Extension of AFSPA in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland

 The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has extended the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in certain districts of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland for an additional six months, effective from April 1, 2024. The decision follows a review of the law and order situation in these northeastern states.

Arunachal Pradesh

In Arunachal Pradesh, the AFSPA has been extended for six months in the following areas:

• Tirap, Changlang, and Longding districts
• Areas under the jurisdiction of Namsai, Mahadevpur, and Chowkham police stations in Namsai district, bordering Assam

Nagaland

In Nagaland, the AFSPA has been extended for six months in the following districts and police station areas:

• 8 districts: Dimapur, Niuland, Chumukedima, Mon, Kiphire, Noklak, Phek, and Peren
• 21 police station areas in five other districts of Nagaland, which has a total of 16 districts

Powers Under AFSPA

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, grants sweeping powers to security forces in areas deemed as “disturbed”. Under the AFSPA, armed forces personnel are authorized to search, arrest, and open fire if deemed necessary for maintaining public order.

Reduced Application of AFSPA

In April 2022, the Centre reduced the number of disturbed areas under AFSPA in many parts of Nagaland, Assam, and Manipur. The Act was lifted from Tripura in 2015, Meghalaya in 2018, and Mizoram in the 1980s. Despite these reductions, the AFSPA remains in force in Jammu and Kashmir.

Demands for Repeal

Several political parties, NGOs, and civil society organisations in the northeastern region have been demanding the complete repeal of the AFSPA. Critics argue that AFSPA has led to human rights violations, while supporters claim it is necessary to maintain order in conflict-ridden areas.

9th Pakke Paga Hornbill Festival

 The 9th Pakke Paga Hornbill Festival (PPHF) will be held from January 18-20, 2024 in Arunachal Pradesh. Declared a state festival, it centers around wildlife conservation, especially hornbills found in the Pakke Tiger Reserve.

Hornbill Species in Focus

The reserve harbors four hornbill species – Oriental Pied, Great Indian, Rufous-necked and the endangered Wreathed Hornbill. The week-long event generates awareness on preserving these iconic birds.

Linking Forest, Birds and People

PPHF also spotlights the role of indigenous Nyishi tribes in protecting hornbills after having earlier hunted them. It forges connections between forests, wildlife and local communities. The Nyishi is the largest tribal group in Arunachal Pradesh. The Nyishi tribe used to hunt hornbills traditionally and utilized their distinctive bills to create ethnic headgear. However, over time the Nyishi transformed into champions protecting the same hornbills that were once targeted.

Festival Origins and Goal

The first PPHF was organized in 2015 with the goal to recognize Nyishi conservation efforts. Beyond promoting hornbill conservation, other key goals of launching the Hornbill Festival were generating alternate livelihood streams for locals and raising nationwide awareness regarding the unique biodiversity found in Pakke Tiger Reserve and adjoining areas.

“Let Our Hornbills Remain”

This year’s theme stresses the critical need to safeguard hornbills for balancing the region’s ecosystems and culture. The onset of deforestation and climate threats lend urgency.

Activities at Upcoming Edition

Key activities lined up include:

• Bird watching tours
• Literary competitions
• Panel discussions
• Tribal music/dance performances
• River walks
• Local cuisine

The activities provide unique glimpses into the area’s natural and ethnic heritage while raising ecological awareness.

Why a 2014 Arunachal Pradesh law is facing opposition, legal challenge

 

The APUAPA was notified in 2014 “to provide for more effective prevention of certain unlawful activities of individuals and associations.”

A legislation enacted in Arunachal Pradesh in 2014, the Arunachal Pradesh Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (APUAPA), is currently under the scanner, with civil society organisations demanding its repeal and a petition challenging it before the Itanagar bench of the Gauhati High Court.

What is the APUAPA?

The APUAPA was notified in 2014 “to provide for more effective prevention of certain unlawful activities of individuals and associations.” It enables the state government or any official not below the rank of a Secretary to the State Government or a District Magistrate to make on order for detaining certain categories of people to prevent them from “acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the State, or maintenance of public order or maintenance of daily supplies and services essential to the public”.

These categories of people include “any person who is bootlegger, habitual depredator of environment, habitual drug offender, property grabber, dangerous persons, unlawful persons associated with unlawful activities”

The Act defines public order as having been affected adversely as “directly or indirectly causing or is likely to cause any harm, danger or alarm or feeling of insecurity among the general public or any section thereof or a grave or widespread danger to life, property or public health.”

Within three weeks of detention, the matter is to be placed before an advisory board which will give its opinion on whether there is sufficient cause for detention of an individual. If its opinion is that there is sufficient cause, a person can be detained for up to six months under the act.

What prompted the current focus on this Act?

The Act suddenly drew attention last month when 41 people were booked and detained under it after a call was issued for a 72-hour bandh in various districts of the state from May 10 to 12. These included prominent anti-corruption activist Sol Dodum, Aam Aadmi Party’s Arunachal Pradesh convener Tana TamThe bandh call had been issued in protest against the 2022 Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission paper leak case in which 42 government employees have been arrested so far. The protest call was to demand the implementation of 13-point charter of demands, including declaring all examinations conducted by the APPSC where anomalies were found as “null and void”. Thirty people had been detained under the APUAPA on May 9 and 10 even before the bandh commenced. Eighteen of them were released on May 29, while the remaining were released last week.ar Tara, and Chairman of Pro-Dam Movement of Arunachal Pradesh Taw Paul.

Was this the first time the APUAPA was invoked?

According to lawyer Ebo Milli, while the Act has been invoked in the past, the mass detentions under it in this case drew the attention of a population among which awareness on this Act had been limited so far.

“They did use APUAPA earlier too but not on such a scale. The reason there has been a huge outcry this time is that those detained were vocal about a fair probe into the APSC fiasco. Many people became aware of the APUAPA only after the current detentions,” Milli said. What are the grounds on which it is being opposed?

Activist Gyadi Paying has filed a petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Act and seeking its abolition. Among the grounds on which this is being sought is that it does not allow a detainee legal representation before the advisory board deliberating on their case, which, the petition states, is a violation of fundamental rights.

The petition also points to a clause of the Act in which if the officer making the detention order has reason to believe that the person for whom the order has been made is absconding, they may apply provisions of the CrPC attaching the person’s property. This, the petition states, amounts to “illegal encroachment beyond the jurisdiction of a district magistrate”.

The Arunachal Law Students’ Union has also demanded its repeal, calling it draconian and arbitrary.“This Act talks about violation of environmental issues, drugs smugglers, property destruction, obstruction of daily necessities, etc. which are already covered under IPC and other laws. Why does the government need extra power when these violators can be booked under given laws?” said Mill

Written by Sukrita Baruah

Source: Indian Express, 14/06/23

District Good Governance Index (DGGI) of Arunachal Pradesh

 The District Good Governance Index (DGGI) has emerged as a significant tool in assessing and benchmarking governance at the district level in India. Arunachal Pradesh, a state in the northeast region, has implemented this innovative approach to evaluate the effectiveness of governance in its 25 districts

DGGI: A Path to Next-Generation Administrative Reforms

The District Good Governance Index, is a comprehensive assessment developed jointly by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) and the Government of Arunachal Pradesh. This index signifies a leap towards next-generation administrative reforms by providing a standardized framework for evaluating governance practices.

Arunachal Pradesh’s Leading Role

Arunachal Pradesh has taken the lead in embracing the DGGI as the first state in the northeast region to implement this initiative. The index benchmarks governance across the state’s 25 districts, covering various sectors and indicators, with a total of 65 indicators used to assess the districts’ performance.

Ranking and Divisions

The districts of Arunachal Pradesh have been categorized into three divisions: East, West, and Central. This division-wise ranking enables a better understanding of the governance landscape within the state and facilitates targeted interventions to address specific challenges and gaps.

Promoting Effective Governance

The District Good Governance Index serves as a valuable tool for providing guidance to the state government and district administration in addressing existing gaps and formulating strategies for improvement. By promoting healthy competition among districts, the index fosters a citizen-centric approach to administration and encourages good governance practices.

Enhancing Decision-Making

The DGGI’s comprehensive assessment enables decision-makers to make informed choices by analyzing the performance of districts across multiple sectors. It facilitates evidence-based decision-making, aiding policymakers in developing effective strategies and interventions to bridge gaps and improve governance outcomes.

Arunachal Pradesh Statehood Day

 The State of Arunachal Pradesh celebrated its statehood day on February 20. President Murmu attended the state celebrations. The statehood was granted in 1987. It was the 24^th state in the country.

How was Arunachal Pradesh formed?

The Union Government provided the Statehood of Arunachal Pradesh through the State of Arunachal Pradesh Act, 1986. In 1972, Arunachal Pradesh was made a union territory. Till then the region was called the North East Frontier Agency.

55^th Amendment of the Constitution

The amendment provided certain special privileges to the state of Arunachal Pradesh. This was because of the sensitive location of the state. The Governor of the state has the responsibility of law and order in the state.

Significance

• The state has more than 26 major tribes. There are 750 bird species and 200 mammals. Thus, the state is highly diverse in culture and also in biodiversity.
• The state is the largest of all the seven sister states in the North East
• It borders Assam and Nagaland
• The state is called the Land of Rising Sun
• The state shares a 1,129 km border with Tibet. Also, it shares international borders with countries Myanmar and Bhutan

Environmental importance

The National Parks in the state are Namdapha, Mouling, Dibang, Pakke Tiger Reserve, and Sessa Orchid Sanctuary. The state also has the Dihang Dibang Biosphere Reserve. The state bird is Hornbill and State animal is Mithun or Gayal.

