Siddaramaiah urges PM Modi to drop Agnipath military recruitment scheme
Bengaluru, Jun 17: Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday urged the BJP-ruled Centre to drop the Agnipath scheme of recruiting military personnel as 'Agniveers' for a term of four years in the wake of violent protests in parts of the country by aspirants seeking to join the armed forces.
In a series of tweets, the Congress stalwart also said the government should not play with the security forces to cover up the government's bankruptcy.
"The new #AgneepathScheme to recruit soldiers will push youth into unemployment & will have adverse impact on security of the country. @BJP4India should drop the new plan & recruit soldiers as per the existing process," Siddaramaiah tweeted.
He alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power with the promise to provide two crore job opportunities, but now is closing every opportunity for the youth.
Questioning the scheme, the former chief minister sought to know, "Can soldiers be completely involved if they are insecure about their job opportunities & clueless about their future due to #AgneepathScheme? Is this not dangerous if soldiers develop this insecurity?
Seeking to know if the BJP government at the Centre was so "bankrupt" that they are unable to ensure job security, and pay salaries and pensions to the soldiers, Siddaramaiah said PM Modi should not play with the national security "to cover up the government's bankruptcy .
"People of our country have taught a lesson to @BJP4India govt when they tried to implement anti-farmer laws. People should again teach a lesson for playing with the future of our youth & our soldiers," Siddaramaiah further tweeted.
People of our country have taught a lesson to @BJP4India govt when they tried to implement anti-farmer laws. People should again teach a lesson for playing with the future of our youth & our soldiers.#JaiJawan_JaiKisan
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) June 17, 2022
Is the @BJP4India govt so bankrupt that they are unable to ensure job security, and to pay salaries & pensions to our committed soldiers?@narendramodi should not play with our security to cover up the govt's bankruptcy.#JaiJawan_JaiKisan
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) June 17, 2022
The new #AgneepathScheme to recruit soldiers will push youth into unemployment & will have adverse impact on security of the country.@BJP4India should drop the new plan & recruit soldiers as per the existing process.#JaiJawan_JaiKisan
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) June 17, 2022
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
More than 50 lakh large farmland trees vanished between 2018 and 2022 in India: Study
New Delhi (PTI): More than 50 lakh large farmland trees vanished between 2018 and 2022 in India, partly due to altered cultivation practices, revealing a "concerning trajectory," new research published in the journal Nature Sustainability has found.
Researchers said that "an observable trend was emerging" wherein agroforestry systems are being replaced with paddy rice fields, even as a certain loss rate could be found to be natural.
Large and mature trees within these agroforestry fields are removed, and trees are now being cultivated within separate block plantations typically with lower ecological value, they said.
Block plantations, usually involving fewer species of trees, were found to have increased in numbers which some villagers from Telangana, Haryana, Maharashtra and other states confirmed via interviews.
The team, including researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, explained that the decision to remove trees is often driven by perceived low benefits of the trees, coupled with concerns that their shading effect, including that of Neem trees, may adversely affect crop yields.
Boosting crop yields also contributed to the expansion of paddy rice fields, further facilitated by water supply which was augmented by the establishment of new boreholes, the authors said.
"This finding is particularly unsettling given the current emphasis on agroforestry as an essential natural climate solution, playing a crucial role in both climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies, as well as for livelihoods and biodiversity," the authors wrote.
Agroforestry trees are a vital part of India's landscapes as they generate socio-ecological benefits, along with being a natural climate solution owing to their ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the air.
However, despite their importance, the lack of robust monitoring mechanisms has contributed to an insufficient grasp of their distribution in relation to management practices, as well as their vulnerability to climate change and diseases, the researchers said.
For the study, the team used AI-based deep learning models for detecting individual non-forest trees for each year. By tracking the tree crown over the years, they then analysed the changes. Crowns of multiple trees together form a canopy.
The researchers mapped about 60 crore farmland trees, excluding block plantations, and tracked them over the past decade.
They found that around 11 percent of the large trees, each having a crown size of 96 square metres and mapped in 2010/2011, had disappeared by 2018.
"Moreover, during the period 2018–2022, more than 5 million large farmland trees (about 67 square metres crown size) have vanished, due partly to altered cultivation practices, where trees within fields are perceived as detrimental to crop yields," the authors wrote.
The researchers clarified that while the findings may appear to contradict official reports and studies showing that tree cover has increased in recent years, they reported only gross losses and did not look at tree gains as a separate class.
