22 July 2024

• Environment: India ranks third globally for net forest gain (2010 to 2020) but 10 million hectares are degraded by encroachment.
• Disaster Management: National Landslide Forecasting Centre inaugurated by Union Minister G Kishan Reddy. Bhusanket portal and Bhooskhalan app launched.
• Wildlife: Kerala's elephant population declined from 1,920 in 2023 to 1,793, attributed to climate-driven migration.
• Governance: Japan-India carbon crediting and Article 361 judicial scrutiny continued as carry-forward topics.

GS area: Environment and Ecology

India ranks third globally for net forest gain between 2010 and 2020, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. Yet significant degradation persists.

• Forest and tree cover: 24.62 per cent of India's geographical area. Forest cover accounts for 21.71 per cent; tree cover outside forests contributes 2.91 per cent (India State of Forest Report).
• Top states by forest area: Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Maharashtra.
• Degradation scale: Approximately 10 million hectares affected by encroachment. About 5.7 million hectares of forest have been repurposed since independence for development, agriculture, and settlements.
• Quality versus quantity: India's net gain is partly from monoculture plantations that are counted as "forest" but lack the biodiversity of natural forests. Teak and eucalyptus monocultures provide few ecosystem services compared to multi-species natural forests.
• India's NDC commitment: Creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent through forest and tree cover by 2030.
• UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021 to 2030): Global target of restoring 350 million hectares. India's Bonn Challenge pledge is to restore 26 million hectares.

Static linkage: Forest cover (Environment), India's climate commitments.

GS area: Geography, Disaster Management

Union Minister G Kishan Reddy inaugurated the National Landslide Forecasting Centre (NLFC) under the Geological Survey of India.

• Digital tools launched: Bhusanket Web Portal (for real-time landslide risk monitoring with satellite and rain gauge data) and Bhooskhalan Mobile App (push alerts to users in high-risk zones).
• National target: Operational nationwide landslide early warning system by 2030.
• India's vulnerability profile:
  • Over 12 per cent of India's geographical area is susceptible.
  • 66 per cent of susceptibility is in the north-western Himalayas.
  • 19 per cent in north-eastern Himalayas.
  • 14 per cent in Western Ghats and Nilgiris.
  • Rudraprayag and Tehri Garhwal districts carry the highest risk.
• Key triggers: Intense or prolonged rainfall. Cloudbursts. Seismic activity along active fault zones.
• National Landslide Susceptibility Mapping: Currently covers 0.42 million sq km at 1:50,000 scale. Provides input to district disaster management authorities.

Static linkage: Landslides (Disaster Management), Indian geography (Himalayas).

GS area: Environment and Ecology, Geography

The captive elephant census in Kerala showed a decline from 1,920 elephants in 2023 to 1,793, attributed to climate-driven migration to other states and deaths.

• Kerala's elephant significance: Kerala has the largest captive elephant population in India. Elephants are deeply embedded in temple festivals and cultural life.
• Wild elephant range: The Western Ghats landscape stretching across Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu is the core habitat of the South Indian elephant population. The elephant is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List and in Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act.
• Human-elephant conflict: Kerala reports more human-elephant conflict deaths than most states, linked to shrinking forest corridors and expansion of settlements into elephant habitat.
• Project Elephant: Launched in 1992 to protect elephants and their habitats. Elephant Reserves have been created across major elephant-bearing landscapes.

Static linkage: Wildlife conservation (Environment), Western Ghats ecology.

GS area: Polity

The Supreme Court agreed to examine the constitutional validity of Article 361, which grants the President and Governors immunity from criminal proceedings during their term.

• Article 361: No criminal proceedings shall be instituted or continued against the President or the Governor of a State in any court during his term of office. No process for arrest or imprisonment shall be issued against the President or Governor.
• Civil proceedings: Courts can proceed civilly against a Governor with 2 months' notice required beforehand.
• Trigger: A criminal complaint was filed against a sitting Governor. The victim's plea reached the Supreme Court.
• Tension: Article 361 was intended to protect constitutional heads from politically motivated prosecutions. But it can also shield genuine wrongdoing from accountability during the term.
• Comparison: Parliamentary privilege under Article 105 protects MPs from proceedings for anything said in Parliament, but does not grant blanket criminal immunity. The Governor's immunity is broader.

Static linkage: Constitutional offices (Polity), fundamental rights versus constitutional immunities.

GS area: Environment, International Relations

India-Japan Joint Crediting Mechanism is in operation for verified emission reductions.

• Mechanism: Japan finances clean energy or efficiency projects in India. Independent verifiers certify the emission reduction. Credits are issued in the registry and Japan claims them toward its Nationally Determined Contribution.
• India's benefit: Access to Japanese technology and financing for projects that might not be commercially viable without external support.
• Integrity requirement: Additionality (emission reduction would not have occurred without the mechanism) and permanence (the reduction is lasting) must both be demonstrated.
• Scale: The JCM is bilateral and relatively small-scale compared to the Paris Agreement's Article 6 market mechanisms, which are being designed for larger multilateral trading.

Static linkage: Climate finance (Environment), India-Japan relations.

• Phlogacanthus sudhansusekharii: New plant species from the Acanthaceae family discovered in Arunachal Pradesh. The diversity of Arunachal Pradesh's forests continues to yield new species. The genus Phlogacanthus is found in South and Southeast Asia.
• Carbon crediting and double-counting prevention: The India-Japan JCM uses a shared registry to prevent both countries from claiming the same emission reduction. India's domestic carbon market under BEE runs a separate registry.
• Uranium in drinking water: A BARC study found that the safe limit for uranium in drinking water could be set at 60 micrograms per litre based on health data, compared to the current BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) standard of 30 micrograms per litre. The study disputes the methodology of the WHO guideline and the BIS limit. This is an area of ongoing scientific debate.