Kerala is marking only protected forests as ecologically sensitive area

Kerala is marking only protected forests as ecologically sensitive area

Author(s): M Suchitra

Encroachments in the Western Ghats are being left out of the category

The Congress-led government in Kerala has decided to carry out field-level verification in the Western Ghats to demarcate forest land as Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) in the villages identified by the Kasturirangan Committee. This move has led environment activists to allege that the government is trying to regularise land encroached upon by settlers.

The government has started a field-level survey to refine block-level maps of ESAs. These maps were prepared by a state panel that reviewed the recommendations of the Kasturirangan Committee appointed by the Union environment ministry in 2012.

This committee had identified 13,108 sq km within 123 villages in 12 of 14 districts as falling under ESAs. A majority of these villages are located in Idukki district. However, the state panel has included only 8,016.27 sq km as ESA. (See box: ‘Timeline’)

“The Kerala government has apprised the Centre of its stand that only forest land now protected by the forest department would be recommended for demarcation as ESA. The government’s stand is clear. Farmland will not be counted as ESA,” said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at a press conference. He pointed out that over the years, a lot of people had settled in the Western Ghats region and that the villages were highly populated.

The field survey is being conducted by village panchayat committees chaired by the president of the panchayat. Each committee comprises a village officer, forest range officer, agricultural officer, an official of the survey department and the panchayat secretary as members. The team will earmark protected forest land under a particular survey number and categorise it as ESA while giving another survey number to a farm land within a forest. District collectors will coordinate the exercise.

The Kerala State Biodiversity Board will compile a report on July 27 and send it to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

Timeline   2011: The Madhav Gadgil Committee submitted its report to the Centre, stating that almost three-fourth of the hills, including plantations, cultivated lands and large habitations, be turned into a restricted development zone. The committee was the first to be appointed by the government for conservation of the Western Ghats. 2012: The Kasturirangan Committee, set up to study the Madhav Gadgil Committee report, identified only 37 per cent of the Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive, causing a revision in the Gadgil Committee report recommendations. 2013: In October, the Kerala government set up a three-member panel under Kerala Biodiversity Board Chairperson Oommen V Oommen to study the recommendations of the Kasturirangan Committee. The state panel brought down the area to be notified as ESA. 2014: The state panel submitted its report to the government in January. 2015: On July 17, the state government decided to conduct a field survey to refine block-level maps based on the recommendations of the state panel. The survey began on July 23.

Environment activists protest

Ecologists and green activists in the state have strongly condemned the government’s move. They point out that there have been many encroachments by settlers even after the formation of the Centre’s Forest Conservation Act, 1980. They allege that the settlers are highly influential and enjoy the backing of a section of the Catholic Church and political parties.

In 2002, the state government led by Congress’ A K Antony had regularised all encroachments before 1977.

“The present survey is to regularise all illegal forest encroachments,” says V S Vijayan, former Kerala Biodiversity Board chairperson and member of the Madhav Gadgil Committee. From the conservation point of view, Vijayan adds, the Gadgil Committee recommendations were diluted by the Kasturirangan Committee and further diluted by the state panel.

Harish Vasudevan, lawyer and activist, calls the government’s decision to demarcate only protected forests as ESAs illegal. “The government cannot regularise the encroached forest land by giving it a non-ESA status, as it comes under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Besides, ESA has been defined under the environment protection Act applicable to non-forest areas too,” he says.

The state forest department is engaged in a legal battle over encroachments and many cases are pending in various courts, including the High Court and the Supreme Court. “The government will lose its claim on these lands once it demarcates only the protected forest land as ESA,” Harish adds.

Activists argue that the government should evict illegal encroachers and seize the forest land before it starts demarcation of ESA. “Whenever conservation efforts are initiated, both the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Party highlight farmers’ livelihood issues to cover up the illegal encroachments,” says C R Neelakandan, an environmentalist.

Cardamom Hill Reserve not a forest?

The chief minister stated that the Cardamom Hill Reserve in Idukki district will be classified as non-ESA. The reserve is a huge swathe of evergreen forests spread over 870 sq km in the catchment of the Periyar river. It is ecologically fragile and is located between 760 metres and 1,060 metres on the western slopes of the Western Ghats. Cardamom used to grow naturally on these slopes over vast stretches.

Though notified as a reserve forest by the erstwhile Travancore government in 1897, large areas of the forest were leased out for cardamom cultivation. A portion of the reserve falls within the Mathikettan National Park. There have been many encroachments here in the name of cardamom cultivation, and encroachers have indulged in large-scale tree-felling. In 2002, the Antony government-led decision had regularised encroachments spread over 20,000 hectares in this reserve.

