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Daily News Analysis – May 17, 2019

Source: The Hindu, Live Mint and Indian Express

BIOSPHERE RESERVE

Context: Scorching heat forcing animals out of Seshachalam biosphere.

The intensity of heat this year is said to be the highest in the biosphere. As a result, even shy and critically endangered species such as the pangolin and the slender loris are venturing out of their habitat. IUCN has listed both of these species as Endangered.

Essentials

Biosphere Reserve (BR)

  • Biosphere Reserve (BR) is an international designation by UNESCO for representative parts of natural and cultural landscapes extending over large area of terrestrial or coastal/marine ecosystems or a combination thereof.
  • BRs are designated to deal with one of the most important questions of reconciling the conservation of biodiversity, the quest for economic and social development and maintenance of associated cultural values.
  • BRs are thus special environments for both people and the nature and are living examples of how human beings and nature can co-exist while respecting each other’s needs.

Criteria for designation of BR

  • A site that must contain an effectively protected and minimally disturbed core area of value of nature conservation.
  • The core area should be typical of a bio-geographical unit and large enough to sustain viable populations representing all trophic levels in the ecosystem.
  • The management authority is to ensure the involvement/cooperation of local communities to link biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development while managing and containing the conflicts.
  • Areas potential for preservation of traditional tribal or rural modes of living for harmonious use of environment.

Structure and functions of BR:

  • Biosphere reserves are demarcated into following 3 inter-related zones:
  • Core Zone
  • A core zone is usually a National Park or Sanctuary, protected/regulated mostly under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The core zone is kept free from human pressures external to the system.
  • Buffer Zone
  • Human activities if these do not adversely affect the ecological diversity are permitted in the buffer zone to reduce its effect on core zone and include limited recreation, tourism, fishing, grazing, etc.
  • Transition Zone
  • The transition area is the outermost part of a biosphere reserve.
  • This is usually not delimited one.
  • Settlements, crop lands, managed forests and area for intensive recreation and other economic uses are characteristics of this region.

Biosphere Reserves in India

  • There are 18 Biosphere Reserves in the country.
  • India is a signatory to the landscape approach supported by UNESCO Man and Biosphere (MAB) programme.
  • A scheme called Biosphere Reserve is being implemented by the Government, in which financial assistance is given in 90:10 ratio to the North Eastern Region States and three Himalayan states and in the ratio of 60:40 to other states for maintenance, improvement and development of certain items.

LIST OF BIOSPHERE RESERVES*:
1) Cold Desert, Himachal Pradesh
2) Nanda Devi, Uttrakhand
3) Khangchendzonga, Sikkim (in 2018)
4) Dehang-Debang, Arunachal Pradesh
5) Manas, Assam
6) Dibru-Saikhowa, Assam
7) Nokrek, Meghalaya
8) Panna, Madhya Pradesh
9) Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh
10) Achanakmar-Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh-Chattisgarh
11) Kachchh, Gujarat
12) Similipal, Odisha
13) Sundarban, West Bengal
14) Seshachalam, Andhra Pradesh
15) Agasthyamala, Karnataka-Tamil Nadu-Kerala
16) Nilgiri, Tamil Nadu-Kerala
17) Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu
18) Great Nicobar, Andaman & Nicobar Island

  • * Those are in bold are also included in the UNESCO designated World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR).

WEATHER BASED CROP INSURANCE SCHEME

Context: Weather based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) is a unique Weather based Insurance Product designed to provide insurance protection against losses in crop yield resulting from adverse weather incidences.

It provides payout against adverse rainfall incidence (both deficit & excess) during Kharif and adverse incidence in weather parameters like frost, heat, relative humidity, un-seasonal rainfall etc. during Rabi. It is not Yield guarantee insurance.

Essentials

Crops covered

  • Major Food crops (Cereals, Millets & Pulses) & Oilseeds
  • Commercial / Horticultural crops

Farmers covered

  • All farmers including sharecroppers and tenant farmers growing the notified crops in the notified areas are eligible for coverage.
  • However, farmers should have insurable interest on the insured crop.
  • The non-loanee farmers are required to submit necessary documentary evidence of land records and / or applicable contract / agreements details (in case of sharecroppers / tenant farmers).
  • All farmers availing Seasonal Agricultural Operations (SAO) loans from Financial Institutions (i.e. loanee farmers) for the crop(s) notified are covered on compulsory basis.
  • The Scheme is optional for the non-loanee farmers. They can choose between WBCIS and PMFBY, and also the insurance company.

