Lantana Camara is one such invasive species that since its introduction has become widespread from Southern India forests to Himalaya foothills.Lantana not only spreads fast but does not allow grass, shrubs or any other plant in its vicinity to grow leading to the migration or decline in the number of herbivores ultimately affecting the carnivores at the top of the food chain.
Lantana Camara has spread to over 60 countries. In India, it isn’t easy to control, especially in the forest areas. Eventually, the forest department will have to spend a lot of money in clearing it completely. Cutting Lantana is not going to help as it will re-sprout again. In fact it comes up very fast, compared to other plant species.
In South America, insects and pathogens are controlling Lantana Camara’s population. It is looked upon as any other plant. But due to the absence of natural control agents in India, the plant spreads uncontrollably. It does not allow local seeds to germinate. Lantana seeds are spread by birds as well.
If one has to describe Lantana Camara, (popularly known as ‘balhari’ or ‘panchrangi’) in India, it is a thorny shrub upright, half climbing or sometimes hanging, reaching 2-3 m in height. The stems and branches are angular, bearing curved spines, arranged along the edges. Lantana flowers are small tubular structures that are yellow, pink or orange in colour while the fruits are fleshy varying in color from blue to black.
Diversity, broad geographic expansion and wide ecological tolerance are so inbuilt in any species of Lantana Camara, that the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) considers it as among 100 of the “World’s Worst” invaders (ISSG 2001). Therefore, the species has made itself imperative.
In India, Lantana Camara has been notorious for destroying entire local forest fauna, causing massive forest fires and blocking the natural reproductive cycle of forest trees.
There was immense forest cover loss in lower Shivalik hills, also known as Kandi area of Punjab due to invasion of lantana bush.Similarly, some of the worst hit national parks by Lantana Camara include Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, Nagarahole National Park and Bandipur National Park in neighbouring Karnataka and the Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand.
The ‘Cut Root Stock’ methodology which is both cost-effective and has minimum impact on the soil was implemented in Himachal Pradesh with certain modifications according to suitable climatic conditions. Lantana was removed from many areas in the Solan forest division due to which local grasses and flora came up very well.
Endnote
Despite threats posed by Lantana Camara to local plant species and wildlife, the plant continues to thrive. Lantana management and control is the need of the hour. A combination of biological control, mechanical and chemical methodology could be used. Until then, eradication of Lantana Camara remains a myth.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.