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National IPR Policy: Discussing the rights of all the stakeholders
Context
- In May 2016, the then Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (now known as the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) under the Ministry of Commerce released the 32-page National IPR Policy. The overall purpose of this document was to spell out the government’s comprehensive vision for the IPR ecosystem in the country towards shaping a more innovative and creative Bharat.
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What is a Patent?
- A patent is an exclusive set of rights granted for an invention, which may be a product or process that provides a new way of doing something or offers a new technical solution to a problem.
Know the basics: Intellectual Property rights (IPR)
- IPR refers to the legal rights that protect an individual’s or company’s creations and inventions (such as inventions, literature, music, and symbols) from being used or copied by others without permission.
- IP is protected in law by, for example, patents, copyright and trademarks, which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create.
- By striking the right balance between the interests of innovators and the wider public interest, the IP system aims to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish.
Three important objectives of National IPR policy document
- Strong and effective IPR laws: Under the head Legal and Legislative Framework, the goal was to have strong and effective IPR laws, which balance the interests of right owners with larger public interest.
- Modernise and strengthen IPR administration: Under Administration and Management, the objective was to modernise and strengthen service-oriented IPR administration; and
- Strengthening adjudicatory mechanism: Under Enforcement and Adjudication, the focus was to strengthen the enforcement and adjudicatory mechanisms for combating IPR infringements.
Changes in IPR ecosystem so far
- Structural and legislative changes: Over the last six years, the IPR ecosystem in this country has witnessed both structural and legislative changes.
- Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB): IPAB was dissolved in April 2021 as part of tribunal reforms, and its jurisdiction was re-transferred to high courts.
- Dedicated IP Division: This was followed by the establishment of dedicated IP benches the IP Division by the Delhi High Court, arguably the country’s leading court on the IPR front, for speedier disposal of IPR disputes.
- IP friendly environment: Such measures, one presumes, are intended to convey to investors and innovators that Bharat is an IP-savvy and even IP-friendly jurisdiction without compromising on national interest and public health commitments.
- For instance: This is evident from the very same National IPR Policy which, among other things, expressly recognises the contribution of the Indian pharmaceutical sector in enabling access to affordable medicines globally and its transformation to being the pharmacy of the world.
What are the concerns?
- Patent-friendliness, rather patentee-friendliness: It appears that the patent establishment of the country has drawn a very different message it has gone on an overdrive to prove its patent-friendliness, rather patentee-friendliness, in the pharmaceutical sector at the expense of public health and national interest respectively.
- Evergreening of patents on critical drugs: Evergreening patents on drugs which relate to treatment of diabetes, cancers, cardiovascular diseases and other serious conditions continue to be granted to pharmaceutical innovator companies by the Indian Patent Office.
- Enforcements at the expense of statutory rights: Worse, they are regularly enforced through courts at the expense of the statutory rights of generic manufacturers and to the detriment of patients.
- Unavailability of affordable drugs: The delayed entry of generic versions of off-patent drugs affects adversely the availability of affordable medicines to patients in a lower middle-income country such as Bharat where most middle-class families and below are only a hospital-visit away from dipping into their hard-earned savings.
Way ahead
- It must be understood that IP legislations such as the Patents Act do not exist for the sole benefit of IP right owners.
- Patent bargain is in which the society is expected to benefit from dynamic innovation-based competition between market players.
- Clearly, there are four stakeholders under the Patents Act the society, government, patentees and their competitors.
- Each of these stakeholders has rights under the statute which makes all of them right owners.
- To interpret, apply and enforce the Act to the exclusive benefit of patentees, and that too evergreening patentees, is to abridge and reduce to a naught the legitimate rights of other stakeholders, leading to sub-optimal and worse, anti-competitive market outcomes.
Conclusion
- It is one thing to operate under the understandable belief that Bharat needs to add layers to its IPR ecosystem to attract investment. However, it is entirely another to equate IPR-sensitivity with a pro-patentee position at the expense of public health obligations and long-term national interest. Make in India must be reconciled with Atmanirbhar Bharat, and in the event of conflict between the two, the latter must prevail for Bharat to retain its position as the pharmacy of the world.
Mains question
Q. What is Intellectual property rights? Discuss the changes taken place in India’s IPR ecosystem so far and highlight the concerns.
