New name of Monkeypox

Paper 2 – Health

Why You Should Know?

Monkeypox has been given a new name by the World Health Organization (WHO), WHO has announced that the disease will now  be known as “mpox” to help combat discrimination and stigma .

In detail –

• It has been learned that objectionable words were being used to address this disease in different countries.
• Due to this reason, requests were being made to change the name of monkeypox for a long time.
• According to the information released by WHO in this regard, both these names will be used for the next one year, after which monkeypox will be removed. 
• The Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO)  has determined that monkeypox is still a global health emergency.
• In such a situation, the international health rules issued in this regard should be considered.
• Monkeypox has spread worldwide after Covid-19.
• So far, the spread of infection has been confirmed in 110 countries around the world. Significantly, more than 81 thousand cases have been reported so far.
• Significantly, in view of the increasing outbreak of this disease globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared it a  public health disaster  i.e. Global Health Emergency on 24 July 2022.

Monkeypox in India

• the first case of monkeypox was reported in India on July 12, 2022 . When its infection was detected in a person who returned to Kerala from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
• After this, two more cases of this disease were reported in Kerala. At the same time, its first case came to light in Delhi on 24 July 2022, when the officials confirmed it.
• Symptoms of the disease were reported in a 31-year-old man from West Delhi. This person had come from Himachal Pradesh only a few days ago.
• It seems whether monkeypox has emerged as a new menace after Corona. Even though the rate of infection in India is not that much, but slowly new cases are coming to the fore.
• Meanwhile, one person has died due to this in Kerala. Confirming this, Kerala Health Minister Veena George has informed that the 22-year-old youth had returned from the United Arab Emirates.
• On July 30, samples of this dying person were sent to NIV, in which it was confirmed to be monkeypox.

What is monkeypox?

• The disease called monkeypox is caused by the monkeypox virus, a member of the genus Orthopoxvirus of the Poxviridae family.
• This virus was first found in 1958 in monkeys kept for research. Although the first case of its infection was recorded in 1970.
• monkeypox is a rare disease spread through virus, which mainly spreads more in tropical rain areas. This includes the central and western regions of Africa.
• However, recently its infection has also been seen in other parts of the world including India, America and Europe.
• Experts are worried about the increasing outbreak of monkeypox. It is believed that this is the biggest outbreak of monkeypox in the last 50 years.
• Regarding its disease, WHO says that monkeypox, which is a zoonotic disease, its symptoms usually last for 2 to 4 weeks, after which they get cured on their own.
• Although in some cases its infection can also be fatal, but if we look at the ratio of its mortality in recent times, it is between 3 to 6 percent.

Symptoms

• According to the information shared by the Union Health Ministry, the infected person starts having high fever as well as skin rashes which can start from the face and extend to the hands, feet, palms and soles.
• Along with this, symptoms like muscle pain, tiredness, headache, sore throat and cough can also be seen in a person infected with this virus.
• At the same time, some people may also have problems like eye pain or blurriness, difficulty in breathing, chest pain.

Treatment

• Talking about its treatment, the vaccines developed for the treatment of smallpox also provide protection against monkeypox.
• In the opinion of experts, the smallpox vaccine has proved to be 85 percent effective in preventing monkeypox. Several countries have also developed new vaccines, one of which has been approved for prevention.
• However, according to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the UN Health Agency, the most effective way to prevent it is information. They say that the more information people infected with monkeypox have about it, the better they will be able to protect themselves.
• According to Tedros, even though the disease has been declared a public health emergency, but with the help of the right strategies, its spread can be stopped. He has emphasized that with the help of the facilities we have at present, we can prevent and control the infection.

Sources – IE

 

Mauna Loa volcano

Paper 1 –Geography

Why You Should Know?

Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, erupted after 38 years on Sunday (November 27), spewing ash and debris, and covering the night sky of Hawaii’s Big Island in an incandescent red hue.

In detail –

Why do volcanoes erupt?

• The deeper one goes under the surface of the Earth towards its core, the hotter it gets.
• The geothermal gradient, the amount that the Earth’s temperature increases with depth, indicates heat flowing from the Earth’s warm interior to its surface.
• At a certain depth, the heat is such that it melts rocks and creates what geologists call ‘magma’.
• Magma is lighter than solid rock and hence it rises, collecting in magma chambers.
• Chambers which have the potential to cause volcanic eruptions are found at a relatively shallow depth, between six to ten km under the surface.
• As magma builds up in these chambers, it forces its way up through cracks and fissures in Earth’s crust. This is what we call a volcanic eruption. The magma that surfaces on the Earth’s crust is referred to as lava.

volcanic eruptions

• While the typical image of a volcano is that of a fountain of lava spouting high in the air from the mouth of the volcano, eruptions vary in intensity and explosiveness, depending on the composition of the magma.
• In simple terms, runny magma makes for less explosive volcanic eruptions that typically are less dangerous.
• Since the magma is runny, gasses are able to escape, leading to a steady but relatively gentle flow of lava out of the mouth of the volcano. The eruption at Mauna Loa is of this kind.
• Since the lava flows out at a slow pace, people typically have enough time to move out of the way. Geologists are also able to predict the flow of the lava depending on the incline and exact consistency it has.
• If magma is thick and sticky, it makes it harder for gasses to escape on a consistent basis. This leads to a build-up of pressure until a breaking point is reached.
• At this time, the gasses escape violently, all at once, causing an explosion. Lava blasts into the air, breaking apart into pieces called tephra. These can be extremely dangerous, ranging from the size of tiny particles to massive boulders.
• This sort of eruption can be deadly: as thick clouds of tephra race down the side of the volcano, they destroy everything in their path.
• Ash erupted into the sky falls back to Earth like powdery snow. If thick enough, blankets of ash can suffocate plants, animals, and humans.
• Further, when the hot volcanic materials mix with nearby sources of water, they can create mudflows that have been known to bury entire communities alive.
• Mount Vesuvius, which obliterated the city of Pompeii, is an example of an explosive volcano.

Volcanic Explosivity Index

• The Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) is a scale used to measure the explosivity of a volcano.
• It has a range of 1 to 8 with a higher VEI indicating more explosivity.
• While the VEI of the current eruption at Mauna Loa is not known yet, the previous eruption in 1984 was deemed to have a VEI of 0.
• The highest VEI ever recorded in Mauna Loa has been 2 (in 1854 and 1868).

Some famous volcanoes

• Any volcano that has erupted within the Holocene period (in the last 11,650 years) is considered to be “active” by scientists.
• “Dormant” volcanoes are those active volcanoes which are not in the process of erupting currently, but have the potential to do so in the future. Mauna Loa was a dormant volcano for the last 38 years.
• “Extinct” volcanoes are ones which scientists predict will never face any further volcanic activity. Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK, is an extinct volcano.
• Here are some famous volcanoes in the world –

Krakatoa, Indonesia

• One of the most catastrophic volcanic eruptions ever occurred in Krakatoa in 1883 (VEI 6).
• The volcano released huge plumes of steam and ash. The explosions were so brutal, they were heard 3,100km away in Perth, Western Australia.
• According to the Dutch colonial authorities, Krakatoa’s eruption and the consequent tsunamis caused 36,417 deaths, though modern estimates peg the number to be much higher.

Mount Vesuvius, Italy

• In 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius erupted (VEI 5), in one of the deadliest eruptions in European history, killing as many as 16,000 and destroying the town of Pompeii.
• According to scientists, the explosion released 100,000 times the thermal energy that was released with the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• It is said to have instantly boiled the blood of all those who were too close to it.

Mount Fuji, Japan

• A defining image of Japan, Mount Fuji towers over the countryside with its snow-capped peaks and barren surface.
• It last erupted in 1707-1708 (VEI 5) and had a devastating effect on the local population.
• The tephra release led to significant agricultural decline, leading to widespread starvation in the Edo (now Tokyo) area.
• Although this eruption itself did not directly kill a lot of people, its subsequent impact proved deadly.

Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland

• Sometimes referred to as E15, it is one of the many volcanic features of Iceland. In 2010, a relatively small eruption (VEI 4) managed to bring air traffic in Europe to a complete standstill.
• 20 countries closed their airspace, impacting approximately 10 million travellers.

Kīlauea, Hawaii

• Adjacent to the Mauna Loa, this is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet.
• It has been erupting intermittently since recorded history, with its eruption lasting from 1983 to 2018 being the longest continuous eruption ever recorded.
• It is a major tourist attraction, with the earliest hotel built at the edge of the volcano in the 1840s.

Mount St Helens, USA

• Located in Washington State, Mount St. Helens was a major eruption that occurred on May 18, 1980 (VEI 5), and it remains the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history.
• It started after an earthquake hit the region, killing 57 and causing property damage over $1 billion.
• It remains an active volcano and one that is considered to be amongst the riskiest by scientists.

Source – IE

 

Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute

Paper 2 –Polity

Why You Should Know?

On November 30, 2022 the Supreme Court will hear arguments about the maintainability of a petition filed by the Maharashtra government, challenging some provisions of the State Reorganisation Act, 1956 and demanding 865 villages from five districts of Karnataka.

In detail –

What is the dispute?

• Maharashtra and Karnataka have sparred over the inclusion of some towns and villages along the state border ever since the State Reorganisation Act was passed by the Parliament in 1956.
• The Act was based on the findings of the Justice Fazal Ali Commission, which was appointed in 1953 and submitted its report two years later.
• On November 1, 1956, Mysore state – later renamed Karnataka – was formed, and differences between the state and the neighbouring Bombay state – later Maharashtra – erupted.
• Maharashtra was of the view that the northwestern district of Karnataka, Belagavi, should be part of the state, leading to a decade-long violent agitation and formation of Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES), which still holds sway in parts of the district and the eponymous city.

Centre’s response

• Amid protests and pressure from Maharashtra, the Union government set up a commission under retired Supreme Court judge Justice Meharchand Mahajan on October 25, 1966. S Nijalingappa was the Karnataka Chief Minister then and VP Nayak was his Maharashtra counterpart.
• The report was expected to be a binding document for both states and put an end to the dispute. The commission submitted its report in August 1967, where it recommended merging 264 towns and villages of Karnataka (including Nippani, Nandgad and Khanapur) with Maharashtra, and 247 villages of Maharashtra (including South Solapur and Akkalkot) with Karnataka.
• Though the report was tabled in 1970 in the Parliament, it was not taken up for discussion. Without the implementation of the recommendations, demands of Marathi-speaking regions to be part of Maharashtra and Kannada-speaking regions to be part of Karnataka continued to grow.
• the issue led to political polarisation in border areas of Belagavi, with many people aligning with parties based on language.

Tensions rises in Belagavi in winter

• In 2007, Karnataka started building the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha (Legislative Assembly) in Belagavi to assert its control over the region.
• The building was inaugurated in 2012, and the winter legislature sessions are held here annually.
• The border issues springs up every time the Karnataka Assembly session is held in Belagavi.
• In 2021, during the Belagavi session, the city had turned into a tinderbox.
• An MES activist’s face was blackened by Kannada activists for organising an event demanding the merger of Belagavi with Maharashtra.
• Days later, the statue of freedom fighter and Kannada icon SangolliRayanna in Belagavi city was vandalised.
• This year too, there are fears that Kannada and Maratha groups will be up in arms over the border issue during the session.
• On December 3, two ministers of Maharashtra government — Chandrakant Patil and Shamburaje Desai — are scheduled to visit Belagavi.
• Kannada groups, meanwhile, have demanded the Karnataka government to depute its own delegation of senior ministers to Kannada-speaking regions of Maharashtra.

Legal issues in court

• Maharashtra approached the Supreme Court in 2004, challenging the State Reorganisation Act.
• It demanded 865 villages and towns from five Karnataka districts to be merged with the state. The five districts are Belagavi, Karwar, Vijayapura, Kalaburagi and Bidar.
• However, almost two decades after the petition, its maintainability remains challenged. Karnataka has resorted to Article 3 of the Indian Constitution to argue that the Supreme Court does not have the jurisdiction to decide the borders of states, and only Parliament has the power to do so.
• Maharashtra has referred to Article 131 of the Constitution, which says that the Supreme Court has jurisdiction in cases related to disputes between the Union government and states.

Source – IE

 

Digital rupee pilot project

Paper 3 –Economy

Why You Should Know?

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the launch of India’s much-awaited Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), a sort of official cryptocurrency, for retail users from December 1, 2022.

