GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

As the world observes International Tiger Day on July 29, there is need to look at the declining trend of tiger population (1,059 tigers have been lost since 2012)

The Species

• Ttiger, (Panthera tigris) is the largest member of the catfamily (Felidae).
• In the wild, tigers are found in India, Nepal, China, Russia, Bhutan, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Sumatra (Indonesia) and Malaysia.

The five surviving sub species of tiger are 

• Indian Tiger or Royal Bengal Tiger(Panthera tigris tigris) found in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh; 
• Indo-Chinese tiger(Panthera tigris corbetti) mainly found in Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia but are also found in Myanmar, Southern China, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam; 
• Siberian or Amur Tiger(Panthera tigris altaica) found in far east Russia;
• Sumatran Tiger(Panthera tigris sumatrae) found in the Indonesian island of Sumatra; 
• South China Tiger(Panthera tigris amoyensis) found in China. The population found in Peninsular Malaysia has been given a status of separate sub species Panthera tigris jacksoni. 
  
  
• The three sub species of tigers that became extinct in the past century are:
  • the Bali Tiger (Panthera tigris balica) 
  • the Javan Tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) 
  • the Caspian Tiger (Panthera tigris virgata) 

Recent reports indicate that the South China tiger is also extinct in the wild.

Why Tigers were important to be conserved?

• Important role in the health and diversity of an ecosystem.
• An indicator of the well-being of the ecosystem.
• It is a top predator which is at the apex of the food chain and keeps the population of wild ungulates in check, thereby maintaining the balance between herbivores and the vegetation upon which they feed.
• The extinction of this top predator is an indication that its ecosystem is not sufficiently protected, and neither would it exist for long thereafter.

What are the Methods used to estimate their population?

Data collection is required to know where conservation efforts and resources need to be applied. To collect such data, techniques such as radio collars and capture-recapture population estimation models have been used to collect population numbers.

• The pugmark census technique: is also used during travels along the tiger dominated places. This involves observing paw prints in the ground and taking measurements of width, length and indentation to determine the individual that was in the location.
• Using Traditional Methods: Dogs are also used to assist tracking the tiger by smell. Once the tigers are found, photographs, drawings and notes regarding sex, location, and other details of the individual are taken and sent back to the study camp.
• Using Camera Traps: It involves setting up surveying cameras that activate when there is movement detected and will spontaneously take multiple photographs of the area.
• Capture-recapture models; are now commonly used in conjunction with tiger tracking.
• They not only measure population numbers, but also measure demographic parameters.
• This combination technique consists of camera traps and basic tiger search to collect sufficient data.
• Once researchers and conservation biologists are able to gain knowledge of the population and its numbers, conservation efforts are put to work.

Factors Determining Tiger Conservation

Factors determining success of Tiger conservation generally includes;

• Size of protected area
• Biodiversity in the environment
• Number of tigers in the area
• Connectivity of the area to buffer zones
• Funding and Community Support
  

What are the loopholes in conservation practices?

• Mitigation Conflicts: In densely populated countries like India availability of sufficient exclusive space to maintain viable populations of large carnivores is difficult and coexistence becomes an essential strategy for effective conservation.
• Human- Wildlife conflict is the one of the reason for sustainable Tiger Habitats.
• Illegal Trade of Tigers: International market demand for tiger body parts, the incentive for poaching of tigers remains.
• Therefore, enforcement of law through patrols on the ground, use of modern technology that helps in apprehension of poachers, recording evidence that would stand the scrutiny of the legal process and result in conviction, are all equally important.
• Technological drawbacks: Use of technology such as the E-eye, a sensor-based system of thermal and visual cameras deployed along some sensitive borders of high-profile tiger reserves relayed real-time surveillance to tiger reserve managers and acted as major deterrent for poachers.
• Lack of Policy implementation: Due to the less number of people employed in the staff for surveillance and protection in Tiger reserves, a trained and professional staff is required.
• This affects the policy implementation.

Some Government Initiatives

• Project Tiger: Project Tiger aims at tiger conservation in specially-constituted tiger reserves, which are representative of various bio-geographical regions in the country.
  • It strives to maintain viable tiger populations in their natural environment. As of 2019, there are 50 tiger reserves in India, covering an area of 37,761 km²(14,580 sq mi).
• The Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 is a very powerful legislation.
  • It provides for penalties of 3–7 years of imprisonment and/or fine of INR 5,000 to 200,000 for the poaching of tigers.
• National Tiger Conservation Authority: National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
  • It was established in 2005 following the recommendations of the Tiger Task Force.
  • It was constituted under enabling provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, as amended in 2006, for strengthening tiger conservation, as per powers and functions assigned to it.

