The Hindu - Extinction of N nigricans turtles in tripura

The soft-shell N nigricans turtles, a rare species found only in the tank of the Tripureswari Temple in Gomati district of Tripura, is facing extinction.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) had classified that specimen, popularly known as Bostami turtle, as extinct in the wild.

The fifteenth century temple constructed by King Dhanyamanikya in Udaipur, 55 km from Agartala, is believed to be one of the holiest Hindu shrines in the country and considered to be one of the 51 Shakti Peethas. It is also known as Kurma Pitha because the temple premises resembles ‘Kurma’ i.e. turtle.

The rare species of Bostami turtles inhabit the Kalyan Sagar lying in the eastern side of the temple.

Spread over 6.4 acres, it was a natural habitat of the turtles. They come up to the shore looking for crumbs that visitors buy at the nearby stalls and feed to these reptiles, as part of the rituals. Devotees feed them with puffed rice and biscuits.

Cement embankments

The Matabari Temple Committee cemented the banks of the lake about a decade ago killing turtles. A team of Tripura State Pollution Control Board had found that the quality of water in the lake was good and even drinkable.

Death of at least seven tortoises was reported within a year of constructions of the cemented embankments in 1998, officials of the state fisheries department said. Visitors, tourists, pilgrims and devotees are throwing plastic carry bags every day into the lake. As a result the bed of the lake is now full of polythene/plastics bags.

According to the experts, it is only the construction of the embankments that increased the mortality of the turtles spoiling the natural habitat as well as places for laying eggs for this turtles.

“As an amphibian it is extremely essential for the turtle to have sandy exposure, which is not available in the lake after the construction of walls around the water body,” says Mrinal Kanti Dutta, a professor of Central Fisheries College, Lembucherra, near here.

Jyoti Prakash Roy Chowdhury, an environmentalist and a member of State Wildlife Board, said the animal had problem in basking on the beach as the embankments were made pucca.

In the meeting of the State Wildlife Board chaired by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on June 3, Roy Chowdhury suggested that the back side embankment of the lake be dismantled and land near the lake be acquired so that the turtles could lay eggs comfortably. Sources in the fisheries department said shifting of the animals from the pond is impossible due to religious belief of locals.

A population of these turtle was identified in the kacha pukuri (Pond) on Nilachal hill, next to Kamakhya temple at Guwahati in Assam, Roy Chowdhury said.

These turtles were traditionally believed to be nearly extinct and only available at a pond of the shrine of Hazrat Bayezid Bostami in Chittagong, where there are around 150 of them. He said, “It has been found that at least one wild population still exists in the Jia Bhoroli river, a tributary of Brahmaputra in Assam“.

Roy Chowdhury suspected that there may be some genetic problem as breeding is taking place within a small community in the lakes or ponds. “So, exchange of population and breeding among the new communities is needed to avoid any genetic problem,” he added.

Keywords: Tirupureswari Temple, Tirupura Sundari temple, Gomati district, International Union for Conservation of Nature, N nigricans turtle species

ET - Natural gas power stations and their gas problems

Around Rs 40,000 crore investment in the power sector is in limbo for want of government decision on allocation of natural gas to the proposed electricity stations.

According to sources, besides the existing power plants, there are about 8,000 MW gas-based power plants under construction and the gas linkage to such projects have not been granted due to shortage of gas.

Of the 8,000 MW under construction projects, about 1,335 MW have been completed and others are in advanced stages of construction, sources said.

After commissioning of these under construction projects, total gas-based project capacity will go up to 24,000 MW.

They further added the projected investment of around Rs 40,000 crore is at the risk of becoming Non-Performing Assets ( NPAs).

Power Ministry may soon approach Cabinet Committee on Investment ( CCI) to seek diversion of as much as 6 million standard cubic meters per day of gas currently consumed by non-core sectors like steel and petrochemicals, to power plants.

As much as 15,000 MW gas-based capacity in the country has taken a hit after RILBSE 0.91 % snapped supplies from its KG-Basin in March this year.

"The decline of gas based generation besides affecting bank exposure will also affect economic development, especially of the power-starved Southern region," sources said.

