Daily Prelims Notes 28 January 2024

January 28, 2024
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

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Daily Prelims Notes

28 January 2024

Table Of Contents

1. Outbreak of Western Equine Encephalitis Virus in Argentina

Subject: Science and tech

Section: Health

Context:

In December 2023, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization was notified of a human case of Western Equine Encephalitis Virus (WEEV) in Argentina, the first since 1996.
The outbreak has since grown to 21 confirmed human cases.

About Western Equine Encephalitis Virus (WEEV):

WEEV is a mosquito-borne infection caused by the Western Equine Encephalitis Virus (WEEV), which belongs to the Togaviridae family of viruses with neurological symptoms in severe cases, and there is no specific antiviral treatment.
The virus has an approximately 11.5 kilobases long single-stranded RNA genome and is a recombinant of the eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) and a Sindbis-like virus.
Passerine birds are thought to be the reservoir and equine species as intermediate hosts.
The outbreak coincides with ongoing WEEV outbreaks in horses in Argentina and Uruguay, with 374 confirmed animal cases in both countries, including 1,258 in 15 Argentine provinces.
Exposures include veterinary work, construction, and outdoor activities.
PAHO/WHO has alerted about the risk of WEEV spreading in the Americas, emphasizing the need for enhanced surveillance, a One Health approach, environmental modifications, vector control, and equine vaccination.

One Health Approach:

One Health is a holistic approach to problems that recognises the interconnections between the health of humans, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
An early articulation can be found in the writings of Hippocrates (460-367 BC), who contemplated the relationships between public health and clean environments.
The 19th-century German physician and pathologist Rudolf Virchow (1821-1863) also talked about the integrated health approach of humans and animals.
The eminent veterinarians James Steele (1913-2013) and Calvin Schwabe (1927-2006) have championed the value of ecology for both animal and human health.

Source: TH

2. Online sales, access-controlled gates hurting business, say Kashmiri shawl sellers

Subject: Geography

Section: Economy Geography

Context: Online shopping has allowed people to buy shawls, pherans, and other items from Kashmir throughout the year and at more affordable prices

Pashmina Shawls:

Pashmina is known world over as cashmere wool, it comes from a special goat (Capra hircus) living at an altitude of 12000 to 14000 ft.
Shawls are produced by two techniques, loom woven or kani shawls and the needle embroidered or sozni shawls.
Pashmina Shawls are GI certified.
The Kani shawl, which has a Geographical Indication tag, now faces competition from cheaper machine-made shawls from Punjab.
Kani Shawl weaving originated in Kanihamal area of Kashmir valley

Kuﬁc calligraphy:

Calligraphy is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument.
Kufic is the oldest calligraphic form of the various Arabic scripts.
Arabic calligraphy became one of the most important branches of Islamic Art.
The name of the script derives from Kufa, a city in southern Iraq which was considered as an intellectual center within the early Islamic period.

3. Invasion of non-native species can lead to ecosystem shifts

Subject: Environment

Section: Biodiversity

Context:

At a Kenyan conservancy, the invasive big-headed ant species disrupted a mutualism between native ants and acacia trees, in which the native ants protected trees from grazers in exchange for a place to live.

Details:

When the invasive ants pushed out the native ants, the trees were left vulnerable to overgrazing by elephants, who browsed and broke trees at five to seven times the rate in areas with invasive ants.
Due to a more open landscape, lions were left without hiding places to stalk their preferred prey zebras.

Mutualism:

Mutualism is simply described as a relationship in which both species benefit from one another.
This relationship might exist either inside a species or between two species.
All living organisms, including humans, animals, birds, plants, and other microbes such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi, have a mutual interaction.

