19 July 2024, The Hindu
Kerala to take action against dumping garbage in the open
Page 6
GS 3: Environment- Conservation
Over 800 elephants died in Kerala in 8 years
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Prelims syllabus: Current events of national and international importance.
- Kerala’s forests have recorded 845 elephant deaths between 2015 and 2023 with studies indicating an increasing trend in death rate over time.
- The findings were given in the report of an elephant population estimation undertaken in the State’s four elephant reserves.
When a home is ‘enemy property’
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Prelims syllabus: Current events of national and international importance.
- Faisal Azim Abbasi, 48, is worried for himself and his joint family of eight.
- He has been getting notices to sign an 11-month license agreement with the Custodian of Enemy Property for India (CEPI), a department under the Ministry of Home Affairs, formed after the Indo-Pak war of 1965 and the two Indo-China wars in 1962 and 1967.
- Abbasi has known no other home other than the single-storey, 800-square-foot space in Lucknow’s Maulviganj. The house, popularly known as Zareef Manzil or Lal Kothi, has been inhabited by his family for four generations.
India and a case for strategic autonomy
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GS 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting the Indian interests
- On July 11, 2024, two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had concluded his first visit to Moscow since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Eric Garcetti, the United States Ambassador to India, said, “In times of conflict there is no such thing as strategic autonomy; we will, in crisis moments, need to know each other.”
- When Mr. Modi was in Russia, on the eve of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington, the Joe Biden administration had expressed its “concerns” publicly.
- “We have expressed those [concerns] privately, directly to the Indian government and continue to do so,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said.
The issue with tree planting schemes
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GS 3: Environment- Conservation
- The exploitation of forest resources due to uncontrolled and unsustainable practices has degraded forest landscapes.
- The World Bank estimates that the world has lost about 10 million square kilometres of forests since the start of the 20th century.
- The emphasis on forest restoration approaches to bring such degraded ecosystems back to their earlier state was the main purpose of declaring the decade of 2021-2030 as a Decade of Ecosystem Restoration by the United Nations.
- This targeted the restoration of 350 million hectares of degraded land to generate $9 trillion in ecosystem services and sequester an additional 13 gigatons-26 gigatons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
Questionable intent
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GS 3: Linkages between development and spread of extremism
- The Bill tabled by the Maharashtra government to tackle unlawful activities by organisations linked to left-wing extremism is unnecessary, and perhaps even unconstitutional.
- When existing laws seem adequate to tackle extremism, and the area affected by left-wing extremism is limited in the State, the only reason such a proposal has been made could be an oblique intent to crack down on lawyers, dissenters and human rights activists involved in taking up the cause of the marginalised.
- The Bill may fall foul of constitutional provisions, as it contains overbroad terms that may cover individuals and organisations that may pose no threat to public order.
Does India have enough laws to combat superstition?
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- The recent stampede at a religious congregation in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, resulting in more than 120 deaths, has reignited the debate on whether India has adequate legislation to address exploitative religious and superstitious practices.
- Experts have advocated for a national law akin to existing legislation in Maharashtra and Karnataka to effectively address superstition, black magic, witch-hunting, and other inhuman practices.
What is the role of the Finance Commission?
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GS 2: Appointment to various Constitutional posts, powers, functions and responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.
- The sixteenth Finance Commission headed by former Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya has begun its work by inviting suggestions from the public on the mandate set for it by the Centre.
- The latest Finance Commission, which consists of five members including the chairman, was constituted in December last year and is expected to submit its recommendations by October, 2025.
- Its recommendations will be valid for five years starting from April 1, 2026.
How do Assam’s Foreigners Tribunals function?
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GS 2: Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies
- On July 5, the Assam government asked the Border wing of the State’s police not to forward cases of non-Muslims who entered India illegally before 2014 to the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs).
- This was in keeping with the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 that provides a citizenship application window for non-Muslims — Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Jains, and Buddhists — who allegedly fled persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