The Health Ministry has released Family Planning Vision- 2030 document which indicated on teen pregnancies even after a stabilized fertility rate in India.

• India is the second largest country in the world. The country’s population is expected to continue to grow until mid-century; however, the population growth will decline substantially.
• India’s population has reached 136.3 crore (1.36 billion) and is expected to reach 147.9 crore (1.47 billion) by 2031 and further 152.2 crore (1.52 billion) by 2036.
• The adolescent population will reach 22.9 crore (229 million) by 2031 and further 22 crore (220 million) by 2036, which will be a cause of concern if the scenario of teen pregnancies remain to continue.

Let us see some data on these issues.

Key highlights

According to the Ministry of Health, these are the following observations:

• More Teen pregnancies: Over 118 districts reported high percentage of teenage pregnancies and are mostly concentrated in Bihar (19), West Bengal (15), Assam (13), Maharashtra (13), Jharkhand (10), Andhra Pradesh (7), and Tripura (4).
• Low age of Marriage: Over 44% of the districts in India reported high percentage of women marrying before they reach the age of 18.
• Less Use of Contraceptives: These districts were in the States of Bihar (17), West Bengal (8), Jharkhand (7), and Assam (4), two each in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. These districts also experience low rates of modern contraceptive use.

What is Fertility Rate?

• Total fertility rate (TFR)is the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years (15-49 years).
• The total fertility rate (TFR) is an important factor in determining the population growth and demographic stability of a country.

Replacement Level Fertility

• Replacement level fertility is the level of fertility at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next, i.e., the level of fertility needed to keep the population the same from generation to generation.
• The TFR of 2.1 ensures the replacement of the woman and her partner. Another 0.1 children per woman are included to counteract infant mortality.

Decline in Fertility Rates vs. Teen Pregnancies

Important Government interventions

• Adolescent Friendly Health Services Program:Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram is there where female adolescents are sensitised about their health.
• Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY): Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) is a safe motherhood intervention under the National Health Mission (NHM).
• JSY is a 100% centrally sponsored scheme and it integrates cash assistance with delivery and post-delivery care.
• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY): PMMVY is a scheme for pregnant women and lactating mothers. The scheme has crossed the mark of 1 crore beneficiaries.

Google Street View is finally available for ten cities in India and is expected to roll out in about 50 more cities by the end of the year 2022.

• The 360-degree interactive panorama feature of Google Maps has been available in cities spread over 100 countries since 2007.
• In India, unlike in other markets, Google Street View is powered by images from third parties as per the National Geospatial Policy, 2021.

What is Google Street View?

• Google Street View is an immersive 360-degree view of a location captured using special cameras mounted on vehicles or on backpacks by data collectors moving around the city streets.
• The images are then patched together to create a 360-degree view which users can swipe through to get a detailed view of the location.
• It is available to view on Android and iOS using the app, or as a web view.

How has Street View now been launched in India?

• The National Geospatial Policy, 2021 lets Indian companies collect map data and license it to others.
• Google has tied up with Tech Mahindra and Mumbai-based Genesys International to enable Street View for 10 Indian cities initially.
• This is the first time Google is working with partner data to enable this feature.
• In India, the data will be collected and owned by these partners.

Benefits

• While the Google Maps gives users the ability to plot a route and see the satellite view of the same, often this does not give a clear idea of the road conditions.
• With Street View, users will be able to see exactly how a new destination looks like, and even explore local businesses before going there.

Limitations

• Restricted to Specific areas: Street View in India is not allowed for restricted areas like government properties, defence establishments and military areas. This means in a place like Delhi, the cantonment area will be out of bounds for Street View.
• Privacy issues: Over the years a lot of privacy and other issues have been raised regarding Street View.
• People faces and other identifiable aspects, like car number plates and house numbers, being captured by the camera and being misused in different ways.

