1. Instead of criminalising child marriage, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma should heed PM Modi’s call of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao READ MORE
2. When power empowers and when it does not READ MORE
3. Morality is the starting point of any sadhana READ MORE

1. For a new paradigm of growth: Groundwater crises of Arizona and Punjab show how things have gone wrong READ MORE
2. Loss of biodiversity and the new Global Biodiversity Framework READ MORE  

1. Need to address root-causes of domestic violence READ MORE  
2. Women: Education, employment, empowerment READ MORE
3. Why EWS reservation defeats the purpose of reservation READ MORE

1. End-of-life decisions: On SC’s leagal status to advance medical directives READ MORE
2. The freedom of speech and an ‘adolescent India’ READ MORE
3. Environment: The problem of the Supreme Court as an ‘approving’ authority READ MORE

(Newspapers, PIB and other important sources)

Prelim and Main

1. China lodges protest over U.S. shooting down ‘civilian airship’ READ MORE  
2. India to send disaster relief teams to quake-hit Turkey READ MORE
3. India, Canada FMs discuss Indo-Pacific cooperation, trade READ MORE
4. With swearing-in of five new judges, SC now just 2 short of full strength READ MORE
5. Huge chunk of plants, animals in U.S. at risk of extinction -report READ MORE
6. Turkey hit by series of powerful earthquakes: The science behind it READ MORE
7. Atmospheric rivers are hitting the Arctic more often and increasingly melting its sea ice READ MORE
8. China’s demand for Africa’s donkeys is rising. Why it’s time to control the trade READ MORE
9. Fed, ECB hawkishness can impact domestic growth READ MORE

Main Exam

GS Paper- 1

1. For a new paradigm of growth: Groundwater crises of Arizona and Punjab show how things have gone wrong READ MORE
2. Need to address root-causes of domestic violence READ MORE  
3. Women: Education, employment, empowerment READ MORE

GS Paper- 2

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. End-of-life decisions: On SC’s leagal status to advance medical directives READ MORE
2. The freedom of speech and an ‘adolescent India’ READ MORE
3. Environment: The problem of the Supreme Court as an ‘approving’ authority READ MORE

SOCIAL ISSUES

1. Why EWS reservation defeats the purpose of reservation READ MORE

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

1. India’s dilemmas in an Asian century: For status quoist India, the rise of the Asian century might turn out to be too seeped in harsh realpolitik for its comfort READ MORE
2. Why China is happy with Nepal’s new PM READ MORE
3. China’s growing influence in Nepal means India’s diplomacy and project delivery will need to improve READ MORE
4. India must counter China economically READ MORE

GS Paper- 3

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

1. India’s just energy transition is more than a coal story READ MORE
2. Ashwini Deshpande responds to Surjit Bhalla: Worry over unemployment is not unfounded READ MORE
3. CEO NITI Aayog Param Iyer on Budget 2023-24: An infrastructure push for the people READ MORE
4. Fiscal issues amidst good Budget READ MORE
5. Land misallocation and industrial development READ MORE

TECHNOLOGY

1. ChatGPT is an enabler in tech-enabled ecosystem READ MORE

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. Loss of biodiversity and the new Global Biodiversity Framework READ MORE  

SECURITY

1. Combating the menace of narcotics consumption READ MORE

GS Paper- 4

ETHICS EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDY

1. Instead of criminalising child marriage, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma should heed PM Modi’s call of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao READ MORE
2. When power empowers and when it does not READ MORE
3. Morality is the starting point of any sadhana READ MORE

Questions for the MAIN exam

1. ‘Data Protection Bill is riddled with arbitrary provisions that violate the Right to Privacy’. Examine.
2. ‘As the gap between women’s education and women’s employment continues to widen, the question arises if women are truly being empowered’. In the light of the statement discuss how the discrimination against women at workplace can be addressed?

QUOTATIONS AND CAPTIONS

• The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.
• While the Bill takes several commendable steps to ensure that it complies with global standards of data protection, it nevertheless suffers from several infirmities that render its constitutionality questionable.
• A greater engagement with Constitution in our everyday workplaces and social conversations will go a long way in refining our understanding of the Constitution – so that in this upcoming cultural collision, if you will, there is a collective sense of the constitutional idea of India.
• As the gap between women’s education and women’s employment continues to widen, the question arises if women are truly being empowered.
• Reservation on the basis of economic disadvantage can only be justified if the provision or policy attempts to eliminate ingrained types of economic disadvantage that cannot be otherwise addressed by welfare measures.
• While the impact of domestic violence on the victim is worrisome, it can also have a traumatic effect on witnesses, especially kids.
• The pursuit of relentless growth of global and national GDP has become a cancer that is sucking water out of the Earth.
• For status quoist India, the rise of the Asian century might turn out to be too seeped in harsh realpolitik for its comfort
• Even the ECI had expressed doubts about the practicality of remote voting rights for migrants in the past. Meanwhile, there is also an active demand for voting rights for Non-Resident Indians. Higher turnout is worth striving for, but not without sufficient safeguards.
• Laws are an imperfect solution to social problems, but to clearly, loudly and unambiguously say something is not okay, signifies something beyond itself. Some lines must be drawn, even if in the sand.
• As India debates the latest border clashes with China, Delhi should keep in mind that China has moved to a security over economics mode, making a Chinese compromise less likely.
• A scheme such as MGNREGS needs to evolve while keeping its core idea of a demand-driven work allocation intact. Treating it as a burden will only hurt genuine beneficiaries.