Perils covered

  • Rainfall – Deficit Rainfall, Excess rainfall, Unseasonal Rainfall, Rainy days, Dry-spell, Dry days
  • Relative Humidity
  • Temperature – High temperature (heat), Low temperature

Wind Speed

  • A combination of the above
  • Hailstorms, cloud-burst may also be covered as Add-on/Index-Plus products for those farmers who have already taken normal coverage under WBCIS.
  • The perils listed above are only indicative and not exhaustive, any addition deletion may be considered by insurance companies based on availability of relevant data.
  • Both public sector and private sector General Insurance Companies can implement WBCIS.
    Under Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS),
  • There is one premium rate on pan-India basis for farmers which is maximum 1.5%, 2% and 5% of sum insured for Rabi, Kharif and annual horticultural/ commercial crops, respectively.

BASEL CONVENTION AMENDMENT A LET-DOWN

Context: The 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 14) to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 29 April to 10 May 2019.

 Essentials

  • COP 14 is held jointly and back-to-back with Rotterdam Convention COP 9 and Stockholm Convention on COP 9.
  • The “Triple COPs” convene under the theme, ‘Clean Planet, Healthy People: Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste.’
  • A proposal by India to prevent developed countries from dumping their electronic and plastic waste onto developing countries, was defeated at the recently concluded meeting of the Basel Convention in Geneva.
  • India’s laws currently don’t allow electronic and plastic waste to be imported into the country. Plastic and electronic waste recyclers in Special Economic Zones were permitted to import waste for recycling. However, they will not be allowed to do so after August 31 this year.
  • India and Nigeria were the only countries that had strongly opposed the guidelines, pushed by the European Union, to dilute safeguards against the trans-boundary movement of e-waste.
  • A key outcome of the 14th meeting of the Basel Convention was an amendment to the Convention that includes plastic waste in a legally-binding framework which would make global trade in plastic waste more transparent and better regulated, whilst also ensuring that its management is safer for human health and the environment.
  • It would empower developing countries to refuse “dumping plastic waste” by others.
  • The meeting also undertook to a ban on two toxic chemical groups – Dicofol and Perfluorooctanoic Acid, plus related compounds.

 Do you know?

  • China — world’s biggest importer of plastic scrap in 2017 — enacted the ‘National Sword’ policy on January 1, 2018, to tackle plastic pollution caused due to its imports.

 BRS Conventions – Brief Background

  • The Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions are multilateral environmental agreements, which share the common objective of protecting human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals and wastes.
  • Meetings of the COPs of BRS Conventions are generally held every alternate year.

Basel Convention

  • The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, usually known as the Basel Convention, is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries (LDCs). It does not, however, address the movement of radioactive waste.
  • The Convention is also intended to:
  • minimize the amount and toxicity of wastes generated,
  • to ensure their environmentally sound management as closely as possible to the source of generation, and
  • to assist LDCs in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate.
  • As of October 2018, 186 states and the European Union are parties to the Convention.
  • Haiti and the United States have signed the Convention but not ratified it.
  • Its scope of application covers a wide range of wastes defined as “hazardous wastes” based on their origin and/or composition and their characteristics, as well as two types of wastes defined as “other wastes” – household waste and incinerator ash.
  • Currently, electronic waste, mobile phones, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) and compounds used in industry as heat exchange fluids, in electric transformers and capacitors are among the wastes regulated by the Basel Convention.
  • India ratified the Convention in June 1992.

Rotterdam Convention

  • The Rotterdam Convention is a multilateral environmental agreement which prescribes obligations on the importers and exporters of certain hazardous chemicals.
  • As of now, a total of 47 chemicals are listed in Annex III of the Convention.  Out of these, 33 are pesticides and 14 industrial chemicals, which are subject to  Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure.
  • India ratified the Convention in May
  • Among the chemical substances covered under the Convention, mercury compounds, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) are also substances that are found in e-waste.

Stockholm Convention

  • The Stockholm Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from a class of chemicals known as Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
  • These remain intact in the environment for long periods (persistent), become widely distributed geographically (long range transport), accumulate in the fatty tissue of humans and wildlife (bioaccumulation), and have a harmful impact on human health, or on environment (toxic).
  • Till date, 26 chemicals are listed as POPs under the Stockholm Convention. As of now, India has ratified only the 12 initially listed POPs.
  • India ratified the Convention in January 2006.

FOUNDATIONAL AGREEMENTS BETWEEN INDIA AND U.S.

Context: India has signed three of the four foundational agreements with the U.S., and discussions are under way on the final one, Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement.

 Essentials

Foundational Agreements between India and U.S.

  • India has already signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) and the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA).
  • The most significant of them is LEMOA, which gives both nations access to each other’s military facilities. But it does not make it automatic or obligatory.
  • The COMCASA provides the legal mechanism to allow for exchange of cyber communications, surveillance data, transfer of communication equipment and setting up secure (encrypted) communication channels from the U.S. origin military platforms.
  • But U.S. is pressing India to sign Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Information and Services Cooperation.
  • India fears that signing these agreements would mean compromising India’s age-old military-ties with Russia and access to their weaponry system.
  • These foundational agreements are essential to take high technology cooperation to the next level like allowing India to purchase Guardian Avenger armed drones from the U.S.

 Do you know?

  • Today, the U.S. is the country with which India undertakes the largest number of military exercises.
  • In 2016, India was designated as a ‘Major Defence Partner’
  • Recently, India has been included in the Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 (STA-1) category, putting it on a par with allies in terms of technology access.

YEMEN CRISIS

Context: The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen carried out several air strikes on the Houthi-held capital Sana’a on Thursday after the Iranian-aligned movement claimed responsibility for drone attacks on Saudi oil installations.

Essentials

Yemen crisis: Who is fighting whom?

  • Yemen, one of the Arab world’s poorest countries, has been devastated by a civil war.

How did the war start?

  • Failed political transition following an Arab Spring uprising that forced its longtime authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hand over power to his deputy Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, in 2011.

President Hadi struggled to deal with a variety of problems, including

  • attacks by al-Qaeda,
  • a separatist movement in the south,
  • the continuing loyalty of many military officers to Mr Saleh, as well as
  • corruption, unemployment and food insecurity.
  • The Houthi movement (by Yemen’s Zaidi Shia Muslim minority) took advantage of the new president’s weakness by taking control of their northern heartland of Saada province and neighbouring areas and later forcing Mr Hadi to flee abroad.
  • Disillusioned with the transition, many ordinary Yemenis – including Sunnis – supported the Houthis.
  • Alarmed by the rise of Houthis – believed to be backed militarily by regional Shia power Iran, Saudi Arabia and other mostly Sunni Arab states (UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, Sudan, Egypt) began an air campaign aimed at restoring Mr Hadi’s government.
  • The coalition received logistical and intelligence support from the US, UK and France.
  • Island of Socotra – a UNESCO world Heritage Site where UAE, coalition partner of Saudi Arabia had deployed its security forces.

Operation Golden Victory

  • A large-scale ground operation to liberate Yemen’s Hodeidah city and its main port west of the country.
  • It has been launched by Yemen forces supported by the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia.

Operation Rahat:

  • It was launched by India to evacuate its citizens from Yemen in 2015 after an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia and UAE intervened in Yemen.
  • India has also teamed up with the United Arab Emirates in providing major humanitarian and post-traumatic medical support to the soldiers of Yemen who were injured in the ongoing war against the rebels of that country.
  • So far, India has treated victims from Iraq and Syria on a bilateral basis.
  • However this is the first time that such an operation is being conducted through support from a third country – the UAE.

News in brief

SIMBEX

  • The 26th edition of the Singapore India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX) scheduled from May 16 to 22. SIMBEX is the longest uninterrupted naval exercise that India has with any other country.

Manufacturing

  • The contribution of manufacturing to GDP in 2017 was only about 16%, a stagnation since the economic reforms began in 1991. In India manufacturing has never been the leading sector in the economy other than during the Second and Third Plan periods.

Farmers’ Parliament

  • Meghalaya govt. recently clears setting up of a farmers’ panel.
  • The ‘farmers’ parliament’, the first of its kind in the country, was organised by Meghalaya in December 2018 and attended by scientists, bureaucrats, apart from farmers, to discuss issues related to the agriculture situation in the State.
  • The Meghalayan government is also planning to observe 2020 as the year of farmers.

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