The Delhi High Court ordered State authorities to take action against the use of oxytocin on cattle in dairy colonies in the Capital.

• Petition Against Dairies: The court’s order came after a petition appealed to authorities to look into the state of dairies in the Capital.

Delhi High Court Ruling

• Administering of oxytocin amounts to animal cruelty and is a cognisable offense under Section 12 of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960(PCA):

• It is the primary legislation criminalizing various forms of cruelty towards animals and prevents the infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering on animals.
• Weekly Inspections and Legal Action: The court asked the Delhi government’s Department of Drugs Control to conduct weekly inspections and register cases against the administration of the hormone.
• Source Tracing: It asked the Delhi police to identify the sources of oxytocin production, packaging and distribution, and take action in accordance with the law.

Oxytocin

• Also known as the ‘love hormone’, Oxytocin is secreted by the pituitary glands of mammals during sex, childbirth, lactation or social bonding. It could be chemically manufactured and sold by pharma companies for use during childbirth. It is administered either as an injection or a nasal solution.
• Role: Oxytocin plays a key role in both the female and male reproductive systems. This includes increasing contractions to induce labor and birth, and the release of milk from the breast after birth.
• It also acts as a chemical messenger in the brain and influences important elements of human behavior such as social recognition, relationship formation and long-term emotional attachment.
• Significance: Its use is crucial to prevent new mothers from excessively bleeding after giving birth—a common cause of maternal deaths.
• According to an India sample registration scheme survey conducted in 2001-2003, postpartum hemorrhage accounted for 38 percent of maternal deaths.

Concerns Associated:

• Misuse of oxytocin: It is being used illegally to increase milk production in dairy animals which are forced to produce milk through painful procedures and can become infertile with long-term use.
• Health Impact:  Its overuse on milch cattle to improve production harms not only the cattle’s health but also the health of humans consuming the milk.
• There are concerns that milk from oxytocin-treated animals may contain residues of the hormone that could potentially have negative health impacts on human consumers.

Scientists recently observed a wild male orangutan repeatedly rubbing chewed-up leaves of a medicinal plant on a facial wound in a forest reserve in Indonesia.

• It’s the first known observation of a wild animal using a plant to treat a wound, and adds to evidence that humans are not alone in using plants for medicinal purposes.

Orangutans:

• Known for their distinctive red fur, Orangutans are the largest arboreal (animals that live in trees) mammals.
• They spend more than 90 percent of their waking hours in the trees.
• Distribution: They live on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and on both the Malaysian and Indonesian portions of the island of Borneo.
• Habitat: Habitats range from peat swamp forests near sea level to mountainous forests almost a mile (1.6 kilometers) above sea level.
• There are three species of Orangutans-the Bornean, Sumatran, and Tapanuli.
• They are one of humankind’s closest relatives. These great apes share 96.4% of our genes and are highly intelligent creatures.

Features:

• The adult male is typically twice the size of the female and may attain a height of 1.3 metres (4.3 feet) and a weight of 130 kg (285 pounds) in the wild.
• They have long, sparse orange or reddish hair unequally distributed over their bodies.
• They are very well adapted to life in the trees, with arms much longer than their legs. They have grasping hands and feet with long curved fingers and toes.
• Older males develop wide cheek pads, a unique feature among primates.
• Lifespan: Up to 50 years in the wild.
• Diet: Daytime eaters, their diet consists mostly of fruit and leaves, but they also eat nuts, bark, insects, and, once in a while, bird eggs, too.
• Social Structure: Orangutans live semi-solitary lives in the wild. While they are the most solitary of the great apes, they exhibit social tolerance during times of high fruit abundance when they come together in aggregations known as parties.
• Conservation status: All three species are classified as ‘Critically Endangered’ under the IUCN Red List.

India’s first indigenous bomber UAV aircraft, the FWD-200B, developed by Flying Wedge Defence, an Indian defence and aerospace company, was unveiled recently.

FWD-200B:

• It is an indigenous military grade bomber unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
• It is India’s first indigenous unmanned bomber aircraft.
• It is designed and manufactured by Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace Technologies, an Indian defence and aerospace company.
• It has a payload capacity of 100 kg and is classified as a MALE (medium-altitude, long-endurance) Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle.
• The Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) consists of optical surveillance payloads and is integrated with missile-like weapons for precision air strikes.
• It has a maximum speed of 370 kmph (200 knots), an endurance capacity of 12 to 20 hours, and a ground control station range of 200 km.
• At six metres long, with an eight-metre wingspan, the aircraft can carry a maximum take-off weight of 498 kg and has an operational altitude of 9,000 feet above mean sea level.