A field visit to the Cardamom Hill Reserve in 2004 by the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court, headed by P V Jayakrishnan, revealed a large number of cases of tree-felling, illegal sale of land, large-scale encroachments, transfer and sale of land and consequent deforestation.

“Cardamom Hill Reserve is ecologically sensitive as well as fragile. However, large-scale destruction of trees, miscellaneous cultivation and land conversion in the Cardamom Hill Reserve has been continuing and this is one of the major reasons for the frequent flash floods and landslips in Idukki district,” says Tony Thomas of One Earth One Life, a non-profit fighting a legal battle in the Supreme Court against encroachment in the reserve.

The survey has met with opposition even from some leaders within the Congress. For instance, V D Satheesan, a Congress MLA, has sought a review of the government’s move in a Facebook post. He has pointed out that the ongoing ESA demarcation will adversely affect the government’s efforts to recover thousands of hectares of forest land from encroachers.

Activists are planning to approach the court against the ongoing survey for demarcation of ESA.

Zimbabwe’s gold rush leaves small-scale miners vulnerable to mercury poisoning

Zimbabwe’s gold rush leaves small-scale miners vulnerable to mercury poisoning

Author(s): DTE Staff

The highly toxic substance used to extract gold from ore leads to a number of complications

As gold is becoming scarce in Zimbabwe’s Mutare river, small-scale miners are becoming more and more vulnerable to mercury poisoning.

So, what is exactly happening here? Illegal miners are relying heavily on mercury to trap the precious yellow metal from the muddy river water. But mercury supplied by smugglers, who buy finished gold products, is highly toxic even though it is widely used to extract gold from ore.

The ongoing practice has made public health officials and environmental experts anxious, as the consequences of mercury poisoning are disastrous. Mercury has also contaminated drinking water, causing neurological damages in children. Taken in small quantities, it leads to hair loss, memory impairment and loss of muscle coordination, health experts say.

Desperate measures

For half a million illegal miners, the effects of mercury poisoning are not a deterrent. The job market in Zimbabwe is shrinking as many agricultural jobs disappeared under President Robert Mugabe’s land reform programme launched in 2000.

Once considered a male bastion, now women have also joined in the gold digging activity. Children are also not left behind as many of them come to work with their mothers. There are about 153,000 women and children engaged in the trade. Mothers cannot afford childcare and bring their babies to work, unaware of the risk.

Minamata convention

Zimbabwe is among the top 10 countries using large quantities of mercury to extract gold. It is also a signatory to the 2013 Minamata Convention on Mercury and is working towards ratification. The treaty is designed to protect human health and the environment from mercury and mercury compounds.

A report by The Centre for Natural Resources Governance (CNRG), a local advocacy group, found that contaminated waste from illegal gold mining is polluting water supply.

It also showed that nursing mothers tested for poisoning in Kadoma area of central Zimbabwe had 25 times higher levels of mercury in their breast milk than considered safe by the World Health Organization.

CNRG expects Zimbabwe to tighten its rein on mercury imports to enable better health and environmental controls in future.

Five reasons to believe the HFC talks are headed in the right direction

Five reasons to believe the HFC talks are headed in the right direction

Author(s): Aditi Sawant

All is not lost for HFC talks as countries made tangible progress in Paris last week

The successes of the multilateral process of the Montreal Protocol are often overshadowed by the tussle over including hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), often resulting in the lack of a definitive amendment to include them.

HFCs are super greenhouse gases that proliferated as a direct result of the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) under the Montreal Protocol.

The 36th working group of parties, which met in Paris last week, started off on a good note by carrying forward the Vienna mandate of trying to reach an agreement over forming a contact group on resolution of the challenges encountered earlier.

It cannot be denied that the Vienna text, as it stands, is at best superficial rhetoric and not real action, but there are five reasons to believe that an HFC amendment is inevitable, if not imminent: 

Momentum in favour of curbing HFCs

Forty countries have now collectively called for an HFC amendment. This shows that a significant number of countries are increasingly aware of the urgent need to control HFCs that have the capacity to trap heat several thousand times more than carbon dioxide.

There are four proposals—North American proposal jointly tabled by the United States of America, Canada and Mexico; Island States proposal put forth by a group of small island countries; the European Union (EU) proposal presented by the 28 EU member states; and lastly the Indian proposal submitted by India.

