Daily Prelims Notes 18 May 2024

Daily Prelims Notes

18 May 2024

1. What happens during remand herrings? This is what a study suggests

Sub : Polity

Sec: Constitution

Tags: Art 22

Context:

• The Supreme Court directed the release of jailed journalist Prabir Purkayastha on the ground that due-process safeguards were not followed in his arrest and detention.

More on news:

• The Supreme Court said that his constitutional rights had been violated.
• Purkayastha was produced before a designated judge early in the morning, and sent to seven days police custody.
• He was not given an opportunity to defend himself through legal counsel of his choice.
• He was not informed of the grounds of arrest, as required by Article 22 (1) of the Constitution.
• The Supreme Court’s emphasis on the distinction between the formal reasons for arrest — often included in the Arrest Memo — and meaningful communication of the grounds of arrest in writing.
• The Supreme Court highlighted another aspect where the presence of the Arrest Memo alone is not adequate confirmation of due-process rights of the accused.

Role of the magistrate:

• The judgment spotlights the right of the accused to know the grounds for arrest to protect their right to life and liberty under Article 21.
• Article 22(2) of the Indian Constitution, says every arrested person shall be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours — this is called “first production”. 
• The magistrate/ judge can authorize further detention in police custody (for interrogation) or judicial custody through remand hearings.
• It requires judicial scrutiny to ensure that statutory and constitutional safeguards are realized in letter and spirit.

Study by Project 39A:

• An ethnographic study by Project 39A at National Law University Delhi looked at the everyday functioning of magistrate courts during regular hours across the six district court complexes in Delhi over a three-month period, including the role of the magistrate, lawyers, police, and accused.
• The findings suggest most magistrates do not fully realize the constitutional and statutory protections at first production and remand.

What is Project 39A?

• Project 39A is a criminal justice initiative based out of the National Law University in Delhi.
• Project 39A draws inspiration from Article 39-A in the Indian Constitution on equal justice and signals the broadening of our work on the criminal justice system in India.

Constitutional Provisions in news:

Article 21:

• No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law, nor shall any person be denied equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.

Article 22:

• Protection against arrest and detention in certain cases. 
• 22(1):No person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for such arrest nor shall he be denied the right to consult, and to be defended by, a legal practitioner of his choice.
• 22(2):Every person who is arrested and detained in custody shall be produced before the nearest magistrate within a period of twenty-four hours of such arrest excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the court of the magistrate and no such person shall be detained in custody beyond the said period without the authority of a magistrate.

Key findings of the study:

• Most magistrates ensured that the Arrest Memo — which contains information on the circumstances of arrest and intimation to family — and Medico-Legal Certificate (MLC) — based on a medical examination of the accused — were present on file.

Terminologies in news:

Arrest Memo:

• An Arrest Memo or ‘Memo of Arrest’ is a document that the police must file at the time of arrest or immediately on bringing the arrested person back to the police station.
• It acts as a safeguard against illegal detention by the police.

Medico-Legal Certificate (MLC):

• A MLC is defined as any case of injury or ailment where, the attending doctor after observing history and clinical examination, considers that investigations by law enforcement Agencies are warranted to ascertain circumstances and fix responsibility regarding the said injury or ailment according to the law.

2. Nearly 6 million trees disappeared from farmlands: study

Sub :Environment

Sec: Ecosystem

Tags: Tress,

Context:

• Satellite-imagery-based analysis by researchers at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, reveals the huge tree loss (close to 5.8 million full-grown trees) in Indian agricultural land from 2019 to 2022.

Key Findings

• Satellite imagery analysis revealed that 11% of trees present in 2010-2011 were no longer visible by 2018-2022.
• The study is specific to large trees and does not indicate a decline in overall tree cover.

Data Sources and Methods:

• Researchers utilized data from RapidEye and PlanetScope satellites, which offer resolutions of 3 to 5 meters, enabling the identification of individual large trees.
• The analysis relied on maps from multiple ‘micro-satellites’ and machine learning to track tree numbers and trends from 2010 to 2022.
• Contrastingly, the Forest Survey of India (FSI) uses Sentinel satellite data with a 10-meter resolution, suitable for assessing blocks of trees rather than individual ones.
  • While FSI reports an increase in tree cover from 2019 to 2021, their data is focused on acreage rather than individual trees.
• India has the largest agricultural area globally, making changes in farmland tree cover crucial yet often overlooked.
• The tree loss estimates are conservative, with most losses likely occurring between 2018 and 2020.

Regional Hotspots:

• Detected trees had an average crown size of 96 square meters.
• Unexpectedly high loss rates of mature trees were observed, particularly in central India.
• Hotspots of tree loss:
  • Telangana and Maharashtra: Massive losses of up to 50% of large farmland trees, with up to 22 trees per square kilometre disappearing.
  • Madhya Pradesh (around Indore): Smaller hotspots with significant tree loss.

Limitations of the study:

• The exact number of trees lost since 2010 is uncertain due to the inconsistent quality of imagery from 2010-2011 and the non-comprehensive mapping exercise during that period.

India State of Forest Report- 2021

• The total forest and tree cover in India has grown by 2,261 sq km since the 2019 assessment (ISFR-2019).
• Forest cover increased by 1,540 sq km, and tree cover increased by 721 sq km.
• The overall forest and tree cover now account for 80.9 million hectares, equivalent to 24.62% of the country’s geographical area.

How is Tree Cover Different from Forest Cover?

• Tree cover refers to the total area of land that is covered by trees, regardless of whether or not the trees are part of a forest ecosystem.
• Forest cover, on the other hand, refers specifically to the area of land that is covered by a forest ecosystem, which is defined as an area with a tree canopy density of more than 10% and an area of more than 1 hectare.
• So, all forest cover is tree cover, but not all tree cover is forest cover.

RapidEye:

• RapidEye was a constellation of five identical satellites owned and operated by Planet, launched on 29 August 2008. 
• The constellation was deactivated on 31 March 2020 but Planet still offers data archive.
• RapidEye is part of ESA’s Third Party Missions Programme, in which ESA has an agreement with Planet to distribute archive data products from the mission.
• Objective: to provide a range of Earth Observation products and services to a global user community.

PlanetScope satellite:

• Constellation consists of multiple launches of groups of individual cubesats (Doves and SuperDoves).
• Able to image nearly all Earth’s land every day.
• Programme of European Space Agency (ESA).

Source: TH

3. Archaeologist finds first evidence of rock art in form of footprints in Mangaluru city

Sub : History

Sec: Art and Culture

Tags: Rock Art, Mangaluru city

Context:

• The first evidence of rock art in Mangaluru city has been found near Boloor Panne Koteda Babbu Swamy shrine.

Details of the discovery:

• The rock art is in the form of a pair of human footprints.
• Found on a natural stone boulder near the shrine.
• These footprints might have been created in the first or second century A.D.

Significance:

• Rock art refers to paintings and rock paintings, which were unquestionable cognitive evidence of illiterate societies.
• This discovery is part of the work of recreating the history of Babbu Swamy.
• This discovery gives a clue to search for similar art forms near other shrines of Babbu Swamy.
• Need further exploration to know the origin of Babbu Swamy, a revered legend of the region.

Babbu Swamy:

• In Tulunad (Karnataka), two types of Daivas are worshipped.
• One type is those Daivas who come to this land with the purpose of achieving some objective.
• The other kind of Daivas are those who are born in this world like humans and later on become Daivas. Babbu Swamy comes under this type.
• Babbu was born in Kemmannu, a small place near Udupi in a Dalith family.

Previous discoveries:

• A rock site in Buddhanajeddu in the Udupi district was discovered in 2009, an important rock art site near coastal Karnataka.
• The site has more than 20 footprints on the laterite surface, and it belonged to the first or second century A.D.
• There was evidence of pottery and stone tools of the Neolithic period at the Buddhanajeddu site.

Source: TH