📰 Finally, great banyan tree breathes afresh
With the efforts of Mahabubnagar (Telangana) district administration, Pillalamarri – the great banyan tree of Telangana, has got a new lease of life and is now back in healthy germination.
•The modern-organic treatment has boosted the immunity of the centuries-old giant.
•The officials demonstrated how the dramatically decaying process of the termite-infested tree could be reversed and put back on the growth path.
•To contain the termite attack, chlorpyrifos was sprayed on the tree. Subsequently, holes were drilled into the branches and stem and chlorpyrifos was injected.
Chlorpyrifos:
•Chlorpyrifos (CPS) is an organophosphate pesticide used on crops, animals, and buildings, and in other settings, to kill a number of pests, including insects and worms.
•On the farm, it is used to control ticks on cattle and as a spray to control crop pests.
•It acts on the nervous systems of insects.
•However, it has the potential for both acute toxicity at larger amounts and neurological effects in foetuses and children even at very small amounts.
•It is not soluble in water.
U.S. policy may see more consistency without dependence on personalised summits
•While U.S. Democratic Party contender and former Vice-President Joseph Biden still needs to tie up some loose ends for an official seal to his victory, it is clear that New Delhi is now preparing to work with a new U.S. administration. The win is a mixed bag for the government. On the one hand, Mr. Narendra Modi invested considerably in the Trump administration, which included the Houston and Ahmedabad rallies with Mr. Trump, that indicated a virtual endorsement for his re-election. The External Affairs Minister’s snub to the Democrat-led House Foreign Affairs Committee and the invitation to senior Trump officials, for “2+2” talks just before the U.S. elections, also played into the impression of New Delhi expecting a Trump win. On the other hand, Mr. Biden, a long-time supporter of the U.S.-India relationship, brings to his presidency both the comfort of his understanding of foreign policy and the promise of future strategic ties. Foreign policy itself may not be his immediate priority, given the U.S.’s battle with the coronavirus pandemic, and the President-elect’s goal, which he articulated on Sunday, to “heal” rifts in its polity and “restore the soul of America”. However, it is clear that he will make moves to reverse some of the Trump-era policies.
•For India, these could include the U.S.’s return to the Paris climate accord, which would help with its energy transformation, and a return to Iran nuclear negotiations, which will facilitate its regional connectivity ambitions. He is unlikely to reverse the Afghan pullout and instead might make it a more measured exit. On China, he is likely to adopt a less confrontational attitude while maintaining a pushback. Where he will no doubt press a hard nerve is on the issues of human rights, Jammu and Kashmir, and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, given a policy paper his campaign released in June 2020 that quoted him as being “disappointed”. But these are more likely to be areas of engagement, and New Delhi should be prepared to hold its own in tough conversations on these sensitive issues. Mr. Biden’s presidency promises a change in leadership style, with broader powers to advisers and process-driven decisions. His belief in building up U.S. traditional trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific alliances might be at odds with America’s more transactional trends. No sudden moves such as Mr. Trump’s withdrawal of India’s GSP export status may be expected, and policy consistency is likely to be preferred to a more personalised summit style. Above all, as New Delhi prepares to adjust its responses to the new dispensation, it would welcome Mr. Biden’s stated intention to re-energise the multilateral global order, and to restore the U.S.’s position in “leading not by the example of [its] power, but by the power of example”.
📰 ‘Strategic comfort’ with the Maldives
Despite the ‘India Out’ protests, New Delhi can take respite in the Solih government’s ‘India First’ policy
•The visit of Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla to the Maldives is significant for taking forward bilateral relations. Under Maldivian President Ibrahim Solih, bilateral cooperation, especially on the economic front, has become a ‘model’ that New Delhi can adopt to make Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ a sustained success.
•India and the Maldives have had bilateral relations for centuries. Technology has made connectivity easier for everyday contact and exchanges. Maldivian students attend educational institutions in India and patients fly here for superspeciality healthcare, aided by a liberal visa-free regime extended by India.
•Tourism is the mainstay of Maldivian economy. The country is now a major tourist destination for some Indians and a job destination for others. Given the geographical limitations imposed on the Maldives, India has exempted the nation from export curbs on essential commodities.
•Through the decades, India has rushed emergency assistance to the Maldives, whenever sought. In 1988, when armed mercenaries attempted a coup against President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, India sent paratroopers and Navy vessels and restored the legitimate leadership under Operation Cactus. The 2004 tsunami and the drinking water crisis in Male a decade later were other occasions when India rushed assistance. At the peak of the continuing COVID-19 disruption, India rushed $250 million aid in quick time. New Delhi also rushed medical supplies to the Maldives, started a new cargo ferry and also opened an air travel bubble, the first such in South Asia. It has promised more, as and when required.
Protests from the Yameen camp
•Abdulla Yameen was in power when the water crisis occurred. Despite early strains in relations, India rushed help on a humanitarian basis. Now, the Yameen camp has launched an ‘India Out’ campaign against New Delhi’s massive developmental funding for creating physical, social and community infrastructure, and incumbent President Solih’s government retaining two India-gifted helicopters and their operational military personnel. Maldivian protesters recently converted their demand for early release of Mr. Yameen — sentenced to five years of imprisonment in a money laundering case, pending appeal — into one asking the Solih administration to ‘stop selling national assets to foreigners’, implying India. They forget that massive supplies of drinking water came only aboard Indian Navy vessels and the COVID-19 medicines were delivered aboard an Indian Air Force aircraft. Such assistance helps all Maldivians, including Mr. Yameen’s supporters. Likewise, the Yameen administration too had deployed the helicopters for humanitarian operations. It is against this background, given also Mr. Yameen’s tilt towards China and bias against India when in power, that the Solih administration’s no-nonsense approach towards trilateral equations provide ‘strategic comfort’ to India.
Some concerns
•Yet, India should be concerned about the protests as well as the occasional rumblings within the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) of Mr. Solih. Mohamed Nasheed, who was the nation’s first President elected under a multiparty democracy, now Parliament Speaker, continues to head the party, and had also named Mr. Solih as presidential candidate in 2018, but there are apparent strains between them. Mr. Nasheed’s going public on issues, including corruption charges against ministers, that should have been raised at the highest-level could affect the MDP during the run-up to the 2023 presidential polls. Also, Mr. Nasheed’s on-again-off-again call for a changeover to a ‘parliamentary form of government’ can polarise the overpoliticised nation even more.
•Despite this, India can take respite in the ‘strategic comfort’ of the ‘India First’ policy of the Solih government. Given this background and India’s increasing geostrategic concerns in the shared seas, taking forward the multifaceted cooperation to the next stage quickly could also be at the focus of Mr. Shringla’s visit.
📰 No relief for Delhi from ‘severe’ air quality
Situation unlikely to improve unless there was drastic dip in farm fires: SAFAR
•Air quality in the Capital remained in the ‘severe’ category for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday as farm fires continued to burn in neighbouring States, contributing to 29% of the total air pollution in the National Capital Region.
•The average 24-hour Air Quality Index (AQI) on Sunday was 416 in Delhi, 434 in Gurugram, 456 in Ghaziabad, 440 in Greater Noida, 428 in Noida and 426 in Faridabad, according to data by the Central Pollution Control Board.
•System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) said the situation was unlikely to improve unless there was a drastic reduction in stubble fire counts.
•“Surface winds have become calm, which were moderate so far, and are forecast to stay low in magnitude for the next two days. This is the major factor due to which no quick recovery is expected,” said SAFAR.
•The total stubble fire count in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and neighbouring areas stood at 3,780 on Saturday; it was 4,528 on November 6. SAFAR further stated that boundary layer wind direction is favourable for fire-related intrusion in Delhi-NCR. “Stubble burning share in PM2.5 in Delhi’s air is estimated at 29% for Sunday,” it added.
•The AQI in Delhi is likely to be in the upper end of ‘very poor’ category on November 13 and 14 (Deepavali), and ‘severe’ on November 15 and 16.
📰 Guwahati zoo becomes home for rescued exotic animals
Six blue macaws and two capuchin monkeys from South America, three tortoises from Seychelles and a kangaroo from Australia were smuggled in from Myanmar
•Non-Asian exotic animals rescued from cramped cages smuggled in from Myanmar have found a home — the Assam State Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden in Guwahati.
•On November 6, Assam’s Environment and Forest Minister Parimal Suklabaidya and departmental officials released six blue or hyacinth macaws and two capuchin monkeys in the zoo that occupies 175 hectares in the city’s Hengerabari Reserve Forest.
•The birds and monkeys are native to Central and South America. They were rescued in July from southern Assam’s Cachar district along with three Aldabra tortoises, one of the largest species from the Seychelles group of islands in the Indian Ocean off East Africa, and a kangaroo from Australia.
•These animals were packed among crates of fruits in a truck that was loaded in Mizoram.
•“The cages were specially built for these exotic animals belonging to a different corner of the world. We are keeping them under constant CCTV surveillance to find out if they are adapting to the conditions,” zoo’s Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Tejas Mariswamy said.
•The kangaroo and the tortoises were being quarantined for 45 days and examined by experts for any foreign viruses they might carry. “Special enclosures are being made for them for possible release by November 20,” he said.
•Mr. Suklabaidya said it was difficult to ascertain the origin of the rescued animals.
•“We could not get much information from two people arrested when the truck carrying them was seized. We are still investigating where the animals came from and who they were to be delivered to,” he added.
•Sunnydeo Chaudhary, Cachar’s DFO, said the exotic animals had been “sniffed out” from foul smell during a routine check of trucks near the Assam-Mizoram border.
•The seizure of these animals, said to have been destined for Kolkata via Guwahati, came less than two years after sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence busted an international syndicate of exotic wildlife smugglers whose kingpin was based in Mizoram. That operation in October 2018 was carried out simultaneous in Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati and Mizoram’s capital Aizawl.
•In March 2018, a large consignment of exotic animals, including venomous snakes and giant scorpions, was seized from a vehicle at Jorabat, about 19 km from Guwahati and on the Assam-Meghalaya border. The consignment had come from Aizawl and was to be sold to a pet trader in New Delhi.