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![[Sansad TV] Mudda Aapka: Biomedical Waste Management Rules across Country](https://d18x2uyjeekruj.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/sansad.jpg)
[Sansad TV] Mudda Aapka: Biomedical Waste Management Rules across Country
Context
- The National Green Tribunal has pointed out a huge lack of compliance of biomedical waste management rules across the country.
- The tribunal has asked for the implementation of the framework, which emphasizes on strict adherence to the norms related to the maintenance, storage, and movement of Biomedical Waste Treatment.
What is Biomedical Waste?
Biomedical waste/hospital waste is any kind of waste containing infectious materials. It may also include waste associated with the generation of biomedical waste that visually appears to be of medical.
- Hospital waste: It refers to all waste, biological or non‐ biological that is discarded and not intended for further use.
- Bio-medical waste: It means any waste, which is generated during the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities pertaining thereto or in the production or testing of biological and including categories mentioned in Schedule I, of the BMW rules, 2016.
Biomedical waste consists of-
- Human anatomical waste like tissues, organs and body parts
- Animal wastes generated during research from veterinary hospitals
- Microbiology and biotechnology wastes
- Waste sharps like hypodermic needles, syringes, scalpels and broken glass
- Discarded medicines and cytotoxic drugs
- Soiled waste such as dressing, bandages, plaster casts, material contaminated with blood, tubes and catheters
- Liquid waste from any of the infected areas
- Incineration ash and other chemical wastes
How is biomedical waste treated in India?
- Autoclaving: The process of autoclaving involves steam sterilization. Instead of incineration, which can be expensive, autoclaving simply introduces very hot steam for a determined amount of time.
- Incineration: The major benefits of incineration are that it is quick, easy, and simple. It effectively removes the waste entirely and safely removes any microorganisms.
- Chemicals disinfection: When it comes to liquid waste, a common biomedical waste disposal method can be chemical disinfection. Chlorine is a regular choice for this process, and is introduced to the liquid waste in order to kill microorganisms and pathogens.
- Microwaving: Microwave technology can also disinfect wastes. Wastes are first placed into a shredder. This wastes are mixed with water and internally heated that neutralizes present biologicals.
- Irradiation: This method involves waste sterilization by exposing waste to cobalt sources. Cobalt emits gamma rays that kill all the microbes in wastes.
- Shredding: It is a process by which waste are deshaped or cut into smaller pieces so as to make the wastes unrecognizable. It helps in prevention of reuse of bio-medical waste and also acts as identifier that the wastes have been disinfected and are safe to dispose-off.
Who deals with biomedical wastes in India?
- Central Pollution Control Board: The CPCB has been following up with all SPCBs/PCCs to ensure effective management of biomedical waste in States/UTs.
- National Green Tribunal (NGT): The NGT has been stringent on the application of the BMW 2016.
- Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment and Disposal Facilities (CBWTDF): There are now over 200 licensed CBWTDF or Common Treatment Facility (CTF) in India.
Salient Features of Biomedical Waste Rules, 2016
- Compulsory pre-treatment: The method of sterilization/disinfection should be in accordance with National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) or WHO.
- Phasing out plastic use: The use of chlorinated plastic bags, gloves, blood bags, etc. should be gradually stopped and this phasing out should be within 2 years from the date of notification of these rules
- Safe disposal of Liquid waste: They need to be separated at source by pre-treatment before mixing with other liquid waste
- Incineration guidelines: The existing incinerator should be upgraded/modified to achieve the new standard within 2 years from the date of this notification
Color coding of Biomedical wastes in India
As per Bio-medical Waste Management Rules, 2016, Bio-medical waste is required to be segregated in following color coded waste categories-
- Red Bag: Syringes (without needles), soiled gloves, catheters, IV tubes etc. should be all disposed of in a red coloured bag, which will later be incinerated.
- Yellow Bag: All dressings, bandages and cotton swabs with body fluids, blood bags, human anatomical waste, body parts are to be discarded in yellow bags.
- Cardboard box with blue marking: Glass vials, ampules, other glass ware is to be discarded in a cardboard box with a blue marking/sticker.
- White Puncture Proof Container (PPC): Needles, sharps, blades are disposed of in a white translucent puncture proof container.
