How skuas, frigatebirds, and gulls are helping spread avian influenza

About Seabirds:

• Seabirds often stay aloft, scanning the churning waters for elusive prey. Most seabirds take fish, squid, or other prey from the first few metres of seawater. Scavenging is common.
• Frigatebirds, skuas, and gulls rely on the success of other seabirds. These large, strong birds chase, harry, and attack their targets until they regurgitate or drop the prey they’ve just caught.
• They’re the pirates of the seabird world, stealing hard-earned meals from other species.
• This behaviour is known as kleptoparasitism.
• The new strain of avian flu is killing birds by their millions and we found kleptoparasitism could spread the virus very easily.
• The world’s 362 species of seabird can be found across every ocean and many islands.
• At sea, they prey on fish and squid.
• When they nest or rest on islands, their nutrient-rich guano shapes soil and plant communities, defining entire ecosystems.
• Just under half of all seabird species (155) are now classified between “near threatened” and “critically endangered” on the world’s list of threatened species, the IUCN Red List.
• Of those with known trends, 56% have populations in decline.

Threats:

• The threats they face are daunting.
• Invasive predators such as mice and rats eat eggs or chicks on breeding islands.
• Many are caught by fishing boats as accidental bycatch, while overfishing depletes their prey.
• Then there’s climate change, habitat loss, and many other threats, including disease.
• Seabirds are generally long-lived. They often raise only one chick every one or two years.
• Many species breed in only a few locations. They take many years to mature.
• Put together, these traits make recovery from population declines slow.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI):

• Three years ago, a more lethal strain of avian influenza virus emerged.
• This HPAI H5N1 2.3.4.4b strain has spread around the world, killing at least 280 million wild birds.
• The strain can also infect and kill marine mammals such as seals.
• “HPAI” stands for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, meaning the virus can more readily cause severe disease and death.
• The strain has become an animal pandemic (formally, a panzootic).
• It’s made it to Antarctica, but not yet to Australia or the rest of Oceania.
• New research has shown kleptoparasites are at an even higher risk relative to other seabirds.
• During the 2022 northern hemisphere summer, the virus killed roughly half of the world’s great skua (Stercorarius skua).
• Food-stealing behaviour can enable the virus to spread.
• When a great skua harasses a gannet and makes it regurgitate food, the skua gets a fish meal-coated in saliva.
• If the gannet is infectious, its saliva will likely have a high viral load.
• Once infected, these pirate birds can drive spread faster.
• Skuas, frigatebirds and gulls can cover great distances across Polar Regions and the tropics.
• They can transmit the disease to their mates, chicks, and other seabirds.
• This means we could see outbreaks in new populations or places, hundreds or even thousands of kilometres apart.
• We have already seen signs of this in skua populations in the northern and southern hemispheres, with brown (Stercorarius antarcticus) and great skuas being some of the first detected H5N1 infections at new locations.
• Skuas more often steal food from other seabirds when away from their breeding sites, including when they’re migrating back to these areas.
• If skuas get infected en route, they could bring the disease to their breeding sites and then beyond.
• Frigatebirds are known for the red pouches on the necks of the males, which they inflate during breeding season.
• But they have other remarkable traits, such as travelling tens of thousands of kilometres across oceans outside breeding season.
• These travels are often broken up by “island-hopping”, where they will encounter and potentially infect other seabirds.
• Frigatebirds and skuas have already suffered mass deaths from this strain of avian influenza.
• While the virus is now almost everywhere, it hasn’t reached Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, and parts of Antarctica and the subantarctic.
• We can monitor skuas, frigatebirds and gulls for signs of illness to give us early warning that the virus has arrived.

Conclusion:

• By itself, avian influenza is a major threat to seabirds. But the outlook is even more dire when this is compounded with further human-caused threats.
• Identifying, managing, and reducing these threats is critical for their conservation, and the health of our islands and oceans.

Vultures

News:

• The Karnataka Forest Department and Karnataka Vulture Conservation Trust organised the ‘Nature Walk and Vulture Observation’ to build awareness of the birds whose population in India declined by a staggering 99% between the 1980s and early 2000s.
• The first Saturday of September is observed every year as International Vulture Awareness Day.

India’s first vulture sanctuary:

• India has nine species of vultures. Of these, four – including long-billed, white-rumped, red-headed and Egyptian vultures are seen in Karnataka.
• In Ramadevarabetta, the permanent residents include the critically endangered long-billed vulture and the endangered Egyptian vulture.
• Himalayan Griffon and Eurasian Griffon visit the region in winter.
• Ramadevarabetta in Ramanagara near Bengaluru was declared India’s first vulture sanctuary in 2012 to prevent the long-billed vulture from going extinct in the region.
• In 2017 it was declared an eco-sensitive zone.

Vulture population and threats:

• A female vulture lays only one egg per year was a major challenge to increasing the population.
• Construction of the Mysuru-Bengaluru highway through Ramanagara started in 2019, presenting an additional challenge.
• After a gap of seven years in 2022, the sanctuary reported the birth of a vulture chick.
• The sanctuary presently has two adults and one juvenile.

Diclofenac and the fall of vultures:

• Diclofenac, a commonly prescribed painkiller, was identified as a major culprit behind the huge fall in vulture populations in India.
• Consumption of carcasses of cattle that died within four days of taking in diclofenac turned out to be fatal for the scavenger birds as the molecule was toxic to them.
• It affected the functioning of their kidneys and resulted in renal failure.
• Nimesulide, a diclofenac drug that can kill vultures, is still legally available in pharmacies in Ramanagara.
• Other reasons for the dwindling population of vultures include electrocution, habitat loss, construction of buildings, resorts and roads, and scarcity of food resources.

