been to replicate or develop upon the Kaziranga rhino conservation success story for Sumatran as well as the Javan rhino. Kaziranga had less than 10 rhinos when it was declared a protected area for the animalin 1905.
• National Rhino Conservation Strategy for India called for active engagement between India and Nepal to protect the species.
• The plan said the single population of rhinos in Sukla-Phanta (Nepal), Valmiki Tiger Reserve (India) and Chitwan National Park (Nepal) and Dudhwa (India) is separated by the political boundary between the two countries.

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