The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved one-third of the seats in the executive committee of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) for women.

Status of Women in Judiciary:

Supreme Courts:

• Only 11 women have served as judges in the Supreme Court since independence, comprising merely 4.1% of the total 268 judges appointed.
• The first woman judge, Justice Fathima Beevi, was appointed in 1989.
• Currently, there are three female judges: Justices Hima Kohli, Bela Trivedi, and BV Nagarathna.
• Justice BV Nagarathna is projected to be the first female Chief Justice of India in 2027, albeit for a short tenure of 36 days.
• The appointment in 2021 of Justices Kohli, Nagarathna, and Trivedi marked a historical moment with four female judges simultaneously serving in the Supreme Court, the highest number to date.

High Courts:

• India has 25 High Courts with a sanctioned strength of 1,114 judges, but only 782 are currently serving.
• Of the serving judges, only 107 are women, which is about 13%.
• Justice Sunita Agarwal was recently appointed as the Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court, a notable appointment given the scarcity of female chief justices across other High Courts.
• Despite no reservation for specific groups, the Centre has advised High Court Chief Justices to consider candidates from diverse backgrounds, including women, to ensure social diversity in appointments.

Lower Judiciary:

• The lower judiciary shows a higher representation of women compared to the higher courts, with 35% of judges being women according to the India Justice Report 2022.
• A study by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy in 2018 noted that while there is better representation at the lower judiciary level, it diminishes significantly in higher positions such as district judges.
• In states like Goa, Meghalaya, and Sikkim, women judges exceed 60% of the judiciary, the highest in the country.
• Several states including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Uttarakhand have implemented quotas ranging from 30% to 35% for women in the lower judiciary through direct appointments.

US accuses Russia of using ‘chemical weapon CHLOROPICRIN'' in Ukraine

• Russia used chemical agent chloropicrin in Ukraine along with the “riot control agents (tear gas) as a method of warfare in Ukraine.
• Sanctions: USA announced fresh sanctions against Moscow’s military and industrial capabilities which targets nearly 300 entities in Russia, China, and other countries

Chloropicrin:

• Chloropicrin is a C-nitro compound that is nitromethane in which all three hydrogens are replaced by chlorines.
• It is a synthetic C-nitro, one-carbon, and organochlorine compound that is a strong lachrymator (tears-inducing agent, popular examples: pepper spray, and bromoacetone ).
• Common names: Nitrochloroform, Dolochlor,Picfume
• Appearance: Colorless to faintly yellow oily liquid.
• Composed of: It involves a chemical reaction between sodium hypochlorite ( bleach) and nitromethane (a common industrial solvent).
• It can also be made by combining chloroform with nitric acid, which yields chloropicrin and water.

Application:

• Agriculture: It is used in agriculture as a soil fumigant particularly for strawberry crops.
• Antimicrobial agent: It is employed  as a herbicide and nematicide and has a role as a fumigant insecticide and an antifungal agrochemical.
• Chemical warfare agent: Chloropicrin is an irritant with characteristics of a tear gas having an intensely irritating odor, thus used as a riot control agent.
• As a weapon of warfare: It was first used as a poison gas in the First World War, by both the Allied and the Central Powers and was stockpiled during World War II.
• It induces vomiting, which prompts soldiers to remove their masks, when they would inhale more of the gas, or other gaseous agents dispersed in the air.
• Exposure: Chloropicrin can be absorbed systemically through inhalation, ingestion, and the skin. It is a severe irritant, and can cause immediate, severe inflammation of the eyes, nose and throat, and significant injuries to the upper and lower respiratory tract.
• It is also known to be highly toxic and carcinogenic.

Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC):

• Entered into force: On 29 April 1997
• About: It is the world’s first multilateral disarmament agreement to provide for the elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction within a fixed time frame.
• Membership:  193 States Parties to the Convention
• Implementing Organ: The Convention led to the birth of an international chemical weapons disarmament regime headed by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
• It requires states-parties to declare in writing to the OPCW their chemical weapons stockpiles, chemical weapons production facilities (CWPFs), relevant chemical industry facilities, and other weapons-related information.
• It is open to all nations and currently has 193 states-parties.
• India is a signatory and party to the Chemical Weapons Convention. It has signed the treaty at Paris on 14th day of January 1993.
• It is pursuant to provisions of the Convention enacted the Chemical Weapons Convention Act, 2000.

Mandate: 

• To end the development, production, stockpiling, transfer and use of chemical weapons
• To prevent their re-emergence
• To ensure the elimination of existing stocks of such weapons
• To make the world safe from the threat of chemical warfare.
• Recognition: The 2013 Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons.