News 1: Forest Conservation Rules infringe upon land rights of tribes people

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Background:

• It is the duty of the commission to “caution the government” when its policies have the potential to affect the well-being and rights of tribal people, Harsh Chouhan, Chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), told The Hindu on Thursday.
• He said this was why the NCST had recommended to the Union Environment and Forest Ministry to put the new Forest Conservation Rules, 2022, on hold.
• “We wrote to the government about the rules, which essentially eliminate the requirement of consent of local tribespeople and forest dwellers for diversion of forest land for other purposes,” Mr. Chouhan said. He said this would amount to infringing upon the land rights of tribespeople under the Forest Rights Act. 

Six-member group

• But soon after the rules were issued, the NCST formed a six-member working group that included members of the commission and experts to look into whether the rules issued in June violated any provisions in the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and if they infringed upon the rights of tribal people, according to officials.
• Based on the conclusion of this working group and repeated dialogue with villagers in forest areas and other stakeholders, the commission decided to recommend that the new rules be put on hold, Mr. Chouhan said.

Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980:

• This act was enacted by the Parliament to control further deforestation of areas in India and to provide for the conservation of forests and its resources.
• It stipulated that the central permission is necessary to practice sustainable agro-forestry in forest areas. Violation or lack of permit was treated as a criminal offence.

Forest Conservation Rules, 2022:

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2022 (“Rules“) in supersession of Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2003.1 The Rules essentially lay down the procedural framework to obtain prior approval from the Union Government for the use of forest land for non-forest purposes as provided in the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 (“Act”). 
• Such non-forest purposes may include diversion of forest land for a commercial or infrastructure project, de-reservation of land recognized as forest or assignment of forest land to any private person by way of lease. 
• Since such proposals result in the reduction of forest cover in India, the Union Government had earlier provided a framework for compensatory afforestation, wherein afforestation was done on another land in lieu of the loss of forest cover due to the use of forest land for non-forest purposes.
• The mechanism involved inter alia payment of compensatory afforestation levies by the person making such proposals and handing over of another land identified for compensatory afforestation to the relevant forest department. 

New provisions for compensatory afforestation

• The Rules have introduced certain important aspects related to compensatory afforestation, some of which are described below:

1. Undertaking compensatory afforestation in other States or Union Territories

• The Rules have allowed compensatory afforestation to be undertaken in States or Union Territories other than the one in which forest land is being diverted, de-reserved or leased.
• As per the Rules, compensatory afforestation can be done in another State or Union territory (having forest cover less than twenty per cent of its total geographical area) in case the forest land to be diverted is in a hilly or mountainous State or Union territory (having forest cover of more than two-third of its geographical area) or in any other State or Union territory (having forest cover of more than one-third of its geographical area).

1. Accredited compensatory afforestation

• These Rules have also introduced an accredited compensatory afforestation mechanism. The purpose is to encourage people to raise vegetation on its land and sell it to persons who need to meet compensatory afforestation targets under the Act. 
• This policy is expected to act as an incentive for persons to develop plantations and undertake agro-forestry.

1. Land bank

• The Rules have also permitted a State Government or Union Territory Administration to create a land bank that will consist of land identified or earmarked for compensatory afforestation. Moreover, lands covered under accredited compensatory afforestation mechanism may also be included in the land bank.

Criticism:

• On June 28, the Central government notified the Forest Conservation (FC) Rules, 2022, to replace the Rules of 2003 and subsequent amendments to it (2004, 2014, 2017). The new rules will allow private developers to clear forest land for compensatory afforestation and development and infrastructure projects without the prior consent of gram sabhas, thereby violating an important provision of the FRA.
• Earlier, the Union government was required to take the consent of the communities concerned before approving private projects. Now, it can approve the handover of forest land and collect payment from the private developer even before the State government obtains the approval of forest dwellers.
• The Forest (Conservation) Act (FCA) of 1980 restricts the powers of the state in the de-reservation of forests and the use of forestland for non-forest purposes. Under the new rules, that kind of collective thinking might become a thing of the past.

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News 2: U.P. bags top honours at PMAY-U Awards 2021

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Background:

• Over half the homes sanctioned under the Centre’s flagship Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U) housing scheme have been delivered and the rest are under various stages of completion, Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday.
• Mr. Puri’s comments came on the sidelines of the PMAY-U Awards 2021 — scheduled annually to recognise the contribution of States, Union Territories and urban local bodies with regard to the implementation of the scheme — in Rajkot.
• In the awards, Uttar Pradesh bagged the first position followed by Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu at second and third place, respectively. Meanwhile, poll-bound Gujarat won five special category awards.

PMAY – U:

• Ministry: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
• Launch: 2015
• Objective: The Mission addresses urban housing shortage among the EWS/LIG and MIG categories including the slum dwellers by ensuring a pucca house to all eligible urban households by the year 2022
• PMAY(U) adopts a demand driven approach wherein the Housing shortage is decided based on demand assessment by States/Union Territories.
• The Mission covers the entire urban area consisting of Statutory Towns, Notified Planning Areas, Development Authorities, Special Area Development Authorities, Industrial Development Authorities or any such authority under State legislation which is entrusted with the functions of urban planning & regulations.
• All houses under PMAY(U) have basic amenities like toilet, water supply, electricity and kitchen. The Mission promotes women empowerment by providing the ownership of houses in name of female member or in joint name.
• Preference is also given to differently abled persons, senior citizens, SCs, STs, OBCs, Minority, single women, transgender and other weaker & vulnerable sections of the society.
• PMAY (U) adopts a cafeteria approach to suit the needs of individuals based on the geographical conditions, topography, economic conditions, availability of land, infrastructure etc. The scheme has hence been divided into four verticals as given below:

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News 3: Interpol launches metaverse for global law enforcement

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Background:

• The Interpol on Thursday unveiled the first-ever ‘metaverse’ specifically designed for law enforcement worldwide, at its ongoing 90th General Assembly in Delhi.

Interpol Metaverse:

• The Interpol metaverse allows the registered users to take a virtual tour of its General Secretariat headquarters in France’s Lyon, interact with other officers via their avatars, and even take training courses in forensic investigation and other policing skills, it said.
• The facility is being provided through the global police organisation’s secure cloud. “For many, the metaverse seems to herald an abstract future, but the issues it raises are those that have always motivated Interpol — supporting our member countries to fight crime and making the world, virtual or not, safer for those who inhabit it,” said Interpol Secretary-General Jürgen Stock.
• In a follow-up panel discussion, the Interpol also announced the creation of an expert group on the metaverse to represent the concerns of law enforcement on the global stage and ensure that the new virtual world was secure by design.

Interpol:

• Established: 1923
• Headquarters: Lyon, France
• The International Criminal Police Organization, commonly known as Interpol, is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime control.

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News 4: Saving the vultures of Tamil Nadu

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Background:

• On October 19, the Tamil Nadu government formed a committee to set up an institutional framework for the effective conservation of vultures.
• The State is home to four species of vultures — the white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis), long-billed vultures (Gyps indicus), the Asian king-vulture (Sarcogyps calvus) and the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus).

Which areas in Tamil Nadu have vulture populations?

• While there have been reported sightings of vultures in other districts including Dharmapuri; essentially the Nilgiris, Erode and Coimbatore districts are believed to form one of the largest contiguous expanses where vultures are spotted.
• Home to the nesting sites of three of the four species of vultures seen in the State, the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, parts of the Nilgiris forest division and the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve are crucial strongholds for the vultures in southern India.
• Tamil Nadu boasts the largest population of vultures south of the Vindhiya Mountain Range.

• Though Egyptian vultures are spotted in the Sigur plateau, encompassing the Nilgiris and Erode districts, they are not believed to use the landscape to breed, while researchers still remain unsuccessful in tracing the breeding sites of the critically endangered Asian king-vulture.

Are vulture numbers decreasing?

• While the population of the vultures in the Nilgiris, Erode and Coimbatore districts has remained largely stable, experts state that the numbers are still extremely low, and that even a single poisoning event could lead to several of the species going locally extinct, especially the long-billed and Asian king vulture.
• Over the last few years, breeding seasons have also seen fewer hatchings than is the norm, with experts attributing the cause to lesser availability of prey as well as erratic weather.
• Experts also agree that the use of some Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) to treat cattle, such as diclofenac, nimesulide, ketoprofen among others, has led to the crash in vulture populations across India.

What role do vultures play in the local ecosystem?

• As scavengers, vultures help prevent the spread of many diseases and can remove toxins from entering the environment by consuming carcasses of dead cattle/wildlife before they decompose. Unfortunately, their tolerance for harmful substances does not extend to man-made drugs.

What are the challenges which impact vultures in the State?

• For one, temple tourism in the Sigur plateau is centred primarily around vulture habitats, such as Siriyur, Anaikatty and Bokkapuram. Over the last few years, there have been recorded instances of vultures abandoning nesting sites located too close to temples inside these reserves, with activists calling for strict controls on the amount of people allowed to attend these festivals.
• Another threat is the spread of invasive weeds such as the Lantana camara in vulture-landscapes, which hinder the birds from scavenging as their large wing-spans require plenty of open area to safely land and to take to the skies in case of any major threats.
• Finally, due to the illegal tapping of water along the streams running through these areas, possible climate change, and forest fires, the Terminalia arjuna trees, that many vultures use as nesting sites are disappearing.
• Only through a multipronged approach of increasing the amount of food available to the birds and managing invasive species can vulture numbers start rebounding, say experts.

What are the steps taken to protect vultures in the State?

• The State government has banned the use of diclofenac, a drug, to treat cattle, while there are strict restrictions for the sale of other NSAIDs in the Nilgiris, Erode and Coimbatore districts.
• Additionally, as the vultures in the Sigur plateau utilise landscapes in neighboring Karnataka and Kerala, experts have called for a synchronous vulture census to accurately identify vulture populations and nesting sites.

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News 5: How is the energy crisis in Europe shaping up?

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The story so far:

• As winter approaches, Europe faces an energy problem. The numerous leaks — apparently caused by explosions — to the Nord Stream 1, which is an energy pipeline connecting Russia to Germany, has driven supplies to a halt. Amid anxieties about building up energy reserves, the gas field in Groningen in the Netherlands has once again come under the spotlight.

Why is this gas field relevant?

• The region of Groningen in the Netherlands has a gas field that began operations in 1963. During the 1980s, the area saw numerous earthquakes — minor enough to avoid large damage but big enough for local buildings to develop cracks. Following these quakes, the Dutch government had earlier said that it would shutter the field in response to local protests. The closure date was also advanced to 2022 from 2030.

Can oil or gas exploration cause earthquakes?

• The Hindu spoke to professors specialising in both geophysics and geology at IIT-ISM (Indian School of Mines). Prof. Rajeev Upadhyay, Prof. Saurabh Datta Gupta, and Prof. Mohit Agarwal agree that man-made or induced earthquakes can be pretty damaging.
• Examples of human activity that could lead to ‘induced seismicity’ are damming of rivers to create reservoirs, oil or gas extraction, and mining. Fluid extraction from hydrocarbon reservoirs (rocks that hold hydrocarbons which are oil and gas) causes an increase in net effective stresses, which, when supported by the geomechanics of the rock, may lead to development of new faults and fractures.
• In the case of Groningen, the ground subsiding has been caused by extraction alone over several years. Such extraction causes rocks to contract — as the pores get to hold less and less hydrocarbons over time.