- Black Bags: These are to be used for non-bio-medical waste. In a hospital setup, this includes stationary, vegetable and fruit peels, leftovers, packaging including that from medicines, disposable caps, disposable masks, disposable shoe-covers, disposable tea cups, cartons, sweeping dust, kitchen waste etc.
International Agreement and Conventions
There are three international agreements and conventions which are particularly pertinent in BMWM. These are-
- Basel Convention on Hazardous Waste: It is the most inclusive global environmental treaty on hazardous and other wastes. It has 170 member countries, and its objectives are to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects resulting from the generation, management, and disposal of hazardous wastes, specifically clinical wastes from health care in hospitals, health centers, and clinics.
- Stockholm Convention on POPs: It is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from POPs (POPs – dioxins and furans). POPs are toxic chemicals that accumulate in the fatty tissue of living organisms and cause damage. These chemicals are formed by medical waste incinerators and other combustion processes. It deals with BEP including source reduction, segregation, resource recovery and recycling, training, and proper collection and transport.
- Minamata Convention on Mercury: It is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury. On October 10, 2014, in Japan, more than 90 nations signed the first new global convention on environment and health. This treaty includes the phasing out of certain medical equipment in health-care services, including mercury-containing medical items such as thermometers and blood pressure device.
Environmental impacts of Biomedical Wastes
Improper management of health care waste can have both direct and indirect health consequences for health personnel, community members and on the environment.
- Toxin emissions: The most serious effect that biomedical waste has on our seas is the discharge of poisons into the waters that could then be consumed by ocean life creatures.
- Food chain contamination: Toxins would interject into the food chain and eventually reach humans who consume sea creatures.
- Plastic pollution: 85% of disposable plastic materials make up all medical equipment.
- Groundwater Contamination: Deep burials of biomedical wastes may result in groundwater contamination.
CASE STUDY 
Syringe tide disaster: The syringe tide environmental disaster of 1987–1988 raised awareness about medical waste as medical syringes washed ashore in New Jersey and New York.Broader concerns with biomedical wastes
Pollution and health hazards are the two important impacts of medical wastes.
- Land Pollution: If not treated and dumped into landfills then there is a high chance for heavy metals like cadmium, lead, mercury, etc. get released. Further, there is a chance these metals get absorbed by plants and can then enter the food chain also.
- Air Pollution: Pathogens present in the waste can enter and remain in the air for a long period in the form of spores or pathogens. As Covid-19 spread through the air, improper treating/not treating it might lead to a new wave of respiratory syndromes.
- Radioactive pollution: Hospitals are increasingly using radioactive isotopes for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The main radioisotopes used in hospitals are technetium-99m (Tc-99m), Iodine-131(I-131), etc. These have carcinogenic properties.
Health hazards due to biomedical waste
- Epidemic: According to the WHO study, improper waste management is one of the major causes of an increase in infectious diseases globally. This is why the Covid-19 pandemic wastes require proper treatment.
- Operational health hazards: Improper handling of biomedical waste might lead to Injuries from sharps and exposure to harmful radioactive wastes. This will create issues for nurses, emergency medical personnel, and sanitary workers.
- Increase antimicrobial resistance (AMR): Biomedical wastes aggravate the problem of AMR. Ever since the pandemic, the use of biocides (sanitizers, disinfectants, and antibiotics) increased manifold. If there is no proper treatment of biocides then the AMR will increase rapidly.
Challenges in India
- Increase in waste: In a highly populous country like India, there is a rise in residential biomedical waste and its collection without adhering to safety protocols could also trigger a surge in caseload.
- Poor Compliance of BMW rules: States are not following the CPCB guidelines.
- Non-segregation: In some states, improper segregation of waste has been reported.
- Improper disposal: The non-segregation of waste results in the incineration of contaminated plastics producing toxic gases and adding to air pollution.
- Lack of infrastructure: Currently, in India, there are only 198 CBMWTF in operation and 28 are under construction. .
- No alternative to incineration: During incineration and post-combustion cooling, waste components dissociate and recombine forming new particles.
Why addressing this is important?
- Preventing another pandemic: The COVID pandemic was the outcome of virus leak from Wuhan.