Noble’s Helen: New Swallowtail Butterfly from Arunachal Pradesh

 The butterfly population has been increasing in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in recent times. The state is called the nature trove and is known for its biodiversity. Recently, a new swallowtail butterfly was spotted in the state. It is called the Noble Helen. The species does not occur in India. Its origin is in China, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The butterfly has been disappearing in these countries and was recently spotted in India.

Butterflies

The butterflies occur in all parts of the world except Antarctica. There are 18,500 butterfly species in the world.

• Of these 775 are Nearctic. The Nearctic includes tropical, subtropical, arctic, and temperate regions of North America.
• 7,700 are neo-tropical. Neotropical regions include eight biological terrains. They are south America, the Caribbean islands, Central America, Yucatan Peninsula, southern North America, southern Florida, and central Florida.
• 1,575 are Palearctic. Palearctic includes Eurasia, North Africa, and Arabian Peninsula
• 3650 are Afro-tropical. This includes Madagascar, Iran, the western Indian Ocean, and Pakistan
• 4800 are in Australian regions

Butterflies in India

In India, butterflies occur in Eastern Himalayas, Western Ghats, and in hills in the India – Myanmar border. These friends of humanity are becoming extinct mainly because of the loss of habitat.

At the root of Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border dispute, a committee report from 1951

 

Arunachal Pradesh, which was earlier a part of Assam, shares a boundary of 804.1 km with the state—with frequent flare-ups reported along the border since the 1990s.

Last month, just days after Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma met with his Arunachal Pradesh counterpart, Pema Khandu, to discuss a “permanent solution” over the decades-old boundary dispute between the two states, fresh tensions were reported along their border. While the flashpoint this time was the ongoing construction of the Likabali-Durpai road being built under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the boundary dispute between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, like other states in the region, dates back to colonial times.

Bone of contention: 1951

Arunachal Pradesh, which was earlier a part of Assam, shares a boundary of 804.1 km with the state—with frequent flare-ups reported along the border since the 1990s.

The dispute dates back to colonial times, when the British in 1873 announced the “inner line” regulation, demarcating an imaginary boundary between plains and the frontier hills, which were later designated as the North East Frontier Tracts in 1915. The latter corresponds to the area that makes up present-day Arunachal Pradesh.

After Independence, the Assam government assumed administrative jurisdiction over the North East Frontier Tracts, which later became the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) in 1954, and finally, the Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh in 1972. It gained statehood in 1987.

However, before it was carved out of Assam, a sub-committee headed by then Assam chief minister Gopinath Bordoloi made some recommendations in relation to the administration of NEFA (under Assam) and submitted a report in 1951. Based on the Bordoloi committee report, around 3,648 sq km of the “plain” area of Balipara and Sadiya foothills was transferred from Arunachal (then NEFA) to Assam’s then Darrang and Lakhimpur districts.

“This remains the bone of contention between the two states as Arunachal Pradesh refuses to accept this notification as the basis of demarcation,” said a senior government official from Assam, closely involved in inter-state border-related matters.

Arunachal Pradesh has long held that the transfer was done without the consultation of its people. “It was arbitrary, defective, and no tribal leader from Arunachal Pradesh was consulted before the land was transferred. They just decided to draw a line between the hills and plains,” said Tabom Dai, General Secretary, All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU). According to him, Arunachal had customary rights over these lands, considering the tribes living there would pay taxes to Ahom rulers. Assam, on the other hand, feels that this demarcation as per 1951 notification is constitutional and legal.

Efforts at demarcation

The border issues came to the fore after Arunachal Pradesh became a UT in 1972. Between 1971 and 1974, there were multiple efforts to demarcate the boundary but it did not work out. In April 1979, a high-powered tripartite committee was constituted to delineate the boundary on the basis of Survey of India maps, as well as discussions with both sides.

By 1983-84, out of the 800 km, 489 km, mostly in the north bank of the Brahmaputra, were demarcated. However, further demarcation could not commence because Arunachal Pradesh did not accept the recommendations, and claimed several kilometres out of the 3,648 sq km that was transferred as per the 1951 notification.

Assam objected and filed a case in the Supreme Court in 1989, highlighting an “encroachment” made by Arunachal Pradesh, while seeking demarcation of the boundary between the states.

To resolve the dispute between the two states, the apex court-appointed a local boundary commission in 2006, headed by a retired SC judge. In September 2014, the local commission submitted its report. Several recommendations were made (some of which suggested Arunachal Pradesh get back some of the territory which was transferred in 1951), and it was suggested that both states should arrive at a consensus through discussions. However, nothing came of it.

