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Season’s worst

A concerted public health push is required to tackle periodic outbreaks of influenza
Seasonal influenza poses a significant public health challenge for India every year.
The spurt in infections during the first two weeks of 2019 cries out for an effective plan to contain it.
Rajasthan, which had a big case load last year, is the worstaffected State in the current season, with 768 cases and 31 deaths as of January 13.
There have been peaks in the country over the past six years, with the number of cases recorded by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme soaring to 42,592 and the death toll touching 2,990 in 2015.
With better understanding of the nature of active viruses and the availability of a quadrivalent vaccine, State governments have no excuse for failing to sharply reduce the spread.
Last year, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare deputed teams to assist Rajasthan in containing the outbreak.
It is pertinent to ask what preventive measures were put in place based on the experience.
Large-scale vaccination covering high- risk groups such as health workers, people with lung, kidney, liver and heart disease, diabetics and the elderly could reduce the impact of the viruses in States such as Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana and the National Capital Region, all of which had a large number of cases three years ago.
A universal preventive programme should be considered at least for the future.
Last year, the Union Health Ministry put out an advisory on the right vaccine to protect against a known set of viruses, such as Influenza A H1N1, H3N2 and Influenza B.
Yet, most public health programmes are not prepared for a mass adoption of the vaccine.
Non-availability of sufficient doses of quadrivalent vaccine as well as profiteering on the demand have not been addressed.
If a vaccine has proven efficacy in reducing the burden of seasonal influenza, it must be made part of the public health system.
An umbrella scheme such as Ayushman Bharat can easily provide it to everyone using public and private institutions.
Campaigns to educate the public through mass media ahead of the season, especially on respiratory etiquette and risk reduction, can help cut transmission.
At the same time, upgrading existing vaccines requires a consistent effort to track viral mutations that take place periodically, and communicate the information to researchers through open access databases.
There are 41 Virus Research Diagnostic Laboratories in India and they can study the nature of infections to provide genetic insights to peer scientists.
This can help develop vaccines and remedies. When it comes to treatment, the availability of anti-viral drugs such as Oseltamivir in the public health system should be ensured.
Seasonal influenza will, according to the WHO, continue to resurface. India must prepare for it with a comprehensive programme that covers all the States.
Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) was launched by Hon’ble Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare in November 2004 for a period upto March 2010.
The project was restructured and extended up to March 2012. The project continues in the 12th Plan with domestic budget as Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme under NHM for all States with Budgetary allocation of 640 Cr.
A Central Surveillance Unit (CSU) at Delhi, State Surveillance Units (SSU) at all State/UT head quarters and District Surveillance Units (DSU) at all Districts in the country have been established.

A tragedy that was long in the making

Illegal rat-hole mining in Meghalaya persists despite ruinous effects on the environment
The efforts to reach the 15 miners trapped in an illegal coal mine in the East Jaintia hills of Meghalaya since December 13 continue, but they began belatedly and have faced many problems.