- Uncontrolled outcomes: This has presented a challenge in terms of the capacity to scientifically dispose of generated waste and a challenge for civic authorities in charge of its collection and disposal.
- Hazard to healthcare personnel: Without proper scientific management of such waste, it can potentially affect patients and can affect the concerned workers and professionals.
Way forward
- Multi-stakeholder involvement: Proper management of Bio medical waste is a concern that has been recognized by both government agencies and the NGOs.
- Stringent regulatory push: In order to accelerate the rate at which proper processing and management methods are designed, timely regulatory and legislative policies and procedures are needed.
- Raising awareness: An effective communication strategy is imperative keeping in view the low awareness level among different categories of staff in the healthcare establishments regarding biomedical waste management.
- Infrastructure push: The centre and states in liaison should set up recycling plants across the country as envisaged under the Smart cities project.
- Proper collection: To properly separate, process and isolation of wastes, they must be well-characterized, which is challenging.
- Safe disposal: Several hazards and toxic materials containing should be disposed-off with proper take and care.
Conclusion
- Safe and effective management of biomedical waste is not only a lawful obligation but also a civil duty.
- The current BMWM 2016 rules are an improvement over earlier rules in terms of improved segregation, transportation, and disposal methods, to decrease environmental pollution and ensure the safety of the staff, patients, and public.
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How do ruminants contribute to Methane Pollution?
Bill Gates has invested in a climate technology start-up that aims to curtail the methane emissions of cow burps.
What is the news?
- The startup Rumin8 is developing a variety of dietary supplements to feed to cows in a bid to reduce the amount of methane they emit into the atmosphere.
- The supplement includes red seaweed, which is believed to drastically cut methane output in cows.
What is Methane?
- Methane is a greenhouse gas, which is also a component of natural gas.
- There are various sources of methane including human and natural sources.
- The anthropogenic sources are responsible for 60 per cent of global methane emissions.
- It includes landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, wastewater treatment, and certain industrial processes.
- The oil and gas sectors are among the largest contributors to human sources of methane.
- These emissions come primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, decomposition in landfills and the agriculture sector.
How do cows and other animals produce methane?
- Ruminant animals such as cows, sheep, goats, and buffaloes release this methane mainly through burping.
- They have a special type of digestive system that allows them to break down and digest food that non-ruminant species would be unable to digest.
- Stomachs of ruminant animals have four compartments, one of which, the rumen, helps them to store partially digested food and let it ferment.
- This partially digested and fermented food is regurgitated by the animals who chew through it again and finish the digestive process.
- However, as grass and other vegetation ferments in the rumen, it generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
How much do these ruminants contribute to emissions?
- Given the very large numbers of cattle and sheep on farms in dairy-producing countries, these emissions add up to a significant volume.
- It is estimated that the ruminant digestive system is responsible for 27 per cent of all methane emissions from human activity.
Why is methane such a big problem?
- Methane is one of the main drivers of climate change, responsible for 30 per cent of the warming since preindustrial times, second only to carbon dioxide.
- Over a 20-year period, methane is 80 times more potent at warming than carbon dioxide, according to a report by the UNEP.
- It’s also the primary contributor to the formation of ground-level ozone, a colourless and highly irritating gas that forms just above the Earth’s surface.
- According to a 2022 report, exposure to ground-level ozone could be contributing to 1 million premature deaths every year.
- Several studies have shown that in recent years, the amount of methane in the atmosphere has dramatically shot up.
Mitigating methane emissions
- Scientists have been working on to make these animals more sustainable and less gassy.
- A 2021 study, published in the journal PLUS ONE, found that adding seaweed to cow feed can reduce methane formation in their guts by more than 80 per cent.
- Apart from this, researchers are also trying to find gene-modifying techniques to curtail methane emissions in these animals.
- Last year, scientists in New Zealand announced they had started the world’s first genetic programme to address the challenge of climate change by breeding sheep that emit lower amounts of methane.
Global collaboration against methane pollution
Ans. Global Methane Initiative (GMI)
- GMI is a voluntary Government and an informal international partnership having members from 45 countries including the United States and Canada.
- India last year co-chaired along with Canada the GMI leadership meet held virtually.
- The forum has been created to achieve global reduction in anthropogenic methane emission through partnership among developed and developing countries having economies in transition.