50-WORD TALK

• India’s China challenge has to be managed through trade and investment rather than by flexing military and diplomatic muscles. India has a diplomatic advantage over China because it is a more westernised country. But India has to find a more substantial way to deal with China and that lies in the economic sphere. India has to carve out its own niche in world affairs, but without using China as a reference point.
• We should gauge the import of the word ‘digital’ added to the present Data Protection Bill. In the digital realm, the magic is created by servers and phones. So, secure and robust data empowerment will happen if loopholes of both are plugged. Cyberspace and telecom platforms should have an overarching regulatory body. To begin with, the Grievance Appellate Committee can be merged with the Data Protection Board.

Things to Remember:

• For prelims-related news try to understand the context of the news and relate with its concepts so that it will be easier for you to answer (or eliminate) from given options.
• Whenever any international place will be in news, you should do map work (marking those areas in maps and exploring other geographical locations nearby including mountains, rivers, etc. same applies to the national places.)
• For economy-related news (banking, agriculture, etc.) you should focus on terms and how these are related to various economic aspects, for example, if inflation has been mentioned, try to relate with prevailing price rises, shortage of essential supplies, banking rates, etc.
• For main exam-related topics, you should focus on the various dimensions of the given topic, the most important topics which occur frequently and are important from the mains point of view will be covered in ED.
• Try to use the given content in your answer. Regular use of this content will bring more enrichment to your writing.

[WpProQuiz 419]

THE CONTEXT: Human-wildlife conflict refers to encounters between humans and wildlife that lead to negative results, such as loss of property, livelihoods, and even life. Recently a rogue elephant has been tranquilised, which has become a terror in the Kerala state. This article highlights various dimensions of the Human-Wildlife Conflict.

INSTANCES OF HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT

LEOPARD ATTACK

• Leopard attacks on humans are regularly reported in India.
• Human–leopard conflict regions of the country are West Bengal, Maharashtra and Assam, where most of the deadly leopard attack incidents happen.
• In the northeastern region, Leopard killed 15 people in an unprovoked rampage in the town of Jorhat in December 2022.

TIGER ATTACK

• Most of the Tiger attacks in India appeared in the Sundarbans mangrove forest National Park of West Bengal. Sundarbans host the largest population of tigers in the world.
• A tiger attacked forest rangers on an Elephant in the Kaziranga National Park of Assam, in the northeast state of India December 2022.

ELEPHANT ATTACK

• The elephant is one of the holy animals in India, especially in Kerala but due to the elephant attack some 500 people are killed by each year. There are many incidents of elephant attacks that occurred in the villages of Kerala and other parts of India. Recently Kerala’s rogue elephant, codenamed PT-7 became a terror in Kerala in January 2023.

BEAR ATTACK

• A sloth bear attacked and killed one person and seriously injured three others in India in November 2022. The major zone includes Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where most of the incidents occur.

KING COBRA

• Many a time Cobra entered the human settlement and got killed. In Sathyamangalam Tiger reserve, 5 of the Cobras got killed due to speeding vehicles in January 2023.

CAUSE OF HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICTS

• Habitat Loss: Human-wildlife conflicts can occur wherever wildlife and human populations overlap, so any factor that forces wildlife and people into closer contact makes conflicts more likely. The threat also increases with fragmentation and loss of water resource.
• Deforestation and agricultural extension in forest areas: It leads to a decline in the buffer areas that separate humans and animals. This result in an increase in Human-Wildlife Conflict.
• Decline in the prey to the animals: In the Jorhat rampage, it is believed that the animal escaped the nearby Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary in search of food.
• Increase in wildlife population: there has been an increase in the population of some flagship species viz., Indian bison, Indian Leopard, and Indian elephant, in recent times. This increase in the wild population is due to an imbalance in the ecological food chain.
• Competition for Resource: As human populations and demand for space continue to grow, people and wildlife are increasingly interacting and competing for resources, which can lead to increased human-wildlife conflict.
• Infrastructure development: Railways track and roads built in nearby areas to the forest or going through the forest areas increases the chance of human-animal conflict.
• Use of Animals in captivity: They lose control over their lives and their environment. Social animals are often forced to live in the misery of solitary confinement. E.g. Elephant. Similarly, animals are used as entertainer objects in sports events. E.g Jallikattu. Further, they are used in religious gatherings, e.g., in Kerala temples, where they lost control and sometimes caused loss of humans and property.

