UNESCO lauds Manas’ revival story, removes danger tag

Acknowledging the great revival story, UNESCO has removed the 'danger tag' imposed on the famous Manas National Park of Assam 19 years ago, following significant improvement in wildlife conservation.

The decision to remove the 'danger tag' was announced during the ongoing 35th session of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee in Paris.

"Significant improvements in the preservation of Manas Wildlife Sanctuary have allowed for its withdrawal from the World Heritage List in Danger," the Committee said.

Situated on the foothills of the Himalayas, the Manas sanctuary, home to a great variety of wildlife, including many endangered species, such as tiger, pygmy hog, one-horn rhinoceros and elephant, was inscribed in the List of Danger in 1992, seven years after it had entered UNESCO's World Heritage List.

The Committee noted that the outstanding universal value, for which Manas was inscribed in the World Heritage list, was "recovering from damages sustained during ethnic unrest" in the site.

Since then, there have been concerted efforts by the government and locals assisted by committed NGOs and individuals to revive Manas.

Under the 'Bringing Back Manas' initiative of the BTC and the Assam forest department in collaboration with the International Fund for Animal Welfare and WTI, Greater Manas was declared, tripling its area.

The protection and management of Manas was enhanced through training of front line staff, provision of equipment and facilitating and encouraging involvement of local communities in conservation.

The decision on the World Heritage status of Manas was an outcome of voting by 22 member countries to the World Heritage Committee.

An independent review on the status was done by the IUCN to apprise the Committee on the present situation in Manas.

Gamma ray telescope getting ready at Hanle

• India is getting ready to set up a special facility that is expected to give a major boost to the international efforts to unravel the mysteries surrounding the nature of normal and dark matter in the universe.
• The Bangalore based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) along with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and several other national institutions, is setting up a telescope with 21-meter diameter collector here which will collect the gamma rays in the space. The analysis of the gamma rays will help astro-physicist in better understanding of different types of matter in the universe.
• Known as the Major Atmospheric Cerenkov Experiment (MACE) facility, the Observatory here will be the only such facility in the eastern hemisphere, and at an altitude of 4,300 m above the mean sea level.
• Hanle is considered one of the most suitable sites for such astronomical researches in the country due to its location -- high altitude and dry weather. It has an annual precipitation of less than seven cm and thus offer a large window for observations. On an average, observations can be made for 260 days in any year.
• The facility is next to IIA's Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT), which was set up about a decade ago.The HCT became functional in 2001 and is operated from Bangalore through a satellite-based communication link. This telescope has already helped in discovering three galaxies with super-massive black-holes, and nature of several supernovae, and several new variable stars in our galaxy, among other things.
• The effort to establish MACE facility is being led by Mumbai based Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC), in collaboration with Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Mumbai, and Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Kolkata besides IIA.It is estimated to cost about Rs. 40 crore and is expected to be ready in 18 months, by December 2012.
• The technical feasibility of the high altitude for atmospheric Cerenkov detectors was proved by IIA and TIFR by setting up a smaller facility, High Altitude Gamma Ray (HAGAR) experiment in 2008.

India and Malaysia implement CECA effective 1 July 2011

• The India-Malaysia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) will come into effect on 1 July 2011.
• India-Malaysia CECA is India's fourth bilateral Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, after Singapore, South Korea and Japan. The CECA envisages liberalisation of trade in goods, trade in services, investments and other areas of economic cooperation.
• Trade between India and Malaysia has reached US$ 10 billion in 2010-11, an increase of 26% from the previous year. It is expected that the implementation of this agreement will boost bilateral trade to US$15 billion by 2015. 
• The trade in goods package under India-Malaysia CECA takes the tariff liberalization beyond the India-ASEAN FTA commitments, which were implemented by both countries on 1 January 2010. Under India-Malaysia CECA, the items on which India has obtained market access from Malaysia include basmati rice, mangoes, eggs, trucks, motorcycles and cotton garments, which are all items of considerable export interest to India. At the same time, adequate protection has been provided by the Indian side for sensitive sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, textiles, chemicals, auto, etc. 
• The CECA also facilitates the temporary movement of business people including contractual service suppliers, and independent professionals in commercially meaningful sectors including accounting and auditing, architecture, urban planning, engineering services, medical and dental, nursing and pharmacy, Computer and Related Services (CRS), and Management Consulting Services. 
• The India-Malaysia CECA also facilitates cross-border investments between the two countries. It aims to promote investments and create a liberal, facilitative, transparent and competitive investment regime. The CECA creates an attractive operating environment for the business communities of both countries to increase bilateral trade and investment.
  

