Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 29TH March 2022

NEWS

The standing committee of the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) has rejected the proposal of the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL) to build a concrete road to Kodachadri hills cutting through Mookambika Wildlife Sanctuary

NATIONAL BOARD FOR WILDLIFE

• Statutory Organization
• Constituted under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972
• Role is “advisory” in nature
• Advises the Central Government on framing policies and measures for conservation of wildlife in the country
• Primary function of the Board is to promote the conservation and development of wildlife and forests
• Power to review all wildlife-related matters and approve projects in and around national parks and sanctuaries.
• No alternation of boundaries in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries can be done without approval of the NBWL.
• Composition: The NBWL is chaired by the Prime Minister. It has 47 members including the Prime Minister. Among these, 19 members are ex-officio members. Other members include three Members of Parliament (two from Lok Sabha and one from Rajya Sabha), five NGOs and 10 eminent ecologists, conservationists and environmentalists.

NEWS

The milestone of having 50,000 open defecation-free (ODF) Plus villages has been crossed by the country.

ODF PLUS VILLAGE

• Defined as “a village which sustains its Open Defecation Free (ODF) status, ensures solid and liquid waste management and is visually clean.”
• Among the top performing States are Telangana with 13 thousand 960 ODF Plus villages followed by Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.
• Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen Phase-II was launched in February 2020 with the aim to ensure that all villages in the country can declare themselves as ODF Plus by the end of 2024.
• The mission towards becoming ODF Plus has several components including biodegradable waste management including the GOBARdhan Scheme, Grey water management, Plastic waste management and Faecal sludge management.
• ODF Plus villages have been divided into three categories, Aspiring, Rising, and Model, to showcase their progress.

NEWS

Zojila tunnel deadline advanced to 2024

ZOJILA TUNNEL

• India’s longest road tunnel
• Asia’s longest bi-directional tunnel
• Total Length - 14.15 km
• Project begun in 2018
• A connecting tunnel from Z-Morh on NH1 to the Zojila tunnel will be built in the Zojila Ghats between Sonmarg and Kargil
• Will allow travel between Srinagar and Ladakh throughout the year
• Expected to lead to integrated development of both Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh
• Work on the entire 33-km span is divided into two divisions

ZOJILA PASS

• High mountain pass in Jammu and Kashmir
• Located on National Highway 1 connecting Srinagar in Kashmir Valley to Leh in Ladakh region
• Runs at an elevation of approximately 3,528 metres (11,575 ft), and is the second highest pass after Fotu La on the Srinagar-Leh National Highway.
• Every year due to heavy snowfall, vehicle flow stops for 4 months during winter from December to April
• During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, it was seized by Pakistani supported invaders in 1948 in their campaign to capture Ladakh. The pass was re-captured by Indian forces on 1 November in an assault codenamed Operation Bison, which achieved success primarily due to the surprise use of tanks, then the highest altitude at which tanks had operated in combat in the world

NEWS

COP-4 Minamata Convention on Mercury, took place in Bali, Indonesia recently

WHAT HAPPPENED AT COP

• Resumed after the conclusion of the first online segment which was held in November 2021
• Covered several crucial topics, like the framework to evaluate the Convention’s effectiveness
• Annex A and B that contain information related to all mercury-added products, and their manufacturing processes were also reviewed
• Decided to tackle the challenges of biodiversity loss, climate change, and waste and pollution
• Phasing out of eight mercury-added products like cold cathode fluorescent lamps, compact fluorescent lamps, paper, photograph film, and propellant for satellites was listed
• Bali Declaration was signed

BALI DECLARATION

• Presented by Government of Indonesia and United Nations
• Aim - Combating Global Illegal Trade of Mercury.
• Declaration calls upon parties to:
  • Develop practical tools and notification and information-sharing systems for monitoring and managing trade in mercury
  • Exchange experiences and practices relating to combating illegal trade in mercury, including reducing the use of mercury in artisanal and small-scale gold mining
  • Share examples of national legislation and data and information related to such trade

MINAMATA CONVENTION

• Most recent global agreement on environment and health
• Adopted in 2013 and entered into force on August 16, 2017.
• A total of 137 parties have been working together to control the supply and trade of mercury, reduce the use, emissions, and release of mercury, raise public awareness and build necessary institutional capacity since 2017.
• Highlights of the Minamata convention:
  • Ban on new mercury mines, the phase-out of existing ones
  • The phase-out and phase-down of mercury use in several products and processes
  • Control measures on emissions to air and on releases to land and water
  • The regulation of the informal sector of artisanal and small-scale gold mining.
  • The Convention also addresses interim storage of mercury and its disposal once it becomes waste, sites contaminated by mercury as well as health issues.