Measures by State government:

• The government of Karnataka announced plans to set up a vulture breeding centre in Bannerghatta.
• The idea was to breed them at Bannerghatta National Park and release them in Ramdevarabetta.
• Government is planning to estimate the population of Egyptian vultures and white-rumped vultures.
• In Ramanagara South- Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary where there is an abundant number of white-rumped vultures.
• Karnataka Forest Department is planning to set up camera traps in the region to examine and do much more research on them.
• There are outreach and awareness programmes being carried out.

Ho language

Context:

• The tribal Ho community living in Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam had been demanding for many years that the Warang Kshiti script be included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

News:

• Ahead of the Jharkhand Assembly election, a tug of war has broken out between the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the BJP over the demand for the inclusion of the Ho language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
• Around 25 lakh people in the State, including the Ho tribal population living in the Kolhan region, speak the language.

About Ho language:

• Ho is a Munda language of the Austroasiatic language family spoken primarily in India by more than 2.5 million people.
• It is spoken by the Ho, Munda, Kolha and Kol tribal communities of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Assam and is written using Warang Kshiti script.
• Devanagari, Latin and Odia script are also used, although native speakers are said to prefer Warang Kshiti, invented by Lako Bodra.
• Ho is closely related to Mundari and Santali. Ho and Mundari are often described as sister languages.
• Ho is closer to the Mayurbhanj dialect of Mundari than the Mundari variety spoken in Jharkhand.
• While being ethnically and linguistically close, Ho and Mundari speakers form distinct regional identities.
• Around half of all Ho speakers reside in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, where they form a majority.
• Ho speakers are also found in districts of East Singhbhum in southern Jharkhand, Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar in northern Odisha.
• Under the Multilingual Education (MLE) programme, Odisha government has been providing primary education in Ho speaking areas.

Demographic advantage, Indian economy’s sweet spot

Introduction:

• Much has been written about India’s emergence as an economic giant, it is the world’s fastest growing big economy, and is currently the fifth largest.
• Demographics is a major factor in propelling this rise given that the median age is around 28 years and 63% of the population is of working age.
• However, the labour force participation rate stood at 55.2% in 2022, according to a recent report released by the International Labour Organization (ILO), which goes on to state that falling labour intensity is likely due to growth being led by the services sector rather than manufacturing.
• Therefore, while we are certainly not experiencing “jobless growth”, more steps are needed to harness the demographic dividend.

Continue with the reforms agenda:

• There is a need to press ahead with the ongoing reforms agenda to maintain, if not accelerate, India’s growth trajectory as that by itself will create opportunities galore.
• Sitharaman’s Budget speech stressed to initiate and incentivise improvements in productivity and to facilitate markets and sectors to become more efficient.
• While there is much that the Centre has done to enhance ease of doing business, much of what needs to be done next, especially in the context of production, concerns the States (which is where the action is now).
• Hence, both need to walk in lockstep to broaden and deepen reforms.
• The Economic Survey for 2023-24 states that technological advancements have led to a declining capital-to-output ratio and an increasing capital-to labour ratio.
• Chairman of the 16th Finance Commission (Arvind Panagariya) said capital-led economic growth is not ideal as the country has an abundance of labour.
• The reluctance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the backbone of employment, to grow in size and scale as well as that of large business houses to foray into labour-intensive sectors can be attributed to the compliance burden and costs imposed by outdated labour laws.
• The impasse over implementing the new labour codes approved by Parliament is sending a wrong signal to existing and prospective investors alike.
• It is important that one or two States with an evolved manufacturing ecosystem break the logjam by taking the lead.
• The Centre’s efforts to give a boost to the manufacturing sector is generally viewed from the angle that it is untenable for 45% of the workforce to be employed in the agricultural sector which accounts for only 18% of GDP.
• While taking steps to enhance agricultural productivity, we must not forget those who are engaged in the unorganised and non-agricultural sectors- about 19% of the workforce- which are highly fragmented and suffer from low productivity.
• It is important to address their aspirations by focusing on high-growth potential sectors such as toys, apparel, tourism, and logistics which are also labour intensive.
• Then, as skills get upgraded, there will be an opportunity to move up the value chain and provide even better and higher paying jobs.

Skilling is a continuous process:

• Skilling is an important aspect of making future generations productive members of society.
• The Economic Survey highlighted that only 4.4% of the workforce in the age cohort of 15-29 years is formally skilled.
• This is a huge concern, and the dichotomy of labour surplus and skills shortage must be addressed through meaningful public-private partnerships wherein industry plays an integral role in devising the curriculum and imparting ‘on the job training’.
• Moreover, skilling is not a one-time intervention but a lifelong process which requires flexibility in institutional mechanisms as well as learning agility.
• The emphasis of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 on foundational skills as well as higher order cognitive skills and critical thinking is a good step but, in a constantly changing world, the document must be reviewed periodically and updated.

Impact of AI/ML:

• In an era of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), repetitive tasks with low skills are most at risk but there will always be a need for human intervention and oversight.
• While we must not underestimate the impact of AI/ML, neither should it be demonised.
• The key is to have appropriate regulations govern its use while harnessing what it has to offer.
• In addition to the opportunities offered by various emerging sectors, AI/ML itself is estimated by Statista to grow by nearly nine times to become a $826.73 billion worldwide market by 2030.
• Further, according to NASSCOM, India already has the second largest talent pool globally in this field but the current gap between demand and supply is 51% which is projected to widen.
• Though very niche, it is an opportunity which should not be missed.

Conclusion:

• Gainfully employing a large, young and aspirational population is not easy but it is a far better challenge to have than dealing with an ageing one with its attendant economic and societal implications.
• India is in a sweet spot and must employ a holistic approach to create a talent pool so as to harness its demographic dividend for the benefit of the world at large.