Should India be concerned about gas in the Netherlands?

• India’s domestic gas price is determined from the average of four global indices viz U.S.’s Henry Hub, the U.K.’s National Balancing point, Canada’s Alberta and Russian gas.
• Compared with pre-pandemic times, the average domestic price of gas has more than doubled from $5.08/MMBTU to $11.62 and CARE Edge Director of Ratings, Sudhir Kumar.
• Imports alone accounted for close to 50% of consumption, at about 30 bcm. Global production is estimated to decline from 4,109 bcm in calendar 2021 to 4,089 bcm in 2022. The situation would become challenging for the government unless the formula for determining domestic gas price is reviewed, he says.
• Till then, the government has to bear the higher subsidy burden on fertilizer — in the manufacture of which natural gas is used — as well as for the LPG sector.

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News 6: ‘Honesty shops’ inculcate virtues among students

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Background:

• The ‘honesty shops’ opened in nearly 15 schools in Kerala’s Ernakulam district as part of the Student Police Cadet (SPC) project have gifted some valuable lessons on trust, truth and integrity for students.
• There is no salesman at these counters and students can drop the money for each item in the collection box kept on a table. They can walk in, choose the item of their choice and pay for it based on the price list displayed.

Honesty shops:

• Launched in 2008, the SPC project was conceived to inculcate better civic sense among students and mould them as responsible youth who will react positively to the demands of society.
• “The objective of the honesty shop is to provide students a chance to experience the virtue of honesty. Though our school has CCTV facility, we have switched off the camera pointed towards the shop to instil confidence among the students.
• “The outcome has been exciting as we have re-filled the items thrice after the project was launched,” he added.
• Cynthia Poulose, Community Police Officer at the Government Higher Secondary School in Chowara, said they have mainly kept items priced below ₹10 at the honesty shop to encourage more students to participate in the experiment.

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News 7: PM launches new mission to combat climate change

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Background:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the presence of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, launched ‘Mission LiFE’ (Lifestyle For Environment), a new initiative for sustainable and healthy lifestyle at the Statue of Unity in Gujarat on Thursday.

Mission LiFE:

• Mission LiFE aims at following a three-pronged strategy for changing our collective approach towards sustainability. First is by nudging individuals to practise simple yet effective environment-friendly actions in their daily lives (demand); second is by enabling industries and markets to respond swiftly to the changing demand (supply) and; third is to influence government and industrial policy to support both sustainable consumption and production (policy).
• Listing climate change and global warming as the main challenges before the world, the Prime Minister underlined that Mission LiFE makes the fight against climate change democratic with the contribution of everyone in their own capacity.
• Setting up solar power plants, installing solar panels on canals or taking steps for water conservation in drought-prone areas were meant to fight the environmental-related calamities while setting the trends for sustainable development, he said.
• He described Mission LiFe as a global initiative by India to help the world in its fight against climate change and lead to a sustainable way of life to achieve the sustainable development goals.
• The fight went beyond policy making and needed wider support from individuals and community, he said and advocated the concept of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’.
• The Prime Minister elaborated that Mission LiFE emboldens the spirit of the P3 model i.e. Pro Planet People. Mission Life, unites the people of the earth as pro planet people, uniting them all in their thoughts. It functions on the basic principles of ‘Lifestyle of the planet, for the planet and by the planet’.

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News 8: Webb Telescope captures new view of ‘pillars of creation’

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Background:

• Twenty seven years ago, in 1995,the Hubble Telescope wowed the world with a cosmic landscape called Pillars of Creation. The images revealed towering mountains of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, one of the most productive star factories in the Milky way Galaxy.

James Webb Telescope:

• It is designed to see infrared light, electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths longer than visible light – colours no human eye has ever seen. It is the successor to Hubble telescope.

What is NASA’s James Webb Telescope?

• NASA led its development with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency. It was launched aboard a rocket on December 25, 2021, and is currently at a point in space known as the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, approximately 1.5 million km beyond Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
• Lagrange Point 2 is one of the five points in the orbital plane of the Earth-Sun system. Named after Italian-French mathematician Josephy-Louis Lagrange, the points are in any revolving two-body system like Earth and Sun, marking where the gravitational forces of the two large bodies cancel each other out.
• Objects placed at these positions are relatively stable and require minimal external energy or fuel to keep themselves there, and so many instruments are positioned here.
• L2 is a position directly behind Earth in the line joining the Sun and the Earth. It would be shielded from the Sun by the Earth as it goes around the Sun, in sync with the Earth.

What is the mission of the James Webb Space Telescope?

• NASA says the James Webb Space Telescope will be “a giant leap forward in our quest to understand the Universe and our origins”, as it will examine every phase of cosmic history: from the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets to the evolution of our own Solar System.
• The science goals for the Webb can be grouped into four themes:
• The first is to look back around 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies forming out of the darkness of the early universe.
• Second, to compare the faintest, earliest galaxies to today’s grand spirals and understand how galaxies assemble over billions of years.
• Third, to see where stars and planetary systems are being born.
• And fourth, to observe the atmospheres of extrasolar planets (beyond our solar system), and perhaps find the building blocks of life elsewhere in the universe. The telescope will also study objects within our own Solar System.
• The JWST will be able to see right through and into massive clouds of dust that are opaque to earlier generation visible-light observatories like the Hubble Telescope. Another difference is that the Webb is equipped with cameras and other instruments sensitive to infrared or “heat” radiation, and the Hubble is not.
• The expansion of the universe causes the light that would normally be in wavelengths that are visible to be shifted to longer infrared wavelengths, normally invisible to human eyes, The New York Times said in a report.

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News 9: India-Russia trade soars to record high as imports of oil and fertiliser drive surge

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Background:

• Fuelled by a surge in import of oil and fertilisers, India’s bilateral trade with Russia has soared to an all-time high of $18,229.03 million in just five months (April-August) of this financial year (2022-23), according to the latest data available with the Department of Commerce.

India – Russia trade:

• In contrast, the total annual bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $13,124.68 million in 2021-22, and $8,141.26 million in 2020-21.
• With the sharp spike in trade, Russia has now become India’s seventh biggest trading partner — up from its 25th position last year. The US ($57,632.37 million), China ($50,792.83 million), UAE ($36,820.33 million), Saudi Arabia ($23,995 million), Iraq ($18,822.27 million) and Indonesia ($18,816.58 million) were the six countries which recorded higher volumes of trade with India during the first five months of 2022-23.
• An analysis of the data shows that Russia’s share in India’s total trade has increased to 3.54%, up from 1.27% in 2021-22. While Russia’s share in India’s total trade was 2.1% in 1997-98, it has hovered below 2% for the last 25 years.
• The record level of bilateral trade between India and Russia is mainly due to a sudden jump in imports from Moscow, which began to surge earlier this year.
• Petroleum oil and other fuel items (mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation; bituminous substances; mineral waxes) accounted for 84% of India’s total imports from Russia in April-August this year.
• Fertilisers were second, with imports from Russia surging by 666.24% to $1,236.96 million in April-August this year. Fertilisers and fuel together account for over 91% of the total imports from Russia this year.
• On the other hand, pharmaceutical products ($176.51 million) and organic chemicals ($117.29 million) were the two main items shipped to Moscow.

Trade balance of India with Russia:

• India had a positive trade balance with Russia from 1997-98 (the most recent year for which comparable data is available) to 2002-03. But from 2003-04, New Delhi’s trade balance with Moscow has remained negative.

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News 10: October storm in Bay of Bengal after 3 years

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Background:

• The first tropical cyclone of the post-monsoon season of 2022 is likely to form in the Bay of Bengal on October 24, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said. If realised, this will be the first cyclone to develop in the Bay of Bengal in October since 2018, and will be called Sitrang, as named by Thailand. The last October cyclone in the Bay of Bengal was Titli in 2018.

