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Type: States

Many questions regarding developments in specific states are asked in both prelims and mains. These Newscards correspond to such developments.

  • Failing at ABC

    Why in the News

    An investigation across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry into the outsourced Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme, under which local bodies contract organisations to sterilise and vaccinate community dogs, records starved animals, botched mass surgeries, broken vaccine cold chains and fabricated organ counts.

    What do the Animal Birth Control Rules, 2023 require?

    1. Humane capture and return to the same place: Capture with nets, feeder outreach before capture, and geotagging of both capture and release at the same location.
    2. Surgical and shelter standards: Closed circuit cameras in the operation theatre, pre-operative and post-operative care, clean and spacious kennels, food twice a day and water at all times.
    3. Verification tied to billing: Organ inspection committees are to be constituted to count organs against billing claims.
    4. Disposal after the count: Organs are to be destroyed immediately by deep burial or incineration.

    What did the investigation find at the centres?

    1. Oulgaret, Puducherry: An internal municipal dossier recorded 50 emaciated dogs released from an ABC centre in late 2025, 20 dog deaths and 50 complaints against the veterinarian. The animals were released hastily just before an inspection, with sutures falling apart.
    2. Velankanni, Nagapattinam district: On 23 July dogs were found alive with loose sutures and no post-operative care, and carcasses were found in garbage with bloody sutures and with wires and ropes around their necks, both banned in the catching process. The District Animal Welfare Officer’s report recorded 70 dogs, 64 males and six females, sterilised in three days by two veterinarians.
    3. Mannargudi, Tiruvarur district: On 2 September a female dog was found alive with its intestines spilling out after sterilisation at the centre there.
    4. Pollachi: At a board-run centre the post-operative care unit sits 2 km away from the surgery centre, and a female dog died of evisceration after surgery.
    5. Relocation instead of return: Dogs picked up for sterilisation are extensively relocated in violation of the Rules, and a healthy dog returned to its own locality is the community’s only real-time audit of the money spent.

    Why do the surgeries fail?

    1. Suturing is rushed: The distance between two suture bites should be under half a centimetre, which takes time. Centres press young veterinarians to complete more surgeries instead.
    2. Pain relief is skipped to cut cost: Multi-modal analgesia is omitted, so the animal licks the surgical site and opens the sutures.
    3. Suture material is reused: Leftover material causes surgical site infections.
    4. The faster male technique is the unsuitable one: The on-scrotal method leaves gaps between sutures for fluid drainage and raises infection risk on unhygienic shelter floors. A veterinarian left an organisation that insisted on more on-scrotal procedures.

    How does the payment design create the incentive?

    1. The rate is fixed per dog: Rs 1,650 is allocated per dog, including Rs 450 for sterilisation and vaccination and Rs 200 for catching and release.
    2. Payment follows projected numbers, not outcomes: Local bodies reward claimed counts rather than verified results, which turns sterilisation into assembly-line work at scale.
    3. Catchers are paid per catch: Pups, lactating dogs, pregnant dogs and already sterilised dogs are picked up to raise the count.
    4. Ethical care is affordable and skipped anyway: Factoring in economies of scale, a centre can make about Rs 66,000 in profit while still meeting ethical standards of care.

    What is the state of verification?

    1. Bills clear on the contractor’s own evidence: Payment rests on the organisation’s claims, photographs of surgery, photographs of dogs and occasional organ counts by municipal sanitation officers.
    2. The organ count is gamed: A bucket of organs stored at the Oulgaret centre was transported to Neyveli township in Cuddalore district in 2025 to supply an organ counting committee inspection, with the same veterinarian performing surgeries at Neyveli.
    3. The committees arrive after the money: In Tiruppur the organ counting committee was constituted only after more than 9,000 surgeries had been billed.
    4. The audit questions went unanswered: The Director of Municipal Administration did not answer whether time-tagged photographs, videos of the organ count and destruction of organs were audited for each batch of sterilisation bills, or what the targets were.
    5. The corrective is administrative and recent: Corporations have withheld payment on bills raised over the last three months, and a member of the State Monitoring Committee has written to the Municipal Administration Department to withhold bills and constitute panels. Activists have asked instead that community animals be brought under an animal management framework of the Animal Husbandry Department.

    Why does blacklisting fail to remove a contractor?

    1. Recognition is scarce and contracting is not: Only six organisations hold recognition for ABC procedures in the State, against about 15 contractor organisations operating in the space.
    2. A blacklisted operator is re-engaged elsewhere: Pranimitran’s contract was terminated by the Hosur Corporation over animal mutilation, botched surgeries and non-disclosure, and it was blacklisted by the Animal Welfare Board of India. The Tiruppur Corporation engaged it anyway, stating that no replacement contractor could be found.
    3. Others continue in place: Jeeva Karunyam of Nagercoil and Rajeshwari Goshala of Tirunelveli continue to work for their local bodies, and two First Information Reports were filed against International Peace Trust at Avadi in Chennai.
    4. A criminal case does not interrupt a contract: A First Information Report was filed against Pranimitran over the death of two pups in Tiruppur, and in April 2026 an already sterilised six-year-old dog with a notched ear was found anaesthetised at its centre.

    What does the broken cold chain mean for rabies control?

    1. Refrigeration is missing: A large majority of centres lack refrigerators capable of holding anti-rabies vaccine at 2 degrees Celsius.
    2. Vaccination is simply skipped: A doctor who worked at the Hosur centre states that no vaccines were administered across an average of 650 surgeries a month, with power cuts, no generator and no fresh vaccine batches supplied.
    3. Responsibility is contested: The organisation’s position is that the cold chain is supplied and inspected by the Corporation, and that ineffective vaccines would have produced a rabies outbreak.
    4. Half the programme then disappears: Sterilisation without a viable vaccine delivers population control alone, and leaves the rabies control purpose of the programme unmet.

    Conclusion

    The programme’s failure is not a supervision gap that better inspection would close. Payment attaches to a number the contractor supplies, the committee that would verify the number is constituted late or supplied with borrowed evidence, and the certificate that would screen the contractor has been made optional. Blacklisting is therefore a label rather than a disqualification, and a contractor removed in one district is hired in the next. Until money moves against a verified sterilisation and a verified vaccination rather than against a claimed count, no participant in the chain carries a cost for the outcome.

    Back2Basics: Animal Welfare Board of India

    1. Statutory origin: Established in 1962 under Section 4 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, as the first national animal welfare body of its kind.
    2. Function: It advises the Government of India on animal welfare laws and on measures to prevent unnecessary pain to animals, and its recommendations are advisory.
    3. Role in this programme: It issues Project Recognition Certificates to organisations conducting Animal Birth Control work, and can blacklist an organisation for violations.
    4. Administrative location: It works under the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, and its headquarters moved from Chennai to Ballabhgarh in Haryana.

    [2014] Consider the following statements:

    1. Animal Welfare Board of India is established under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

    2. National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body.

    3. National Ganga River Basin Authority is chaired by the Prime Minister.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 2 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

  • 1.85 lakh names out of Manipur, Sikkim poll rolls after SIR

    Why in the News

    The Election Commission of India has published the final photo electoral rolls of Manipur and Sikkim following the Special Intensive Revision. The revision removed 1,32,456 names in Manipur and 52,614 in Sikkim, 1.85 lakh in all, amounting to 6.3 per cent of the Manipur roll and 11.2 per cent of the Sikkim roll. The bulk of the removals were not adjudicated findings of ineligibility. They followed from enumeration forms that were never received in Manipur and from electors who could not be matched to an earlier roll in Sikkim. Kuki-Zo groups have said that community members displaced by the ethnic conflict that erupted on 3 May 2023 stand to be struck off, and the government has sought to dispel that apprehension.

    What is the Special Intensive Revision?

    1. The roll is rebuilt rather than carried forward: An intensive revision generates an enumeration form for every existing elector and requires it back, in place of the summary practice of amending the previous roll.
    2. A form not returned means a name not carried: An elector whose form is not received is excluded from the draft roll at the outset, before any question of eligibility is examined.
    3. Claims and objections follow the draft: The draft roll is published, claims and objections are filed and processed within a fixed window, and the final photo electoral roll issues after that.

    What do the Manipur numbers show?

    1. The roll shrank by 1,32,456: Manipur held 20,93,076 electors before the revision and holds 19,60,620 after it.
    2. The draft did the deleting: The draft roll published on 5 July carried 19,34,399 electors, against 1,58,677 whose enumeration forms were not received and who were excluded at that stage.
    3. The exclusion heads: Of those excluded, 72,473 were identified as shifted, 43,000 as deceased, 34,740 as absent, 7,394 as duplicate entries and 1,070 under other categories.
    4. The claims stage added more than it removed: 96,985 claims and objections were processed, 56,871 electors were included and 30,650 were deleted from the draft roll.

    What do the Sikkim numbers show?

    1. The roll shrank by 52,614: Sikkim held 4,71,081 electors before the revision and holds 4,18,467 after it.
    2. Mapping decided who was questioned: Of the 4,33,294 electors in the July draft, 3,61,159 or 83.35 per cent were mapped to their own or their parents’ details in a previous qualifying roll or the last revision. The remaining 72,135, or 16.65 per cent, could not be mapped.
    3. A digital flag added a second category: Among the mapped electors the Election Commission’s system identified 52,384 as carrying “logical discrepancies”.
    4. Notices ran far ahead of findings: 1,24,519 electors from the unmapped and discrepancy categories were issued notices for hearings, and 16,485 were found ineligible after verification.
    5. A separate deletion route: Another 324 electors were deleted through Form 7 on grounds including death or shifting, taking deletions during claims and objections to 16,809.

    Why do the Kuki-Zo objections matter to these figures?

    1. Displacement and shifting look identical on the roll: The largest single exclusion head in Manipur is 72,473 electors recorded as shifted, and internal displacement is precisely what produces an elector who is not found at a registered address.
    2. The instrument has no displaced category: A person living in a relief camp is neither a resident at the registered address nor an elector anywhere else, and the enumeration exercise offers no third classification.
    3. The apprehension preceded the exercise: Kuki-Zo groups raised the fear both before and during the revision, and the assurance offered was administrative rather than a change in the classification rules.

    What does the composition of the final rolls show?

    1. Manipur’s roll is majority women: 10,06,962 women electors against 9,53,350 men, a ratio of 1,056 women for every 1,000 men, alongside 308 third gender electors.
    2. Sikkim’s roll runs the other way: 2,12,534 men against 2,05,931 women, with two third gender electors.

    Challenges to the Special Intensive Revision

    1. The burden of proof moves onto the elector: A person already on the roll must re-establish entitlement rather than have it presumed. Eg. In the Bihar revision of 2025, Aadhaar did not figure among the documents initially listed for establishing eligibility.
      The Fix: Fix the admissible document list before the enumeration begins and bar additions or subtractions to it mid-exercise.
    2. Migrant and displaced electors are structurally disadvantaged: Enumeration works from a fixed address, and a seasonal migrant or a person in a relief camp has none for the reference period. Eg. An elector sheltering after the 2023 Manipur conflict cannot register at the camp and cannot be enumerated at home.
      The Fix: Recognise a relief camp or worksite address as ordinary residence for the duration of the revision.
    3. Deletion takes effect before an appeal is decided: A name goes off the roll on the officer’s finding, and the appeal runs afterwards. Eg. Appeals against inclusion or exclusion lie to the District Magistrate and then the Chief Electoral Officer under Section 24 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
      The Fix: Suspend the deletion until the statutory appeal window closes, so the roll reflects a final decision.
    4. A deleted elector has no automatic route back: Restoration is a fresh application rather than a correction of the same file. Eg. An elector deleted as absent must apply again under Form 6 to be re-enrolled.
      The Fix: Restore a name automatically on production of proof within the same revision cycle, without a fresh application.

    Conclusion

    The revision has produced a smaller and internally consistent roll, and it has not produced a finding that 1.85 lakh people were ineligible to vote. Two different tests are being reported as one: a documentary test of whether a form came back or a record could be matched, and a substantive test of citizenship, age and residence. The exercise is now closed in both States and the appeal machinery is the only route left for a person struck off. Whether that machinery can absorb objections at this scale, in a State where a section of the electorate has been displaced for three years, is the open question.

    Back2Basics: Revision of electoral rolls under the Representation of the People Act, 1950

    1. Statutory basis: Section 21 empowers the Election Commission to prepare and revise electoral rolls, either as a matter of course before an election or by special direction.
    2. Two modes of revision: An intensive revision prepares the roll afresh through house-to-house enumeration. A summary revision carries the existing roll forward and invites claims and objections against it.
    3. The forms: Form 6 seeks inclusion of a name, Form 7 objects to an inclusion or seeks a deletion, and Form 8 covers correction of particulars and transposition within a constituency.
    4. Qualifying dates: Eligibility is tested with reference to 1 January, with 1 April, 1 July and 1 October added as further qualifying dates from 2022.

    [2026, GS2, 10 marks] Is the right to vote a fundamental right? Discuss the position of the Election Commission of India while undertaking the revision of electoral rolls. Can it also examine the question of citizenship of voters?”

  • State consent not taken, put HC Chief Justice appointment on hold: Punjab Govt

    Why in the News

    The Punjab Cabinet has passed a resolution demanding that the appointment of Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court be put on hold. The resolution states that the Centre notified the appointment without obtaining the State government’s views, as the Memorandum of Procedure for the appointment of High Court judges requires. The Supreme Court Collegium had recommended four High Court Chief Justices on 6 August. The Centre sought the views of the Chief Ministers and Governors of the four States on 12 August, and notified the appointments on 5 September. The contest is over a document that gives a State a consultative role, sets no period within which the State must use it, and creates no right the State can enforce.

    What is the Memorandum of Procedure?

    1. A working document, not a statute: The Memorandum of Procedure sets out the steps by which judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts are recommended, consulted on and appointed. It carries no statutory force and confers no enforceable right on any party.
    2. It came out of the Judges cases: The Supreme Court’s Second Judges case (1993) and Third Judges case (1998) placed primacy in a Collegium of senior judges. The Memorandum was drawn up afterwards to record how the Collegium and the executive would process an appointment.
    3. The State enters as a consultee: For a High Court appointment the Centre seeks the views of the Chief Minister and the Governor of the State before the recommendation is processed for notification.

    What has Punjab demanded, and on what ground?

    1. A hold on the appointment and the oath: The Cabinet resolved at an emergency meeting that the appointment and the administration of oath be put on hold until Punjab’s views are obtained and duly considered.
    2. The stated ground is procedural bypass: The Cabinet described the appointment as “yet another instance” of the Centre bypassing Punjab’s constitutional rights and established procedure.
    3. The objection was escalated to the constitutional heads: The Chief Minister wrote to the President, the Prime Minister and the Governor, enclosing the resolution. The Chief Minister is not expected to attend the oath ceremony.
    4. The Bar has framed it as executive overreach: The Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association has read the notification as the executive acting past a procedural safeguard rather than as a routine posting.

    Why did the appointment proceed without Punjab’s response?

    1. The document fixes no time period: Nothing in the Memorandum states how long a State may take to send its views.
    2. Convention supplies the missing clock: Consent for a Chief Justice is conventionally dealt with immediately, and inputs from a Chief Minister on a High Court judge take four to six weeks.
    3. Silence is read as assent: After a certain period the Law Ministry deems that the State government had no objection to the recommendation.
    4. Three other States had already replied: Bihar, West Bengal and Maharashtra sent their inputs immediately. The delay by Punjab held up those three appointments as well.

    Where does this leave the wider appointments cycle?

    1. Every High Court now has a regular Chief Justice: Eight appointments were notified on Collegium recommendations of 6 August and 31 August, filling all 25 High Courts. The Chhattisgarh appointment followed separately after its sitting Chief Justice retired on 4 September.
    2. The Collegium’s attention shifts to the top court: Four vacancies remain in the Supreme Court, which trace to the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Ordinance, 2026 raising the sanctioned strength in May. The Court currently sits at 34 judges.
    3. The window is narrow: A fifth seat falls vacant on 29 November on a retirement, and the Chief Justice of India retires on 9 February 2027. These are the last recommendations the present Collegium can make.

    Challenges to the Memorandum of Procedure

    1. The revised document has stayed unsettled for a decade: After the Supreme Court struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association v. Union of India (2015), a five judge Constitution Bench directed the government to finalise a revised Memorandum. Eg. Successive drafts have moved between the Collegium and the Law Ministry without agreement on a national security exception or on a permanent secretariat.
      The Fix: Settle the revised document against a dated deadline set by the Court, so that the operative rulebook is a published text rather than a decade of correspondence.
    2. No clause binds the executive to notify within a period: A recommendation the Collegium reiterates is binding in substance, and nothing fixes when the notification must issue. Eg. Justice K M Joseph’s elevation was recommended in January 2018, returned by the government, reiterated in July 2018 and notified only in August 2018.
      The Fix: Write a fixed outer limit for notification into the revised Memorandum, with the recommendation taking effect on its expiry.
    3. The criteria for selecting a Chief Justice are unpublished: Seniority combined with suitability operates as a convention rather than as a stated test, so a comparative assessment cannot be examined. Eg. Collegium resolutions record the name recommended without the assessment that produced it.
      The Fix: Publish the criteria and an anonymised comparative note with each Chief Justice recommendation.
    4. A State’s view has no remedy attached to it: The Memorandum creates no right, so a State that believes it was not consulted has no forum that can stay the appointment. Eg. Punjab’s objection could travel to the President and the Prime Minister and to no authority able to halt the oath.
      The Fix: Record the State’s response, or its absence, on the file as a dated entry that the notification must recite.

    Conclusion

    The dispute is not about the individual appointed. It sets a State’s claim to be consulted against a document that binds nobody and can be satisfied by the passage of time. A State that responds late has its silence converted into consent, and a State that objects afterwards has nowhere to take the objection. Until the Memorandum of Procedure is itself settled, a State’s dissent on a judicial appointment will keep arriving as a political resolution rather than as a step in the appointment process.

    Back2Basics: The Collegium system

    1. What it is: A body of the senior most judges of the Supreme Court that recommends appointments and transfers of judges to the Supreme Court and the High Courts.
    2. Composition: The Chief Justice of India and the four senior most judges of the Supreme Court for Supreme Court appointments. A smaller collegium of the Chief Justice of India and two senior most judges handles High Court recommendations.
    3. Source of authority: It is a judicial creation, not a constitutional provision. Articles 124 and 217 speak only of consultation with the judiciary.
    4. The executive’s residual role: The government may return a recommendation once with its objections. A reiterated recommendation is binding on it.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2025, GS2, 15 marks] Discuss the evolution of collegium system in India. Critically examine the advantages and disadvantages of the system on appointment of the Judges of the Supreme Court of India and that of the USA.”

  • Fear revisits residents of Western Ghats

    Why in the News

    The Centre has issued its seventh draft notification proposing to declare 56,825.7 sq km of the Western Ghats an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA). Of that, 29,668 sq km spread across 1,449 villages in ten Karnataka districts falls in the State. Hundreds of farmers in the Malnad region have marched against the draft, and their central demand is not that the notification be dropped. They want the Karnataka government to conduct a physical survey of the land and to exclude human settlements and cultivated areas from the proposed ESA boundary. The tension is that the people most opposed to the notification already live under forest restrictions that deny them roads, schools, electricity and clear title, and they read the ESA as freezing those unsettled claims permanently.

    What is an Ecologically Sensitive Area?

    1. The legal basis: An ESA is an area notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, within which specified activities are prohibited, restricted or made subject to closer scrutiny.
    2. How it is created: The Centre issues a draft notification proposing the boundary and the restrictions, and allows a fixed period for objections before a final notification can issue. The seventh draft allows 60 days.
    3. What it is not: An ESA is a land use regime layered over existing ownership, so it does not by itself transfer land or extinguish a title.

    How did the Western Ghats ESA proposal originate?

    1. A march, not a ministry: On 1 November 1987 two groups of scientists, ecologists, environmentalists and activists began walking simultaneously from Navapur in Maharashtra’s Dhule district and from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu towards a common meeting point in Goa, documenting the ecological condition of the landscape along the route.
    2. The Goa conference: The effort culminated in a conference in Goa in February 1988, where the ecologist Madhav Gadgil of the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru chaired the technical session on the region’s ecological status.
    3. The demand for an expert panel: The group stayed active through a 1998 yatra and meetings in 2009 and on 18 February 2010 at the Keystone Foundation in Kotagiri, Nilgiris, where the then Union Minister for Environment and Forests was asked to constitute an expert panel on the Western Ghats.
    4. The panel: On 4 March 2010 the Ministry of Environment and Forests set up the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) under Gadgil, with nine non-government and five official members, to assess the ecological status of the Ghats, demarcate areas to be notified as ecologically sensitive, and recommend conservation measures through wide consultation.

    What did the WGEEP recommend, and how was its report handled?

    1. A people-oriented model: The report went beyond regulation to propose science-based incentives, including financial rewards for individual farmers and payments for ecosystem services to communities. It cited the Australian Soil Carbon Accreditation Scheme, under which farmers were paid retrospectively for verified increases in soil carbon on regeneratively managed farmland.
    2. The restrictions it proposed: These included a complete ban on mining and sand extraction with existing operations phased out within five years or on expiry of lease, restrictions on housing and construction projects exceeding 20,000 sq m, a ban on all “red category” highly polluting industries with existing units to close or relocate within five years, encouragement of organic farming, and closer scrutiny of other development activities.
    3. The report was withheld for months: The panel submitted its final report on 31 August 2011. The Ministry resisted disclosure through repeated applications under the Right to Information Act, 2005 and an order of the Central Information Commission, and approached the Delhi High Court seeking a stay, before uploading the report on its website on 23 May 2012.
    4. Every State government objected: All the States concerned, including Karnataka and Kerala, opposed the recommendations, and elected representatives particularly in Kerala argued they would severely disrupt local livelihoods.

    What did the Kasturirangan High-Level Working Group change?

    1. Why it was constituted: Taking the criticism of the WGEEP report into account, the Union Ministry set up a High-Level Working Group (HLWG) under K. Kasturirangan to prepare a “workable and implementable” report on conserving the Western Ghats.
    2. What it recommended: The panel visited several places, including Sakleshpur in Hassan district, and submitted its report on 15 April 2013. It recommended that about 37 per cent of the Western Ghats, 59,940 sq km forming a continuous band of natural vegetation stretching roughly 1,500 km across six States, be declared an ESA. Karnataka accounted for the largest share, around 20,668 sq km.
    3. The objection from the earlier panel: Gadgil objected strongly in an open letter, stating that the WGEEP had proposed a graded, participatory approach with a major role for grassroots input.
    4. What the letter said the HLWG did instead: It had effectively partitioned the landscape, with roughly a third to be protected by “funds and guards” as natural landscape and the remaining two-thirds labelled cultural landscape and left open to development.

    What does the seventh draft propose for Karnataka?

    1. Seven drafts, none finalised: The Ministry has issued seven draft notifications since 2014. All six earlier drafts were opposed by the States concerned, and residents of the affected regions filed numerous objections against them.
    2. The Karnataka share: The 29,668 sq km proposed in the State is spread across 1,449 villages in Belagavi, Chamarajanagar, Chikkamagaluru, Dakshina Kannada, Hassan, Kodagu, Mysuru, Shivamogga, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts.
    3. The instrument has not changed: The draft still rests on the boundary the HLWG proposed, which is why the objection filed against it is the same objection filed against the six drafts before it.

    What are the Malnad protests demanding?

    1. The march: On 29 August hundreds of farmers from Hosanagara taluk in Shivamogga district marched about nine kilometres from the Ganesha temple in Karanagiri to Hosanagara town, and farmers across Shivamogga and neighbouring Malnad districts are planning similar protests.
    2. The demand has narrowed: The central demand is a physical survey of the land by the State government and the exclusion of human settlements and cultivated areas from the proposed boundary.
    3. The Kerala model they cite: Kerala reduced its proposed ESA area from 13,108 sq km to 9,937 sq km, comprising 9,107 sq km of forest and 886.7 sq km of non-forest land, after conducting a physical survey. That reduction of more than 3,000 sq km has since been incorporated into the revised notification.
    4. The organising vehicle: A large section of farmers has been brought together under the banner of the Western Ghats Raitha Sahakari Vedike, which has launched a website with a tool to help the public file objections online.
    5. The shift in position: The organisation is not opposing the notification outright this time, and is instead demanding that the State government follow the Kerala model to minimise the impact.

    How has the Karnataka political establishment responded?

    1. The stated concerns: The Member of Parliament from Shivamogga, who joined the protest marches, said restrictions on township projects and the push for organic farming were the primary concerns in the Malnad region.
    2. The plantation economy’s objection: Many farmers in Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru and Kodagu who grow plantation crops such as coffee and areca use chemical fertilizers to protect their crops from disease, and ask how plantations are to be protected if such inputs are restricted. Restrictions on house construction are the second stated objection.
    3. A legislative airing: The Karnataka Cabinet announced on 3 September 2026 a three-day special session of the legislature from 21 September to discuss drought, which will also take up a detailed discussion on the Kasturirangan report. The Chief Minister agreed to convene it after leaders across parties urged a physical survey, and the decision was welcomed across party lines.
    4. The State’s declared position: The Minister for School Education, who is also in charge of Shivamogga district, has said the State government will oppose the draft notification. A former Minister and Congress leader burnt a copy of the Kasturirangan report at a press conference in Tirthahalli.

    Why is the fear about existing forest rules rather than the ESA?

    1. A displaced village still without power: Uralagallu in Sagar taluk of Shivamogga district houses families displaced by the Linganamakki dam across the Sharavathi river in the 1960s. The village has roughly 50 to 56 families and a population of 150 to 200, with no proper road, school or primary health centre, its nearest bus stop about 10 km away, and no ambulance visit in recent years. It still has no electricity, because the Forest Department has repeatedly denied clearance for road and power-supply works.
    2. Children leave the village to study: A majority of parents there send their children to hostels or to relatives’ homes early. One resident’s two children stay about 50 km away at Mavinagundi, and villagers walk 10 km to Kanuru to catch a bus.
    3. Roads are blocked in conflict-prone stretches: At Byrapura in N.R. Pura taluk of Chikkamagaluru district, schoolchildren recently encountered a leopard on their way home, and stayed away from school for several days. Parents say a proper road would allow safer transport, and forest regulations continue to block it.
    4. Even the local government has no title: In Karimane village of Hosanagara taluk, large parts of the settlement including the gram panchayat building stand on forest land, leaving the panchayat office without an official khata, or title, and the community in administrative limbo.
    5. Unsettled claims are the real anxiety: Bagair hukum, or unauthorised, cultivators and people displaced by dam projects are yet to receive the compensatory land promised to them under existing rules, and they fear that an ESA in force would leave those claims unresolved indefinitely.

    What is the case for the notification?

    1. The rejected report is held to be the better one: Several environmentalists argue that the Kasturirangan report was a “diluted version” of the WGEEP report, which they consider better suited to conserving the Ghats with active local participation.
    2. The argument surfaces only after a disaster: Whenever landslips or flash floods strike Kerala or Kodagu, environmentalists blame policymakers for ignoring the WGEEP recommendations. The debate typically subsides within days, as routine concerns over access, amenities, roads and electricity take over.
    3. Much of the proposed area is already forest: An environmentalist based in Sagar taluk states that a major portion of the area proposed for the ESA in Karnataka is already notified forest, that the remainder is small, and that there should be no opposition to including it.
    4. The restrictions are said to be misread: The same view holds that people with vested interests are misleading the public with false information about the restrictions, that ordinary people have no reason to fear a ban on mining or on red-category industries, and that the push for organic farming benefits everyone.

    Challenges to the Western Ghats ESA notification

    1. A draft that never becomes a notification produces neither protection nor certainty: Each draft lapses and is reissued, so landowners cannot plan and the ecologically sensitive designation has no legal force in the interim. Eg. The proposal has now run through more than a decade of successive drafts without a single final notification issuing.
      The Fix: Fix a statutory outer limit within which a draft issued under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 must be finalised or formally withdrawn.
    2. ESA status does not stop the land use changes that do the most damage: Large hydel, transmission and road projects are cleared through separate forest and wildlife clearance processes that an ESA notification does not displace. Eg. The Athirappilly hydel project in Kerala’s Chalakudy basin has been proposed and revived repeatedly in a stretch the ecology panel placed in its highest sensitivity zone.
      The Fix: Write the prohibition on new hydel and mining leases into the notification itself, rather than leaving each project to a case-by-case clearance.
    3. Forest rights claims in the same landscape are unsettled: Restricting land use before individual and community claims are decided converts a pending claim into a permanent denial. Eg. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 requires gram sabha verification of every claim, and recognition remains incomplete across the Western Ghats States.
      The Fix: Settle pending claims before the final notification takes effect, and attach the gram sabha resolution to the boundary record for each village.
    4. Tighter protection without habitat management raises human-wildlife conflict: Restricting access and infrastructure inside a landscape does nothing about crop raiding and encounters on the forest edge, which is what residents experience daily. Eg. Kodagu and Hassan districts record repeated elephant crop damage and human casualties, and conflict compensation in Karnataka runs among the highest in the country.
      The Fix: Fund a dedicated conflict mitigation line inside the ESA framework, covering barriers, rapid response teams and time-bound ex gratia payment.

    Conclusion

    The dispute is no longer about whether the Western Ghats need protection. It is about who verifies the boundary, and on what evidence. A line drawn from remote sensing and contested for over a decade has delivered neither conservation on the ground nor certainty for the people living inside it, and each reissued draft resets the argument to where it began. The question that decides the outcome is whether Karnataka answers this draft with a completed ground survey or with another objection.

    Back2Basics: Western Ghats

    1. What it is: The Western Ghats is a chain of hills running parallel to India’s western coast, older than the Himalaya, and it intercepts the south-west monsoon to produce the heavy orographic rainfall of the west coast.
    2. Global recognition: It is one of the world’s recognised biodiversity hotspots, a designation given to regions with exceptional endemism and severe habitat loss.
    3. World Heritage status: UNESCO inscribed a serial property of 39 sites across the Western Ghats on the World Heritage List in 2012.
    4. Why endemism matters here: A large share of its amphibians, fish and flowering plants are found nowhere else, and species such as the lion-tailed macaque and the Nilgiri tahr are restricted to this range.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “Gadgil Committee Report’ and ‘Kasturirangan Committee Report’, sometimes seen in the news, are related to (a) constitutional reforms (b) Ganga Action Plan (c) linking of rivers (d) protection of Western Ghats”

  • Bihar makes consent mandatory for CBI to probe public servants

    Why in the News

    The Bihar Home Department has issued a notification regulating the jurisdiction of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the State under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946. It widens the agency’s standing general consent over offences involving employees of the Government of India, central Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and private persons implicated alongside them. A proviso then removes that automatic authority over public servants appointed in connection with the affairs of the Bihar government and over State-owned, State-controlled and State-aided bodies. The notification supersedes every previous notification on the subject. The result is a two-tier regime. The same agency needs no permission to investigate a central employee in Bihar. It needs case-by-case permission to investigate a State employee.

