Unusual Climate Change in India ; Does That Ring any Bells ?

India, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, has suffered severe economic and human losses. Weather disasters affect more than 80% of the country’s land and more than 50 million people. Disaster mitigation necessitates accurate future forecasting, which entails specialized climate change research. The summer monsoon, India’s main lifeline expects to change dramatically due to climate change. The length of the rainy season will shorten, and pre-monsoon drying may occur. Future changes may influence the spread of vector-borne diseases like malaria, dengue fever, and others.

Another recent study by 29 international experts from various institutions discovered that India has the chance of disasters such as tropical cyclones (TCs), river floods, droughts, and heatwaves. We propose a three-stage cumulative method for improved and skilled prediction, with K standing for observational analysis, U for knowledge and understanding, and M for modelling and prediction. 

Unpredictable weather presents challenges. Weather patterns will have serious consequences not only for the country’s economy, but also for farmers who rely on timely rains during the summer monsoon season to cultivate their main crop. Weather forecasting will become the more-difficult cause of this unpredictability. 

According to meteorologists, Monsoon 2021 was a season of extremes, with long dry spells and excessive rainfall. The official data show that rains were plentiful this year in areas that typically receive deficit rainfall, such as western Madhya Pradesh, eastern Rajasthan, and Maharashtra’s Marathwada and Vidarbha regions. The country’s rainiest regions, such as Odisha, Kerala, and the northeast, on the other hand, struggled to meet their average rainfall quota.

The IPCC report also concludes that, despite the lowest emissions scenarios, global mean sea levels will continue to rise in the twenty-first century due to ocean warming and ice sheet and glacier melting. This will pose a significant threat to those living in areas vulnerable to the effects of sea-level rise in India, which has a coastline of over 7,500 kilometres. For example, if sea levels rise by 50 centimetres, 28.6 million people in six Indian port cities – Chennai, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Surat, and Visakhapatnam – will be exposed to coastal flooding, and the assets at risk will be worth $4 trillion.

Following the publication of the report, there will be a call for countries all over the world, including India, to set more ambitious climate change goals. India has yet to announce its goal of achieving net-zero emissions. India’s current emissions, both cumulative and per capita, are significantly lower than its fair share of the global carbon budget, according to the ministry. Among the measures taken by the government to combat climate change, it highlighted the installation of 450 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030.

The year 2022 will usher in a slew of new beginnings in Uttar Pradesh, beginning with the sound of the poll bugle. The assembly elections in the first two months of this year will determine whether the political equations in Uttar Pradesh will change or remain the same. The results of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will usher in a new era in the state’s and political parties’ power dynamics. The destiny of current Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be decided by the results of assembly elections in 2022.

A victory like the one he had in 2017 would strengthen him, whereas a narrow victory or a disaster would weaken his claim to be the next prime ministerial candidate. A loss in the assembly elections would also be costly to the leaders of the Samajwadi and Bahujan Samaj Parties, as both have been fighting for survival. Things won’t be easy for Priyanka Gandhi, the UP Congress’s in-charge, if her party fails to make an impression in the assembly elections.

Priyanka needs a better result in UP to strengthen her position within the Congress party at the national level. However, the outcome of the UP election will determine whether BSP supremo Mayawati has a role in UP politics or not. A victory in 2022 could cement Akhilesh Yadav’s position as the undisputed leader of regional forces in north India, while defeat would pose a serious challenge to his leadership within the party.

Aside from politics, a slew of other factors could make 2022 a pivotal year in the coming years. From the first phase of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya to a potential fight for Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura, UP will be setting the agenda for the ruling BJP in the general elections of 2024. Following the completion of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the opening of the Kashi-Vishwanath corridor, UP Chief Minister Yogi has stated that a similar makeover for Mathura is planned for 2022.

On the development front in UP, new expressways may be added to the state’s network. The Bundelkhand Expressway is expected to open in June 2022, and the Gorakhpur Linkway will be finished the same year. In the year 2022, Agra could become the sixth city in Uttar Pradesh to have a metro system. The Gorakhpur metro is expected to start construction this year. The year will also see the introduction of a ropeway service in Varanasi, which will help to alleviate traffic congestion.

Farmers’ protest was suspended after 378 days; ‘ghar wapasi’ from December 11. Through this, we understand how much respect the ruling government gave to these fellow farmers, some of them had died during the protest, even then, they did not step back nor cease their protest but their spirit sustains in their veins. In the history of India, the Modi-led government ruined the farmers living policy and had an attempt to curb their freedom. If things like this will happen again in the future, what would be the outcome of it?

India is mostly a farming country. Agriculture accounts for only 16 percent of GDP yet employ the most people. Officially, there are just a few hundred million farmers, but when you factor in family members who assist or occasionally farm, as well as wage employees, the total number of farmworkers is estimated to be closer to half a billion. India must transition from subsistence agriculture to more efficient, sustainable, and productive agriculture. Unfortunately, today’s agricultural policies ignore the interconnectedness of crop choices, input costs, and the supply chain, prolonging marginal farming. Furthermore, increasing food production is not the answer to creating jobs. There is adequate food, especially when calories have considered rather than micronutrients. 

Exports are possible, but they will require a lot of value addition, and it is unclear how much of it will help the farmer vs the processor or trader. Fundamentally, India must discover a means to employ hundreds of millions of people in industries other than agriculture. Agriculture has been driven by a variety of factors, some of which are theoretically noble (keeping food affordable), and others that are less so (vote bank politics). Support has ranged from subsidized or even free inputs like power, water, and fertilizer to administered prices (both farmers and end-users through ration stores or other schemes).

At some point, political will instructs to call current support mechanisms into question in order to assess their equality, efficiency, and macroeconomic impact. Perhaps present policies are the incorrect medications for the problems — we blame execution failures as the issue, but it could be a diagnosis issue. The issue is not just leaking per se, as a former Prime Minister famously diagnosed, but something far worse: a fundamentally dysfunctional system. Agriculture’s future is a critical issue for planners and all other stakeholders. The government and other organizations are attempting to address the key challenges of agriculture in India, such as small farmer holdings, primary and secondary processing, supply chain, the infrastructure supporting efficient resource use, and marketing, with the goal of reducing market intermediaries.

Work on cost-effective technologies that safeguard the environment and conserve our natural resources is required. Privatization, liberalization, and globalization changes had a faster impact on the inputs market. After 2003, agricultural marketing reforms changed the way agricultural outputs was sold by allowing private investment in developing markets, contract farming, and futures trading, among other things. These adjustments to marketing acts have resulted in some changes but at a lower rate. Along with this, India’s information technology revolution, new agricultural technologies, private investments, particularly in R&D, and government efforts to revitalize the cooperative movement to address the problems of smallholdings and small producers are all changing the face of agriculture in India.

Many agricultural firms started by highly educated young people demonstrate that they comprehend the enormous potential of investing money and effort in this industry. 

Over the next decade, the cumulative effects of technology will alter the face of agriculture. All of the limits in agriculture make productivity and returns complicated, but India’s agriculture sector still has many untapped potentials.

 Many individuals, big companies, start-ups, and entrepreneurial ventures are attracting a lot of investments in innovations, inventions, research and development, and other aspects of business due to favourable weather and soil conditions, high demand for food, untapped opportunities, and various fiscal incentives provided by the government for inputs, production infrastructure, availability of cheap credit facilities, and marketing and export promotion. All of the agriculture’s issues are being converted into opportunities, and this process is the future of agriculture.

Animal cruelty defines as any deliberate and replicated behavior that drives physical or psychological misery in animals, including, but not limited to, causing unnecessary pain, suffering, or even death of an animal. Countless cats, dogs, and other animals suffer and die every day at the hands of those who are supposed to protect and care for them. Many animals face physical violence, emotional abuse, and life-threatening neglect daily. Their only hope is for someone to intervene before it’s too late.

Domestic violence has an intense link to animal abuse. Abusers frequently use victims’ dogs and cats as pawns to manipulate and control them. A companion animal may serve as a lone confidant for an abused woman or child in an abusive home, and an abuser can take advantage of the victim’s concern for his or her animal by abusing the animal. To prevent children and partners from reporting abuse or fleeing, abusers may threaten or abuse animals in front of them. An abuser sends the message that a human victim could be next by harming the animals.

Types of Animal Abuse

Intercourse between a human and a non-human is known as bestiality (animal). It refers to a human having sexual relations with an animal in a degrading manner. Animal rage cases are frequently in the news these days, and they are often horrific and disturbing.

• Physical Domestic Abuse

This is a form of animal abuse in which the violence against the animals is completely deliberate. The goal is to inflict serious injury, excruciating pain, and mental trauma on the animal. Physical violence creates an environment in which animals feel oppressed, terrorised, and terrified.

• Organized Animal Abuse

Animal fighting, such as dog fighting, bullfighting, and cockfighting, is a form of organised animal abuse that is mostly done for entertainment purposes. It’s a staged fight in which animals are trained to fight each other violently and aggressively. In the end, animals either die or suffer greatly.

• Laboratory testing and Experimentation

Humans and animals are not the same things. Their bodies react to various products in drastically different ways, which can be very harmful and painful. Thousands of animals are subjected to ruthless product testing every year, with harmful drugs and chemicals dripped down their throats, rubbed into their skin, and even dropped into their eyes. They are in a lot of pain, agony, discomfort, and suffering as a result of this.

Laws enforced for Animal Abuse

Sections 428 and 429 of the Criminal Code provide that anyone who causes harm, injury, death, poisoning, or maiming to animals or cattle with the intent of harming, injuring, killing, poisoning, or maiming them will be punished with a fine or imprisonment of up to 5 years or both. Sexual intercourse between a man and an animal is a cognizable and non-bailable offence, according to Section 377. It’s what’s known as an atypical offence. Whoever engages in carnal intercourse with any man, woman, or animal in violation of the natural order will face a life sentence or a sentence of up to ten years in prison, as well as a fine.

Cruelty to animals is a sensitive and serious issue. Every living organism, whether humans or animals, experiences pain. The brutality perpetrated against innocent animals is rarely acknowledged, and few people feel compelled to speak out against animal cruelty.