TOPIC : GS 1 Important Geophysical Phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc., geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical features (including water-bodies and ice-caps) and in flora and fauna and the effects of such changes.
Stormy start
What is the news?
- Millions of people wearied by the onslaught of the coronavirus have had to contend with a furious tropical cyclone that has left a trail of death and destruction before making landfall in Gujarat.
- Cyclone Tauktae swelled into an extremely severe cyclonic storm, dumping enormous volumes of water all along the west coast,
- It caused loss of life in Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat, before weakening overland.
- To thousands who had to be evacuated to safe locations, this year’s premonsoon season presented a double jeopardy
- It have caught as they were between a fast spreading virus variant and an unrelenting storm.
- Many coastal residents would have felt a sense of having gone through a similar experience last year
- The severe cyclonic storm, Nisarga, barrelled landwards from the Arabian Sea, pounding Alibaug in Maharashtra as it came ashore.
- The cyclones in both years spared densely populated Mumbai.
Disaster Management
- The twin crises have, however, strained the capacities of multiple States, especially the coastal ones,
- Although the impact of the storm was considerably mitigated by disaster response forces.
- The value of creating a trained cadre, supported by the defence forces in rescue and relief work is seen.
- The heralding of the 2021 monsoon season by a cyclone comes as another reminder that the subcontinent is at the confluence of more frequent
- This extreme weather events originating in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea every year.
Policies for Disaster Management
- India is prepared to handle cyclones depends on developing greater expertise in forecasting and disaster mitigation
- The crafting policies to increase resilience among communities.
- The India Meteorological Department (IMD) launched an impact based cyclone warning system from the October December season
- It designed to reduce economic losses by focusing on districts and specific locations and incorporating such factors as population, infrastructure, land use and settlements.
- The IMD also claimed that its accuracy of forecasts, for instance, in plotting landfall location, is now better.
- Together with ground mapping of vulnerabilities, this is a promising approach to avoid loss of life and destruction of property.
- The importance of precise early warnings cannot be over emphasised, considering that the Arabian Sea has emerged as a major source of severe cyclones,
- The cyclone intensity is aggravated by long-term rise in sea surface temperatures linked to pollution over South Asia and its Neighbourhood.
Way forward
- Climate proofing lives and dwellings is a high priority now, a task that warrants a multisectoral approach
- To build sturdy homes of suitable design, create adequate storm shelters, provide accurate early warnings, and ensure financial protection against calamities through insurance for property and assets.
- Governments must rise up to the challenge.
Mains question
Accurate forecasts and resiliencebuilding hold the key to handling severe cyclones. Discuss
PRELIMS PUNCHERS
- Legislative Council
The State Legislative Council or Vidhan Parishad is the upper house in those 6 states of India that have a bicameral state legislature, the lower house being the State Legislative Assembly. Its establishment is defined in Article 169 of the Constitution of India. As of Jan 2020, 6 out of 28 states have a State Legislative Council. These are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh The latest state to have a council is Telangana
The size of the State Legislative Council cannot be more than one third of the membership of the State Legislative Assembly. However, its size cannot be less than 40 members. These members elect the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the State Legislative Council. Proposals for abolition or re-establishment of a state’s Legislative Council require confirmation by the Parliament of India.
- MGNERGA
Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act 2005 is an Indian labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the ‘right to work’. It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
The act was first proposed in 1991 by P.V. Narasimha Rao. The statute is hailed by the government as “the largest and most ambitious social security and public works programme in the world”. In its World Development Report 2014, the World Bank termed it a “stellar example of rural development“.It was initiated with the objective of “enhancing livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year, to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work”. Another aim of MGNREGA is to create durable assets (such as roads, canals, ponds and wells). Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant’s residence, and minimum wages are to be paid. If work is not provided within 15 days of applying, applicants are entitled to an unemployment allowance.
- Green Credit Scheme
The proposed ‘Green Credit Scheme’, as it is called, allows agencies they could be private companies, village forest communities to identify land and begin growing plantations. After three years, they would be eligible to be considered as compensatory forest land if they met the Forest Department’s criteria. The Forest Advisory Committee has approved a scheme that could allow “forests” to be traded as a commodity. FAC is an apex body tasked with adjudicating requests by the industry to raze forest land for commercial ends.
An industry needing forest land could then approach the agency and pay it for parcels of such forested land, and this would then be transferred to the Forest Department and be recorded as forest land.The participating agency will be free to trade its asset, that is plantation, in parcels, with project proponents who need forest land.
- Mongolian Kanjur
It is the Buddhist canonical text in 108 volumes is considered to be the most important religious text in Mongolia. In the Mongolian language ‘Kanjur’ means ‘Concise Orders’- the words of Lord Buddha in particular. It is held in high esteem by the Mongolian Buddhists and they worship the Kanjur at temples and recite the lines of Kanjur in daily life as a sacred ritual. The Kanjur are kept almost in every monastery in Mongolia .Mongolian Kanjur has been translated from Tibetan. The language of the Kanjur is Classical Mongolian.The Mongolian Kanjur is a source of providing a cultural identity to Mongolia.
The Ministry of Culture has taken up the project of reprinting of 108 volumes of Mongolian Kanjur under the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM). the publication of Mongolian Kanjur by the Government of India for the Government of Mongolia will act as a symbol of cultural symphony between India and Mongolia and will contribute to furtherance of bilateral relations during the coming years.
Sources: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1637551
PRELIMS QUESTION
Qn 1.Consider the following statement with reference to Green Credit Scheme
- Grama sabha has approved a scheme that could allow “forests” to be traded as a commodity
- It allows agencies they could be private companies, village forest communities to identify land and begin growing plantations
Select the correct statement using code given below.
(a). 1only (b) 2 only
(c). Both of them (d). None of the above
Answer : B
The proposed ‘Green Credit Scheme’, as it is called, allows agencies they could be private companies, village forest communities to identify land and begin growing plantations. After three years, they would be eligible to be considered as compensatory forest land if they met the Forest Department’s criteria. The Forest Advisory Committee has approved a scheme that could allow “forests” to be traded as a commodity. FAC is an apex body tasked with adjudicating requests by the industry to raze forest land for commercial ends.
An industry needing forest land could then approach the agency and pay it for parcels of such forested land, and this would then be transferred to the Forest Department and be recorded as forest land.The participating agency will be free to trade its asset, that is plantation, in parcels, with project proponents who need forest land
Qn 2.Consider the following statement with reference to Mongolian Kanjur
1.‘Kanjur’ means ‘Concise Orders’- the words of Lord Buddha in particular
- . The Kanjur are kept almost in every monastery in Mongolia .
Select the correct statement using code given below.
(a). 1only (b) 2 only
(c). Both of them (d). None of the above
Answer : C
It is the Buddhist canonical text in 108 volumes is considered to be the most important religious text in Mongolia. In the Mongolian language ‘Kanjur’ means ‘Concise Orders’- the words of Lord Buddha in particular. It is held in high esteem by the Mongolian Buddhists and they worship the Kanjur at temples and recite the lines of Kanjur in daily life as a sacred ritual. The Kanjur are kept almost in every monastery in Mongolia .Mongolian Kanjur has been translated from Tibetan. The language of the Kanjur is Classical Mongolian.The Mongolian Kanjur is a source of providing a cultural identity to Mongolia.
The Ministry of Culture has taken up the project of reprinting of 108 volumes of Mongolian Kanjur under the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM). the publication of Mongolian Kanjur by the Government of India for the Government of Mongolia will act as a symbol of cultural symphony between India and Mongolia and will contribute to furtherance of bilateral relations during the coming years.