Flashpoints

According to a 2008 research paper from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, clashes were first reported in 1992 when the Arunachal state government alleged that people from Assam were “building houses, markets and even police stations on its territory”. Since then intermittent clashes have been taking place, making the border tense. Another paper by the same institute in 2020 said that Assam had raised the issue of Arunachal Pradesh encroaching on its forest land, and had periodically launched eviction drives, leading to tensions on the ground. One was in 2005 in Bhalukpong in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng district and the other in 2014 in the Behali Reserve Forest area, in the foothills between Assam’s Sonitpur and Arunachal’s Papumpare districts. Ten people died in the Behali incident.

The recent flashpoint is the ongoing Likabali-Durpai PMGSY road project in Arunachal Pradesh’s Lower Siang district—Assam claims that some parts of the road, under construction since 2019, falls under its Dhemaji district.

The road, about 65 km to 70 km, is meant to connect at least 24 villages between Arunachal Pradesh’s Durpai and Likabali and has been granted after years of petitioning by local residents. Likabali is one of the oldest towns in the foothills and has long been a site of dispute.

Last week, a culvert under construction close to Hime, one of the villages through which the road runs, was burnt by “unidentified miscreants from the Assam side”, authorities said. Following that, there were unconfirmed reports of “firing in the air” by local residents from the Arunachal Pradesh side on Wednesday night. This was preceded by a team from Assam Police stopping the construction in Hime, claiming that the road was touching disputed territory.

Authorities from both sides say this was not the first instance of trouble along the road and that it keeps happening occasionally ever since construction started two years ago. However, they claim administrations of both districts were in touch with each other.

The road ahead

In the last few months, Assam chief minister Sarma has been taking a proactive role in resolving the border disputes not just with Arunachal Pradesh, but with the neighbouring states it has issues with. While Assam and Meghalaya have made some progress, with both governments submitting recommendations to the Centre last month, Sarma has been consistently meeting chief ministers of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh as well. However, a concrete plan of action has not been chalked out yet. Just last week, Sarma met Khandu in Guwahati and both described the meeting as “positive”, saying they were ready to conduct a ground-level survey on boundary status.

Source: Indian Express, 1/02/22

NABARD approves credit plan for rearing Yak Husbandry

 National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) approved a credit plan on September 28, 2021 for yak husbandry in Arunachal Pradesh.

Key facts

• This credit plan for yak husbandry will help herders in securing loans for strengthening their livelihoods.
• This scheme was developed by “National Research Centre on Yak (NRCY)” located at Dirang in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.
• NRCY works under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

Significance of the scheme

The credit plan started by NABARD for yak husbandry was found to be feasible in extending advances with the held commercial banks. The credit plan by NABARD has been included in potential linked credit plans (PLCP) of Tawang, West Kameng and Shi Yomi districts of Arunachal Pradesh. This credit plan will boost the livelihood of herders in the state.

About Yak

Yak is one among the most prized animals in Himalayan region because of its multifarious roles in strengthening nutritional security by providing milk and meat. The animal also provides shelter and clothing through its fibres. It is also used as a beast of burden.

Concerns with Yak Population

In past few decades country has witnessed a decline in Yak population. Yak population has declined because of inbreeding and unscientific farming practices. Furthermore, the disillusionment of younger generation because of hardship of yak rearing is one of the major reasons of mass desertions from Yak rearing occupation. The credit scheme by NABARD will help in curbing the reducing trend of yak population. Credit plan will also facilitate profitable farming by promoting entrepreneurship.

New Alpine Plant Species Discovered in Arunachal Pradesh

 A group of scientists of three institutes have discovered a new species of alpine plant in the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh. The details were published in Biodiversitas: Journal of Biological Diversity.

About the New Alpine Plant Species

• The new species of plant belongs to the family of Himalayan sunflower.
• It has been named as Cremanthodium indicum.
• This species of plant generally flowers from July to August.
• It is endemic to the Penga-Teng Tso Lake of Tawang district.
• As per the IUCN Guideline, this alpine plant species has been listed as critically endangered.

Alpine Plants

The plants that grow in the alpine climate. Many of the plant species and taxon grow as a plant community in such alpine tundra including perennial grasses, forbs, sedges, mosses, cushion plants and lichens. These plants are adapted to harsh alpine climatic of environmental conditions such as dryness, low temperatures, wind, drought, ultraviolet radiation, poor nutritional soil and a short growing season.

Alpine climate

Typical weather for the regions that occurs above the tree line. It is also called as the mountain climate or highland climate.

Tree line

It is the edge of habitat at which trees are capable to grow. Tree line is found at high elevations and high latitudes. It the line beyond which the trees cannot tolerate environmental conditions like extreme snowpack, cold temperatures, or associated lack of moisture.

Tawang District

It is the smallest districts out of the 16 administrative districts of Arunachal Pradesh. It has a population of 49,977 which makes the state as eighth least populous district in India. This district is inhabited by the Monpa people.