- The forum was created in 2004 and India is one of the members since its inception and has taken up Vice-Chairmanship for the first time in the Steering Leadership along with USA.
Back2Basics: CO2 Equivalents
- Each greenhouse gas (GHG) has a different global warming potential (GWP) and persists for a different length of time in the atmosphere.
- The three main greenhouse gases (along with water vapour) and their 100-year global warming potential (GWP) compared to carbon dioxide are:
1 x – carbon dioxide (CO2)
25 x – methane (CH4) – I.e. Releasing 1 kg of CH4into the atmosphere is about equivalent to releasing 25 kg of CO2
298 x – nitrous oxide (N2O)
- Water vapour is not considered to be a cause of man-made global warming because it does not persist in the atmosphere for more than a few days.
- There are other greenhouse gases which have far greater global warming potential (GWP) but are much less prevalent. These are sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).
- There are a wide variety of uses for SF6, HFCs, and PFCs but they have been most commonly used as refrigerants and for fire suppression.
- Many of these compounds also have a depleting effect on ozone in the upper atmosphere.
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Domestic Goat as a Drug Factory
India’s domestic goats have attracted the attention of biotechnology companies wishing to produce therapeutic proteins in bulk.
Domestication of Goats
- The domestic goat (Capra hircus) is a familiar presence in the rural landscape of India and in many developing countries.
- The goat has played an important economic role in human communities from the time it was domesticated about 10,000 years ago.
- It has even been argued that the domestication of goats was an important step in mankind’s shift from a hunting-gathering lifestyle to agricultural settlements.
Various breeds found in India
- The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that the world has 830 million goats belonging to about 1,000 breeds.
- India has 150 million from over 20 prominent breeds including-
- Marwari: Rajasthan has the most number of goats — the Marwari goat found here is hardy and well-adapted to the climate of deserts.
- Osmanabadi: Another hardy breed, found in the dry regions of Maharashtra, Telangana and North Karnataka is the Osmanabadi.
- Malabari: Also called Tellicherry of North Kerala, it is a prolific breed with low-fat meat, and shares these traits with the beetal goat of Punjab.
- Black Bengal goat: The east Indian Black Bengal goat is a vital contributor to the livelihoods of the rural poor of Bangladesh. It contributes over 20 million square feet of skin and hides to the world’s demands for leather goods, from fire-fighters gloves to fashionable handbags.
- Jamunapari: These goats from Uttar Pradesh were favoured as they yield 300 kg of milk during eight months of lactation. Once in England, the Jamunapari was bred with local breeds to produce the Anglo-Nubian, a champion producer of high-fat milk.
Why are goats significant for farmers?
- Goats have a quick generation time of about two years.
- General benefits of goat milk out-powers the high-fat buffalo milk.
- As many farmers lack the space or funds to rear cattle, the goat is rightly called “the poor man’s cow”.
- There are no specific fodder requirements for goat. It can feed even on the neem leaves.
Significance in therapeutics: Antithrombin production
- Goats have attracted the attention of biotechnology companies wishing to produce therapeutic proteins in bulk.
- The first success came with ATryn, the trade name for a goat-produced antithrombin III molecule.
- Antithrombin keeps the blood free from clots, and its deficiency (usually inherited) can lead to serious complications such as pulmonary embolisms.
- Affected individuals need antithrombin injections twice a week, usually purified from donated blood.
- Recently, the monoclonal antibody cetuximab, which has been approved by the FDA as an anti-cancer drug against certain lung cancers, has also been produced in cloned goat lines.
Why is it a significant development?
- Transgenic goats carrying a copy of the human antithrombin gene have cells in their mammary glands that release this protein into milk.
- It has been claimed that one goat could produce antithrombin equivalent to what was obtained from 90,000 units of human blood.
- Large quantities can be made this way (10 grams per litre of milk).
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Choudhary Rehmat Ali: Man behind the name ‘Pakistan’
In this article, we take you to the history of Pakistan (which is on the brink of its demise) and the facts behind its naming.
Jinnah and Pakistan
- Muhammad Ali Jinnah is remembered as the founder of Pakistan, its “Qaid e Azam”, or the “Great Leader.”