The are 55 gas-based stations -- 14 ( Andhra Pradesh), 12 (Gujarat), 6 ( Tamil Nadu), 5 ( Assam), 4 each in Delhi and Tripura, 3 each in Rajasthan and Maharashtra, 2 (Uttar Pradesh) and one each in Haryana and Puducherry

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The Hindu - Need for food security

As India’s parliamentarians continue to disrupt Parliament or the so-called “Temple of Democracy”, the much anticipated National Food Security Bill (NFSB) has been put on the back burner. Consequently, millions of Indian will continue to sleep on empty stomach, tossing and turning all night dreaming for the day when eating food will not be a luxury anymore. Ironically, India presents a unique case of a country that, on the one hand, has the largest number of hungry people and, on the other, has an inventory of food stocks rotting in the granaries. As per the World Food Program (WFP), “India is home to about 25 per cent of the world’s hungry poor. Although the country grows enough food for its people, pockets of hunger remain.”

Another estimate by the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reveals that out of 868 million undernourished people worldwide, 217 million people live in India. The proposed National Food Security Bill is a step in the right direction to bridge the inequality in the distribution of food by assuring sufficient quantity and quality of foodgrain to the citizens.

It is universally accepted that hunger remains the number one cause of death in the world and India is badly affected as it is home to the largest number of undernourished people. Hunger is co-related to nutrition as prolonged hunger can lead to malnutrition, which will have an adverse affect on cognitive and motor development of the victims.

Critics of the NFSB often point to the heavy leakages in the public distribution system that make this bill less efficient and often call it a waste of resources. They should be alarmed by the fact that at least 61 million pre-school children are stunted in India and at least 200 million Indians are hungry and malnourished. While we boast of the demographic dividend as the country’s USP, malnutrition is seriously jeopardising the health of almost 50% of children on whom we are banking to share the responsibility of our nation. The World Bank estimates that micronutrient deficiency alone may cost India $2.5 billion annually and another report estimates that malnutrition knocks off at least 3% of the GDP of the country, thus taking away the demographic advantage.

Other critics say that a faster economic growth rather than food security will help reduce malnutrition. However, if economic growth were to reduce malnutrition then States like Gujarat would have been ranked higher in Human Development Indicators. A closer look at the HDI data reveals that despite the high economic growth enjoyed by Gujarat, a high rate of malnutrition still prevails.

In Gujarat, 45% of children are undernourished, 36% of women have BMI less than 18.5 and 61% of the women belonging to the Scheduled Tribes fall under the undernourished category. Finally, the incidence of poverty is as high as 50% in rural Gujarat.

On the other hand, countries like Brazil have made significant leaps in overcoming hunger by providing food security to the citizens. Brazil’s Fome Zero or Zero Hunger programme was initiated by the government in 2003. Based on the pillars of conditional cash transfer, school meals and strengthening family agriculture, Fome Zero has been able to reduce poverty, provide food security and reduce hunger. Within five years, Brazil’s child mortality rate was reduced by 13 points and 20 million people came above the poverty line. Although India and China demonstrated better economic growth than Brazil in the last decade, Brazil surpassed both countries in reducing poverty and increasing food security for its citizen.

No doubt that the food security bill needs more clarity on public distribution, grievance redress and provision of fortified meal. There is also need to include sanitation, health, and increased farm production within the ambit of food security. In future, there should be a possibility to include multiple ministries and government programmming like mid-day meal & MGNREGA in conjunction with food security. However, this is a remarkable initiative by the UPA government to bring people out of hunger and undernourishment.

The food security bill is an opportunity to bring those millions of citizens out of starvation darkness by offering them affordable and healthy food and leading the nation to a prolific sunshine.

(The writer is a social healthcare analyst and has internationally worked on health welfare programmes. Email: anurodhj@gmail.com)

Keywords: National Food Security Bill, Food security bill, World Food Program, India malnourishment, Brazil Zero Hunger

TOI - Policy deficiency in food storage

NEW DELHI: With the UPA government serious about implementing the Food Security Bill, the Committee on Public Undertakings, headed by Congress's Jagdambika Pal, will take up for discussion on Monday a recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the assessment of food grain management across the country.