Types of Mutualism:

Obligate mutualism	The relationship between two species in which both are entirely reliant on each other is known as obligatory mutualism. The best examples of obligate mutualism are most symbiotic and some non-symbiotic symbioses. For instance, consider the Yucca plant and the moth. The yucca plant thrives in the southwestern United States’ dry and arid climate. The pollination mechanism of the yucca flower is dependent on the moth. By laying its eggs on the blossom and feeding the larvae with the seeds, the moth benefits as well.
Facultative mutualism	The partners in facultative mutualism can coexist without relying on each other. They, on the other hand, create a diffuse association with a diverse range of species. Example: Honeybees with plants. Honey bees visit a variety of plant types in search of nectar, and these plants will be visited by a variety of insect pollinators for pollination.
Trophic mutualism	The partners in trophic mutualism are specialized in complementary ways of obtaining energy and nutrients from one another. Take, for example, cows and microbes. The cellulose of the plant is indigestible to cows. The bacteria found in cow rumens aid in the digestion of plant cellulose. Bacteria, on the other hand, receive food and a warm environment, both of which are necessary for their growth and development.
Defensive mutualism	In defensive mutualism, one partner receives food and shelter in exchange for defending the other against herbivores, predators, and parasites. Aphids and ants are two examples. Honeydew is produced by the aphids and delivered to the ants’ nests at night to protect them from predators and accompany them. The following morning, these aphids are brought back to the plant. In exchange, ants benefit from the aphid’s eggs, which they assemble and store in their nest chambers to withstand the chilly winter months.
Dispersive mutualism	In dispersive mutualism, one partner receives nourishment in exchange for assisting flowers in pollen transmission. Honeybees with plants, for example. Honey bees fly from one flower to the next in search of nectar, which is needed to make honey; in exchange, plants benefit from pollination, as the honey bee spreads pollen from one plant to the next.

Significance of Mutualism:

Around 80% of terrestrial plant species rely on mycorrhizal partnerships with fungi to provide them with inorganic compounds and trace elements, making mutualistic interactions critical for the terrestrial ecosystem function.
The proportion of tropical rainforest plants that have seed dispersal mutualisms with animals is estimated to be between 70 and 93.5 per cent.
Furthermore, mutualism is assumed to have fueled the evolution of much of the biological diversity we see today, including flower shapes (which are necessary for pollination mutualisms) and species co-evolution.
Mutualism has also been linked to significant evolutionary events such as the formation of the eukaryotic cell and plant-mycorrhizal fungal colonization of land.

Source: TH

4. What is Ladakh’s demand on Gilgit-Baltistan?

Subject: Geography

Section: Places in news

Context:

Ladakh’s two key sociopolitical conglomerates, the Leh Apex Body (LAB), representing several Buddhist religious and political parties, and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), representing Muslim religious groups and local parties, submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Home Affairs, demands include extending the territorial control of Ladakh up to Gilgit Baltistan in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

Concerns in Leh and Kargil

Kargil – Of Ladakh’s two districts, the August 2019 changes were immediately opposed by the people of Kargil.
The people of Kargil see themselves as a minority in Buddhist majority Ladakh.
So, the leaders of the majority Shia population in Kargil demanded that the district should remain part of J&K.
They also demanded that special status be restored.
This was to safeguard the rights of Kargil people over their land and employment opportunities.

Leh – Opposition from Leh came later

Leh believed that it was being marginalised in the larger state of J&K.
So, a UT for Ladakh had been a long-standing demand in Buddhist majority Leh.
But what Leh leaders did not bargain for was the complete loss of legislative powers.
Earlier, Leh and Kargil each sent four representatives to the J&K legislature.
After the changes, they were down to one legislator – their sole MP, and with all powers vested in the UT bureaucracy.
Unlike the UT of J&K, Ladakh was a UT without an assembly.
So, the Ladakh districts fear that alienation of land, loss of identity, culture, language, and change in demography would follow their political disempowerment.