Doomed from the beginning

First, the Meghalaya government has no idea what happens inside these rat-hole mines, which are barely 2 ft wide, since mining is a private activity.
Despite the National Green Tribunal ban of April 2014, mining continues in the State.
Second, it was unfortunate that the district administration assumed the miners to be dead on the very day of the tragedy. This assumption was evident in the letter written to the National Disaster Response Force.
It was only after a Delhi-based lawyer, Aditya N. Prasad, represented by senior Supreme Court advocate Anand Grover and his team of human rights lawyers presented their suggestions to the court that the Meghalaya government got different actors to the accident site.
Mr. Prasad has never visited Meghalaya. When asked why he is the petitioner on behalf of the miners, he simply said:
“They are fellow Indians and my brethren.” That someone based in Delhi should have the empathy lacking in the people and the government shows that humanity is a dying virtue.
Mr. Prasad has done everything possible to put things together to assist the rescue mission. But despite his initiative, things were delayed.
The distance of the mine, for one, was a major hindrance. Then there are other issues that need to be highlighted.
The trapped miners were being racially profiled in the minds of the people and the state.
Of the 15 miners, only three were locals from the nearby village of Lumthari.
The rest were Muslims from Garo Hills, Meghalaya, and Bodoland, Assam. Their socio-economic profile also worked against them. They were the poorest of the poor who took a huge risk to enter a mine and dig for coal without any safety gear.
When a mine is flooded, the immediate response, apart from pumping out the water, is to stop further flow of water into it.
This requires a hydrologist to scientifically map out the area from where water entered the mine.
Sudhir Kumar, a hydrologist from the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, arrived only two weeks after the disaster.
So did the divers from the Indian Navy and the 100 HP water pumps from Kirloskar Brothers.
The remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) from Planys in Chennai came three weeks later.
So did the geologists from Hyderabad.
All these delays happened because there was no one person or agency to coordinate the rescue mission.
This shows the kind of disaster preparedness we have in our country. One shudders to think what the response would be if there was a massive earthquake in the Northeast, which is listed as Zone 5 on the seismic scale.
There are many questions that arise with respect to rat-hole mining of coal.
One, why does the state allow this archaic mining system, which has complete disregard for human life and safety? And
Two, why is Meghalaya exempted from national mining laws? Rathole mining, which started with gusto in the 1980s, has poisoned three rivers in the Jaintia hills: the Myntdu, Lunar and Lukha.
Scientists from the North-Eastern Hill University have found that these rivers have very high acidic levels.
Reports from other agencies suggest that pH of the water and sulphate and iron concentrations indicate significant deterioration of the rivers.
Acid mine drainage from abandoned mines was a major cause for water pollution in the areas investigated, the reports added.
The coal mine owners have been hiring the best legal brains to argue for them in the highest court of the land.
They say that rat-hole mining should continue because no other form of mining is viable (which means that their profit margins would reduce if other forms of mining were to take place).
They argue that the NGT ban should be lifted.
They claim that coal mining provides livelihoods for many, but at what cost?

The fault-lines

The tribes of Meghalaya are divided on the issue of rat-hole mining.
The fault-lines are clear. Those who care for the environment and for a future for their children and grandchildren have been clamouring for an end to the practice of rat-hole mining and reckless limestone mining.
On the other hand, the mining elite have mobilised forces to demonise environmental activists.
A community of just over a million is now fragmented. To add to these woes, cement companies also release their effluents into the rivers.
So we now have a deadly cocktail of pollutants being released into the environment.
The scale of the problem is clear in this one fact: there are 3,923 coal mines in one district with a geographical area of 2126 sq. km.
The other troubling factor is that coal mine owners are insisting that since Meghalaya is a State under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, national mining laws should be exempted here.
The Sixth Schedule was enacted to protect the community rights of tribals from any form of exploitation of their land and resources.
How can it now be used as an instrument to protect an activity that is a private enterprise, that is inhuman, and that violates Article 21 of the Constitution?
Why is the Sixth Schedule unable to protect the forests and rivers that are common property resources?
Acid mine drainage has rendered even agricultural land nonproductive.
Mine owners do not care about environmental degradation.

Abandoning responsibility

The cement giant, Lafarge, mines limestone from Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district and transports it to Chhatak in Bangladesh via conveyor belts.
The Supreme Court placed a heavy penalty on Lafarge and asked it to strictly implement environmental laws apart from generating livelihoods for people residing within 50 km of the mining areas.
In the case of coal mine owners, there are no such strictures. They have left thousands of abandoned mines as human graves. The State does not insist that they reclaim and afforest those mines.
In 40 years of mining and profiteering, the mine owners have till date not constructed a single hospital or even a school.
There is complete disregard for corporate social responsibility because the mines are privately owned by the tribals. How long can the Central government and the highest court of the land allow this to carry on in one part of the country when strict laws are applied elsewhere?

18 Indian institutions to study nitrogen pollution

Eighteen research institutions in India are among a group of 50 institutions — called the South Asian Nitrogen Hub (SANH) — in the United Kingdom and South Asia that have secured £20 million (about ₹200 crore) from the U.K. government to assess and study the quantum and impact of “nitrogen pollution” in South Asia.
While nitrogen is the dominant gas in the atmosphere, it is inert and doesn’t react. However, when it is released as part of compounds from agriculture, sewage and biological waste, nitrogen is considered “reactive”, and may pollute and even exert a potent greenhouse gas (heat trapping) effect.
“So far, we have focused on carbon dioxide and its impact on global warming. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide but isn’t as prevalent in the atmosphere. To study its cycle
A consortium of researchers who assessed trends in nitrogen emissions in India, where NOx emissions grew at 52% from 1991 to 2001 and 69% from 2001 to 2011.
The SANH will study the impact of the different forms of pollution to form a “coherent picture” of the nitrogen cycle. In particular, it will look at nitrogen in agriculture in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives.