12 August 2025

• Polity: Ladakh statehood demand intensifies : Sonam Wangchuk leads protest in Kargil for Sixth Schedule protection.
• Judiciary: Supreme Court orders removal of stray dogs from Delhi-NCR; 5,700 annual rabies deaths cited.
• Education: Revised Income Tax Bill 2025 : 566 Parliamentary committee recommendations incorporated.
• Environment: World Elephant Day 2025 in Coimbatore focuses on human-elephant conflict strategies.
• Geography: Dardanelles Strait temporarily closed due to wildfires near Çanakkale in Turkey.

GS area: Polity, Governance

A major protest led by Sonam Wangchuk and others took place in Kargil, Ladakh demanding statehood and inclusion under the Sixth Schedule.

• Ladakh's current status: Union territory without a legislature since the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. The Lieutenant Governor governs with significant central direction.
• Sixth Schedule: Currently covers tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. It creates Autonomous District Councils with powers over land, forests, agriculture and village administration. Application to Ladakh would give the Ladakhi tribes similar constitutional protection.
• Statehood demand: A state legislature would give Ladakh elected representatives who debate and pass laws. UT without legislature status lacks this democratic layer.
• Why August 5 anniversary matters: August 5, 2019 was when Article 370 was abrogated. Ladakhi politicians and civil society leaders view the anniversary as an occasion to assess what the reorganisation delivered versus what was promised.
• Background: The Ladakh Hill Development Council (LAHDC) exists for Leh and Kargil but its powers are advisory rather than legislative.

Static linkage: Sixth Schedule, Article 370, tribal rights, Polity.

GS area: Polity (Judiciary), Society

The Supreme Court directed complete removal of free-ranging dogs from Delhi, Noida, Gurugram and Ghaziabad.

• Scale of problem: Approximately 5,700 rabies deaths occur in India annually. 95 per cent are linked to dog bites.
• Infrastructure ordered: Shelters to accommodate 5,000 dogs within eight weeks. A 24-hour helpline for dog bite cases with a four-hour response mandate.
• Legal basis: The Court invoked Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty), holding that stray dog attacks constitute a violation.
• Countervailing rights: Animal welfare advocates argue that the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (1960) and the Animal Birth Control Rules protect community dogs' right to live where they were born. The Court balanced these competing frameworks in ordering removal (not killing) to shelters.
• Public health frame: Rabies is 100 per cent preventable through post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) : administered after a bite. It is nearly 100 per cent fatal once symptoms appear.

Static linkage: Judiciary, Article 21, public health.

GS area: Economy, Governance

The Revised Income Tax Bill incorporated 566 recommendations from the Parliamentary Select Committee.

• Key structural change: A single "Tax Year" concept replaces the previous split between "Previous Year" (the year income is earned) and "Assessment Year" (the year it is assessed and taxed). This simplification reduces confusion in self-assessment.
• Refunds: Allowed even if the income tax return is filed after the due date. Previously, delayed filing forfeited refund claims.
• Corporate and MSME: Rs 80 million deduction for inter-corporate dividends restored.
• CBDT: The Central Board of Direct Taxes is empowered to make rules for digital-era compliance without fresh legislation.
• Significance: The Income Tax Act 1961 had 298 sections, 14 schedules and had accumulated over six decades of amendments. The revised Bill consolidates and simplifies the structure.

Static linkage: Direct taxation, economic governance, Parliament.

GS area: Environment and Ecology

World Elephant Day (August 12) was celebrated at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, organised by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

• IUCN status: Asian Elephant : Endangered. African Savanna Elephant : Vulnerable. African Forest Elephant : Critically Endangered.
• India's elephant population: Approximately 30,000 Asian Elephants : the largest population of any country.
• Human-elephant conflict: Rising as development expands into forest corridors. Crop raids, human deaths and elephant deaths from electrocution and train strikes are the main conflict types.
• Ecological role: Elephants are ecosystem engineers. They create water holes in dry seasons, maintain grasslands by browsing and disperse seeds across large distances.
• Project Elephant: Launched in 1992 to protect elephant habitats and mitigate human-elephant conflict. India has 33 Elephant Reserves.

Static linkage: Wildlife conservation, biodiversity, environment.

GS area: Geography, International Relations

The Dardanelles Strait was temporarily closed due to wildfires near Çanakkale, Turkey.

• Location: Northwestern Turkey. Connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. The Bosphorus Strait (also in Turkey) then connects the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea.
• Dimensions: 61 km long, 1.2 to 6.5 km wide, average depth 55 metres.
• Strategic significance: The only maritime route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Turkey controls this route under the Montreux Convention (1936).
• Montreux Convention: Grants Turkey control over the straits and limits warship passage by non-Black-Sea states. Russia has used this to argue NATO warships should not enter the Black Sea.
• Historical significance: Site of the ancient Persian invasion (480 BCE), Alexander the Great's crossing (334 BCE) and the WWI Gallipoli Campaign.

Static linkage: World geography, straits, Turkey.

GS area: Environment and Ecology, Governance

Assam Police and the Assam Forest Department's Operation Falcon (launched 2024) achieved zero rhino killings in 2025.

• Results: 42 rhino poachers arrested; six major poaching gangs dismantled.
• Poaching decline: 86 per cent drop since 2016 in Kaziranga and surrounding reserves.
• Species: The Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) : found in Kaziranga, Manas and Pobitora in Assam and Chitwan in Nepal.
• IUCN status: Vulnerable. India's Wildlife Protection Act: Schedule I.
• Kaziranga numbers: Home to approximately 2,600 rhinos : over two-thirds of the world's remaining Greater One-Horned Rhinoceroses.

Static linkage: Wildlife conservation, internal security, environmental governance.

• Jal Jeevan Mission: Rural tap water coverage reached 81 per cent (15.68 crore households) in 2025, up from 17 per cent (3.23 crore) in 2019. Technology integration uses Aadhaar-linked monitoring and IoT sensors.
• National Anubhav Awards: 10th anniversary ceremony at Vigyan Bhawan on August 18. The scheme (since 2015) recognises outstanding memoirs by retiring Central Government employees. Administered by the Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare. One-third of 2025 awardees are women.
• Envelope Dimer Epitope (EDE): A target on the dengue virus surface that generates broad cross-serotype immunity. A study in Science Translational Medicine found EDE-targeting antibodies could form the basis of a universal dengue vaccine : providing protection against all four dengue virus serotypes without the risk of Antibody Dependent Enhancement.