Endosulfan listed under Rotterdam Convention

• The Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention, meeting in Geneva, decided to list endosulfan under annex III to the Convention on Friday.
• This makes prior informed consent of importing countries necessary for export of the pesticide. India, an exporter, did not object to listing of the pesticide.
• India exports half of its annual production of around 9000 tonnes of endosulfan. However, production was stopped temporarily this month on orders from the Supreme Court on a petition filed by the Democratic Youth Federation of India, citing harmful health effects of the pesticide.
• The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade is aimed at helping poor countries in managing potentially hazardous chemicals imported by them.
• The Conference postponed a decision on listing of chrysotile (white asbestos) to its next meeting as no consensus could be reached. However, a declaration was drafted by Australia and signed by many of the country-delegates seeking to pursue voluntary exchange of information. Canada (besides some other countries) had strongly opposed the listing of asbestos without stating its reasons even while agreeing that the scientific criteria for listing had been met.
  

U.S. removes India from human trafficking ‘Watch List’

After a gap of six years, the United States has taken India off the human trafficking 'Watch List' for making significant efforts in combating the menace.

In its annual Trafficking in Persons report, the State Department has upgraded India to Tier 2 countries after keeping it on a 'Watch List' for six years.

The Watch List is for those countries where the number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing and there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat it.

Tier 2 is for those countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Acts (TVPA) but are making significant efforts in this regard.

"The Government of India does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so," the State Department said in its report justifying its decision to upgrade India's position.

The report analysed conditions in 184 countries and ranked them in terms of their effectiveness in fighting the human trafficking.

It has identified 23 nations as failing to meet minimum international standards to curb the scourge, which claims mainly women and children as victims. That's up from 13 in 2010. Another 41 countries were placed on the "watch list" that could lead to sanctions unless their records improve.

The international Global Zero movement

The international Global Zero movement launched in December 2008 includes more than 300 political, military, business, faith and civic leaders — and hundreds of thousands of citizens — working for the phased, verified elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide.

Global Zero members believe that the only way to eliminate the nuclear threat — including proliferation and nuclear terrorism — is to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, secure all nuclear materials and eliminate all nuclear weapons: global zero.

The movement combines grassroots and media outreach, cutting-edge policy analysis and direct dialogue with governments to make the elimination of nuclear weapons an urgent global imperative and to bring all nuclear weapons countries to the table to negotiate the phased reduction of arsenals to zero. 

The international Global Zero Commission of 23 political and military leaders has developed a practical step-by-step plan – backed by hundreds of former heads-of-state, foreign ministers, national security advisers and military commanders – to achieve this goal over the next two decades.

The Global Zero Action Plan calls in its first phase for the United States and Russia to cut their arsenals to 1,000 total warheads each, all other countries with nuclear weapons to freeze their arsenals, and the international community to conduct an all-out global effort to block the spread of nuclear weapons. These steps would be followed by the first multilateral negotiations in history for stockpile reductions by all nuclear weapons countries.

In February 2010 in Paris, the 2nd Global Zero Summit convened 200 eminent leaders from around the world. Presidents Obama and Medvedev and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon sent strong statements of support, including President Obama's declaration that Global Zero "will always have a partner in me and my administration." Fmr. US Secretary of George Shultz delivered the keynote address.

From the UN Security Council's September 2009 endorsement of the goal of Global Zero, to the April 2010 START treaty signing and the Nuclear Security Summit, political support and momentum for Global Zero are growing. Global Zero has garnered extensive worldwide media attention. More than 400,000 people from every country in the world have signed the Global Zero declaration and joined the movement. Students are getting involved, starting over 70 Global Zero chapters on college campuses worldwide.

Global Zero, in partnership with the Academy Award winning team behind An Inconvenient Truth, Lawrence Bender and Participant Media, produced Countdown to Zero, a major documentary film which opened in theaters across the US in July 2010 and which is now available on DVD.  A chilling wake-up call about the urgency of the nuclear threat, the film will be distributed internationally and will raise awareness and help build the Global Zero movement.

Great Indian Bustard facing extinction

The 2011 Red List of birds, released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has enlisted the bird in the Critically Endangered category, the highest level of threat. The population of the species is estimated to be just 250.

Hunting, habitat loss and fragmentation have reduced the number of this species, which was found in large numbers in the grasslands of India and Pakistan. But their population is now restricted to small and isolated fragments of remaining habitats, says the Birdlife International, which prepared the list.

The BirdLife International "coordinates the categorisation and documentation of all bird species for the IUCN Red List." According to the 2011 assessment, 1,253 species are considered threatened with extinction. These include albatrosses, cranes, parrots, pheasants, and pigeons. The larger-bodied species and those with low reproductive rates are more likely to be threatened, the report says.

The birds have unmistakable, large, brown-and-white body with black crown and wing markings. The males have whitish neck and under parts with narrow black breast-band. The females are smaller, with greyer neck and typically no breast-band. The population of the bird was estimated to be around 300 in 2008. The population viability analysis lends some support to a predicted decline of over 50 per cent of the species in the next 47 years if no additional conservation actions are taken, the report cautions.

In India, the bird is now restricted to Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. Earlier it was distributed from Punjab east through Orissa and south to Tamil Nadu, says P.O. Nameer, South Asian coordinator, in situ, Conservation Breeding Specialist Group, Species Survival Commission, IUCN.

Besides the Bustard, the list has enumerated 15 species from India as critically endangered and 16 as endangered ones. There are 55 vulnerable ones and 65 near-threatened bird species in the country. Some of the critically endangered Indian varieties include the Himalayan Quail, Pink-headed Duck, White-bellied Heron and Christmas Island Frigatebird. The vulture species found in India namely the White-backed, the Indian, the Slender-billed and the Red-headed are also in the critical list, says Dr. Nameer.

The list has classified 189 species worldwide as critically endangered, 381 as endangered with very high risk of extinction and 683 as vulnerable with high risk of extinction. It has also listed 843 species as near-threatened. A total of 2,096 species were treated as global conservation priorities. The threat status of 62 species could not be properly assessed following deficiency of data.

India to buy 10 C-17 heavy-lift transport aircraft for IAF

India has decided to purchase 10 C-17 Globemaster III heavy-lift transport aircraft from the United States of American for the Indian Air Force. The deal under the Foreign Military Sales (Government-to-Government) is estimated to cost Rs. 18,000 crore (approximately $4.1 billion).

The contract, when signed would become the highest single value military contract that New Delhi would enter into with the United States and includes an offset obligation of around Rs. 4,500 crore ($ 1 billion). Under the clause, the U.S. company would have to source 30 per cent value of the order from India.

The IAF plans to base these heavy lift aircraft at Agra. These can carry 73,616 kilogramme of payload and can be operated by a crew of three-two in the cockpit and one loadmaster.

The plane can carry 188 passengers, has reverse thrust engines for short turn around and equipped with missile warning system with flares to disengage the incoming attack.

The IAF conducted trials last year including one in Himachal Pradesh to check it efficacy for short take off and landing with requisite cargo load. At present the Russian IL-76 "Gajraj" and AN-32 are the IAF workhorses for transporting men and material.

Earlier this year, the IAF inducted tactical lift C130J Super Hercules aircraft from the Lockheed Martin stable.