Iran to promote Chabahar as curbs will hit main port

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India's interests, Indian diaspora.

Context:

     ★ With U.S. sanctions threatening Iran’s main port of Bandar Abbas, the Iranian government is planning to promote the Chabahar port being developed by India in a major conference on February 26, highlighting the potential of the Indian Ocean port beyond India-Afghan trade alone.

More about the news:

     ★ The government of Iran wants to build Chabahar as the focal point with the entire coastline of 1,000 kilometres to be developed for oil refineries, petrochemical and steel factories, and other projects

     ★ The advantage of Chabahar was that it had received a waiver from the U.S.

     ★ This exception relates to reconstruction assistance and economic development for Afghanistan. These activities are vital for the ongoing support of Afghanistan’s growth and humanitarian relief

                                                                                                                     Source:- The Hindu

The last of the elusive pangolins

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context:

     ★ Obsession for its supposedly medicinal scales in China is believed to have made the ant-eating Chinese Pangolin, one of two species found in South Asia, extinct in India.

More about the news:

     ★ The pangolin is the most trafficked mammal in the world. Though hunted for its meat across the northeastern States and in central India, the demand for its scales in China has made it the most critically endangered animal in less than a decade.

    ★ Investigations by wildlife crime sleuths have revealed that almost 90% of smuggling of pangolin and pangolin scales is through the northeast.

     ★ From elsewhere in India, the scales are smuggled out to China via Myanmar at Moreh in Manipur and Champhai in Mizoram.

Pangolins:

     ★ The pangolin is the most trafficked mammal in the world.

     ★ The pangolin, which can be found all over India, seems doomed because of its scales, which are said to have medicinal value and are more expensive than gold, are sheared ruthlessly.

     ★ World Pangolin Day is celebrated on the 3rd Saturday in February.

                                                                                                     Source:- The Hindu

farm sop will be hard to implement? [ Editorial / Opinion ]

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes

Context:

     ★ The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, announced in the Budget earlier in the month of February, 2019 aims to give Rs. 6,000 a year to 12 crore farmer families who own up to two hectares of cultivable land.

Challenges:

     ★ The number of beneficiaries comes from the number of land holdings of two hectares or less, according to the last agricultural land census.

     ★ However, the guidelines say a single family may hold multiple land parcels, which will be pooled to determine their eligibility for the benefit. Similarly, even landholdings bigger than two hectares, if owned by multiple families, will make them eligible for the scheme.

     ★ For example, if five brothers jointly own a single 10 hectare holding, each of them will be eligible for the scheme.

     ★ However, if the members of a single family unit each own three one-hectare holdings, they will not be eligible.

     ★ some experts have opined that it will be difficult to use existing land records to determine beneficiaries.

     ★ There is a question “How do you know which family holds how much land?”

     ★ For the purposes of this scheme, family units are being defined as a husband, wife and minor children. Local administrations are more familiar with the unit of the household — which is used by most other government surveys and schemes — defined as a group living together and eating meals from a common kitchen.

Status of Land Records:

     ★ States have been implementing the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme for more than a decade.

     ★ while several States claim to have completed computerisation of their land records, others have not even begun the process.

     ★ However, digitisation does not mean the data have been updated. Experts say many land records are updated only when the land is sold and only if the transaction is legally registered.

     ★ Inherited land may still be registered in a parent or grandparent’s name.

     ★ Multiple government departments hold the documents required to establish land ownership — the Registration Department maintains sale deeds, but maps are kept by the Survey Department, while the Revenue Department keeps property tax receipts.

     ★ Verifying ownership claims is thus a daunting task. States have been asked to overhaul their land databases immediately in preparation for the scheme, which aims to pay out its first instalment of ₹2,000 by March 31, before the Lok Sabha election.

What happened in Telangana?

     ★ The example of Telangana shows this may be an unrealistic time line.

     ★ Despite an advanced state of progress in digitisation, the State of Telangana took over three months to update its databases before implementing its own farmer income support scheme before its Assembly election last year (2018).

     ★ Since its payout was given per acre owned, rather than per family unit, it was a simpler process to identify beneficiaries on the basis of land records.

     ★ Yet, researchers say almost 10 lakh beneficiaries — of a total 54 lakh — were left out of the initial instalment, as the State scrambled to update records.

Community Farmers:

     ★ The scheme notes that land ownership rights are community-based in many northeastern States and promises that an alternative method of beneficiary identification will be developed.

     ★ However, many Adivasi communities in other States also cultivate land without individual rights, and may be left out of the scheme, although they are among the most vulnerable.

     ★ Further, tenant farmers are also not included in the scheme, as they do not own the land they cultivate.

     ★ It is important to note that with tenancy being as high as 60% in some areas, this could lead to resentment if absentee landlords receive benefits under the scheme.

Is payment infrastructure in place?

     ★ The government intends to pay beneficiaries through a direct transfer to their bank accounts.

     ★ From the second instalment, Aadhaar numbers will be compulsory to access benefits.

     ★ Previous welfare schemes requiring Aadhaar verification have faced significant hurdles in some rural areas

                                                                                                                            Source:- The Hindu

In Maharashtra, protecting a sanctuary [ Editorial / Opinion ]

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context:

     ★ An environment clearance to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed train corridor has put the spotlight on the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary (TCFS) in Mumbai.

Background:

     ★ A committee, chaired by Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan, has accorded wildlife clearance to the project which will encroach upon the TCFS and the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai.

     ★ Sanjay Gandhi National Park, is home to leopards, in Mumbai.

     ★ The proposal involves diverting 3.2 hectares of forestland from the TCFS and 97.5 hectares of land close to the boundary of the forest’s protected area.

     ★ The high-speed train corridor or ‘bullet train project’ was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe in Ahmedabad in September, 2017.

     ★ It is expected to be ready by 2022.

Environmental Concerns:

     ★ Ever since, the project was conceived, there have been concerns about the impact of the construction, which will create enormous debris, on the sanctuary and the national park.

     ★ The drilling of underground tunnels will lead to sound pollution which will disturb the tranquillity of the sanctuary.

     ★ The project will entail cutting down several mangrove trees, a natural flood barrier.

     ★ In the aftermath of the 2005 floods, environmentalists spoke out against the declining mangrove cover for land reclamation projects.

Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary (TCFS) :

     ★ The TCFS consists of 896 hectares of mangrove forests and 794 hectares of waterbodies.

     ★ It is on the western bank of the creek, between the Airoli and the Vashi bridges connecting Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

     ★ It came into being in August 2015 and is Maharashtra’s second marine sanctuary, after Malvan.

     ★ The TCFS has been attracting flamingos in large numbers since 1994.

     ★ By November every year, over 30,000 flamingos, along with their chicks, occupy the mudflats and the bordering mangroves.

     ★ They stay till the month of May each year, after which most of them migrate to Bhuj in Gujarat for breeding, leaving a small resident population.

     ★ Besides supporting a large congregation of flamingos, the area is a refuge for many resident and migratory birds.

     ★ In all, 200 species have been reported, even globally threatened species such as the greater spotted eagle and others such as osprey.

     ★ Other birds found here are the Pied avocet, western reef heron, black-headed ibis, common redshank, marsh sandpiper, common greenshank, curlew sandpiper, brown-headed gull, whiskered, gull-billed, Caspian and little terns.

     ★ The white-bellied sea eagle and Eurasian marsh harrier have been spotted too.

Remedial measures:

     ★ While according permission, the National Board for Wildlife has laid several conditions.

     ★ The project developers should provide an alternate site and funds for penal plantation of at least five times the number of mangrove plants anticipated to be lost.

     ★ Because the project also encroaches upon the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Borivili, developers have to construct under-passes to enable smooth movement of wild animals.

     ★ An existing quarry would have to be closed and a natural stormwater drainage stream, passing through the culvert system, would have to be restored and kept free of any obstruction.

Are these Steps Adequacy?

     ★ In general, experts point out that any foray into wildlife sanctuaries is pernicious.

     ★ The project plan of the corridor involves drilling a 7-km-long undersea tunnel to avoid damaging the forest and several of the mitigating measures could go a long way to encourage flamingos and other birds to continue visiting the sanctuary.

     ★ However, environmentalists say they aren’t confident that mitigation work will be taken seriously.

     ★ The ongoing Mumbai Metro Project has adversely impacted the Aarey Forest and destroyed mangroves and wetlands in Uran and the Sion-Panvel Highway, according to ecologists.

                                                                                                             Source:- The Hindu

Great Indian hornbills can adapt to modified habitat: study

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context:

     ★ Recent study study is published in the journal Ornithological Science, says that - Amid a changing environment, with natural homes of birds getting depleted as natural forests make way for plantations and other such modified terrain, comes the good news of how the great Indian hornbill (Buceros bicornis) adapts to such change.

Key findings:

     ★ A group of researchers from NCBS-TIFR in Bengaluru and Nature Conservation Foundation in Mysuru observed eight hornbill nests, three located in contiguous forests and five located in modified habitats such as coffee plantations.

     ★ They found that the birds followed similar nesting behaviour but adapted to the changed environment.

Great Indian Hornbill

     ★ The great hornbill (Buceros bicornis) also known as the great Indian hornbill or great pied hornbill, is one of the larger members of the hornbill family.

     ★ The great hornbill is long-lived, living for nearly 50 years in captivity.

     ★ It is predominantly fruit eating, but is an opportunist and preys on small mammals, reptiles and birds.

     ★ Its impressive size and colour have made it important in many tribal cultures and rituals.

     ★ IUCN status: Vulnerable (uplisted from Near Threatened in 2018).

    ★ It is also listed in Appendix I of CITES.

                                                                                                     Source:- The Hindu

India, Pakistan to fight it out in UN court in espionage case

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - India and its neighborhood- relations.

Context:

     ★ India will ask the UN’s top court to order Pakistan to take an alleged Indian spy off the death row in a case that could stoke fresh tensions after a deadly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

More about the news:

     ★ Kulbhushan Jadhav was arrested in the restive southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan in March, 2016, on the charge of espionage and sentenced to death by a military court.

     ★ The International Court of Justice ordered Pakistan in 2017 to stay the execution, pending hearings on the broader Indian case that take place this week in The Hague.

International court of Justice:

     ★ The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the principal judicial body of the UN.

     ★ Established in 1946 to replace the Permanent Court of International Justice, the ICJ mainly operates under the statute of its predecessor, which is included in the UN Charter.

Primary Functions:

     ★ To settle legal disputes submitted by States in accordance with established international laws,

     ★ To act as an advisory board on issues submitted to it by authorized international organizations.

Members of the court:

     ★ The International Court of Justice is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms of office by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council.

     ★ These organs vote simultaneously but separately. In order to be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes in both bodies.

     ★ In order to ensure a measure of continuity, one third of the Court is elected every three years. Judges are eligible for re-election.

                                                                                                                              Source:- The Hindu

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