- He led a movement that transformed a weak idea of a sovereign Islamic state in British India’s north western provinces into reality.
- But he was not the first to come up with the idea of Pakistan, nor was he its original champion.
Rehmat Ali: Coining the term ‘Pakistan’
- Choudhary Rehmat Ali can be credited with coining the “term” Pakistan, styling himself as the “Founder of the Pakistan National Movement”.
- On January 28, 1933, he released a pamphlet titled “Now or Never: Are we to live or perish forever”.
- In it he made a vehement “appeal on behalf of the thirty million Muslims of PAKISTAN, who live in the five Northern Units of India… for the recognition of their national status.
- He highlighted the distinctiveness with the other inhabitants of India citing religious, social and historical grounds.
- According to many historians, this can be seen as the genesis of the very idea of Pakistan; an idea which would become mainstream by the 1940s.
Ali’s appeal
- Rehmat Ali’s appeal was as much a critique of Nationalism wave.
- He distributed pro-Pakistan pamphlets in the Third Round Table Conference (1932).
- Fearing that the Muslim minority will be subsumed by the Hindu population under the proposed constitution, he advocated for a separate, sovereign entity.
- For him, British India was not the home of one single nation but rather the designation of a State created by the British for the first time in history.
His idea of Pakistan
- This nation that Rehmat Ali called his own was Pakistan, including “five Northern Provinces of India” – Punjab (P), North- West Frontier Province or the Afghan Province (A), Kashmir (K), Sindh(S) and Balochistan (tan).
- He would call its Pakistan.
- He argued that this region, with its “distinct marks of nationality,” would be “reduced to a minority of one in ten,” in a united Indian federation.
Exposition of the “Two Nation Theory”
- Rehmat Ali was not a politician. In 1947, Ali’s dream became a reality.
- Nor did he stay in the subcontinent for much of the 1930s and 1940s when the struggle for Pakistan was taking shape.
- His contribution to Pakistan are solely limited to his writings and ideas.
- Unlike Iqbal, more popularly known as the philosopher behind Pakistan’s creation, Ali’s work remained restricted to a far smaller audience.
- But it was important, arguably essential, for Pakistan’s creation.
- In his work, we see the most radical exposition of the “Two Nation Theory”, later made famous by Jinnah and the Muslim League.
How Jinnah overtook Rehmat Ali?
- Things began to change from 1937 onwards, after Jinnah fell out with the Congress.
- With the leader’s rhetoric turning increasingly separationist, Rahmat Ali’s articulation of Pakistan found its way into mainstream discourse.
- In 1940, at the Muslim League’s Lahore session, the famous Lahore Resolution was passed.
- It advocated that the geographical contiguous units in the Muslim-majority areas in India’s “North-Western and Eastern Zones of India, be grouped to constitute Independent States.
- While this resolution did not mention “Pakistan,” Jinnah’s ideas echoed Rahmat Ali’s.
- Somewhere between 1940 and 1943, the term “Pakistan” started being used by Jinnah and other Muslim League leaders in their speeches and correspondence.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Mahatma Gandhi undertook fast unto death in 1932, mainly because:
(a) Round Table Conference failed to satisfy Indian political aspirations
(b) Congress and Muslim League had differences of opinion
(c) Ramsay Macdonald announced the Communal Award
(d) None of the statements (a), (b) and (c) given above is correct in this context
[wpdiscuz-feedback id=”zy4hsvahii” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]
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Mughal Gardens will now be called as Amrit Udyan
The Rashtrapati Bhavan gardens — popularly known as the Mughal Gardens was renamed as Amrit Udyan.
The Amrit Udyan
- Edwin Lutyens had finalized the designs of the Mughal Gardens in 1917, but it was only during the year 1928-1929 that planting was done.
- It is spread across 15 acres and it incorporates both Mughal and English landscaping styles.
- The main garden has two channels intersecting at right angles dividing the garden into a grid of squares- a Charbagh (a four-cornered garden)- a typical characteristic of Mughal landscaping.
- There are six lotus-shaped fountains at the crossings of these channels rising to a height of 12 feet.
- The gardens house nearly 2500 varieties of Dahlias and 120 varieties of roses.
Why was it earlier named as Mughal Gardens?
- The garden is designed in Persian style of landscaping or what we call as ‘‘Mughal Gardens”.