In detail –

Pilot Project

• What will be launched on December 1 is the first phase of a pilot project that will cover select locations and banks in a closed user group (CUG) comprising participating customers and merchants, the RBI has said.
• The pilot will initially cover the four cities of Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, and Bhubaneswar, where customers and merchants will be able to use the digital rupee (e₹-R), or e-rupee.
• Four banks will be involved in the controlled launch of the digital currency in these four cities: State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, and IDFC First Bank.
• The service will be subsequently extended to the cities of Ahmedabad, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Lucknow, Patna, and Shimla.
• Four more banks — Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank — will join the pilot, the RBI said.
• The scope of the pilot may be expanded gradually to include more banks, users and locations as needed, it said.

About retail digital rupee

• the retail e-rupee will be an electronic version of cash, and will be primarily meant for retail transactions.
• It will be potentially available for use by all — the private sector, non-financial consumers and businesses — and will be able to provide access to safe money for payment and settlement, as it will be the direct liability of the central bank.
• CBDC is the legal tender issued by a central bank in a digital form. It is the same as a fiat currency and is exchangeable one-to-one with the fiat currency. Only its form is different.

How will it work?

• The e₹-R would be in the form of a digital token that represents legal tender. It will be issued in the same denominations as paper currency and coins, and will be distributed through intermediaries, i.e., banks.
• Users will be able to transact with e₹-R through a digital wallet offered by the participating banks and stored on mobile phones and devices, according to the RBI.
• Transactions can be both person to person (P2P) and person to merchant (P2M).
• Payments to merchants can be made using QR codes displayed at merchant locations.
• “The e₹-R would offer features of physical cash like trust, safety and settlement finality. As in the case of cash, it will not earn any interest and can be converted to other forms of money, like deposits with banks,” the RBI said.

Other kind of digital rupee

• Based on the usage and the functions performed by the digital rupee and considering the different levels of accessibility, RBI has demarcated the digital rupee into two broad categories: general purpose (retail) and wholesale.
• On November 1, the RBI launched the digital rupee for the wholesale segment to settle secondary market transactions in government securities.
• Wholesale CBDC is designed for restricted access to select financial institutions.
• It has the potential to transform the settlement systems for financial transactions undertaken by banks in the government securities (G-Sec) segment, inter-bank market and capital market more efficient and secure in terms of operational costs, use of collateral and liquidity management.

Need of pilot project

• According to the central bank, the pilot will test the robustness of the entire process of digital rupee creation, distribution and retail usage in real time.
• “Different features and applications of the e₹-R token and architecture will be tested in future pilots, based on the learnings from this pilot,” it said.

Advantages of the e-rupee

• The RBI had earlier said the key motivations for exploring the issuance of CBDC in India among others include reduction in operational costs involved in physical cash management, fostering financial inclusion, bringing resilience, efficiency and innovation in the payments system.
• It will add efficiency to the settlement system and boost innovation in cross-border payments space and provide the public with uses that any private virtual currencies can provide, without the associated risks.
• The RBI has repeatedly flagged concerns over money laundering, terror financing, tax evasion, etc with private cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ether, etc. Introducing its own CBDC has been seen as a way to bridge the advantages and risks of digital currency.

Sources – IE

Maternal mortality ratio

Paper 2–Health

Why Should You Know?

The number of women dying from pregnancy-related issues in India has declined from 130 per lakh live births in 2014-16 to 97 per lakh in 2018-20.

In details –

• The finding is based on a sample survey of maternal mortality recorded between 2018 and 2020 across the country.
• Assam had the highest maternal mortality ratio (MMR) – maternal deaths per lakh live births – in 2018-20.
• The northeastern state recorded an MMR of 195 in 2018-20.
• Madhya Pradesh was second with an MMR of 173, followed by UP (167).
• Kerala witnessed the lowest MMR (19), followed by Maharashtra (33) and Telangana (43).

What is maternal mortality?

• Maternal mortality is defined by the World Health Organization as the death of a woman from pregnancy-related causes during pregnancy or within 42 days of pregnancy, expressed as a ratio to 100,000 live births in the population being studied.
• The death of a woman while she is pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes, is taken into account while recording maternal mortality as per the guidelines of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

GOI interventions

Some of the recent interventions made by the government to reduce MMR in India includes –

Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY)

• It came into effect in 2017. It is a direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme under which cash benefits are provided to pregnant women in their bank accounts to meet enhanced nutritional needs and partially compensate for wage loss.

Labour Room Quality Improvement Initiative (LaQshya)

• the Labour Room Quality Improvement Initiative (LaQshya) in 2017 to improve the quality of care in labour room and maternity operation theatres to ensure that pregnant women receive respectful and quality care during delivery and immediate postpartum period.

POSHAN Abhiyaan

• The government is implementing POSHAN Abhiyaan from 2018 with a goal to achieve improvement in nutritional status of children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

SDGs Goal

• India is a signatory to the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs), which adopted a global MMR target of fewer than 70 deaths per 1,00,000 live births by 2030.

Trend of MMR in India

• A research published recently in BJOG, an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology, analysed trends in the MMR in India from 1997 through 2020.
• The researchers found that the leading causes of maternal death were obstetric haemorrhage (47%; higher in poorer states), pregnancy-related infection (12%) and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (7%).
• “India could achieve the UN 2030 MMR goals if the average rate of reduction is maintained. However, without further intervention, the poorer states will not,” the study says.

Sources – TOI

International Jaguar Day

Paper 3 – Biodiversity

Why You Should Know?

On 29 November The National Zoological Park, New Delhi (Delhi Zoo) celebrated the International Jaguar Day.

In detail –

• On this occasion National Zoological Park organized activities like Zoo Walk and Expert talk on ‘Big Cats and Jaguars’.
• Students from Little Star Public School participated in these events.
• Participation certificates, literature on wildlife conservation and souvenirs were given to the students to encourage them and arouse their curiosity in understanding the importance of nature and wildlife conservation.

About International Jaguar Day

• International Jaguar Day was created to raise awareness about the increasing threats facing the jaguar and the critical conservation efforts ensuring its survival.
• Observed annually on November 29, International Jaguar Day celebrates the Americas’ largest wild cat as an umbrella species for biodiversity conservation and an icon for sustainable development and the centuries-old cultural heritage of Central and South America.
• This is the third largest Cat Predator of the World and an important species of Amazon Rainforest.
• International Jaguar Day also represent the collective voice of jaguar range countries, in collaboration with national and international partners, to draw attention to the need to conserve jaguar corridors and their habitats as part of broader efforts to achieve the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
• Jaguars (Panthera onca) are often mistaken for leopards, but can be differentiated due to the spots within the rosettes on their coats.
• While many cats avoid water, jaguars are great swimmers, and have even been known to swim the Panama Canal.

About Jaguars

• The jaguar (Panthera onca) is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus Panthera native to the Americas.
• With a body length of up to 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) and a weight of up to 158 kg (348 lb), it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the third largest in the world.
• Its distinctively marked coat features pale yellow to tan colored fur covered by spots that transition to rosettes on the sides, although a melanistic black coat appears in some individuals.
• The jaguar’s powerful bite allows it to pierce the carapaces of turtles and tortoises, and to employ an unusual killing method: it bites directly through the skull of mammalian prey between the ears to deliver a fatal blow to the brain.

Habitat

• The jaguar main stronghold today is the Amazon Basin, though they still exist in smaller numbers through Central America as well.
• They’re typically found in tropical rainforests but also live in savannas and grasslands.
• The jaguar is threatened by habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, poaching for trade with its body parts and killings in human–wildlife conflict situations, particularly with ranchers in Central and South America.

Conservation

• It has been listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List since 2002.
• The jaguar is listed on CITES Appendix I, which means that all international commercial trade in jaguars or their body parts is prohibited.
• Hunting jaguars is prohibited in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, the United States, and Venezuela.
• The wild population is thought to have declined since the late 1990s.
• Priority areas for jaguar conservation comprise 51 Jaguar Conservation Units (JCUs), defined as large areas inhabited by at least 50 breeding jaguars.
• The JCUs are located in 36 geographic regions ranging from Mexico to Argentina.

Sources – PIB

Carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) policy framework

Paper 3 – Environment

Why You Should Know?

Niti Aayog launches CCUS policy framework and its deployment mechanism in India

In detail –

• CCUS is key to ensuring sustainable development and growth in India, particularly for the production of clean products and energy, leading to an Atmanirbhar Bharat
• A study report, titled ‘Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage Policy Framework and its Deployment Mechanism in India’, was released on November 29,2022.
• The report explores the importance of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage as an emission reduction strategy to achieve deep decarbonization from the hard-to-abate sectors.
• The report outlines broad level policy interventions needed across various sectors for its application.
• As, India has updated its NDC targets for achieving 50% of its total installed capacity from non-fossil-based energy sources, 45% reduction in emission intensity by 2030 and taking steps towards achieving Net Zero by 2070, the role of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) becomes important as reduction strategy to achieve decarbonization from the hard-to abate sectors.

Significance

• CCUS can enable the production of clean products while still utilizing our rich endowments of coal, reducing imports and thus leading to an Atmanirbhar Indian economy.
• Implementation of CCUS technology certainly be an important step to decarbonise the hard-to-abate sector.
• CCUS projects will also lead to a significant employment generation.
• It estimates that about 750 mtpa of carbon capture by 2050 can create employment opportunities of about 8-10 million on full time equivalent (FTE) basis in a phased manner.
• The report indicates that CCUS can provide a wide variety of opportunities to convert the captured CO2 to different value-added products like green urea, food and beverage form application, building materials (concrete and aggregates), chemicals (methanol and ethanol), polymers (including bio-plastics) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) with wide market opportunities in India, thus contributing substantially to a circular economy.
• The report was prepared on the valuable inputs provided by the various stakeholders from the  Energy and Power Sector (E&P).

Objective

• Earlier the government had put the draft policy titled ‘2030 Roadmap for CCUS for Upstream E&P companies in the public domain for suggestions from all the stakeholder’s holders in the country.
• The purpose of CCUS policy framework is to develop and implement a practicable framework to accelerate research and development on carbon capture, utilisation and storage in India.
• As India is the third largest emitter of CO2 in the world after China and the US about 2.6 gigatonne per annum, carbon capture utilisation and storage is an essential imperative for India to reach its Decarbonisation Goals.
• At COP 26 late year in Glasgow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced panchamrit to mitigate climate change including achieving net zero by 2070. The government of India has also committed to reducing CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2050.

Sources – AIR

 

Project Re-Hab

Paper 3 – Economy

Why You Should Know?

Recently KVIC Chairman inaugurates the ambitious Re-Hab Project in Nainital

In detail –

• KVIC Chairman Shri Manoj Kumar inaugurated the ambitious Re-Hab Project (Reducing Human Attacks using Honey Bees) by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India) at village Chausla, in Forest Range Fatehpur, Haldwani, District Nainital, where he also distributed 330 Bee-boxes, bee-colonies and toolkits along with the honey extractors to the rural beneficiaries in Chausla village, free of cost.
• This project called Re-Hab in 7 states of the country, namely in Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Assam and Orissa, where attacks of the elephants is more common, and under this project 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, through honey-bees, elephants can be prevented from attacking humans and destroying farmers’ crops.

What is Project Re-Hab?

• Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has launched a unique project of creating “bee-fences” to mitigate human – elephant conflicts in the country.
• The objective of Project RE-HAB (Reducing Elephant – Human Attacks using Bees) is to thwart elephant attacks in human habitations using honey bees and thus reduce fatalities of humans as well as retaliatory deaths of elephants in the hands of humans.
• Project RE-HAB is a sub-mission of KVIC’s National Honey Mission.
• While the Honey Mission is a programme to increase the bee population, honey production and beekeepers’ income by setting up apiaries, Project RE-HAB uses bee boxes as a fence to prevent the attack of elephants.
• The biggest advantage of Project RE-HAB is that it dissuades elephants without causing any harm to them. Besides, it is extremely cost-effective as compared to various other measures like digging trenches or erecting fences”.

Need for the project

• Nearly 500 people die every year due to elephant attacks in India.
• This is nearly 10 times more than the fatalities caused by big cats across the country.
• From 2015 to 2020, nearly 2500 people have lost their lives in elephant attacks.
• Out of this, nearly 170 human fatalities have been reported in Karnataka alone.
• On the contrary, nearly one-fifth of this number, i.e. around 500 elephants have also died in retaliation by humans in the last 5 years.

Sources – PIB