Gilgit-Baltistan

Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) was formerly known as the Northern Areas.
It is the northernmost territory administered by Pakistan, providing the country’s only territorial frontier, and thus a land route, with China, where it meets the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
Located in the northern Pakistan. It borders China in the North, Afghanistan in the west, Tajikistan in the north west and Kashmir in the south east.
It shares a geographical boundary with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and India considers it as part of the undivided Jammu and Kashmir, while Pakistan sees it as a separate from PoK.
It has a regional Assembly and an elected Chief Minister.
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) also passes through this region.
Gilgit-Baltistan is home to five of the “eight-thousanders” and to more than fifty peaks above 7,000 metres (23,000 ft).
Three of the world’s longest glaciers outside the polar regions are found in Gilgit-Baltistan.
To G-B’s west is Afghanistan, to its south is Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and to the east, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
It is Indian territory, part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir that acceded to India in full after Independence, and which has been under illegal Pakistani occupation.
Gilgit Baltistan has been under the control of Pakistan since April 1949, when the leadership of the so-called Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) was forced to sign away this territory to Pakistan.
However, the region does not have any place in the constitutional framework of Pakistan and has been kept under the tight control of the central government.
Gilgit-Baltistan shares a border with Azad Kashmir, together with which it is referred to by the United Nations as “Pakistan administered Kashmir”.

History of the region

Gilgit was part of the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir, but was ruled directly by the British, who had taken it on lease from Hari Singh, the Hindu ruler of the Muslim-majority state. When Hari Singh acceded to India on October 26, 1947, the Gilgit Scouts rose in rebellion, led by their British commander Major William Alexander Brown.
In November 1, 1947, a political outfit called the Revolutionary Council of Gilgit-Baltistan had proclaimed the independent state of Gilgit-Baltistan., it declared it was acceding to Pakistan, which accepted the accession only to the extent of full administrative control, choosing to govern it directly under the Frontier Crimes Regulation, a law devised by the British to keep control of the restive tribal areas of the northwest.
The Gilgit Scouts also moved to take over Baltistan, which was then part of Ladakh, and captured Skardu, Kargil and Dras. In battles thereafter, Indian forces retook Kargil and Dras in August 1948
Following the India-Pakistan ceasefire of January 1, 1949, Pakistan in April that year entered into an agreement with the “provisional government” of “Azad Jammu & Kashmir” parts that had been occupied by Pakistani troops and irregulars to take over its defence and foreign affairs. Under this agreement, the “Azad Jammu & Kashmir” government also ceded administration of Gilgit-Baltistan to Pakistan.
In 1974, Pakistan adopted its first full-fledged civilian Constitution, which lists four provinces —Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakthunkhwa. Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan were not incorporated as provinces.
In 1975, PoK got its own Constitution, making it an ostensibly self-governed autonomous territory.
PoK too remained under the control of Pakistani federal administration and the security establishment, through the Kashmir Council.
Provincial status, on November 1, 2020, observed in Gilgit-Baltistan as “Independence Day”, Imran Khan announced that his government would give the region “provisional provincial status”.

What is the Centre’s stand?

In the wake of street protests held by people in Ladakh, the Centre in 2022 formed a committee under Minister of State G. Kishan Reddy to engage with the members of the LAB and KDA.
The Centre had assured the people it would find “an appropriate solution to the issues related to language, culture and conservation of land in Ladakh.” However, it has failed to arrive at a solution.
After a fresh bout protests in 2023, another high powered committee, with Minister of State Nityanand Rai at its head, was empowered to engage with the stakeholders of Ladakh.
In 2024, these bodies submitted a written memorandum to pave the way for more structured talks between New Delhi and Ladakh over the list of demands.

5. Gyanvapi case raises a challenge to Places of Worship Act 1991

Subject: Polity

Section: Legislation in news

Context:

Calls to hand over the Gyanvapi mosque to the Hindus have come even after appeals by the Anjuman Intazamia Masjid in the Supreme Court to protect the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991 from becoming a dead letter.