In April, the African Group also presented a conference room paper (CRP) that called for the phasing down of HFCs. Thus, the support for an HFC amendment seems to come from at least around a 100 countries.

India’s initiative

In the plenary session during the week, India made a presentation on its HFC amendment proposal. Although the proposal leaves a lot to be desired in terms of ambition, it does serve as a starting point for negotiations.

Africa asked for formal structure

The African Group maintained its steadfast commitment to phasing down HFCs. Given that the continent experiences exacerbated impacts of climate change, Senegal, on behalf of 54 countries, urged parties to give the current HFC discussions a more formal structure.

Structured document for clarity

Colombia requested the Ozone Secretariat to provide all countries with a consolidated document that captures the many similarities as well as differences between the amendment proposals. Many countries supported the idea as it would enable parties to understand the implications of the various proposals and use the document as a tool for further negotiations.

Talks made real progress

This was the first time that parties conducted discussions on substantive issues. The informal discussions sought to prioritise challenges listed in the Vienna text, while the plenary saw presentations on the four proposals followed by question-and-answer rounds. Parties candidly discussed issues like baselines and base years, issues related to finance, energy efficiency, exemptions (including exemptions for high ambient temperature countries), intellectual property, technology review and technology transfer and linkages to the HCFC phase-out.

Parties have agreed to reconvene before the Meeting of Parties in November this year. The question that needs to be asked, however, is whether the current negotiating stances taken by countries are adopted in good faith or are they doomed to result in a zero sum game? 

It is hard to ignore the fact that the upcoming Paris climate talks later this year have cast some shadow on HFCs that are essentially a greenhouse gas regulated under the climate regime. 

Both the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Montreal Protocol subscribe to the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR). Any amendment must be ambitious enough to cut HFC consumption significantly from a business-as-usual scenario and must allow for equity in consumption of HFCs between different categories of countries. 

Fairness in terms of sharing the burden to reduce HFCs will go a long way in strengthening global cooperation on climate issues, especially as countries prepare for the Paris climate change negotiations in December.

Civil society groups urge Australia to adopt zero-carbon emission target by 2050

Civil society groups urge Australia to adopt zero-carbon emission target by 2050

Author(s): DTE Staff

The country is the thirteenth largest emitter in the world, with one of the highest per capita emissions

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In a show unprecedented alliance, 51 civil society organisations have written an open letter to the Australian government, urging it to commit to zero-carbon emission target by 2050 at the latest.

Signatories to the letter include Oxfam Australia, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Friends of the Earth International, CARE and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

“Australia is one of the most vulnerable developed countries to climate change,” reads the letter. “The impacts of climate change are exacerbating existing inequalities in Australian communities as low-income households and disadvantaged communities are disproportionately impacted.”

The country is the thirteenth largest emitter in the world, with one of the highest per capita emissions. The letter urges the government to reduce emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2025 and by at least 60 per cent by 2030.

“Australia and Australian people stand to lose so much from the impacts of climate change; (that) it is in our national interest to be amongst the leading nations to ensure the world limits warming to well below 2°C,” the letter says.

Haunted by hormone

Haunted by hormone

Author(s): Kaushik Das Gupta

Androgen levels in some women can match that of men. There is also insufficient evidence to show that testosterone levels are a good predictor of athletic performance

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Illustration: Sorit

TILL JUNE this year, Dutee Chand was the next big thing in Indian athletics. Touted as the next P T Usha, Chand had broken a 14-year-old national junior record in the 100 metres race in May this year and won two gold medals at a junior Asian athletics meet. But in June end, an androgen test sent her aspirations crashing.

The test is the latest means adopted by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) to weed out what it believes are male interlopers in women’s sporting competitions. Adopted in 2011 by IAAF and ratified by the International Olympic Committee a year later, the tests use testosterone levels to decide whether an athlete is feminine enough to take part in women’s competitions. An athlete can compete in this category only if her testosterone levels are below the normal male range— a little over 3 ng/ml. 

Chand failed the test. In medical parlance, the 18-year-old has hyperandrogenism, a condition in which a woman’s body produces more than normal levels of androgens—particularly testosterone. 

Both men and women’s bodies require androgens, the latter in smaller quantities. These hormones are responsible for masculine features such as beard and deep voice. But they are also responsible for positive protein balance, sexual desire, and general well being. They hold the key to muscle strength—a function that IAAF has latched on to in its latest approach to ensure a level playing field in women’s competitions. 

Androgen can't be sole criterion

Androgen levels in some women can match that of men. Results of the test Chand was subjected to put her in that category. “Androgenic hormones have performance-enhancing effects, particularly on strength, power and speed, which may provide a competitive advantage in sports,” notes a Standard Operating Procedure adopted by the Sports Authority of India two years after IAAF’s rule came into effect. 

Internationally, the androgen test has faced criticism. “What makes sex testing so complicated is that there is no one marker in the body we can use to say, ‘This is a man,’ or ‘This is a woman,’” says Katrina Karkazis, a medical anthropologist and senior research scholar at Stanford University’s Centre for Biomedical Ethics. “IAAF is trying to get around that complexity by singling out testosterone levels as the most important aspect of athletic advantage. But athletic advantage cannot be reduced to testosterone levels,” she argues. Rebecca Jordan-Young, associate professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at Columbia University and Karkazis’ collaborator on a Stanford University paper on the IAAF policy, argues, “Hyperandrogenism is just another medical condition. There are many biological reasons some athletes are better than others. Several runners and cyclists have rare mitochondrial variations that give them extraordinary aerobic capacity. Many basketball players have acromegaly, a hormonal condition that results in exceptionally large hands and feet. Such biological differences don’t cause them to be barred from competition.”

Gender testing not new

The concern of sports bodies about men masquerading as females in sports is not a new concern. It dates back to the late 1930s and early 1940s. Amongst those who earned bad press was Mary Louise Edith Weston, whose exceptional performance in the women’s shot put, javelin and discuss throws in the late 1920s and early 1930s earned her the nickname “Devonshire Wonder”. Upon retirement, the British athlete underwent a series of surgeries. Now called Mark, the Devonshire Wonder became the whipping horse of sporting authorities. Then there was ZdenekKoubek, the holder of the women’s world record in 800 metres in 1934 who, after giving up competitive sports in 1936, took up a career in cabaret and asked to be recognised as a man. For many sports administrators, athletes like Weston and Koubek were interlopers in women’s sports. 

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There were demands for compulsory sex tests in international competitions. In 1946, IAAF introduced a rule requiring a gender certificate from female competitors. By the 1960s, this process was deemed too lenient. Gender testing was introduced at the 1966 European Track and Field Championship where female athletes were asked to undergo a visual examination of their sexual features.

Around the same time, IAAF also used rudimentary chromosomal tests to determine the presence of an X or Y chromosome. Polish sprinter Ewa Klobowska was amongst the first to have her femininity questioned on the basis of such test. Klobowska, who won a gold and a bronze medal in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, had an XX/XXY mosaicism, a genetic order. She was disqualified in 1967 because the test revealed that she had one “chromosome too many”. The precise nature of her anomaly was never made public. 

IAAF continued with the chromosomal tests. They were, however, refined and called Barr Body tests, which rested on the premise that women have two X chromosomes while men have one X and one Y chromosome. 

In the mid 1980s, the high profile case of the Spanish hurdler Maria Martinez Patino highlighted this test’s shortcomings. Patino failed a Bar Body test at the World University Games in Kobe, Japan, in 1985. She had an X and Y chromosome, like a male, but due to a hormonal problem—androgen insensitivity disorder—her body did not produce testosterone, which caused her to develop as a woman. She was reinstated six years later. But her best days as an athlete were behind her. She missed qualifying for the 1992 Olympics by a whisker. 

After the embarrassment it faced in Patino’s case, IAAF dropped sex testing in the early 1990s. The Olympic Council followed suit in 2000. Tests were conducted only on complaints. The issue exploded again in 2009 when a South African runner, Caster Semeneya, won a gold medal in 800 metres at the world championship in Berlin. 

Some players complained that Semenya looked extremely masculine. IAAF ordered sex testing, the results of which were not released. Semenya was allowed to keep her medal. 

Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan’s fate was far grim. The 2006 Asian Games silver medallist failed a gender test and was stripped of all medals and records.

Karkazis and Young question the practice. “There is insufficient evidence to set a benchmark for normal testosterone levels in female athletes, let alone persuasive research showing that testosterone levels are a good predictor of athletic performance,” they argue. 

With inputs from Jyotsna Singh

CURRENT AFFAIRS July/28 /2015

CURRENT AFFAIRS July/28 /2015

1.  RAM SEVAK SHARMA IS APPOINTED AS CHAIRMAN OF TRAI:

i.   Ram Sevak Sharma is appointed as Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) 

2. CSL AND HCL FORMED JOINT VENTURE TO PROVIDE TECHNOLOGY SERVICES SOLUTIONS TO BANKS:

i.   Computer Science corporation and Hindustan Computer limited inked an agreement to form a joint venture company to provide technology services and solution to Banking Industry.

ii.  This agreement will advance digital Banking in india

Joint Venture: A business arrangement in which two or more parties agree to pool their resources for the purpose of accomplishing a specific task.

3.  FORMER INDIAN PRESIDENT APJ ABDUL KALAM PASSED AWAY:

i.  Former Indian President Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam Passed Away. He was collapsed during a lecture in the Indian Institute of Management , Shillong.

He is also known as Missile Man.

Kalam authored inspirational Books such as India 20-20, Wings of Fire, Ignited Minds.

He remained 11^th President of India from 2002 to 2007

4.  TERROR ATTACK IN PUNJAB’S DINANAGAR TOWN IN DISTRICT OF GURDASPUR:

i.  Militants have killed seven persons, 3 civilians and four policeman including Superintendent  of Police ‘Baljit Singh’.

ii.  All militants were killed, they attacked a passenger bus and stormed a police station in Dinanagar.

5.  UNION GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED 1000 CRORE RUPEES FOR INDO-BANGLA RAIL LINK:

i.  Union Government Sanctioned 1000 crore rupees for the laying of 15.06 km long track to connect Indian Railways with Bangladesh to north east India.

ii.  The Project will completed by 2017.

·         Indian Railway Union Minister: Suresh Prabhu.

·         PM of Bangladesh – Sheikh Hasina

·         Currency of Bangladesh – Bangladeshi taka

·         Capital of Bangladesh - Dhaka

CURRENT AFFAIRS July/26 & 27/2015

CURRENT AFFAIRS July/26 & 27/2015

1.  AJAY MATHUR BECOMES DIRECTOR GENERAL OF TERI:

i.   Ajay Mathur is appointed a the Director General of TERI.

ii.  Ajay Mathur has succeeded R K Pachauri who was removed from the top most position over sexual harassment charges.

TERI- The Energy and Resources Institute.

2.  DEENDAYAL UPADHYAYA GRAM JYOTI YOJANA:

i.   PM Narendra Modi launched Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana in Patna.

ii.  The Scheme has an outlay of 76000 crore rupees out of which Union Government will provide 63000 crore rupees.

3.  ASIA’S FABULOUS 50 LIST 2015:

i.  Forbes Asia’s Fabulous 50 list of the year 2015 is released.

ii.  The list is dominated by 25 Chinese firms followed by India’s 10.

iii.  The most valuable company on the list is Tencent Where as the biggest is Lenovo.

4. PETER HIGGS RECEIVED ROYAL SOCIETY’S GOPLEY MEDAL:

i. Nobel Prize Winner Professor Peter Higgs won the Royal Society’s Copley Medal.

ii.  Royal Society’s Copley Medal is the World’s oldest Scientific Prize.

iii. With the Medal, Higgs joined the ranks of Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

CURRENT AFFAIRS July/24 &25/2015

CURRENT AFFAIRS July/24 &25/2015

1.  NATIONAL BROADCASTING DAY:

i.   National Broadcasting Day was observed on 23^rd July 2015 across the country.

ii.  On this day, the Indian Broadcasting Company stated radio broadcasting from Bombay station.

iii. To mark the day, All India Radio (AIR) organized a symposium on the subject Creation of New India and Broadcasting medium in New Delhi.

2.  WORLD BOOK CAPITAL 2017:

i.   CONAKRY is named as World Book Capital for 2017 by UNESCO.

ii.  CONARKY is the capital city of the Republic of Guinea.

iii.  This is the 17^th World Book Capital.

Note: World Book Capital for 2015- Incheon

World Book Capital for 2016 – Wroclaw

3.  FORTUNE 500 LIST RELEASED:

i.  61^st Edition of Fortune 500 list 2015 is released

ii.  Fortune 500 list 2015 includes 7 Indian Companies in the list:

iii.  Retail giant Walmart topped the list.

Note: Indian Companies included in the list are: Indian oil, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and ONGC.

4. INDIA RANKED 12^TH IN TERMS OF POWER GENERATION FROM NUCLEAR SOURCE;

i. India is placed at 12^th position in terms of power generation from nuclear source.

ii.  India’s total power generation from nuclear reactor is 5308 MW.

iii.  USA topped the list followed by France and Japan.