National Geo-Spatial Policy 2021

The Policy is guided by the following underlying principles in its intent and scope:

• Recognizing the potential of Geospatial Sector in knowledge and wealth creation and providing for an enabling environment
• Augment Geospatial education in the country by ‘catching them young’ and igniting geospatial spark in young minds from school level onwards
• Standardization and certification of courses and skill sets
• Policies and guidelines to be aligned with emerging technologies and ground realities
• Level playing field for Government and non- Government sectors
• Ease of doing business
• Encourage creation and incubation of ideas and start-ups
• Availability of real and near real time data and information
• Reduce duplication and wastage of efforts in producing Geospatial data
• Promote collaboration, including Public Private Partnerships, between various agencies in production and use of Geospatial data
• Survey of India topographic data to be treated as common good and made easily available
• Geospatial data and information produced using public fund to be shared as per National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy 2012.
• Standardization of formats so that Geospatial data is available in an interoperable machine-readable form
• Assessment of sensitivity of Geospatial data and information for sharing to be done weighing security/strategic considerations against potential contribution to socio-economic development

This year’s Earth Overshoot Day was observed (28^th July) a day before it was celebrated in year 2021 on July 29. It indicates that humanity’s demand for natural resources exceeds what the Earth can provide.

• The concept of Earth Overshoot Day was first conceived by Andrew Simms of the UK think tank New Economics Foundation, which partnered with Global Footprint Network in 2006 to launch the first global Earth Overshoot Day campaign.
• At that time, Earth Overshoot Day fell in October.
• World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the world’s largest conservation organization, has participated in Earth Overshoot Day since

How it is computed the earth’s overshoot capacity?

• It is computed by Global Footprint Network by;
• Dividing the planet’s bio-capacity(the amount of ecological resources Earth is able to generate that year), by humanity’s Ecological Footprint (humanity’s demand for that year), and multiplying by 365, the number of days in a year.

• The Ecological Footprint is a metric used that comprehensively compares human demand on nature against nature’s capacity to regenerate.

India’s stand

• India finds itself in a much better position compared to the other countries.
• India, with the second-largest population count in the world, still has a per capita consumption rate that is not at all in the danger area of getting unsustainable.
• According to the GFN, in a hypothetical situation where every citizen of the world lives like a citizen of the United States, sustainability would call for a total of 5 Earth.
• It is defined that people of the world living like Indians would actually call for only 0.7 of the planet Earth to reach sustainability. 
  
  

The MiG-21 trainer, which had taken off from the rom the Uttarlai airbase, crashed near Bhimda village in Rajasthan. MiG-21 Fighter was developed by the Soviet Union and India being its largest user should focus on its limited uses.

• India is the largest operator of MiG-21s. In 1961, the Indian Air Force (IAF) opted to purchase the MiG-21 over several other Western competitors.
• As part of the deal, the Soviet Union offered India full transfer of technology and rights for local assembly.
• In 1964, the MiG-21 became the first supersonic fighter jet to enter service with the IAF.
• Due to limited induction numbers and lack of pilot training, the IAF MiG-21 played a limited role in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
• However, the IAF gained valuable experience while operating the MiG-21 for defensive sorties during the war.
• Since 1963, India has introduced more than 1,200 MiG fighters into its air force.
• As of 2019, 113 MiG-21s are known to be in operation in the IAF.

What is Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG-21)?

• The Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG-21) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union.
• Approximately 60 countries across four continents have flown the MiG-21, and it still serves many nations six decades after its maiden flight.
• It became the most-produced supersonic jet aircraft in aviation history, the most-produced combat aircraft since the Korean War.

Design Specifications:                                                                                                                                                           

• Speed: Mach 2.05 at altitude; Mach 1.05 at sea level.
• Initial Climb Rate: 58,000 ft/min.
• Range: 585 nm.
• Service Ceiling: 57,400 ft.
• Wingspan: 23.46 ft.
• Length: 40.29 ft.
• Height: 13.46 ft.
  
  

What is the issue with MiG-21 jets?

However, the plane has been plagued by safety problems.

• Lack of Maintenance: Since 1970 more than 170 Indian pilots and 40 civilians have been killed in MiG-21 accidents. At least 14 MiG-21s have crashed between 2010 and 2013.
• Poor maintenance and quality of replacement parts has been considered to be a factor in this phenomenon
• Design issues: When in afterburner, the engine operates very close to its surge line and the ingestion of even a small bird can lead to an engine surge/seizure and flame out.

Marking the significance of 75 years of Independence, Prime minister inaugurated the most prestigious tournament in chess which had for the first time come to India.

About the event

• The 44th Chess Olympiad (also known as the Chennai Chess Olympiad), organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE).
• The world’s biggest team chess championship, featuring players from 187 countries.
• It is organised at Hotel Four Points by Sheraton, Mamallapuram.
• It will start from July 29 and is to conclude on August 10.
• The Tamil Nadu government, which sanctioned over ?92 crore to host the Chess Olympiad.
• Over 20,000 players will participate in the Olympiad.
• It consists of open and women's tournaments, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess.