BIODIVERSITY AND THE CURRENT CHALLENGES, Wikipedia’s Role as Intermediary, Aadhar Data Privacy Regulations

(General Studies III – Environment Section – Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.)

• Biodiversity, encompassing the variety of life on Earth, is essential for maintaining ecosystem services, ensuring food security, and supporting human well-being. However, the planet is witnessing an unprecedented crisis of biodiversity loss.
• Reports like the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) indicate that approximately one million species face extinction within decades if current trends persist.

In response, international frameworks have been established to address these challenges –

• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): Established in 1992, the CBD aims to promote sustainable development and the fair sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources. It has been instrumental in setting global biodiversity targets.
• Aichi Biodiversity Targets: Adopted in 2010, these 20 targets aimed to address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss, reduce pressures, safeguard ecosystems, enhance benefits, and promote participatory planning. However, the Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (2020) revealed that none of these targets were fully met by the 2020 deadline.
• Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF): Adopted during COP15 in 2022, the GBF sets ambitious goals, including conserving 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030. It emphasizes the need for transformative changes across economic, social, and financial sectors.

Way Forward: Strategies for Enhancing Biodiversity Conservation

• Integrate Biodiversity into Development Planning: Incorporate biodiversity considerations into national and sectoral policies, ensuring that development projects do not compromise ecological integrity.
• Enhance Funding Mechanisms: Increase investments in biodiversity conservation through public funding, private sector engagement, and innovative financial instruments. Reforming harmful subsidies and redirecting them towards conservation efforts is crucial.
• Strengthen Community Participation: Empower local communities by recognizing their traditional knowledge and involving them in conservation planning and implementation. Programs like the Joint Forest Management (JFM) have demonstrated the effectiveness of community involvement.
• Promote Sustainable Practices: Encourage sustainable agriculture, forestry, and fisheries to reduce pressure on natural ecosystems. Initiatives like organic cotton farming in Madhya Pradesh have shown promise in balancing human needs with environmental conservation.
• Enhance Monitoring and Research: Invest in scientific research and monitoring to inform conservation strategies and assess their effectiveness. Utilizing technologies like GIS mapping and AI can aid in tracking biodiversity changes.

• Tardigrades also called water bears and moss piglets, are microscopic eight-legged creatures without a backbone.
• They have a remarkable ability to survive in extreme environments, including radioactive areas.
• They can also survive starvation, lack of air and water, and sub-zero temperatures.
• DODA1 Gene: Tardigrades need it to synthesise betalains, a type of antioxidant pigment that could protect the tardigrades’ cells against radiation damage.
• TRID1 Gene: It plays a role in repairing damaged DNA mediated by phase separation.
• NDUFB8 is associated with mitochondrial function.
• The earliest known Tardigrade fossils date from around 90 million years ago, in the Cretaceous Period.
• Molecular dating suggests they originated at least 600 million years ago.
• When facing hostile environments, tardigrades can enter a state called cryptobiosis, effectively pausing almost all their biological processes and lingering in a state of suspended animation.
• This peculiar state allows them to tolerate extreme dryness, intense radiation, and freezing.
• Understanding the tardigrade species holds a wide array of applications like protecting astronauts from radiation during space missions, cleaning up nuclear pollution or improving cancer treatment in future.

Dig Deeper: Read about potential of tardigrades in context of Human Health.

• The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has sent a missive to the online encyclopaedia’s parent, asking why it should not be treated as a content publisher instead of an Intermediary under the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• Content publisher is directly liable for legal challenges against its content.
• The Delhi High Court ordered the Wikimedia Foundation to unmask the identities of the individual people who made edits to ANI’s Wikipedia page in the ANI vs Wikimedia Foundation case.

Dig Deeper: Read about important provisions of Information Technology Act, 2000

• There have been discussions going around Aadhaar biometric access and the Centre allowing Aadhar-based authentication to enhance national security, Law and Order.
• Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identification number to every individual resident of India.
• It serves as proof of identity as it is linked to biometric and demographic information.
• The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has strict regulations about the disclosure of data in order to protect a person’s right to privacy.
• The Supreme Court has said the Aadhaar metadata cannot be stored for more than six months.
• Section 33(1) of the Aadhaar Act permits the disclosure of certain information under an order of a court not inferior to that of a High Court judge.
• Section 29(1) prohibits the sharing of biometric data under any circumstances except as permitted by the law. This clause ensures biometric information (Fingerprints and iris scans) is kept confidential.

Dig Deeper: Read about the Puttaswamy judgement and right to Privacy under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

• The Supreme Court partially upheld the constitutional validity of the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madrasa Education Act 2004 in Anjum Kadari and another v. Union of India and others.
• The Supreme Court also confirmed that the State can regulate madrasa education to ensure standards of excellence.
• The SC has set aside Allahabad High Court’s March 2024 judgement that struck down the Madrasa Act.
• It was struck down for violating the principle of secularism, Articles 14, 21 and 21-A of the Constitution and was ultra vires Section 22 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956.
• However, the SC held that a statute could be struck down if it violates Fundamental Rights under Part III and not for violation of the basic structure doctrine of the Constitution.
• The Basic Structure doctrine comprises undefined concepts like democracy, federalism, and secularism.
• The court held that allowing courts to invalidate legislation based on these concepts could introduce uncertainty in constitutional adjudication.
• Challenges to laws for violating secularism must trace the violation to specific constitutional provisions.
• In the Indira Nehru Gandhi vs. Raj Narain case, where the Basic Structure doctrine was first used to invalidate a constitutional amendment distinguished between ordinary statutes and constitutional amendments, noting that applying the doctrine to statutes would amount to rewriting the Constitution.
• It held that the Madrasa Act is within the legislative competence of the State Legislature and traceable to Entry 25 of the concurrent list.
• In addition, provisions regulating Higher Education come under Union List Entry 66 causing degrees like ‘Fazil’ (post-graduate degree) and ‘Kamil’ (undergraduate degree) unconstitutional as they conflict with UGC Act, 1956.

Dig Deeper: Read about the fundamental rights of minorities under the Indian constitution.