Tiger conservation guidelines, Western Ghats hog limelight

December 31, 2012

New Delhi, Jan 1: Fresh guidelines on tiger conservation, controversy over a proposal for speedy green clearances for mega projects and Western Ghats getting enlisted as a world heritage site were the highlights of Union Environment and Forest Ministry during 2012.

Controversy over the government's move to set up National Investment Board (NIB) erupted after Minister Jayanthi Natarajan wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opposing the proposal.

The Cabinet later approved a renamed and diluted version of the original proposal, creating a new Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) to fast track clearances on infrastructure and manufacturing projects over Rs 1,000 crore.

Another highlight of the year was the ministry's fresh guidelines on tiger conservation allowing only "regulated low impact tourism" in the core and critical tiger habitat. The guidelines say that no new tourism infrastructure should be permitted in core and critical tiger habitats.tiger

India's 1600-km-long Western Ghats mountain chain, which has forests older than the Himalaya mountains, got into the list of UNESCO's world heritage sites. The mountains, which start at the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra and run through the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala ending at Kanyakumari, were recognised as one of the world's eight "hottest hotspots" of biological diversity.

The also year saw the Delhi High Court dismissing a petition by the ministry and upholding the Central Information Commission (CIC) order to make the report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) public by posting it on the ministry's website.

In its petition, the ministry sought not to disclose the report. It argued that the publication of the report could affect economic interest of the states. The report was prepared by a panel chaired by eminent scientist Madhav Gadgil. The panel had submitted its report in August last year.

The report had termed Western Ghats as extremely ecologically sensitive region and favoured restricted mining and other development activities. The report invited strong criticism from the states and the ministry was forced to constitute a high-level Working Group headed by eminent space scientist and Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan to examine it "in a holistic and multidisciplinary fashion". The panel will also study the implications of Centre-state relations with respect to conservation and sustainable development of Western Ghats.

During the year, representatives of several countries assembled at Hyderabad to attend the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The conference agreed to increase funding in support of actions to halt the rate of loss of biodiversity.

Developed countries agreed to double funding to support efforts in developing states towards meeting the internationally -agreed Biodiversity Targets, and the main goals of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.

The year also saw the Doha climate talks failing to take take "ambitious or meaningful decisions" on financing commitments of developed countries. However, India could protect its interests "fully" and succeeded in bringing the three issues of "Equity, Technology-related IPRs (Intellectual Property Rights) and the Unilateral Measures firmly back on the table".

"Among the key concerns which the conference could not address are those relating to financing commitments of developed countries, sectoral actions and the issue of compensation for loss and damage arising from climate change".

"Despite pitched demand from vulnerable countries, there could be no satisfactory agreement on compensation mechanism for loss and damage resulting from climate change," an Indian statement had said after the conclusion of talks.

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News Network
January 18,2020

Kanpur, Jan 18: Kanpur has witnessed an Unnao-like incident as the out on bail accused in rape case attack the family members of the victim. The mother of the victim, who later died in the hospital, was brutally attacked by the accused. The accused reportedly attacked the victim's mother and her aunt on January 8.

The actual rape case goes back to 2018 when a group of men abducted a minor girl from her own society. The accused had reportedly raped her and also beaten up her mother.

A video of mother being beaten up reportedly went viral soon after.

The mother of the victim had reportedly filed a complaint against one of the accused for abducting and molesting her daughter two years ago at a tannery falling under jurisdiction of Chakeri police station. The main accused along with five others was booked under section 354 of the IPC (sexual assault of children) and sent to jail. Around two weeks ago, the accused got bail and on January 9 they attacked the deceased and her sister.

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News Network
April 23,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 23: Amid opposition charges, the Kerala government on Tuesday constituted a two-member committee to examine whether the privacy of personal and sensitive data of COVID-19 patients has been protected under the agreement entered by it with US-based IT firm Sprinklr.

The committee, headed by former Special IT Sscretary M Madhavan Nambiar and former health secretary Rajeev Sadanandan, will also ascertain whether adequate procedures were followed while finalising the arrangements with the private company.

The Opposition Congress has been levelling charges that the collection of data by the US firm violated the fundamental rights of the patients.

In its order, state government said it had initiated steps to set up a Data Analytics platform to integrate data from various sources available in the government to meet the "exigency of a massive and unprecedented surge of epidemic".

The committee will also examine whether deviations, if any, are fair, justified and reasonable considering the extraordinary and critical situation faced by the state, it said.

Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday asked the state government to file its reply by April 24 on a plea seeking to quash its contract with the US-based firm.

Expressing concern over the confidentiality of the citizen's data processed by a third party, the court sought to know why the sanction of the law department was not taken before finalising the agreement.

The court hailed the state government's fight against COVID-19, but said it is concerned about data confidentiality.

The government informed the court that the agreement with Sprinklr has safeguards for data protection "as per standard practices of software as a service model."

The ward-level committees, set up by the government for the anti-coronavirus fight, collect information of those under home isolation, the elderly and those at the risk of the disease, using a questionnaire and later uploads it on the server of the private agency.

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Agencies
June 5,2020

Jodhpur, Jun 5: A video has gone viral on social media showing what could be called Jodhpur's George Floyd moment with a twist, showing cops throwing a person on the ground and pressing his neck with their knees for roaming around without a mask.

However, unlike the unfortunate incident in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the cops in Jodhpur reportedly acted after the person, said to be mentally challenged, turned violent after being confronted by the police.

Dumb TV media is playing the initial part of this video as 'India's George Flyod moment'. Doesn't matter to them that the same video shows the man beating the cops back badly pic.twitter.com/vGSaON6oii

— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) June 5, 2020

George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after being arrested by the police outside a shop in Minneapolis in the US on May 25. Footage showed a white officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes while he was pinned to the floor. He was pronounced dead later in the hospital, triggering widespread protests across the US.

However, in the Jodhpur incident, the man, identifed as Mukesh Kumar Prajapat, did not die but instead started fighting with the policemen.

Jodhpur police officers confirmed that the video was shot in the city on Thursday after the police wanted to issue a challan against the man for roaming on the streets without wearing a mask before he started manhandling the police.

The video shows a cop pressing his neck with his knee while two other cops held the young man's legs. A huge crowd gathered when the scuffle broke out.

Meanwhile, the SHO of Dev Nagar police station, Somkaran, said that the police were issuing a challan to Prajapat when he attacked them and tore their uniform. An FIR has been lodged against Prajapat on a complaint lodged by the Pratap Nagar police station. He will be produced in the court later in the day.

Prajapat is said to be mentally challenged and had damaged his father's eye earlier for which a case was registered against him, the poice said. Action is being initiated against Prajapat under the Epidemic Act, they added.

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