MERCURY

• Naturally occurring element that can be found in the air, water, and soil.
• Exposure to mercury – even small amounts – may cause major health problems, and is a threat to the development of a child in utero and early in life.
• It is considered to have toxic effects on the nervous, digestive, and immune systems, as well as the lungs, kidneys, skin, and eyes.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) considers mercury as one of the top 10 chemicals or groups of chemicals of major public health concern.
• People are more vulnerable to Minamata disease when they consume methylmercury (an organic compound) from fish and shellfish.
• Minamata Disease: A methylmercury poisoning disorder that was first described in the inhabitants of the Minamata Bay, Japan, as a result of eating fish contaminated with mercury industrial waste.
• Peripheral sensory loss, tremors, and hearing and visual loss are all characteristics of the disease.
• Methylmercury is not the same as ethyl mercury. Ethyl mercury is used as a preservative in some vaccines and is not harmful to one's health.
• Sources
  • Natural sources include volcanic eruptions and ocean emissions.
  • Anthropogenic (produced by humans) emissions include mercury released from fuels or raw materials, as well as its utilization in products or industrial processes.
  • Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) is the largest source of anthropogenic mercury emissions (37.7%), followed by stationary coal combustion (21 percent).
  • Nonferrous metals production (15%) and cement production (11 percent) are also major sources of emissions.
  • Globally, 10-20 million people are employed in the ASGM sector, with many of them using mercury on a daily basis.

NEWS

In a recent study, Micro-plastics was discovered from Human Blood

WHAT ARE MICROPLASTICS?

• Tiny bits of various types of plastic found in the environment
• Name is used to differentiate them from “macroplastics” such as bottles and bags made of plastic
• No universal agreement on the size that fits this bill — the U.S. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the European Chemical Agency define microplastic as less than 5mm in length
• For the purposes of this study, since the authors were interested in measuring the quantities of plastic that can cross the membranes and diffuse into the body via the blood stream, the authors have an upper limit on the size of the particles as 0.0007 millimetre

DOES THE PRESENCE OF MICROPLASTICS IN BLOOD HAVE HEALTH IMPACTS

• It is not yet clear if these microplastics can cross over from the blood stream to deposit in organs and cause diseases
• Human placenta has shown to be permeable to tiny particles of polystyrene ( 50, 80 and 24 nanometre beads)
• Experiments on rats where its lungs were exposed to polystryrene spheres (20 nanometre) led to translocation of the nanoparticles to the placental and foetal tissue
• Oral administration of microplastics in rats led to accumulation of these in the liver, kidney and gut

CONTEXT

Leaders of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) will attend a summit meeting of the regional organisation. The meet, which is to be held in virtual mode, will be hosted by Sri Lanka, the current BIMSTEC chair.

BIMSTEC

• Founded in 1997
• Seven-members, which includes the littoral states of India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Thailand is a member too) and the land-locked states of Nepal and Bhutan
• 14 pillars for special focus - trade and investment, transport and communication, energy, tourism, technology, fisheries, agriculture, public health, poverty alleviation, counter terrorism and transnational crime, environment and disaster management, people-to-people contact, cultural cooperation and climate change
• Segmented approach has resulted in omnibus end summit communiqués full of aspirations rather than action

BAY OF BENGAL MARITIME DIALOGUE (BOBMD)

• Organised recently by the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and the Pathfinder Foundation
• Brought together government officials, maritime experts, and representatives of prominent think tanks from Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia
• Participants called for stepped up efforts in areas such as environmental protection; scientific research; curtailing illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, as well as the development of standard operating procedures that could govern interaction between fishing vessels of one country with maritime law enforcement agencies of another.

BAY OF BENGAL ECO-SYSTEM

• Bay of Bengal is home to a large network of beautiful yet fragile estuaries, mangrove forests of around 15,792 square kilometres, coral reefs of around 8,471 sq.km, sea grass meadows and mass nesting sites of sea turtles
• Annual loss of mangrove areas is estimated at 0.4% to 1.7% and coral reefs at 0.7%. It is predicted that the sea level will increase 0.5 metres in the next 50 years
• There have been 13 cyclonic storms in the last five years
• Bay is an important source of natural resources for a coastal population of approximately 185 million people
• Fishermen population alone is estimated to be around 3.7 million, with an annual fish catch of around six million tonnes, constituting 7% of the world’s catch and valued at around U.S.$4 billion
• Around 4,15,000 fishing boats operate in the Bay and it is estimated that 33% of fish stocks are fished unsustainably
• According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Bay of Bengal is one of IUU fishing hotspots in the Asia-Pacific.

CHALLENGES IN BAY OF BENGAL

• Emergence of a dead zone with zero oxygen where no fish survive
• Leaching of plastic from rivers as well as the Indian Ocean
• Destruction of natural protection against floods such as mangroves
• Sea erosion
• Growing population pressure and industrial growth in the coastal areas and consequently, huge quantities of untreated waste flow
• Security threats such as terrorism, piracy and tensions between countries caused by the arrests of fishermen who cross maritime boundaries are additional problems
• Problem of fishermen crossing into the territorial waters of neighbouring countries affect India and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and Myanmar (also Pakistan on the west coast)

NEED FOR REGIONAL INTERACTION

• Blue economy potential of the Bay of Bengal is huge
• Many opportunities to develop maritime trade, shipping, aquaculture and tourism
• Tapping opportunities requires coordinated and concerted action by governments, scientists and other experts
• BIMSTEC Summit must create a new regional mechanism for coordinated activities on maritime issues of a transboundary nature. This mechanism must initiate urgent measures to strengthen fisheries management, promote sustainable fishing methods, establish protected areas and develop frameworks to prevent and manage pollution, especially industrial and agricultural waste as well as oil spills
• There is also a need for greater scientific research on the impact of climate change in general and on fisheries in particular
• At present, there is limited cooperation between countries of the region in marine research. Most BIMSTEC countries have premier institutions and excellent scientists but their interaction with the West is far more than within the region. The use of modern technology and improved fishing practices can go a long way in restoring the health of the Bay.

PRIORITY AREAS

• Marine environmental protection must become a priority area for cooperation in the Bay of Bengal
• Enforcement must be strengthened and information shared on best practices. Regional protocols need to be developed and guidelines and standards on pollution control established
• Decision-making must be based on science and reliable data, information and tools.
• Need for home-grown solutions based on capabilities of local institutions and for mutual learning through regional success stories
• Need to create regional frameworks for data collection. Participatory approaches must be evolved for near-real-time stock assessment and the creation of an regional open fisheries data alliance
• Bay of Bengal Programme (BOBP), an inter-governmental organisation based in Chennai, is doing good work to promote sustainable fishing
• Bay Of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem (BOBLME) project is also being launched by the FAO with funding from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and others. The BIMSTEC summit must express full support for both BOBP and BOBLME
• Summit must mandate officials to come up with measures to curtail unsustainable as well as IUU fishing. These could include setting up an international vessel tracking system and making it mandatory for vessels to be equipped with automatic identification system (AIS) trackers; establishing a regional fishing vessel registry system and publishing vessel licence lists to help identify illegal vessels; increasing monitoring, control and surveillance in IUU fishing hotspots; establishing regional guidelines on how to deter and prevent IUU practices; improving the implementation of joint regional patrols, and regional fishing moratoriums and outreach programmes targeted at fisherfolk
• Laws and policies in littoral states must be harmonised and the humanitarian treatment of fishermen ensured during any encounter with maritime law enforcement agencies.

CONCLUSION

The challenges that confront the Bay of Bengal region brook no more delay. BIMSTEC must arise, awake and act before it is too late. The summit must set in process regular meetings of officials, supported by scientists and experts, to tackle illegal and unsustainable fishing as well as prevent the further environmental degradation of the Bay of Bengal.

• Punjab Chief Minister announced home delivery of foodgrains to beneficiaries. Under the Ghar Ghar Ration Yojna, the state government would deliver wheat, packed in bags, at the doorstep of the beneficiaries
• The government introduced the Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022 in Lok Sabha amid strong protests from the Opposition. The Bill proposes to allow the police and prison authorities to collect, store and analyse physical and biological samples including retina and iris scans.
• P V Sindhu won the Swiss Open 2022 defeating Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in the finals of the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament held in Basel, Switzerland.
• ‘Prasthan’ is an offshore security exercise that was conducted in Mumbai’s Offshore Development Area (ODA) recently. This exercise was conducted under the aegis of the Western Naval Command’s Headquarters.
• According to the newly released National Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey 2019-2021, the highest incidents of pulmonary tuberculosis cases across the country were recorded in Delhi with the lowest being in Kerala.