- In fact, Edward Lutyens who designed the Viceroy’s House, what we call today as Rashtrapati Bhavan had deliberately used Mughal architectural details as part of the British appeasement plan.
- We see Chajja (dripstone), the Chattri (domed kiosk), the Jali (pierced screen) and many other Indian architectural features liberally used there.
- Mughal canals, terraces and flowering shrubs are beautifully blended with European flowerbeds, lawns and private hedges.
Back2Basics: Mughal Gardening in India- The Charbagh Style
- The Mughals were known to appreciate gardens. In Babur Nama, Babur says that his favourite kind of garden is the Persian charbagh style (literally, four quadrants garden).
- The charbagh structure was intended to create a representation of an earthly utopia – ‘jannat’ – in which humans co-exist in perfect harmony with all elements of nature.
- Defined by its rectilinear layouts, divided in four equal sections, these gardens can be found across lands previously ruled by the Mughals.
- From the gardens surrounding Humanyun’s Tomb in Delhi to the Nishat Bagh in Srinagar, all are built in this style – giving them the moniker of Mughal Gardens.
- A defining feature of these gardens is the use of waterways, often to demarcate the various quadrants of the garden.
- Fountains were often built, symbolising the “cycle of life.”
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Munroe Thuruthu: Kerala’s Sinking Island
A study conducted by the National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) has revealed anthropogenic interventions as the main reason for the sinking of Munroe Thuruthu Kerala’s, Kerala’s Sinking Island.
Note: This Island has nothing to do with Thomas Monroe, the erstwhile Governor of Madras Presidency (1820-27).
Munroe Thuruthu
- Munroe Thuruthu is an inland island group located at the confluence of Ashtamudi Lake and the Kallada River, in Kollam district of Kerala.
- The place is named in honour of Resident Colonel John Munro of the former Princely State of Travancore.
- It is a group of eight small islets comprising a total area of about 13.4 km2.
- This island is also known as “Sinking Island of Kerala”.
How was this island inhabited?
- In 1795 the British established their supremacy in South India and the princely state of Travancore came under their governance.
- From 1800 onwards, a Resident was appointed by East India Company as administrative head of Travancore.
- The first Resident was Colonel Colin Macaulay, followed by Colonel John Munro.
- During his tenure Munro oversaw the land reclamation efforts in the delta where Kallada River joins Ashtamudi Lake and the reclaimed island was named after him as Munroe Island.
Why in news?
- The islanders are facing steady land subsidence, tidal flooding and lower agricultural productivity, all of which have triggered a mass exodus from the region.
- According to the study, almost 39% of the land area of the Munroe Thuruthu has been lost with Peringalam and Cheriyakadavu islands recording a land depletion of around 12% and 47% respectively.
- The study finds that anthropogenic activities have considerably affected the isostatic conditions and land neutrality of Munroe Thuruthu.
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Places in news: Jatar Deul Temple
Jatar Deul- an ancient terracotta temple in West Bengal’s Sundarbans, which has survived the ravages of time for a millennia, is now facing erosion threat due to increase in air salinity.
Jatar Deul
- Jatar Deul also called tower temple (rekha-deul), is located in the numerous rivers criss-crossed by stone-free alluvial and bush landscape of the southern Sundarbans settlements in West Bengal.
- The temple has a curvilinear tower similar to temple architecture of the Nagara order of Odisha temples.
- However, this type of brick temple we can see at Nebia Khera, Uttar Pradesh.
- There is neither a cult nor any other sculptural or inscriptional evidence available also the consecration of the temple is unclear.
- Some believe it was originally for a Buddhist structure; others see it as a building in honor of the Lord Shiva), whose colorful image, is visible at the interior of the Cella (garbhagriha).
How old is it?
- The ASI website states that Jatar Deul is traditionally connected to an inscription, no longer traceable, by one Raja Jayantachandra, purported to have been issued in 975 AD.
- The discovery of Jatar Deul dates back to the middle of the nineteenth century, when land surveyors stumbled upon a towering brick structure in the midst of the Sundarban.
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28th Jan 2023 | Prelims Daily with Previous Year Questions
[WpProQuiz 1226]
[WpProQuiz_toplist 1226]
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