    What is consent under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946?

    1. The statute is the CBI’s source of police powers: The CBI cannot ordinarily exercise its powers and jurisdiction inside a State without that State government’s consent.
    2. Two forms of consent: General consent allows the agency to investigate specified offences or categories of cases without seeking permission each time. Specific consent is granted for an individual case.
    3. Consent is tied to a notified offence list: The offences the agency may investigate are notified under Section 3 of the Act, so a State’s general consent operates only over that notified list.

    What does the Bihar notification alter on each side of the line?

    1. The offence list under general consent is widened: Consent now covers offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023, the Information Technology Act, 2000, cybercrime, and the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 as amended.
    2. Whom the wider consent covers: It applies to employees of the Government of India, employees of PSUs under the Government of India, and private persons implicated alongside them.
    3. The proviso carves out the State’s own establishment: Prior consent of the Bihar government is mandatory for any probe of public servants appointed in connection with the affairs of the State, and of persons in any corporation, company or bank owned by, controlled by, or receiving financial assistance from the State.
    4. The State decides each request individually: On receiving a proposal from the Delhi Special Police Establishment, the State government considers it and takes a decision on granting powers of investigation case by case.

    Why is the order read as widening the agency’s reach rather than curbing it?

    1. The two-pronged reading inside the police establishment: The stated reading is that the first part of the order lets the CBI investigate cases that were the State’s prerogative, and the second part balances that by requiring the State’s permission.
    2. It is read as a template for other States: The assessment within the agency is that Bihar may have set a precedent for other States, and that the order gives the CBI more scope rather than less.
    3. The consent bar binds the executive alone: The requirement of State consent applies only to executive action by the CBI. It does not restrict a High Court or the Supreme Court from ordering a CBI investigation within a State without the State government’s consent.

    Challenges to the general consent mechanism

    1. Consent is revocable at will and leaves probes suspended: A State can withdraw general consent at any time, and the agency must then seek permission for every fresh case in that State. Eg. West Bengal withdrew its general consent in November 2018 and has required case-by-case permission since.
      The Fix: Prescribe a statutory period within which a State must decide a case-by-case request, with reasons recorded for a refusal.
    2. The agency has no charter of its own: The CBI rests on a 1946 police establishment law and a 1963 executive resolution, so its very constitution has been litigated. Eg. The Gauhati High Court in Navendra Kumar v. Union of India (2013) held the 1963 resolution constituting the CBI to be invalid, and the Supreme Court stayed that order within days.
      The Fix: Enact a dedicated CBI statute fixing its composition, its jurisdiction over notified central offences and the limits of State consent.
    3. Corruption probes against State officials face two separate gates: Consent under Section 6 is only the first permission, and a further approval is needed before an inquiry into a public servant’s official decisions can begin. Eg. Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, inserted in 2018, requires prior approval of the competent authority before any enquiry into a recommendation made or decision taken by a public servant in discharge of official functions.
      The Fix: Run both approvals through a single time-bound window, so a refusal at either gate is recorded once and is appealable.
    4. Selective consent invites a political reading of every case: The State controls access to its own officials, so each grant or refusal is readable as a political act rather than a legal one. Eg. The Supreme Court described the agency as a “caged parrot speaking in its master’s voice” in the coal blocks allocation matter in 2013.
      The Fix: Publish an annual statement of consent requests received, granted, refused and pending, State by State, so the pattern is visible rather than inferred.
    5. Joint cases now straddle two consent regimes: One case involving a central employee and a State public servant is fully open on one accused and permission-dependent on the other, which splits a single investigation. Eg. A corruption case in a centrally funded scheme executed by a State department typically names officials of both.
      The Fix: Provide that where a case includes even one accused covered by general consent, the State decides on the whole case within a fixed period rather than on each accused separately.

    Conclusion

    The notification is in force and it supersedes every earlier consent order in the State. It settles nothing about the underlying arrangement, which lets the same agency be widened and fenced by a single executive order that no legislature debated. What is worth watching is whether other States adopt the split model, and whether Bihar attaches any timeline to the permissions it has now reserved to itself. A permission with no deadline is a refusal that never has to be written down.

    Back2Basics: Central Bureau of Investigation

    1. Constitution: The CBI was set up by a resolution of the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1963, and it is not a statutory body created by its own Act.
    2. Administrative control: It functions under the Department of Personnel and Training in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
    3. Superintendence is split: For offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, superintendence vests in the Central Vigilance Commission. For all other matters it vests in the Central Government.
    4. Appointment of the Director: The Director is appointed on the recommendation of a committee of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India or a Supreme Court judge nominated by the Chief Justice.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “The jurisdiction of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) regarding lodging an FIR and conducting probe within a particular State is being questioned by various States. However, the power of the States to withhold consent to the CBI is not absolute. Explain with special reference to the federal character of India.”

  • Jharkhand SIR faceoff: BJP agents seek to delete voters, BLOs raise red flag

    Why in the News

    Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in at least four booths of Jharkhand’s Godda district have refused stacks of Form 7 applications seeking deletion of voters from the draft electoral roll, flagging them as not genuine or not procedurally sound. The applications were brought by Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and most of the names on them are from the minority community. The draft roll was published under the State’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), and the claims and objections round on it is still open. The BJP has complained that the BLOs are at fault for refusing the forms. BLOs are State government employees, and the State is governed by a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-Congress alliance, so the standoff has acquired a party colour and has reached the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). The tension is that Form 7 requires no evidence and has no filing cap, so the only safeguard against targeted bulk deletion is the inquiry after intake, and the CEO and the local Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) disagree on whether a BLO may refuse a form at all.

    How is a Form 7 deletion supposed to work?

    1. The statutory power sits with the ERO: Section 22 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 lets the ERO correct or delete an entry on its own motion or on an application. In each case the ERO must hold an inquiry, give the elector time to respond and then pass an order.
    2. Only three grounds justify deletion: The ERO can remove an entry where the person has died, is no longer ordinarily resident in the constituency, or is ineligible because they are not a citizen or are under 18.
    3. Form 7 is the objection instrument: Under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, Form 7 carries an objection to a proposed inclusion or a deletion of a name in an existing roll. Any elector may use it to delete their own name or to object to another elector in the same constituency.
    4. The applicant proves nothing but signs a declaration: The form asks for one of five reasons, death, under age, absent or permanently shifted, already enrolled, or not Indian citizen, and needs no evidence. The applicant signs a declaration that a statement known to be false is punishable.

    Where does the online filing system leave the safeguard?

    1. Filing has moved online: The form can be downloaded from the voters’ portal and handed to the BLO, or filed on the portal or the ECINet app after the applicant links a phone number to their Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number. Only a person registered in the same constituency can object to a name in it.
    2. The form identifies both parties: It carries the applicant’s name, EPIC number and phone number, and the name, EPIC number if available and address of the person objected to.
    3. Processing was centralised in 2018 but decisions were not: ERONet replaced the States’ own applications with one portal for EROs, and in 2025 the Election Commission of India (ECI) folded about 40 apps and portals into ECINet. Each form is still decided by the ERO concerned, not centrally.
    4. The portal verifies nothing at filing: No proof is required, and the system does not check that the EPIC number and phone number belong to the applicant.
    5. The inquiry is the safeguard, per the ECI: The ERO must issue a notice to the elector, allow seven days to respond, hold a hearing and pass an order, and the BLO must verify by a field visit. ECI officials say a deletion happens only after this ground inquiry.

    What did the investigation find in Godda’s booths?

    1. One BLA, 25 forms in one booth: At Booth No. 9 of Maheshtikri village a single BJP BLA filed Form 7s against 25 voters.
    2. The forms were not the official ones: The Maheshtikri BLO said the BLA brought forms that were not original, described them as covering voters absent from the village, and promised 50 more. Every form named a Muslim voter.
    3. She accepted the first batch and refused the rest: The BLO took the 25 forms, then declined further forms after the Block Development Officer (BDO) instructed BLOs that such documents were not official forms.
    4. A neighbouring BLA burned 75 forms: At Pachua Kita the BLO was handed around 75 Form 7s that differed from the forms the block office had issued. The BLA said he had been told they were for adding names, and he burned all of them when questioned.
    5. Almost every objected name was Muslim: At Pachua Kita almost all the names on the 75 forms were of Muslims, and at Maheshtikri all the forms carried Muslim voters.
    6. Complaints reached the ERO from four booths: The Basantrai BDO, acting as ERO, received complaints from Maheshtikri, Pachua Kita, Lochni and Baghakol. Villagers of Maheshtikri filed their own complaint against the mass objections in Booth No. 9.

    Why do the targeted voters say the objections cannot stand?

    1. The 2003 roll should protect them: Many of the targeted voters are verified in the 2003 intensive revision, and under the ECI’s own rules this eases their inclusion in the ongoing SIR. The BLOs said every objected voter at Maheshtikri and most at Pachua Kita were mapped to the 2003 roll.
    2. Residence runs back generations: The voters trace their families in the village across generations and hold the khatian, the land record used as proof of being Jharkhandi, along with Aadhaar cards and addresses in the State.
    3. Migration for work is the likely trigger: Several are labourers who work in Delhi, Ghaziabad or outside the State and return to vote in Jharkhand. One learned of the objection against him only from an anganwadi worker.
    4. The fear is benefits and citizenship, not only the vote: Eight voters spoken to feared disenfranchisement, loss of government scheme entitlements or being treated as non-citizens, and several said they were not educated enough to understand the consequences.
    5. Preliminary checks support them: The ERO said preliminary information shows some voters sought to be deleted are living at their registered addresses, and every deletion request will be field verified.

    How does the BJP defend the bulk filings?

    1. Objections are the BLA’s job: The former BJP MLA for Godda said filing objections is part of a BLA’s responsibility. BLAs are trained in Form 6 for new voters, Form 7 for objections and Form 8 for shifting or correction of entries.
    2. Duplicate registration is the stated ground: The party’s position is that a BLA can seek deletion where a name appears at two places, and that verifying the objection is the election authorities’ job.
    3. No cap exists on filings: There is no prescribed limit on the number of applications a BLA can submit, so a single BLA filing dozens breaks no rule.
    4. The BLO breached confidentiality, per the party: A BLO must keep the details of the objected person and of the BLA confidential, and disclosure can amount to a violation of the Representation of the People Act. The BJP says the Booth No. 9 BLO’s disclosure of its BLA’s identity caused pressure and threats against him.
    5. The complaint went to the Additional CEO: The BJP’s Jharkhand SIR convenor submitted a memorandum on discrepancies in the SIR, particularly in Sahibganj and Godda districts, accusing BLOs of two booths of refusing Form 7s from its BLAs.
    6. The BLAs describe a top down supply of forms: The Maheshtikri BLA said the former MLA gave him around 25 forms with the instruction to bring them back if the BLO refused, and some came back. The Pachua Kita BLA said he got the forms from party cadres, barely knew what they were, and thought they added names.

    Why have the ERO and the CEO split on what a BLO may do?

    1. The ERO told BLOs not to act: The BDO said BLOs were instructed not to act on the forms because the source of the forms was unknown, and that an inquiry report will follow field verification.
    2. The ERO wants a complaint route instead: In his view the BLAs should first have filed a written complaint with the Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) or the ERO asking for an investigation. Any objection should come from the family concerned or carry solid evidence.
    3. The CEO found no illegality: After speaking to the Godda Assistant ERO and the Deputy Commissioner, the Jharkhand CEO said objections were filed through Form 7 and can be submitted in bulk.
    4. The CEO holds that filing itself is legitimate: A BLA who believes a voter is registered in multiple States can object, and there is nothing wrong in filing objections.
    5. The CEO says BLOs cannot reject: The BLO must first inform the Assistant ERO (AERO), who decides what is to be done, and the BLO then records a recommendation in the observation report.

    Why has a roll revision become a party contest?

    1. The revision is large and the window is short: The SIR began in Jharkhand on June 30, and the draft roll published on August 5 removed 16.48 percent of voters, around 43 lakh. The claims and objections round closes on September 4.
    2. BLOs answer to a State government of the other side: The BJP frames the refusals as partisan because the BLOs are employees of a State run by its rivals.
    3. Godda is a marginal seat: The BJP candidate lost Godda in the 2024 Assembly election to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) by more than 20,000 votes after winning it in 2020 by around 4,500.
    4. The ruling alliance calls it targeted deletion: The JMM’s local block president called the forms a BJP conspiracy to remove Muslim voters, and the Congress general secretary said the party is monitoring Form 7 deletions across the State. The RJD MLA for Godda said the BDO told him action is being taken.

    Challenges to the Form 7 objection mechanism

    1. The burden shifts to the objected elector: A voter must answer a notice within a week and attend a hearing, and a migrant worker away from home routinely misses both. Eg. In Lal Babu Hussein v Electoral Registration Officer (1995) the Supreme Court set aside deletions in Bombay where names had been struck off on suspicion of foreign nationality without a proper opportunity to be heard.
      The Fix: Serve the notice on the phone number linked to the elector’s EPIC and allow a response through the portal or a family member at the hearing.
    2. The objector’s identity is unverified: An objection can be filed under someone else’s EPIC number and phone number since nothing checks that they belong to the applicant. Eg. In Bengaluru in 2022, staff of a private firm, Chilume Enterprises, posed as Booth Level Officers and collected voter data door to door, showing how easily the intake layer is impersonated.
      The Fix: Require a one time password on the phone registered against the objector’s EPIC before the portal accepts a Form 7.
    3. False declarations carry no practical cost: Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 makes a false declaration punishable with imprisonment of up to one year, but prosecutions of objectors are rare, so bulk filing is free. Eg. In the Bihar SIR of 2025 the Supreme Court had to direct the ECI to publish booth wise lists of the about 65 lakh excluded names with reasons before any individual could contest an exclusion.
      The Fix: Track every rejected objection to its filer and prosecute repeat filers under Section 31.
    4. Party appointed agents drive the objection pipeline: BLAs are nominated by political parties, so the volume and targeting of objections follow party incentive rather than roll accuracy. Eg. The Bihar SIR of 2025 let each BLA submit up to 50 certified enumeration forms a day, formally placing party agents inside the roll’s verification chain.
      The Fix: Require the ERO to publish booth wise counts of objections by filer during the claims window so bulk targeting is visible before the roll is finalised.

    Conclusion

    The Godda dispute is about where the safeguard against targeted deletion sits, at the BLO’s counter or in the ERO’s inquiry. The CEO has ruled that intake cannot be refused, so every objection now goes to field verification. The marker to watch is the Basantrai ERO’s inquiry report and how many of the objections it upholds once the claims window closes.

    Back2Basics: Special Intensive Revision (SIR)

    1. Legal basis: Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 lets the Election Commission of India direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency, in addition to the annual summary revision.
    2. What makes it intensive: BLOs visit every household with enumeration forms and the roll is rebuilt from those forms, rather than corrected entry by entry as in a summary revision.
    3. The current cycle: The nationwide exercise began with Bihar in June 2025 and has proceeded State by State in phases since.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2026, GS2, 10 marks] Is the right to vote a fundamental right? Discuss the position of the Election Commission of India while undertaking the revision of electoral rolls. Can it also examine the question of citizenship of voters?”

  • A.P. to become third subsea hub on data centre buildout

    A.P. to become third subsea hub on data centre buildout

    Why in the News

    Technology majors Microsoft and Google are building new subsea cable landing stations on the coast of Andhra Pradesh as part of an artificial intelligence linked data centre buildout in the State. Microsoft is part of a consortium with Lightstorm and the Singaporean telecom operator Singtel to land the 3,600 kilometre India Southeast Asia Submarine Cable System, while Google’s globe spanning America India Connect system will land at Visakhapatnam, where the company’s own data centre complex is coming up. Once complete, the buildout will give India, after Mumbai and Chennai, a third digital international gateway, even as a global shortage of fibre threatens to slow the inland network these projects still need.

    What is a subsea cable landing station?

    1. Definition: A subsea cable landing station is the facility where an undersea fibre optic cable comes ashore and connects to a country’s terrestrial network, carrying the bulk of international internet traffic.
    2. Global reliance: The overwhelming majority of the world’s international data traffic travels through such undersea cable systems rather than satellites, making landing stations critical infrastructure.
    3. India’s current concentration: India’s existing landing stations are concentrated in Mumbai and Chennai, leaving the country reliant on a small number of routes.

    What new cable infrastructure is being built off Andhra Pradesh’s coast?

    1. Microsoft’s consortium project: Microsoft, alongside Lightstorm and Singtel, is landing the 3,600 kilometre India Southeast Asia Submarine Cable System, expected to be ready for service in the fourth quarter of 2029.
    2. Google’s own system: Google’s America India Connect system will land at Visakhapatnam, alongside the data centre complex the company is building there as part of what a Google executive described as an artificial intelligence hub.

    What does this make Visakhapatnam?

    1. India’s third gateway: After Mumbai and Chennai, Visakhapatnam becomes India’s third digital international subsea gateway, connecting the country directly with Southeast Asia, Australia and the Middle East.
    2. A new corridor: Lightstorm’s chief executive has described the India Southeast Asia system, which also connects to Chennai, as providing a fresh corridor to South Asia from Singapore and Malaysia.

    Why are companies building on the east coast now?

    1. Ageing existing infrastructure: Most cables currently connecting India’s east coast are old, are already filled to capacity and are approaching the end of their working life.
    2. A search for resilience: Companies are also seeking to reduce the risk of relying on a single route by adding cables on India’s east coast, citing instability in West Asia as a reason to build in an alternate location.

    What inland infrastructure does this buildout require?

    1. A nationwide undertaking: Both projects require installing and lighting thousands of kilometres of new terrestrial fibre linking the coast to major cities, a scale one company executive described as spanning the entire country.
    2. A dedicated corridor: Lightstorm is expected to build a terrestrial corridor connecting Machilipatnam to Mumbai and Hyderabad, and Chennai to Hyderabad and Mumbai, with matching bandwidth.
    3. A global fibre shortage: Fibre, its components and its raw material are in short supply worldwide, including from Indian manufacturers, a constraint industry executives describe as unprecedented in over a decade.

    What will Google’s Visakhapatnam facility do?

    1. Focused on inference: The facility will focus on inference work rather than power intensive training runs, serving domestic enterprises and government agencies given the deep adoption of artificial intelligence across government service delivery.
    2. Power and water choices: Google is seeking to source as much renewable power for the project as possible and is using air cooling technology to minimise water use.

    Challenges to the subsea cable buildout

    1. A global fibre shortage: A worldwide shortage of fibre and its raw material, unprecedented in over a decade, could delay the inland network these projects still need. Eg. Industry executives report that fibre is out of stock across the globe, including from Indian manufacturers. Fix. Expand domestic fibre manufacturing capacity through targeted incentives so the inland rollout is not held back by global supply constraints.
    2. Physical vulnerability of undersea cables: Undersea cables remain exposed to accidental damage from fishing and anchoring activity and to disruption in contested waters. Eg. India’s existing east coast cables are already ageing and running close to capacity, leaving few redundant routes today. Fix. Build multiple, geographically separated landing points and routes, as the new Visakhapatnam gateway is itself intended to do, so a single cable fault cannot isolate India’s connectivity.
    3. Concentration of ownership with foreign firms: The new cable systems and the data centres they serve are being built and operated by foreign technology majors, so India’s expanding gateway capacity depends on the investment decisions of a small number of firms. Eg. Both the India Southeast Asia system and the America India Connect system are anchored by Microsoft and Google respectively rather than Indian carriers. Fix. Encourage Indian telecom operators to invest jointly in landing station capacity so gateway control is not concentrated entirely with foreign firms.

    Conclusion

    Andhra Pradesh’s coastline is emerging as India’s third major digital gateway, as Microsoft and Google build new subsea cable systems into Visakhapatnam alongside the data centres driving the region’s artificial intelligence buildout. Delivering on that promise depends on inland fibre rollout keeping pace despite a global supply crunch, and on India diversifying its cable landing points and ownership so its expanding digital infrastructure does not remain concentrated in a handful of ageing routes and foreign owned systems.

    [2023] “What is the status of digitalization in the Indian economy? Examine the problems faced in this regard and suggest improvements.”

  • It is wrong to cancel Telangana CM’s US visit

    Why in the News

    The Ministry of External Affairs denied political clearance for a United States visit by the Chief Minister of Telangana, A. Revanth Reddy, a visit that had included planned meetings with the Mayor of New York and the Vice-President of the United States. Indian States require political clearance from the Union government before a Chief Minister undertakes an official foreign visit, a longstanding practice meant to keep foreign policy under central control. Denying clearance for meetings with a State chief executive and senior foreign leaders sets up a tension between the Centre’s constitutional primacy over foreign affairs and the norm of allowing Opposition-ruled States a role in India’s outward-facing federalism.

    Why does a Chief Minister need Union clearance to travel abroad?

    1. Foreign affairs sit exclusively with the Union: Entry 10 of the Union List places foreign affairs, including all matters bringing the Union government into relation with any foreign country, exclusively within the Centre’s legislative and executive competence.
    2. Political clearance is an executive practice, not a statutory requirement: The requirement that a Chief Minister obtain the Ministry of External Affairs’ political clearance before an official foreign visit rests on executive instructions rather than a specific Act, developed to keep sub-national actors from appearing to conduct independent foreign policy.
    3. Distinct from clearance for private or non-official travel: Clearance requirements attach to visits with an official or government-to-government character, such as meetings with a foreign government’s officials, rather than to purely personal travel.

    Why is denying clearance in this instance being criticised?

    1. Meetings involved routine sub-national and diplomatic engagement: A meeting between an Indian Chief Minister and the Mayor of New York, or a courtesy meeting with the Vice-President of the United States, falls within the kind of city-to-state and state-to-country economic diplomacy the Centre has itself encouraged States to pursue for investment.
    2. Selective application undermines federal trust: Denial of clearance to an Opposition-ruled State’s Chief Minister, where clearance is routinely granted for similar visits by Chief Ministers of Union government-aligned States, reads as a partisan use of a foreign-policy gatekeeping power.
    3. Costs India’s global federal image: India projects itself internationally as a cooperative federal system encouraging States to compete for investment; blocking a State’s own outreach to a potential investment and diaspora hub like New York works against that projection.
    4. Undermines Centre-Opposition dialogue norms: Routine denial of clearance to Opposition Chief Ministers, without a stated security or diplomatic justification, erodes the norm that foreign-policy gatekeeping is applied on non-partisan grounds.

    Conclusion

    The Ministry of External Affairs’ denial of political clearance for the Chief Minister of Telangana’s US visit is criticised here as an overreach of a gatekeeping power meant to coordinate foreign policy, not to selectively restrict an Opposition-ruled State’s economic and diplomatic outreach. The episode is likely to recur with other Opposition-ruled States unless the Centre states clear, non-partisan criteria for granting or denying political clearance.

    Back2Basics: Political clearance for foreign travel by State functionaries

    1. An executive requirement, not a statutory one, under which a Chief Minister or other State functionary must obtain the Ministry of External Affairs’ approval before undertaking an official foreign visit.
    2. Rests on the Union’s exclusive constitutional competence over foreign affairs under Entry 10 of the Union List in the Seventh Schedule.
    3. Applies to visits with an official or government character; distinguished from private travel, which does not require the same clearance.
    4. Has periodically become a point of Centre-State friction when applied to Opposition-ruled States’ Chief Ministers.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2021] Which one of the following in Indian polity is an essential feature that indicates that it is federal in character?
    (a) The independence of the judiciary is safeguarded.
    (b) The Union Legislature has elected representatives from constituent units.
    (c) The Union Cabinet can have elected representatives from regional parties.
    (d) The Fundamental Rights are enforceable by Courts of Law.
    ANSWER: (a)”

  • Kerala having fewer kids – that’s bad news for teachers

    Why in the News

    Kerala's Public Service Commission recruited 6,114 people as teachers in government lower primary schools, and only 239 have been appointed so far. The shortfall traces to falling enrolment at the lower primary level, which is tied to the state's declining birth rate, so a completed demographic transition is now closing public teaching posts.

    What is staff fixation?

    1. About: Staff fixation is the exercise the Kerala Education Department conducts at the start of each academic year in June, in all government and aided schools, to fix the number of sanctioned teaching posts.
    2. Basis of the calculation: Posts are fixed on the number of students actually enrolled, and in the lower primary segment the teacher-student ratio applied is 1:30.
    3. Effect on vacancies: When a teacher retires, that vacancy can be filled only if that particular school continues to have the required number of students.
    4. Effect on serving teachers: Where a school falls below the required strength, the junior-most teacher can be removed from the post.

    What is the crude birth rate?

    1. About: The crude birth rate is the number of live births occurring in a year for every 1,000 people in the population, so it measures how fast a population is adding members without adjusting for its age structure.
    2. Why it is crude: It counts all persons in the denominator rather than only women of reproductive age, so a population with fewer young adults records a lower rate even at unchanged fertility per woman.

    What is a Public Service Commission rank list?

    1. About: A rank list is the ordered list of candidates who clear a Public Service Commission recruitment process, from which appointments are made in rank order as vacancies are reported by departments.
    2. Validity: A Kerala rank list is valid for a maximum period of three years, after which it lapses and candidates must compete afresh.

    Why are the recruited teachers not getting appointed?

    1. The recruitment figure: The Public Service Commission recruited 6,114 people as teachers in government lower primary schools for a period of three years starting June 2025.
    2. The appointment figure: Only 239 candidates have been appointed so far out of that list.
    3. The clock: The existing rank list expires in May 2028, and each such list runs for a maximum of three years.
    4. The protest: Rank holders have been on an indefinite agitation in front of the state secretariat, which has run for 41 days.
    5. The age barrier: Forty years is the upper age limit to apply for a government job in Kerala, so a candidate who ages out of the list has no second attempt.
    6. The stated cause: Stakeholders identify one key reason posts are not being filled, which is the fall in student enrolment at the lower primary level linked to declining birth rates.

    Who is waiting on the list?

    1. A candidate aged 40: One rank holder passed the teachers' training course 16 years ago in 2010, worked in government schools on daily wages for a few years, and is a single parent of two children.
    2. A candidate aged 27: Another completed the teachers' training course in 2017 at the age of 18, worked in various schools on a daily-wage basis, and figured in the 2019 supplementary rank list without securing a job because no appointments were made at the time.
    3. The aided school route: Aided school managements are demanding sums ranging from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 40 lakh for a post, which candidates from low-income households cannot pay.
    4. A returning migrant: A third candidate aged 36 worked as a salesman in the United Arab Emirates for 14 years before returning to Kerala and clearing the recruitment process.
    5. The protection cut-off: Teachers who joined schools up to 2022 are protected and can be redeployed if needed, and those appointed after 2022 are at risk of job loss and must wait for a new vacancy that rarely emerges.

    What does Kerala's enrolment data show?

    1. Four-year loss: Kerala's government and aided schools lost 3.33 lakh students between 2021-22 and 2025-26.
    2. The absolute numbers: Enrolment dipped from 38.68 lakh to 35.35 lakh over that period.
    3. First standard this year: Data presented in the Assembly shows 2,06,706 students enrolled in the first standard in government and aided schools following the state board syllabus this year.
    4. First standard last year: The corresponding figure in the last academic year was 2,34,476, a drop of 27,770 in a single year.
    5. The second cause: Apart from the declining birth rate, many parents are opting to send their children to private schools following the Central Board of Secondary Education syllabus.
    6. Consequence for posts: Scores of teaching jobs in the government sector have disappeared over the years for want of students.

    What does Kerala's birth rate trajectory show?

    1. The 1992 baseline: Kerala's crude birth rate was 17.67 in 1992 and stayed around that level for several years.
    2. The 2006 and 2010 readings: It slipped to 16.63 by 2006 and to 15.75 by 2010.
    3. Crossing below 15: The rate fell below 15 for the first time in 2016, at 14.48.
    4. The 2019 reading: It dropped again to 13.79 in 2019.
    5. The pandemic-period fall: It then declined by 1.02 between 2019 and 2020, and by a further 0.83 between 2020 and 2021, the sharpest consecutive falls in the series.

    Why is a demographic success now producing an employment problem?

    1. The achievement: A falling birth rate in Kerala is the outcome of high female literacy, near-universal schooling and low infant mortality, and it is treated as a development success.
    2. The mechanism that converts it into a loss: Staff fixation ties every teaching post to enrolment, so a smaller cohort of children mechanically reduces sanctioned posts.
    3. The lag between the two: Teacher training capacity and recruitment lists were built for an earlier cohort size, so supply of trained teachers continues even as demand contracts.
    4. The compounding factor: Migration of students to private schools following the Central Board of Secondary Education syllabus removes children from the government and aided system without reducing the total child population.
    5. The trap for candidates: A rank holder cannot be appointed against a post that no longer exists. The rank list lapses and the upper age limit closes the route to reapplying.

    Challenges to Teacher Recruitment in a Shrinking Cohort

    1. Posts tied to enrolment: Sanctioned posts fall automatically with enrolment, so recruitment cannot be planned independently of demographic trend. Eg. Kerala's government and aided schools lost 3.33 lakh students between 2021-22 and 2025-26.
    2. Rank lists that lapse unused: A three-year validity period runs out before the vacancies needed for appointment arise. Eg. The 2025 lower primary rank list carrying 6,114 names expires in May 2028 with 239 appointments made so far.
    3. Age limits that close the second attempt: Candidates who age out during the wait cannot reapply, which converts a delay into permanent exclusion. Eg. Forty years is the upper age limit for a government job in Kerala, and a rank holder aged 40 has no further attempt.
    4. Capitation in the aided sector: Aided school posts are effectively sold, which prices out candidates from low-income households. Eg. The Kerala Education Act, 1958 leaves appointment in an aided school with the private manager while the State pays the appointee's salary.
    5. Oversupply of trained teachers: Teacher training institutions continue to produce graduates against contracted demand. Eg. Candidates who completed the teachers' training course in 2010 and 2017 have spent years on daily-wage work without a regular post.
    6. Uneven protection across cohorts: Protection rules split serving teachers into secure and insecure groups by date of joining. Eg. Teachers who joined up to 2022 can be redeployed, and those appointed after 2022 face job loss when a school falls below strength.
    7. School viability at small sizes: Falling enrolment turns single-teacher and low-strength schools into candidates for closure or merger, which removes local access rather than only posts. Eg. Kerala has repeatedly had to designate uneconomic schools and protect them through special provisions.

    Conclusion

    Kerala's crude birth rate has fallen from 17.67 in 1992 to below 14 by 2019, with the steepest consecutive falls recorded in 2020 and 2021. Enrolment-linked staff fixation has translated that decline directly into sanctioned posts, so 6,114 recruited teachers have yielded 239 appointments and the rank list expires in May 2028. The state faces a planning problem rather than a recruitment problem, since teacher supply, school size norms and the pupil-teacher ratio were all set for a larger cohort. Resolving it requires revising the ratio, consolidating or repurposing low-strength schools, and aligning teacher training capacity with the demographic trend.

    What is Demographic Transition?

    1. About: Demographic transition is the shift a population makes from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates as it develops economically and socially.
    2. Rationale: The model explains why population growth accelerates and then slows without any change in policy, since mortality falls before fertility does and the gap between the two produces the growth phase.
    3. Stage 1, high stationary: Both birth and death rates are high and fluctuate, so population size stays broadly stable with low growth.
    4. Stage 2, early expanding: Death rates fall sharply with better nutrition, sanitation and disease control, and birth rates stay high, which produces rapid population growth.
    5. Stage 3, late expanding: Birth rates begin to fall as education, urbanisation, female workforce participation and contraception spread, so growth slows.
    6. Stage 4, low stationary: Both rates are low, population growth approaches zero and the age structure ages, which is where Kerala now sits.
    7. Stage 5, declining: Birth rates fall below death rates and the population contracts absolutely, with a rising dependency burden of elderly persons.

    Key Concerns Regarding Demographic Transition

    1. Irreversibility: Once fertility falls well below replacement level, pronatalist policy has rarely restored it, so the smaller cohort persists for decades. Eg. South Korea's total fertility rate fell to about 0.7 despite years of cash incentives and parental leave expansion.
    2. A time-bound dividend: The working-age bulge that follows the fertility decline lasts only until that cohort ages, so the window for converting it into growth is finite. Eg. India's working-age share is projected to peak around the early 2040s, after which the dependency ratio begins to rise.
    3. Divergence within a federation: States complete the transition at different times, which creates simultaneous ageing in some States and youth pressure in others under one fiscal and political system. Eg. Bihar recorded a total fertility rate close to 3.0 in the fifth National Family Health Survey, the highest among the States.
    4. Ageing before affluence: Where the transition completes before per capita income rises, the state must fund pensions and elderly health care from a narrower base. Eg. China's population began ageing rapidly at a per capita income far below the level Japan had reached at the same age structure.
    5. Political representation: Population-based allocation of seats and fiscal transfers penalises the States that reduced fertility fastest, which links a public health achievement to a loss of political weight. Eg. Southern States objected to the Fifteenth Finance Commission's use of 2011 Census population, which reduced the weight given to their earlier fertility decline.

    Laws and Rules Governing School Education

    1. Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009: Guarantees free and compulsory elementary education for children aged 6 to 14 and prescribes norms for schools.
    2. It prescribes a pupil-teacher ratio of 30:1 at the primary stage and 35:1 at the upper primary stage, and bars deployment of teachers for non-educational work other than census, disaster relief and election duty.
    3. Kerala Education Act, 1958 and the Kerala Education Rules, 1959: Govern government and aided schools in the State, including staff fixation, protection of teachers, and management obligations in aided schools.
    4. National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993: Establishes the statutory body that regulates teacher education institutions and prescribes minimum qualifications for teachers.
    5. Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2019: Extended the deadline for serving teachers to acquire the prescribed minimum qualifications.
    6. National Education Policy, 2020: Sets the policy framework for school complexes, rationalisation of small schools, foundational literacy and numeracy, and a shift in the school structure to the 5+3+3+4 design.
    7. Kerala Public Service Commission rules: Govern rank list preparation, validity of three years, advice for appointment in rank order and the upper age limit for entry into government service.

    Government Initiatives

    1. Samagra Shiksha: The integrated centrally sponsored scheme for school education from pre-school to Class 12, covering teacher salaries, infrastructure, inclusive education and quality interventions.
    2. NIPUN Bharat Mission: Targets universal foundational literacy and numeracy by the end of Grade 3, with State-level implementation through Samagra Shiksha.
    3. PM SHRI Schools: Upgrades selected existing schools into model schools demonstrating the National Education Policy, 2020 in practice.
    4. PM POSHAN: Provides a hot cooked meal to children in government and government-aided schools from pre-primary to Class 8, which also supports attendance.
    5. Vidyanjali: A school volunteer initiative connecting alumni, professionals and community members to schools for teaching support and asset contribution.
    6. ULLAS Nav Bharat Saaksharta Karyakram: The adult education programme covering foundational literacy, critical life skills and vocational skills for non-literate adults aged 15 and above.
    7. National Programme for Elderly Care: The National Programme for the Health Care of the Elderly and the Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana provide geriatric health services and old age support, which are the counterpart of a completed demographic transition.

    Key Facts about Kerala's Demographic Profile

    1. Fertility position: Kerala's total fertility rate is around 1.5, well below the replacement level of 2.1, and among the lowest in the country.
    2. Literacy: Kerala recorded a literacy rate of about 94 per cent in the 2011 Census, the highest among the major States, and was declared India's first fully literate State in 1991.
    3. Sex ratio: Kerala has the highest sex ratio among the major States at 1,084 females per 1,000 males in the 2011 Census.
    4. Ageing: Kerala has the highest share of elderly persons among the major States, with those aged 60 and above forming a substantially larger share than the national average.
    5. Life expectancy: Kerala records the highest life expectancy at birth among Indian States, above 75 years.
    6. Infant mortality: Kerala reports the lowest infant mortality rate in the country, in the mid-single digits per 1,000 live births.
    7. World Population Day: Observed on 11 July each year.
    8. Multidimensional poverty: Kerala records the lowest multidimensional poverty headcount ratio in the country, at around 0.55 per cent.

    Back2Basics: Total Fertility Rate and Replacement Level Fertility

    1. Total fertility rate: The total fertility rate is the average number of children a woman would bear over her lifetime if she experienced the age-specific fertility rates observed in a given year.
    2. Why it differs from the birth rate: Unlike the crude birth rate, the total fertility rate is independent of the population's age structure, so it compares fertility behaviour across populations directly.
    3. Replacement level: Replacement level fertility is the level at which each generation exactly replaces itself, which is why the threshold sits at 2.1 rather than at 2.0.
    4. Why the threshold exceeds two: The additional 0.1 accounts for girls who do not survive to the end of their reproductive years and for the slight excess of male births over female births.
    5. India's position: The National Family Health Survey placed India's total fertility rate at 2.0, below replacement level for the first time.
    6. Data sources: The Sample Registration System of the Registrar General of India and the National Family Health Survey are the two principal sources of fertility estimates for India.
    7. State variation: Southern States and several smaller States record fertility well below replacement level, and a few large northern States remain above it. That gap is the source of interstate demographic divergence.
    8. Momentum: Population continues to grow for decades after fertility falls below replacement, because a large cohort of women is still passing through reproductive age.

    Challenges in Managing a Completed Demographic Transition

    1. Elderly care infrastructure: A rising share of elderly persons needs geriatric health, palliative care and long-term support that the health system was not built for. Eg. Kerala has the highest share of elderly persons among major States and runs one of the country's largest palliative care networks to cope.
    2. Pension and social security coverage: Most workers are outside contributory pension systems, so old age income support falls on State budgets. Eg. State social security pensions are among the largest recurring items in Kerala's revenue expenditure.
    3. Shrinking working-age base: A smaller entering cohort narrows the tax base, and commitments to the elderly rise at the same time. Eg. Kerala's first standard enrolment fell from 2,34,476 to 2,06,706 in a single year.
    4. Labour shortage and in-migration: Sectors dependent on manual labour recruit from other States, which brings its own housing, health and language integration questions. Eg. Kerala hosts a very large interstate migrant workforce in construction, hospitality and fisheries.
    5. Public asset underuse: Schools, anganwadis and child health facilities built for a larger cohort operate below capacity and become fiscally inefficient. Eg. Scores of government teaching posts in Kerala have lapsed for want of students.
    6. Delimitation and representation: Seat allocation based on population penalises States that completed the transition earliest. Eg. Lok Sabha seats have been frozen at 543 on 1971 Census figures, and southern States stand to lose seats in a population-based redistribution.
    7. Out-migration of the young: Educated young people migrate for work, which accelerates ageing at home and makes local recruitment queues longer for those who stay. Eg. Candidates on the Kerala teachers' rank list include one who worked in the United Arab Emirates for 14 years before returning.

    Way Forward

    1. Revise the pupil-teacher ratio: Lower the lower primary ratio from 1:30 so smaller classes are funded rather than left to shed posts, in line with the quality objectives of the National Education Policy, 2020.
    2. Consolidate through school complexes: Group low-strength schools into school complexes sharing teachers and specialist subjects, so access is retained without maintaining unviable standalone posts.
    3. Extend rank list validity where the state causes the delay: Provide statutory extension of a rank list, and relaxation of the upper age limit, where non-appointment results from a failure to report vacancies.
    4. Align teacher training capacity: Regulate intake into teacher training courses against projected cohort size, so training output does not exceed sanctioned posts by an order of magnitude.
    5. Enforce prohibition of capitation in aided schools: Prosecute the sale of aided school teaching posts, since Rs 30 lakh to Rs 40 lakh demands convert a public post into a purchased one.
    6. Redeploy surplus teachers to new roles: Absorb protected and surplus teachers into pre-primary education, special education, remedial instruction and adult literacy under ULLAS, rather than treating them as excess.
    7. Plan for ageing alongside schooling: Convert underused school and anganwadi infrastructure into day care and geriatric service centres, matching the asset base to the new age structure.

    Matching Previous Year Question

    “[2024, GS1, 10] What is the concept of a 'demographic winter'? Is the world moving towards such a situation? Elaborate.”

  • Supreme Court orders a time bound eviction framework for Agasthyamalai encroachments

    Why in the News

    The Supreme Court has held that clearing encroachments inside the protected areas of the Agasthyamalai landscape requires a structured, time bound and closely monitored framework. Encroachments have survived decades of directions from the Madras High Court and the top court, so the Court has shifted from ordering eviction to removing the benefits that keep illegal occupation viable. The Court also raised the option of using paramilitary forces to carry out the evictions.

    What is the Central Empowered Committee?

    1. About: The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) is a body that examines forest and wildlife compliance matters and reports its findings and recommendations directly to the Supreme Court.
    2. Mandate in this case: The Court directed it last year to survey the entire Agasthyamalai landscape and identify every non forestry activity running contrary to the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
    3. Output: It submitted an interim report carrying division wise findings and recommended a time bound, division wise encroachment eviction plan.

    What did the Central Empowered Committee find on the ground?

    1. Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary: An area of 427.40 hectares stands encroached, with 237.09 hectares caught in litigation. Verified maps of the reserve forest are not available.
    2. Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve: As per official records of 2020, around 4,595 individuals are encroaching upon 5,071.27 hectares of reserved forest land.
    3. Nature of the occupation: The encroachments there are old, with many holdings under permanent cultivation of silk cotton, cardamom and beans.
    4. Structures inside forest land: A total of 116 government and public utility structures have been constructed inside forest lands without prior approval.
    5. Encroachers on the government payroll: A total of 118 individuals listed as encroachers were identified as serving or retired government employees, including personnel from the Army, the Police, the Forest Department and other State departments.
    6. Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve: The total extent of encroachment is 10.16 hectares by 998 families.

    Why does encroachment in Srivilliputhur-Megamalai carry consequences beyond the forest boundary?

    1. Upper catchment function: The Committee recorded the reserve as one of the most ecologically vulnerable areas because it forms the upper catchment of the Vaigai river.
    2. Downstream dependence: The Vaigai is a critical water source for five downstream districts, so degradation of the catchment transfers the cost to users outside the forest.
    3. Permanent cultivation: Standing plantation crops convert a temporary trespass into a settled land use that resists seasonal eviction.
    4. Enforcement record: Despite clear orders from the Madras High Court to remove encroachments, no significant progress has been made so far.

    What did Tamil Nadu offer in its defence?

    1. Detailed affidavit: The State filed an affidavit listing the steps its authorities had already taken against encroachment.
    2. Resistance on the ground: It acknowledged resistance from encroachers as a live obstacle to eviction drives.
    3. Pending litigation: It cited ongoing court cases that block action on specific parcels.
    4. Social profile of encroachers: It stated that many encroachers were landless and drawn from economically weaker sections.
    5. Law and order risk: The Committee separately recorded that law and order problems arose whenever the Forest Department attempted evictions, making a joint effort necessary.

    Can the difficulty of rehabilitation justify indefinite postponement of eviction?

    1. The Court’s acceptance: The Bench accepted that the complexity of the rehabilitation task is real and cannot be understated.
    2. The limit it set: That complexity cannot serve as a perpetual justification for the indefinite postponement of legally mandated eviction and restoration measures.
    3. What the two positions expose: The State’s constraint is genuine and its cost falls on the forest, so every year of delay converts an unlawful occupation into a settled claim.
    4. The shift in remedy: The Court moved from repeating an eviction order that had failed for decades to withdrawing the entitlements that make continued occupation rational.

    What has the Supreme Court directed?

    1. Action against government servants: Disciplinary and legal action must be initiated against all 118 identified government servants found to be encroachers.
    2. Moratorium on state benefits: A blanket moratorium was sought on the extension of welfare schemes, public utilities, transport facilities, electricity supply and infrastructure support within encroached forest areas, so that illegal occupation is neither incentivised nor legitimised.
    3. Freeze on new activity: A complete prohibition was ordered on the approval or commencement of any new non forestry activity within Agasthyamalai.
    4. A monitored framework: The matter requires a structured, time bound and closely monitored framework rather than periodic directions.
    5. Force option: The Court went as far as to suggest using the paramilitary to evict the encroachers and protect the ecologically sensitive region.

    Why has the political economy of eviction defeated three decades of orders?

    1. Benefits without title: Welfare schemes, electricity and transport reaching encroached parcels signalled state acceptance, which is precisely what the moratorium now targets.
    2. Enforcers as beneficiaries: With 118 serving or retired government employees among the encroachers, including Forest Department personnel, the enforcing agency contained a section of the offenders.
    3. Numbers as leverage: Evicting 4,595 individuals in a single reserve converts a forest law question into a mass displacement question that no district administration will initiate alone.
    4. Electoral exposure: The newly formed coalition government in Tamil Nadu faces two major Dravidian parties in the Opposition that are likely to resist an eviction touching thousands of families.
    5. Restoration burden: Beyond eviction, the State carries the task of resettling and rehabilitating the displaced families and restoring the original forest cover.

    Conclusion

    The Supreme Court has accepted that a repeated eviction order is not a remedy when the State’s own benefit delivery keeps encroachment viable, so it has attacked the incentive rather than only the occupation. The directions now require disciplinary action against 118 government servants, a freeze on welfare and utility extension inside encroached forest, and a prohibition on fresh non forestry activity in Agasthyamalai. The State must now produce a division wise, time bound eviction and restoration plan while simultaneously resettling landless families it has itself described as economically weak. Whether the moratorium survives the political cost of enforcing it is the test the next hearing will apply.

    Protected Area Governance in India

    1. About: A protected area is a legally notified tract managed primarily for the conservation of wildlife and its habitat, with human use restricted by statute rather than by administrative discretion.
    2. Four statutory categories: The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 provides for National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries, Conservation Reserves and Community Reserves, each with a different level of permitted human activity.
    3. Scale: India’s protected area network covers a little over 5 percent of the country’s geographical area, while recorded forest cover is close to a fifth of it.
    4. Tiger reserves: A tiger reserve is constituted with a core or Critical Tiger Habitat, kept inviolate, and a buffer zone allowing regulated coexistence.
    5. Diversion control: Any use of forest land for a non forest purpose requires prior central approval under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, which is why the 116 unapproved structures in Agasthyamalai are themselves an offence.
    6. Judicial supervision: Forest governance in India has been supervised continuously by the Supreme Court since the 1996 T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad proceedings, which extended statutory forest protection to all land recorded as forest.

    Laws and Rules Governing Forests and Wildlife in India

    1. Indian Forest Act, 1927: Provides for the constitution of reserved forests, protected forests and village forests, and defines forest offences and their penalties.
    2. Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972: Establishes protected areas, prohibits hunting of scheduled species and regulates trade in wildlife articles.
    3. 2006 amendment: Created the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the statutory concept of Critical Tiger Habitat.
    4. 2022 amendment: Restructured the species schedules and gave effect to India’s obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
    5. Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980: Bars the dereservation of reserved forest and the use of forest land for non forest purposes without prior approval of the Union government.
    6. Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 2023: Renamed the 1980 Act and exempted specified categories of land and strategic projects from prior approval.
    7. Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006: Recognises individual and community forest rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers and provides the only lawful route for settling occupation claims.
    8. Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016: Governs the use of funds collected as compensatory afforestation and net present value from diverted forest land.
    9. Environment (Protection) Act, 1986: Provides the umbrella power under which eco sensitive zones around protected areas are notified.

    Key Facts about Protected Areas in India

    1. Project Tiger was launched in 1973 and Project Elephant in 1992.
    2. The National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau are the two central bodies created under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 and its amendments.
    3. Critical Tiger Habitat is notified under Section 38V of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 on the basis of scientific evidence.
    4. The Western Ghats were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012 under the natural criteria.
    5. Wildlife Week is observed from 2 to 8 October every year.
    6. India’s biosphere reserves follow the core, buffer and transition zoning of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme.

    Back2Basics: The Agasthyamalai Landscape

    1. Location: It occupies the southern end of the Western Ghats, straddling the Tamil Nadu and Kerala border, and is named after the Agastyamalai peak.
    2. Designation: The Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve was designated in 2001 and was added to the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves in 2016.
    3. Protected areas on the Tamil Nadu side: Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve and Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary.
    4. Protected areas on the Kerala side: Neyyar, Peppara and Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuaries.
    5. Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve: Notified in 1988 as Tamil Nadu’s first tiger reserve, it is often called a river sanctuary for the number of streams rising within it.
    6. Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve: Notified in 2021 as Tamil Nadu’s fifth tiger reserve, it forms the upper catchment of the Vaigai river.
    7. Species: The landscape holds the endemic lion tailed macaque, the Nilgiri tahr and the Nilgiri langur, alongside tiger and elephant populations.
    8. Communities: The Kani tribal community lives in the landscape and is associated with the traditional knowledge of the Arogyapacha plant.

    Challenges in Protected Area Management in India

    1. Encroachment and regularisation pressure: Long standing occupation acquires political protection and becomes practically irreversible. e.g. the 427.40 hectares encroached in Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary, of which 237.09 hectares sit in litigation.
    2. Unauthorised construction inside forest land: Public agencies themselves build without the prior approval the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 requires. e.g. the 116 government and public utility structures recorded inside Agasthyamalai forest land.
    3. Linear infrastructure fragmentation: Roads and railway lines cut habitat into blocks and raise animal mortality. e.g. animal deaths on the national highway running through Kaziranga National Park during the annual Brahmaputra floods.
    4. Human wildlife conflict: Crop and life losses on the periphery erode local support for strict protection. e.g. repeated elephant deaths on the Madukkarai railway stretch near Coimbatore.
    5. Rights settlement conflicting with eviction: Claims under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and eviction drives run on separate tracks with no sequencing. e.g. the Supreme Court’s February 2019 order in Wildlife First v Union of India directing eviction of rejected claimants, which was stayed within weeks.
    6. Invasive species: Alien plants suppress native fodder and degrade grazing habitat. e.g. the spread of Lantana camara and Senna spectabilis across Bandipur and Wayanad.
    7. Frontline capacity deficit: Vacancies and weak equipment leave beat level protection thin. e.g. the Forest Department in Agasthyamalai being unable to conduct evictions without a joint force because of law and order risk.

    Way Forward

    1. Division wise time bound plan: Adopt the Committee’s recommendation of a division wise eviction schedule with named officers, fixed dates and monthly reporting to the Court.
    2. Sequence rights settlement before eviction: Complete the disposal of individual and community claims under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 in each division first, so eviction proceeds only against occupation that has no legal basis.
    3. Rehabilitation package before displacement: Notify a resettlement package with alternative land, housing and livelihood support before any eviction of landless families, on the pattern of the voluntary village relocation model used in tiger reserves.
    4. Departmental accountability: Complete disciplinary proceedings against the 118 serving and retired government employees within a fixed period and publish the outcome.
    5. Verified cadastral mapping: Prepare and publish verified maps of the reserve forest boundaries of Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary using satellite imagery, since the absence of maps is itself an enabler of encroachment.
    6. Utility linkage audit: Audit every electricity connection, road and welfare scheme extended into forest parcels and terminate those inside notified boundaries.
    7. Catchment restoration: Fund assisted natural regeneration of the vacated Vaigai upper catchment through the Compensatory Afforestation Fund, with downstream district water users as monitored stakeholders.

    “[2020] Among the following Tiger Reserves, which one has the largest area under “Critical Tiger Habitat”?

    (a) Corbett

    (b) Ranthambore

    (c) Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam

    (d) Sunderbans