IMPACT OF HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT

Wildlife and the communities near it are most directly impacted by human-wildlife conflict.

• Casualties of livestock predation: leopards attack pet animals like Dogs and livestock, is a grave concern in human-wildlife concern.
• Against animal welfare: People turn violent against wild animals in this conflict. This affect animal welfare and their rights. For example, A pregnant elephant died after a local allegedly fed her a pineapple stuffed with crackers, in Malappuram.
• Incidents of human injured and incidents of human death: Leopards and elephants were mainly involved in human death. Among human casualties of conflict with animals, elephants killed 1,579 humans in three years — 585 in 2019-20, 461 in 2020-21, and 533 in 2021-22. Odisha accounted for the highest number of these deaths at 322.

• Decline and potential eradication of species: Between 2018-19 and 2020-21, 222 elephants were killed by electrocution across the country, 45 by trains, 29 by poachers and 11 by poisoning.
• Crop Raiding: It lead to crop loss and income risk to the farmers. Elephant and monkey is involved in crop raiding.
• Development and Humanitarian issue: Human-wildlife conflict is, therefore, as much a development and humanitarian issue as it is a conservation concern, affecting the income of farmers, herders, and artisanal fishers—particularly those with incomes below the poverty line.
• Loss to communities: It can experience financial losses and livelihoods, food security, and property due to man-animal conflict. It also causes migration of the people,.

• Wildlife crime: If not addressed adequately, Human-Wildlife conflict (HWC) may drive wildlife crime.

Source UNEP report

THE WAY FORWARD

At the national level–The concerned authorities must devise a strategy and action plan to reduce human-wildlife conflict at the national level. This can be understood with following steps:

• A nationwide study of the human-wildlife conflict around wildlife reserves across the country has highlighted the need for a comprehensive evaluation of the current mitigation strategies as despite the widespread use of protection measures for crops and livestock; many households continued to experience losses.
• In order to reduce human-wildlife conflict, we must reassess the relationship—and especially the direct interactions—between people and wildlife to improve our coexistence in the future. We need to adopt approaches that identify and address the deeper, underlying causes of conflict while developing systemic, context-specific solutions with affected communities as active and equal participants in the process.
• Addressing the issue of Deforestation so that the loss of animal habitat can be tackled. Also, there is a need to prevent the fragmentation of forest habitat.
• Also declaring the nearby of protected areas as an Eco-sensitive zone and limiting human interference in that region can result decline in the Human- Wildlife Conflict.
• Local solution–Local communities can also participate in devising measures to reduce this conflict-
  • Strobe Lights –Farmers increasingly rely on automatic light machines to scare off destructive nocturnal wildlife. Half strobe light and half motion sensor, the machines flash beams of light randomly in all directions to mimic a farmer with a flashlight.
  • Natural Barriers –To keep elephants at a safe distance from their farms and homes, some African villagers have turned to two unlikely, all-natural solutions: bees and hot peppers. Elephants dislike the chemical capsaicin found in chilli peppers.
    • Indian railway introduced Buzzing Bees to keep the elephants away from tracks.
    • Re-Hab project by KVIC-fencing of bee boxes is installed in such areas from where elephants move towards the human settlements and farmers’ agriculture. Fencing of Bee-boxes on the routes of movement of elephants blocks the path of wild elephants. In this way, elephants can be prevented from attacking humans and destroying farmers’ crops through honeybees.
  • Solar-powered electric fences keep crop-raiding elephants out of fields in Africa, while wildlife managers in Alaska use tasers to deter moose and bears that have become habituated to humans.
  • Corridors–One way to reduce conflicts with wild animals is by guiding their movements in developed areas. Wildlife corridors, areas of preserved native habitat in human-dominated regions, provide wildlife with a safe pathway as they travel between larger areas of intact habitat. To protect elephant corridor is being built for their passage in different localised habitats.
    • Eco-Bridges and Eco-Ducts are built to safely pass wild animals across fragmented habitats.
  • Sensitising the local community – through awareness and making people conscious of the wild animals in their region and how to respond and manage the human-animal conflict.
  • Mapping –Using GPS tracking collars and GIS mapping software, researchers can identify hot spots where human-wildlife conflict is likely to occur. Identifying conflict hot spots helps to pinpoint ranger manpower and funding to proactively address the issue of human-wildlife conflict.

THE CONCLUSION: Human-wildlife conflict will always exist as our world becomes increasingly crowded; however, effective, well-planned management and holistic and integrated approaches can reduce and minimize conflict in the long term. Such human-wildlife conflict management strategies can create opportunities and benefits not only for biodiversity and impacted communities but for society, sustainable development, production, and the global economy at large. Thus there is a need for global cooperation, concerted actions, and resources to address the issue at the required scale.

Mains Question

1. Analyse the various reason for the increasing incidence of the Human-wildlife conflict. Suggest way forward.
2. Human-wildlife conflict affects the prospect of the country achieving the Sustainable development Goal by 2030. Analyse