Why storms in October

• The months of October-November and May-June see storms of severe intensity develop in the North Indian Ocean — comprising the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea — with an average of five developing in a calendar year.
• In the past 131 years, October saw 61 storms develop in the Bay of Bengal, according to the Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre (RSMC). The east coast, notably Odisha, has faced many of its severest storms in October, including the Super Cyclone of 1999.
• “After the withdrawal of the Southwest monsoon, there is a rise in ocean heating, which leads to rise in sea surface temperature over the Bay of Bengal. The atmospheric moisture availability over the ocean region, too, is higher. So, when remnant systems from the South China Sea reach the Bay of Bengal, they get conducive conditions, aiding the formation and intensification of cyclones in October,” said Umasankar Das, IMD scientist from Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneshwar.
• In some years, ocean-atmospheric factors hinder this phenomenon. For instance, in 2020, weak La Nina conditions along the equatorial Pacific Ocean prevented a cyclonic formation near India’s coasts.

Cyclone Sitrang

• On Thursday, IMD officials said the cyclonic storm set to develop in east-central Bay of Bengal on October 24 will reach close to the coasts of West Bengal – Bangladesh by October 25.
• The name Sitrang (read Si-trang) has been given by Thailand, and features in the list of tropical cyclone names prepared by the RMSC being followed since April 2020.
• The IMD is one of the world’s six RMSCs mandated to provide cyclone advisories and alerts to 13 member countries — Bangladesh, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Cyclones in the Arabian Sea

• In comparison with the Bay of Bengal, only 32 storms have developed in the Arabian Sea in October since 1891. Climatologically too, the IMD states that of the five storms formed in the North Indian Ocean in a calendar year, four are in the Bay of Bengal and one in Arabian Sea.

Tropical Cyclones:

• Tropical cyclones are violent storms that originate over oceans in tropical areas and move over to the coastal areas bringing about large-scale destruction due to violent winds (squalls), very heavy rainfall (torrential rainfall), and storm surge.
• They are irregular wind movements involving the closed circulation of air around a low-pressure center. This closed air circulation (whirling motion) is a result of rapid upward movement of the hot air which is subjected to Coriolis force. The low pressure at the center is responsible for the wind speeds.
• Tropical cyclones occur around the equator at 5 ° – 30 °, but also have varying names depending upon where in the world they form. 
• An average tropical cyclone can travel about 300 to 400 miles a day, or about 3,000 miles before it dies out.

Conditions Favorable for Tropical Cyclone Formation

1. Large sea surface with a temperature higher than 27° C,
2. Presence of the Coriolis force enough to create a cyclonic vortex,
3. Small variations in the vertical wind speed,
4. A pre-existing weak low-pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation,
5. Upper divergence above the sea level system,

 

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Other important news

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Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat:

Launch: 2015 (On the 140th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabai Patel)

Ministry: Ministry of Education

Objective:

• Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat programme aims to enhance interaction & promote mutual understanding between people of different states/UTs through the concept of state/UT pairing.
• The states carry out activities to promote a sustained and structured cultural connect in the areas of language learning, culture, traditions & music, tourism & cuisine, sports and sharing of best practices, etc.

Broad objectives of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat:

• CELEBRATE the Unity in Diversity of our Nation and to maintain and strengthen the fabric of traditionally existing emotional bonds between the people of our Country.
• PROMOTE the spirit of national integration through a deep and structured engagement between all Indian States and Union Territories through a year-long planned engagement between States.
• SHOWCASE the rich heritage and culture, customs and traditions of either State for enabling people to understand and appreciate the diversity that is India, thus fostering a sense of common identity.
• ESTABLISH long-term engagements.

CREATE an environment which promotes learning between States by sharing best practices and experiences.

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