The auditor's report paints a grim picture on the states' lack of capability to manage operational stock of food grains — a majority of which is wasted due to insufficient storage facilities. Out of 31 states and Union territories (UTs), the report says only eight of them have storage facilities available for 120 days required for management of food stocks.

Most of the poor states such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Tami Nadu and Assam do not have capacity to handle stocks for more than 13-75 days. States like Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, J&K, Jharkhand and Assam cannot handle their stock even for a month.

Only Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry and Rajasthan have adequate storage facilities. A few states like Chhattisgarh and UP have the required space to maintain stocks for four months.

Already damages are causing huge dent to the public exchequer. Audit reveals more than 1 lakh tonne of wheat worth Rs 122 crore was damaged in Punjab and Haryana alone in the last couple of years due to lack of proper storage.

Despite the fact that over hundred lakh tonnes of food grain stocks as old as 2007-08 were still lying in custody of states, the government continued on an ambitious procurement drive. The procurement in the central pool increased from 343 lakh tonnes in 2006-07 to 824 lakh tonnes as on June 1, 2012. However, there was not much improvement in storage space or movement of food grains from procuring states to consuming states in the last decade.

The policy deficiency was not limited to storage and procurement. At a time when the government's spend on food subsidy was estimated to touch Rs 1.25 lakh crore for implementing the food security scheme, the UPA regime exported food grains from its overflowing reserves at subsidized rate causing loss of over Rs 1,700 crore (in 2012-13).

The export was allowed for lack of space to stock them. Experts say instead of exporting at a loss, the stocks if released in the domestic market could have substantially brought down inflationary pressures on the food grains.

Surprisingly, the Centre has no idea how much buffer stock it requires to meet food security such as for emergency needs arising out of natural calamity, price stabilization, food security reserve, targeted public distribution system and to maintain for other welfare schemes within the minimum buffer stock.

The existing policy did not specify the maximum and manageable level of stock to be maintained in the Central pool.

Indian Express - India's BMD (Ballistic Missile Defence)

India's missile defence system is set to get a big boost as it is developing capability to intercept enemy missiles fired from a distance of up to 5,000km, in effect tackling any possible threat from countries such as China.

The capability is being developed by DRDO as part of the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield, whose first phase is ready for deployment possibly in Delhi.

Development of the first phase of the BMD programme has been completed, DRDO chief Avinash Chander told PTI in an interview.

Under this, the BMD shield can tackle enemy missiles fired at from ranges up to 2,000 km.

Taking this forward, the DRDO is enhancing the capability of BMD in phase-II to deal with threat from missiles of longer range of up to 5,000 km.

"We are planning to soon carry out the first trial of the phase-II of the programme under which we will test our capability to destroy an incoming ballistic missile fired at us from 5,000 km range," said Chander, who took over charge earlier this month.

"Such a capability meets our immediate threat perception," he said when asked if it would cover the threat of such missiles being fired from countries such as China.

Under the phase II of the programme, all the components of such a missile shield including the radar and interceptor missiles would be new and will have extended ranges, the DRDO chief said.

"The phase II missiles would be totally different from phase-I. In this programme, you need to travel more and intercept further away," Chander said.

While giving details of the programme, he said the phase-I of the shield is ready for deployment.

The Hindu - PRISM and India

The simplistic assessment of the crisis being only about a repressive regime needs to change

Under way for over two years, the Syrian civil war has already claimed close to 80,000 lives. In and of itself, this should have been sufficient to stir the conscience of the international community to redouble efforts to persuade the Assad regime and an assortment of rebels armed to the teeth, to walk back from the violence and commence a Syrian-led negotiating process for an acceptable outcome. Unfortunately, maximalist positions of the two sides — President Assad’s exit demanded by the West, Turkey and the Gulf states, and treating the crisis as a security issue by the Assad regime — has prevented any serious attempt at reconciliation.

Geneva 2

Despite agreement between the United States and Russia to convene Geneva 2, some time in the second half of June, the facts on the ground clearly suggest that the initiative is unlikely to succeed. In fact, the actions of the international community’s major stakeholders are continuing to exacerbate the crisis. The simplistic fig leaf that this was a brutal and repressive regime targeting innocent and helpless civilians, demanding their democratic rights as part of the Arab Spring, needs to be shed in favour of more clinical assessments.

Drawing inspiration from the three easy steps for regime change in Libya — a Security Council Resolution, arming of rebels and NATO military action, the rebels, who were armed quite openly by Qatar and covertly by Saudi Arabia and clandestinely by others — the West and Gulf states expected the same in Syria. Given the Libyan experience and strategic interests of Russia, however, the Security Council failed to oblige. Russia and China vetoed three draft resolutions in 2011-12. Unilateral military action by NATO or Coalition of the Willing did not materialise either.

More important still, there are increasing doubts on whether arming the rebels was such a good idea given the proliferation of extremists groups, one of which, the Al-Nusra Front, had to be banned by the U.S. How does one ensure that arms go only to the good rebels? Even the description of “good” is subjective. Turkey and Qatar, it would appear, have no hesitation in supporting rebels drawing inspiration from the Islamic Brotherhood; Saudi Arabia favours Salafist groups. Hopefully, they all agree that al-Qaeda does not qualify for assistance.

With sectarian fault lines within Syria now opened threadbare, the possibility of the present compact that has ruled Syria comprising 12 per cent Alawites, 10 per cent Christians and some Sunni business class continuing to exercise power in any post-Assad dispensation, is a non-starter. Given the brutality of the violence on both sides, the prevailing sentiment among the Sunnis backed by Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia and sections of the political class in the West not fully educated in the sectarian tensions of the region, is to “send the Alawites to their graves and the Christians to Lebanon.” Clearly, no post-Assad dispensation in Syria will be viable unless effective security guarantees can be provided for the safety of nearly 20 per cent of the population. Who will provide these?

The “top down” model for a negotiated settlement on which Geneva 1 was based last year and on which Geneva 2, if it has to have better luck than Geneva 1, has to be predicated on all parties to the conflict agreeing to participate. That is the easiest part. Agreement can also perhaps be reached that both Saudi Arabia and Iran, given their stake in the civil war, should be invited. Now comes the more difficult part.

Militias

The just concluded battle for Qusayr shows that this is now a full-fledged war in which the Lebanon-based Shiite group, Hezbollah, is openly and fully involved. Any residual doubts were removed when the Hezbollah leader, Nasrullah, explicitly so announced on May 25.

With 12,000 Hezbollah fighters now reportedly fighting along with Assad’s troops and paramilitary militias drawn from his Alawite sect against an assortment of rebels, mostly Sunnis with varying degrees of radicalisation, a negotiated settlement would appear less likely than at any time in the last two years.

For Hezbollah, established to fight Israel, this is clearly a gamble. Apart from fighting the Syrian rebels, they will have to confront pan-Arab sentiment. In the process, tensions between the Shia crescent from Iran, covering Iraq, Syria and the Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Gulf states and their western backers can only increase. A desire to weaken the Iran-dominated crescent cannot but open the sectarian fault lines throughout the region.

Hezbollah’s more direct involvement, rather the timing of the announcement coincides with Russia’s decision to supply the Assad regime with more sophisticated weaponries. The Russian decision constitutes, in a sense, an insurance just in case the U.S. is persuaded by the British and the French to consider the imposition of a no-fly zone and aerial action. Israeli strikes in Syria, in turn, want to prevent the sophisticated weapons falling in to the hands of Hezbollah for use against Israel.

The European Union announced on May 27 that it has decided not to renew the embargo on supply of lethal arms to the Syrian rebels.

Internal divisions

The humanitarian tragedy unfolding for Syria’s 22 million people, with close to four million internally displaced and the increasing brutality of the sectarian violence would appear to point towards a prolongation of the civil war. Even the fall of President Assad’s regime is now unlikely to restore peace and security in Syria. Sectarian war will not only continue, but result in the country’s de facto division into three largely autonomous regions dominated by the Alawites, Kurds and Sunnis, the internal boundaries of which will be determined by the prevailing military balance on the ground.

The assessment that while Libya imploded, Syria will explode with unimaginable consequences will prove to be right. The unfolding scenario constitutes the biggest threat to international peace and security in recent times. The continuing paralysis and helplessness of the Security Council constitutes, in a sense, also the most comprehensive statement of its irrelevance.