Details of News

Hindu petitioners assert that the Gyanvapi mosque stands on the original site of an ancient Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, demolished by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in the 17th century to build the mosque. They seek permission for worship within the mosque compound.
The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee, managing the Gyanvapi mosque, contends it’s been a mosque for centuries and the Places of Worship Act, 1991, prohibits changing the religious character of any place of worship existing as of August 15, 1947.

The Places of Worship Act 1991

The Places of Worship Act, 1991 is a law enacted by the Parliament of India to prohibit the conversion of any place of worship and to maintain the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947, the day India attained independence.
The Act was passed in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, which sparked communal riots across the country. The Act aimed to preserve communal harmony and respect the sentiments of all religious communities in India.

The main features of the Act are:

It bars the conversion of any place of worship, such as a temple, mosque, church, gurudwara, or monastery, into a place of worship of a different religious denomination or sect.
It declares that the religious character of a place of worship existing on August 15, 1947 shall continue to be the same as it was on that day.
It abates any pending legal proceedings regarding the conversion of the religious character of any place of worship before August 15, 1947, and prohibits any new suits or appeals on this matter.
It exempts certain places from its purview, such as ancient monuments and archaeological sites covered by another law, places of worship that have been settled or resolved by mutual agreement or court verdicts, and the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya, which is subject to a separate legislation.
It prescribes penalties for violating the provisions of the Act, including imprisonment for up to three years and a fine.

The significance of the Act is:

It seeks to uphold the secular fabric of India and protect the rights and interests of all religious communities.
It aims to prevent further disputes and conflicts over places of worship that may disturb the public order and peace.
It reflects the commitment of the Indian state to respect the historical and cultural legacy of various faiths and their places of worship.

6. Shark & ray meat consumption no longer restricted to India’s tribal & coastal peoples: Paper

Subject: Environment

Section: Species in news

Context: According to a new study he meat of sharks and rays, for long consumed by tribal and coastal people in India, has found favour among new demographic categories such as foreign tourists and Indian middle- and upper classes. This could lead to more unsustainable fishing of shark species, imperiling them in what is already the world’s third biggest exploiter of sharks and rays.

Sharks in India

Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish that are characterised by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven-gill slits on the sides of the head and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head.
They are ancient fish, the earliest known sharks date back to more than 420 million years. They range widely in size, from 17 centimetres to nearly 12 metres. There are about 500 different species of sharks in the world.
Sharks live long. They grow and sexually mature slowly. Unlike most bony fish, they reproduce fewer pups at a time.
Many shark species are apex predators, essential for the ecosystem they thrive in
India’s waters have about 160 species of sharks, out of which ten are legally protected, listed under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 – whale shark which was the first fish species to be protected in India, Pondicherry shark which is on the brink of extinction, Gangetic shark which is one of the few freshwater and estuarine sharks in the world (now extinct), speartooth shark, freshwater sawfish, green sawfish, and the giant guitarfish which is becoming rare as it is caught for shark fin soup popular in south-east Asia.
Sharks have especially been targeted for their fins to make ‘shark fin soup’, considered a delicacy in East Asian cuisine. The process involves cutting the fins of a live shark on board a fishing vessel and then throwing it overboard to die a painful death.
Over a third of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction globally and overfishing driven by human consumption is a key threat to over 95 per cent of these threatened species, the authors added.
Sharks and rays have been consumed for centuries by communities living on India’s long coastline as well as tribal groups.
The study enumerates a number of species that are eaten in the country:
- Spadenose shark (Scoliodon laticaudus; Near Threatened)
- Milk shark (Rhizoprionodon acutus; Vulnerable)
- Gray sharpnose shark (R. oligolinx; Near Threatened)
- Reticulate whipray (Himantura uarnak; Endangered)
- Reticulate whipray
Shark finning and shark fin exports are banned in India, but there are no restrictions on consuming shark meat, except for the species that are protected