Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NCRB
Mains level: Paper 2- Police reforms
Context
Earlier this month, Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana expressed concern at the degree of human rights violations in police stations in the country. He said that “the threat to human rights and bodily integrity is the highest in police stations”
Deaths in police custody
- Improvement in the situation: A reality check shows that the picture is not so bleak and efforts are being made to improve the human rights protection regime in police stations.
- National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data reveal that though the number of custodial deaths varies year to year, on average of about 100 custodial deaths have taken place every year between 2010 and 2019.
- Of them, about 3.5 persons allegedly died due to injuries caused by policemen.
- A judicial inquiry, which is mandatory for every suspicious custodial death, was conducted in 26.4 cases.
- Though every death in custody needs to be prevented, suspicious deaths which bring disrepute to the police system must be rooted out completely.
Measures to reduce the instances of custodial violence
1) Reduce the number of arrests
- As per the law, arrest for offences punishable up to seven years of imprisonment should be made only when such arrest is necessary to prevent the person from tampering with evidence, or committing any further offence, etc.
- The Supreme Court held that each arrest must be necessary and justified; having the authority to arrest is alone not sufficient.
- In Arnesh Kumar v. State of Bihar (2014), it was held that despite the offence being non-bailable under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which relates to torture for dowry, arrest is not mandatory as per Section 41 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
- In Special Action Forum v. Union of India (2018), the Court further held that the police officer shall furnish to the magistrate the reasons and materials which necessitated the arrest for further detention of the accused.
- The purpose of these checks is to ensure that the police does not abuse the power of arrest.
- NCRB data show that the ratio of the number of arrests to the number of IPC offences has decreased from 1.33 in 2010 to 0.96 in 2019.
2) Separate investigation from law and order
- The National Police Commission (1977-81), the Law Commission in its 154th report (1996) and the Malimath Committee Report (2003), and the Supreme Court in Prakash Singh v. Union of India (2006), have recommended that the investigating police should be separated from the law-and-order police to ensure better expertise in investigation.
- It is believed that a separate wing will do more professional investigation and will not use unwarranted methods to extract confession from the accused.
- Though efforts have been made by some States in this direction, more resources are required in policing to implement the Court’s directions.
3) Increase the number of investigating officers
- Unless investigating officers are increased in proportion to the number of serious offences, the quality of investigation may suffer.
- The Malimath Committee’s recommendation that an investigating officer should preferably investigate no more than 10 cases every year needs to be implemented.
- Subject expert officers: With the increase of newer types of crime like white collar crime and cybercrime, subject experts are needed to assist the police in the investigation.
4) Sensitise Police
- The police officers must know that their mandate is to protect human rights and not violate them.
- They need to be sensitised regularly and encouraged to employ scientific tools of interrogation and investigation like the lie detection test, narco test and brainfingerprinting test.
5) Display board on human rights
- The CJI’s suggestion to install display boards on human rights to disseminate information about the constitutional right to legal aid and availability of free legal aid services may deter police excesses.
Steps taken to deal with the issue
- Much has changed in the police consequent to the judgment in D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal (1996) in which the Supreme Court laid down guidelines to check custodial torture.
- Guidelines incorporated in CrPC: Most of these guidelines such as providing information to a friend or relative about the arrest, medical examination, and permission to meet a lawyer have now been incorporated in the CrPC.
- CCTV Cameras installed: In Paramvir Singh v. Baljit Singh (2020), the Supreme Court has directed States to cover more area of each police station under CCTV cameras and have storage facility of audio-video recording for 18 months.
- Actions against guilty: NCRB data show that on average about 47.2 criminal cases were registered annually against policemen in last 10 years.
- Departmental action against errant officers is a rule in the police force, rather than an exception.
- Compensation by NHRC: The National Human Rights Commission also oversees deaths in custody due to human rights violations and recommends compensation in appropriate cases.
- Incentives linked with police reforms: The Home Ministry has recently linked the ‘police modernisation scheme’ with police reforms.
- Unless sufficient action is taken by the State governments and the police authorities, incentives in the form of additional funds will not be released.
Consider the question “Human right violations in police stations is a cause for concerns. What are the reasons for such violations? Suggest the measures to curb it.”
Conclusion
Our commitment to the protection of human rights is unconditional and total. Many steps have been taken so far to check custodial violence and no stone shall be left unturned to eliminate such violence in toto.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: FOSS
Mains level: Paper 3- Potential of FOSS
Context
Recognising its potential, in 2015, the Indian government announced a policy to encourage open source instead of proprietary technology for government applications. However, the true potential of this policy is yet to be realized.
Advantages of FOSS
- Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) today presents an alternative model to build digital technologies for population scale.
- Freedom to modify: Unlike proprietary software, everyone has the freedom to edit, modify and reuse open-source code.
- Reduced cost and innovation: This results in many benefits — reduced costs, no vendor lock-in, the ability to customise for local context, and greater innovation through wider collaboration.
- Use in public service delivery: We have seen some great examples of public services being delivered through systems that use FOSS building blocks, including Aadhaar, GSTN, and the DigiLocker.
- FOSS communities can examine the open-source code for adherence to data privacy principles, help find bugs, and ensure transparency and accountability.
Challenges in adoption by government in GovTech
- In 2015, the Indian government announced a policy to encourage open source instead of proprietary technology for government applications.
- Several misconceptions remain in the understanding of FOSS, especially for GovTech.
- Trust issue: “Free” in FOSS is perceived to be “free of cost” and FOSS is often mistaken to be less trustworthy and more vulnerable, whereas FOSS can actually create more trust between the government and citizens.
- However, Many solutions launched by the government including Digilocker, Diksha, Aarogya Setu, Cowin — built on top of open-source digital platforms — have benefited from valuable inputs provided by volunteer open-source developers.
- Such inputs have immensely helped in improving solutions and making them more robust.
- Accountability issue: In the case of FOSS, there appears to be an absence of one clear “owner”, which makes it harder to identify who is accountable.
- While this concern is legitimate, there are ways to mitigate it.
- For example, by having the government’s in-house technical staff understand available documentation and getting key personnel to join relevant developer communities.
Way forward for greater adoption of FOSS in GovTech
- Here is a four-step path to make this vision a reality.
- 1) Incentivise FOSS in government: The government’s policy requires all tech suppliers to submit bids with open source options.
- Suppliers also need to justify in case they do not offer an open-source option
- Sourcing departments are asked to weigh the lifetime costs and benefits of both alternatives before making a decision.
- While this serves as a good nudge, the policy can perhaps go a step further by formally giving greater weightage to FOSS-specific metrics in the evaluation criteria in RFPs, and offering recognition to departments that deploy FOSS initiatives, such as, a special category under the Digital India Awards.
- 2) Create a repository of GovtTech ready solutions: a repository of “GovTech ready” building blocks that are certified for use in government and audited for security compliances is needed.
- Creating a repository of ready-to-use “GovTech-ised” building blocks can help departments quickly identify and deploy FOSS solutions in their applications.
- 3) Encourage FOSS innovation: FOSS innovations can be encouraged through “GovTech hackathons and challenges”, bringing together the open-source community to design solutions for specific problem statements identified by government departments.
- One such challenge — a #FOSS4Gov Innovation Challenge — was recently launched.
- 4) Create an institutional mechanism: A credible institutional anchor is needed to be a home for FOSS-led innovation in India.
- Such an institution can bring together FOSS champions and communities that are scattered across India around a shared agenda for collective impact.
- Kerala’s International Centre for Free & Open Source Software (ICFOSS) is a great example of such an institution.
Conclusion
With an IT workforce of more than four million employees, what we need is a concerted push to harness the biggest promise that FOSS holds.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Food fortification
Mains level: Paper 3- Nutrition security through food fortification
Context
On August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that, by 2024, rice provided to the poor under any government scheme — PDS, mid-day-meal, anganwadi — will be fortified.
Need for nutrition security in India
- 15.3 per cent of the country’s population is undernourished.
- India has the highest proportion of “stunted” (30 per cent) and “wasted” children (17.3 per cent) below five years of age, as per the FAO’s recent publication, ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2021’.
- These figures indicate that India is at a critical juncture with respect to nutritional security.
- Other factors: Other factors like poor access to safe drinking water and sanitation, low levels of immunization and education, especially of women, contribute equally to this dismal situation.
India’s journey towards nutrition security
- As per the ICAR website, they had developed 21 varieties of biofortified staples including wheat, rice, maize, millets, mustard, groundnut by 2019-20.
- These varieties are not genetically modified.
- These biofortified crops have 1.5 to 3 times higher levels of protein, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids compared to the traditional varieties.
- A research team at the National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute in Mohali has also developed biofortified colored wheat (black, blue, purple) that is rich in zinc and anthocyanins.
- The HarvestPlus program of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has been working closely with ICAR, to improve the access of the poor in India to iron-rich pearl millet and zinc-rich wheat.
- Globally, more than 40 countries have released biofortified crops, benefitting over 48 million people.
- Leveraging science to attack the complex challenge of malnutrition, particularly for low-income and vulnerable sections of society, can be a good intervention.
Challenges in securing nutrition security
- Access to nutritious food is only one of the determinants of nutrition.
- Other factors like poor access to safe drinking water and sanitation, low levels of immunization and education, especially of women, contribute equally to this dismal situation.
- Need for a multi-pronged approach: In the long run, India needs a multi-pronged approach to eliminate the root cause of this complex problem.
Way forward: Multi-pronged approach
1) Focus on mother’s education
- There is a direct correlation between a mother’s education and the well-being of children.
- Targeted programs for improving the educational status of girls and reducing school dropout rates need to be promoted.
- The Global Nutrition Report (2014) estimates that every dollar invested in a proven nutrition program offers benefits worth 16 dollars.
2) Scale-up innovation in biofortified food by supporting policies
- Innovations in biofortified food can alleviate malnutrition only when they are scaled up with supporting policies.
- This would require increasing expenditure on agri-R&D and incentivizing farmers by linking their produce to lucrative markets through sustainable value chains and distribution channels.
- The government can also rope in the private sector to create a market segment for premium-quality biofortified foods.
- For instance, trusts run by the TATA group are supporting different states to initiate fortification of milk with Vitamin A and D.
3) National awareness drive
- A national awareness drive on the lines of the “Salt Iodisation Programme” launched by the government in 1962 can play an important role at the individual and community levels to achieve the desired goals of poshan for all.
- Branding, awareness campaigns, social and behavioral change initiatives, can promote the consumption of locally available, nutrient-dense affordable foods among the poor and children.
Consider the question” Access to nutritious food is only one of the determinants of nutrition, and fortified food can play important role in this direction. Suggest the other measures to ensure nutrition safety in India.”
Conclusion
Biofortified food is a step in the right direction, however, other factors should also be given equal attention in securing national security in India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Pollution caused due to Poultry Industry
Mains level: Agricultural emission
Small and marginal poultry farmers in India will now have to take measures similar to their bigger counterparts to prevent environmental pollution, according to new guidelines issued recently by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
What are the new guidelines?
(A) Establishment
- Consent to Operate: The new guidelines state that for establishing and operating a medium-sized poultry farm of 25,000-100,000 birds, a farmer will have to obtain a certificate of Consent. Permission will be valid for 15 years.
- Designated Authority: This will have to be taken from the State Pollution Control Board or Committee under the Water Act, 1974, and the Air Act, 1981. The Animal Husbandry Department will be responsible for implementing the guidelines at the state and district level.
- Location: A farm should be set up 500 metres away from a residential area, 100 metres from rivers, lakes, canals, and drinking water sources, 100 metres from national highways, and 10-15 metres from village footpaths and rural roads.
(B) Operational directives
- Ventilated farms: The guidelines state that the poultry farm should have a ventilated room to reduce the gaseous pollution from the birds.
- Wastewater management: Also, care should be taken so that poultry feces do not mix with running water or any other pesticide.
- Manure generation: Farmers of small- and medium-sized poultry farms will have to arrange for manure. After use, the water from a poultry farm must be collected in a tank. The guidelines suggest using it in horticulture.
- Disposal of deads: Emphasis has also been given to the daily removal of birds that die, through burial, without harming the environment. Burial should be done three metres above the groundwater level.
(C) Large/ Small Farmer
The new guidelines have defined who is a ‘large’ or ‘small’ poultry farmer in India.
- Those who have 5,000-25,000 birds are small farmers.
- Those who have more than 25,000 and less than 100,000 birds are medium farmers.
- Those who have more than 100,000 birds are large farmers.
Why need such regulation?
- Poultry, hatchery and piggery were considered ‘green’ by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in its guidelines of 2015.
- This meant they were exempt from the air, water, and environmental protection laws.
- Gaseous emissions and waste are major problems in poultry farming.
- The feces of poultry birds emit gaseous ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and methane, all of which produce odors.
Poultry sector of India
- According to the 20th Livestock Census 2020, there are 851.8 million poultry birds in India.
- About 30 percent (250 million) of this is ‘backyard poultry’ or small and marginal farmers.
- According to the 19th Livestock Census, the number of such farmers is about 30 million.
- Chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, etc, are reared in poultry farms for meat and eggs. Chickens that are reared for eggs are called ‘laying hens’ or ‘layers’. Those reared for meat are called ‘broilers’.
According to the 20th Livestock Census, Tamil Nadu (120 million), Andhra Pradesh (107 million), Telangana (79 million), West Bengal (77 million), Maharashtra (74 million), Karnataka (59 million crores), Assam (46 million) and Kerala (29 million) have the highest poultry populations.
Try answering this PYQ:
Consider the following statements:
- Agricultural soils release nitrogen oxides into environment.
- Cattle release ammonia into environment.
- Poultry industry releases reactive nitrogen compounds into environment.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 3 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 2 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Asset Monetization
Mains level: Execution of NMP in spirit
Finance Minister has recently announced the framework for the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP) and its process is under discussion.
What is Asset Monetization?
- Asset Monetization involves the creation of new sources of revenue by unlocking of the value of hitherto unutilized or underutilized public assets.
- Internationally, it is recognized that public assets are a significant resource for all economies.
- Many public sector assets are sub-optimally utilized and could be appropriately monetized to create greater financial leverage and value for the companies and of the equity that the government has invested in them.
- This helps in the accurate estimation of public assets which would help in the better financial management of government/public resources over time.
What is the National Monetization Pipeline?
- The NMP names a list of public assets that will be leased to private investors.
- Only brown-field assets, which are assets that are already operational, are planned to be leased out under the NMP.
- So, to give an example, an airport that is already operational may be leased out to an investor.
- Assets that are yet to be developed, such as an undeveloped piece of land, for example, may not be leased out.
- Importantly, there won’t be any transfer of ownership from the government to the private sector when assets are leased out.
- The government only plans to cede control over its assets for a certain period of time, after which the assets must be returned to the government unless the lease is extended.
Will NMP help the economy?
- Better control and utilization: Economists generally believe that scarce assets are better managed and allocated by the private sector than by the government. So to the extent that the NMP frees assets from government control, it can help the economy.
- Freeing Capital: The government believes that leasing out public assets to private investors will help free capital that is stuck in these assets.
- Infra generation: The government can use this money, in turn, to build fresh infrastructure under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP).
- Economic boost: In fact, the proceeds from the NMP are expected to account for about 14% of the total outlay for infrastructure under the NIP. The government believes all this spending will boost economic activity.
- A perfect model: Analysts also believe that the government has now through the NMP found the right model for infrastructure development.
- Source of finance: The government, they say, is best suited to tackle the ground-level challenges in building infrastructure, while the private sector can operate and offer indirect finance to these projects through the NMP.
For example, say the government has invested thousands of crores in a road project. It may take the government decades to recover its investment through the annual toll revenues. Instead, the government can recover a good chunk of its investment by leasing out the right to collect toll for the next 30 years to a private investor.
What are the risks?
- Political lobbying: The allocation of assets owned by governments to private investors is often subject to political influence, which can lead to corruption. In fact, many in the Opposition allege that the NMP will favour a few business corporations that are close to the government.
- Burden of opportunity cost: The expected boost to economic activity due to higher government spending may also need to be weighed against the opportunity costs. For one, the money that the government collects by leasing out assets comes from the pockets of the private sector. So higher government spending will come at the cost of lower private spending.
- Legal uncertainties: The NMP also does not address the various structural problems such as legal uncertainty and the absence of a deep bond market that hold back private investment in infrastructure.
- Sheer Privatization: There are also concerns that the leasing of airports, railways, roads and other public utilities to private investors could lead to higher prices for consumers. If the government merely cedes control of public utilities to private companies without taking steps to foster greater competition, it can indeed lead to poor outcomes for consumers.
- Policy compulsion: The government’s past disinvestment projects such as the sale of Air India did not catch the fancy of investors owing to the stringent conditions set by the government. In the case of Air India’s sale, the buyers were supposed to possess a certain minimum net worth and stay invested in the airline for at least three years.
What lies ahead?
- The success of the NMP will depend on the demand for brown-field government assets among private investors.
- Many analysts also believed that the government was expecting buyers to pay too much for a debt-ridden Air India.
- The pricing of assets and the terms of sale will thus determine the level of interest that private investors show for assets leased under the NMP.
- In the past, doubts have been raised about the allocation of airports and other assets to certain private business groups (say Adani Group).
- So the process that the government adopts this time to allocate assets may come under scrutiny. There is likely to be a demand for an open, competitive auction of assets.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
Mains level: Not Much
Prime Minister has virtually inaugurated the renovated Jallianwala Bagh complex in Amritsar.
What led to Jallianwala Bagh Massacre?
Protesting the contentious Rowlatt Act
- The act officially known as the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, 1919 was passed in 1919 by the Imperial Legislative Council.
- It had authorized the British government to arrest anybody suspected of terrorist activities.
- It also authorized the government to detain such people arrested for up to 2 years without trial.
- It empowered the police to search a place without a warrant. It also placed severe restrictions on the freedom of the press.
- The primary intention of colonial govt. was to repress the growing nationalist movement in the country.
- The British were also afraid of a Ghadarite revolution in Punjab and the rest of the country.
The day
- The massacre took place on 13 April 1919 when troops of the British Indian Army under the command of Col. Reginald Dyer fired rifles into a crowd of Indians.
- The civilians had assembled for a peaceful protest to condemn the arrest and deportation of two national leaders, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew.
- Dyer without warning ordered his troops to fire at the unarmed crowd which included children as well.
- The indiscriminate firing went on for about 10 minutes which resulted in the deaths of at least 1000 people and injured more than 1500 people.
Aftermath
- In protest against the massacre, Rabindranath Tagore gave up his knighthood.
- Gandhiji relinquished his title ‘Kaiser-e-hind’ bestowed on him by the British for his services during the Boer War in South Africa.
- Michael O’Dwyer, the then Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, who had approved the actions of Dyer, was assassinated by Udham Singh in London in 1940 as revenge against the massacre.
- The heroic treatment of Dyer’s heinous act again set a benchmark of colonial arrogance.
Hunter Commission for inquiry
- In October 1919 the Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, ordered the formation of a committee of inquiry into the events in Punjab.
- Referred to as the Disorders Inquiry Committee, it was later more widely known as the Hunter Commission (Not to be confused with Hunter Education Commission).
- Still, there are long-standing demands in India that Britain should apologize for the massacre.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BCG, TB and other respiratory diseases
Mains level: Not Much
The first use of BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin), the vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) in humans have been completed for 100 years.
What is TB?
- TB is a very ancient disease and has been documented to have existed in Egypt as early as 3000 BC.
- It is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, belonging to the Mycobacteriaceae family consisting of about 200 members.
- Some of these cause diseases like TB and leprosy in humans and others infect a wide range of animals. Mycobacteria are also widely dispersed in the environment.
- In humans, TB most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB), but it can also affect other organs (extra-pulmonary TB).
Yet not eliminated
- Other historically dreaded diseases like smallpox, leprosy, plague, and cholera have been either eradicated or controlled to a large extent due to advances in science and technology.
- However, TB continues to be a major public health problem in the world.
- According to the WHO’s Global TB Report, 10 million people developed TB in 2019 with 1.4 million deaths. India accounts for 27% of these cases.
BCG Vaccine for TB
- BCG was developed by two Frenchmen, Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin, by modifying a strain of Mycobacterium Bovis (that causes TB in cattle) till it lost its capacity to cause disease while retaining its property to stimulate the immune system.
- It was first used in humans in 1921.
- Currently, BCG is the only licensed vaccine available for the prevention of TB.
- It is the world’s most widely used vaccine with about 120 million doses every year and has an excellent safety record.
BCG in India
- In India, BCG was first introduced on a limited scale in 1948 and became a part of the National TB Control Programme in 1962.
- India is committed to eliminating TB as a public health problem by 2025.
Effectiveness of BCG
- One intriguing fact about BCG is that it works well in some geographic locations and not so well in others.
- Generally, the farther a country is from the equator, the higher is the efficacy.
- In children, BCG provides strong protection against severe forms of TB.
- This protective effect appears to wane with age and is far more variable in adolescents and adults, ranging from 0–80%.
- In addition to its primary use as a vaccine against TB, BCG also protects against respiratory and bacterial infections of newborns and other mycobacterial diseases like leprosy and Buruli’s ulcer.
- It is also used as an immunotherapy agent in cancer of the urinary bladder and malignant melanoma.
Try answering this PYQ:
What is the importance of using pneumococcal conjugate vaccines in India? (CSP 2020)
- These vaccines are effective against pneumonia as well as meningitis and sepsis.
- Dependence on antibiotics that are not effective against drug-resistant bacteria can be reduced.
- These vaccines have no side effects and cause no allergic reactions
Select the correct answer using the given code below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 2 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Hurricane (Tropical Cycolnes)
Mains level: Impact of frequent cyclonic landfalls
Hurricane Ida has made landfall in Louisiana, US as an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm.
What is a Hurricane?
- A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and the northeastern Pacific Ocean.
- And a typhoon occurs in the northwestern Pacific Ocean; in the south Pacific or the Indian Ocean, comparable storms are referred to simply as “tropical cyclones” or “severe cyclonic storms”.
What are Tropical Cyclones?
A Tropical cyclone is an intense circular storm that originates over warm tropical oceans and is characterized by low atmospheric pressure, high winds, and heavy rain.
- Cyclones are formed over slightly warm ocean waters. The temperature of the top layer of the sea, up to a depth of about 60 meters, need to be at least 28°C to support the formation of a cyclone.
- This explains why the April-May and October-December periods are conducive for cyclones.
- Then, the low level of air above the waters needs to have an ‘anticlockwise’ rotation (in the northern hemisphere; clockwise in the southern hemisphere).
- During these periods, there is an ITCZ in the Bay of Bengal whose southern boundary experiences winds from west to east, while the northern boundary has winds flowing east to west.
- Once formed, cyclones in this area usually move northwest. As it travels over the sea, the cyclone gathers more moist air from the warm sea which adds to its heft.
Try this question from CSP 2020:
Q.Consider the following statements:
- Jet Streams occur in the Northern Hemisphere only.
- Only some cyclones develop an eye.
- The temperature inside the eye of a cyclone is nearly 10 degree Celsius lesser than that of the surroundings.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 2 only
(d) 1 and 3 only
Post your answers here.
Destruction caused
- Strong Winds: Cyclones are known to cause severe damage to infrastructure through high-speed winds.
- Torrential rains and inland flooding: Torrential rainfall (more than 30 cm/hour) associated with cyclones is another major cause of damages. Unabated rain gives rise to unprecedented floods.
- Storm Surge: A Storm surge can be defined as an abnormal rise of sea level near the coast caused by a severe tropical cyclone.
Some (unexpected) benefits
Although Tropical cyclones are known for the destruction they cause, when they strike they also bestow certain benefits to the climatic conditions of that area such as
- Relieve drought conditions
- Carry heat and energy away from the tropics and transport it towards temperate latitudes
- Maintain a relatively stable and warm temperature worldwide
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Also read:
[Burning Issue] Tropical Cyclones and India
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