Insights Daily Current Events, 09 June 2015
Insights Self Study Guide for Prelims + Mains – 2015
No more horse-driven carriages in Mumbai: HC
Terming illegal the use of horse carriages for joyrides, the Bombay High Court recently banned them in Mumbai and directed the authorities to phase them out in one year.
What else has the Court said?
- The Court also said that no wheeled vehicle hired for joyrides could be used for public conveyance. Therefore, no licences can be granted for the victorias or carriages drawn or propelled by the horses in Mumbai.
- The court further said that the carriages did not fall in the category of “public conveyance” under the Bombay Public Conveyance Act 1920, and were only meant for joyrides.
What about those families whose livelihoods were dependent on these carriages?
- The court has directed the State to identify the number of families whose livelihoods were connected with the running of horse carriages and come up with schemes for their rehabilitation by December 2015. The government would also have to formulate schemes for rehabilitation of the animals. There are approximately 700 families operating the business.
- After the expiry of the one-year period, the Mumbai Corporation would have to close down all the stables meant for horses and ponies and take action under the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
The decision came based on the petition which said the horses were forced to overwork.
Sources: The Hindu.
Exhibition takes a journey to the roots of Jamini Roy’s art
Jamini Roy, the eminent Bengali artist, counted among the early modernists of twentieth century Indian art, is being featured in a new exhibition in Mumbai at the National Gallery of Modern Art.
- Titled ‘Jamini Roy (1887 – 1972): Journey to the Roots’, the exhibition is curated by art historian and comprises 200 artworks that chart the development of the artist’s unique aesthetic and visual language.
About Jamini Roy:
- He was born in 1887 in Beliatore village in Bankura, West Bengal.
- He was among the significant Indian artists to forge a visual style that was both modern in its sensibilities and resolutely Indian.
- He was trained in European naturalism.
- Roy adopted the simplification of the forms, the bold, flat colours and the medium, material and themes of local folk paintings.
- He discarded expensive canvas and oil paint and opted for the more inexpensive material and medium of the folk artist.
- He rendered images from Ramayana and Krishna Lila. He painted ordinary men and women from the village, reinventing popular images from the patua’s repertoire.
- Jamini Roy restricted his palette to seven colours- Indian red, yellow ochre, cadmium green, vermillion, grey, blue and white. These were mostly earthy or mineral colours.
- The Santhals, tribal people who live in the rural districts of Bengal, were an important subject for Roy.
- A series of works done a decade before World War II is a prime example of how he captured the qualities that are a part of native folk painting and combined them with those of his own.
- He fused the minimal brush strokes of the Kalighat style with elements of tribal art from Bengal (like that of the terracotta work found in the Bishnupur temple, where terracotta was often composed into elaborate, decorative units over portals and across exterior walls of the temples).
Sources: The Hindu, Wiki, ngmaindia.gov.in.
Tayal appointed NSG chief
Senior IPS officer R. C. Tayal has been appointed the new chief of the elite National Security Guard.
About NSG:
- It is a security force of India constituted “for combating terrorist activities with a view to protect States against internal disturbances“.
- It was set up in 1984 as a Federal Contingency Deployment Force to tackle all facets of terrorism in the country.
- It is under the authority Ministry of Home Affairs.
- The force is a unique combination of personnel on deputation from Indian Army and Central Armed Police Forces.
- The two components of NSG are the Special Action Group (SAG), which consists entirely of Indian Army personnel; and the Special Ranger Groups (SRG), which comprises personnel drawn from Central Armed Police Forces and State Police Forces.
- The chief of the force designated as a Director General is an officer from the Indian Police Service.
Sources: The Hindu, Wiki.
Centre eases process to declare wildlife vermin
Increasing man-animals conflict that causes damage to crops and other human property has led the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) to ask states to send proposals to declare wild animals vermin for specified period in a given area.
Implications:
- Once declared vermin, that particular species can be hunted or culled without restriction.
- If implemented, it will apply to wild animals listed in various Schedules of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) 1972, other than Schedule I & Part II of Schedule II that lists most endangered and iconic species like tigers, leopards, and elephants.
MoEFCC has asked states to send proposals to declare wild animals or herds of them as vermin if they have become dangerous to human life or property, or if they have become so disabled or diseased as to be beyond recovery. While declaring animals as vermin, officials will not have to give any justification to hunt them as is the case with Schedule I animals like tigers and leopards.
Problems associated:
Officials and environmentalists fear that protected species could be hunted in the name of eliminating vermin. They point out it is not easy for field staff to differentiate meat of chital from nilgai’s or wild boar.
Existing legal provisions for objective management of man-animal conflict:
- Section 11(1)a of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) authorizes chief wildlife warden to permit hunting of any problem wild animal only if it cannot be captured, tranquillized or translocated.
- For wild animals in Schedule II, III or IV, chief wildlife warden or authorized officers can permit their hunting in a specified area if they have become dangerous to humans or property (including standing crops on any land).
- Section 62 of Act empowers Centre to declare wild animals other than Schedule I & II to be vermin for specified area and period.
- To mitigate man-animal conflict outside the protected areas (PAs), the Centre has also sought proposals to grant aid to deal with conflict as part of the annual plan of operations under the centrally sponsored scheme (CSS) for Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats (IDWH).
The issue has come up amid pressure from politicians who have been raising man-animal conflict in Parliament, specially the problem of crop depredation by wild boars and nilgais.
Sources: The Hindu, TOI.
Chowdary is new CVC; Vijai Singh new CIC
Government has appointed former chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes K.V. Chowdary as the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and Information Commissioner (IC) Vijai Singh as the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), filling two vacancies that are key to the institutional framework for accountability.
- The CVC’s appointment is subject to the approval of the Supreme Court, which is hearing a public interest litigation petition for transparency in appointments to the post and that of vigilance commissioners.
CVC is appointed by the President of India on the recommendations of a committee consisting of Prime Minister, Union Home Minister and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha (if there is no LoP then the leader of the single largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha).
CIC is appointed by the President on the recommendation of a committee consisting of—
- The Prime Minister, who shall be the Chairperson of the committee;
- The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha; and
- A Union Cabinet Minister to be nominated by the Prime Minister.
Sources: The Hindu, Wiki, CIC, CVC.
Cyclone Ashobaa: Weather department issues warning to fishermen in Gujarat
The deep depression over east- central Arabian Sea has further intensified into a cyclonic storm “Ashobaa“. The weather department has issued a warning to fishermen along the Gujarat coast, which is expected to receive heavy rainfall in the next 48 hours.
- The depression is at about 590 km west-southwest of Mumbai.
- The cyclone is gradually moving away towards Oman. Thus, it won’t have much impact on India. However, strong winds and heavy rainfall would make the sea conditions very rough.
Naming of Cyclones:
The North Indian Ocean region tropical cyclones are being named since October 2004. The region, comprising Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, each of them suggest seven names. The names given by the countries are used alphabetically one after the another.
- The name Ashobaa was given by Sri Lanka.
- The name of the cyclone that comes after Ashobaa, whenever that happens, will be Komen, and this name has been given by Thailand.
- The last cyclone ‘Nilofar‘ was suggested by Pakistan.
Sources: The Hindu, skymetweather.
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