Bhutan becomes first country to sterilise all stray dogs (GS Paper 2, Health)
Why in news?
- Bhutan has declared itself the first country in the world to have completely sterilised and vaccinated its entire stray dog population, following a 14-year dog population control programme.
Why it matters?
- There are about 300 million stray dogs across Asia who struggle with starvation, parasitic infections, untreated diseases, injuries from road traffic accidents and transmissible cancers.
- These dogs often fall prey to direct persecution and inhumane culling.
The project:
- The National Dog Population Management and Rabies Control Project successfully sterilised and vaccinated over 150,000 strays since its inception.
- The project, which began in 2009, also included microchipping 32,000 pet dogs.
Rabies:
- If effective sterilisation and vaccination are not carried out, the stray dog population increases, leading to an increase in dog bites and the spread of rabies.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that around 59,000 people a year die of rabies globally, and most rabies cases in humans are the result of a dog bite. Governments across Asia routinely resort to inhumane methods of managing street dogs by culling and mass sheltering.
- Meanwhile, the United Nations organisations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), WHO and World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) have pressed the recommendations on oral vaccination of dogs against rabies.
- Apart from traditional injectable vaccines, which are primarily used for mass dog vaccinations, oral rabies vaccination (ORV) could prove to be more effective in targeted elimination efforts that have been used among regional wildlife populations.
Recommendations:
- The UN has recommended the implementation of ORV in combination with injectable vaccines to increase vaccination targeting, especially “free-roaming and poorly supervised dogs.
- It suggested the new documents accommodate the country’s circumstances, such as its resource capacity and socio-cultural aspects that will help customise the ORV programme.
- By embracing the recommendations in this document, countries can enhance their dog rabies control programmes and work towards achieving the global goal of zero dog-mediated human rabies deaths by 2030.
A new mushroom species from the Western Ghats
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- A tiny, fragile-looking mushroom sporting a honey-yellow ‘cap’ found on the campus of the Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI) at Palode in Thiruvananthapuram has been identified as a new species.
Key Characteristics:
- The new species belong to the genus Candolleomyces.
- The new species has been named Candolleomyces albosquamosus - ‘albosquamosus’ for the white woolly scale-like structures on its pileus or cap.
- Delicate in build, the mushroom grows to a height of just about 58 mm.
Significance:
- Seven species of the genus Psathyrella reported earlier from India are now recognised as Candolleomyces.
- The discovery of a new species of the genus Candolleomyces in India is special given that there are only 35 species in this genus worldwide.
Prisoner Dilemma in international relations
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Why in news?
- Giving his keynote address at the Goa Maritime Conclave, Defence Minister referred to the concept of “Prisoner’s Dilemma” to underscore the need for countries to collaborate with each other instead of working at cross purposes.
What is Prisoner’s Dilemma?
- Prisoner’s Dilemma refers to one of the most popular “games” in Game Theory, which is itself a branch of science that helps understand how people/entities behave under different circumstances. By simulating a game, Game Theory also shows how to achieve the best outcome.
- For instance, it may appear straight-forward that a person or a country must always do what appears to provide them with the best pay-off. However, real life is complex and filled with uncertainty. Moreover, the final outcome depends on the actions of other people/countries as well. To be sure, the final outcome could change if the other party/parties act in conflict.
Illustration:
- For instance, if in a bid to secure one’s borders, a country starts hoarding more and more arms then it may start an arms race with the other country. Prisoner’s Dilemma is a game that brings out this paradox clearly.
- Suppose two people; Aand B are brought in for questioning about a crime. However, the evidence with the police is circumstantial and the best that they can hope to achieve is to put both A and B in jail for a year each. Unless, of course, they get more credible evidence. One way to do this is to get the prisoners to rat out each other.
- So the police officer puts both A and B in separate rooms and provides both of them with a simple choice: If one prisoner says the other is involved in the crime, he can go scot-free while the other will be given a 15-year jail term.
- Of course, if neither prisoner confesses, they both will only get one year’s jail time.
- What if both confess? In that case, their jail times will be 10 years each. The prisoner’s dilemma is whether to confess or stay silent.
What should the prisoners do, then?
- On the face of it, staying silent appears like the right course of action. If both prisoners stay silent, they get away with the best pay-off that is, just serving one year in prison.
- The fact is that if either of the prisoners stays silent, they run the risk of facing the maximum prison time (15 years).However, if both confess, they condemn each other to 10 years of jail time.
- If one cannot be sure of the other prisoner’s behaviour, then confessing is the way forward.
- The best outcome, of course, lies in co-operation. If both prisoners co-operate, they can achieve the best outcome and get away with just a year in prison.
- This dilemma (and its answers) has many real life applications both in international law as well as in business.
- Similarly, should countries set some ground rules in geopolitics to ensure they don’t enter an arms race that will eventually prove ruinous for their own economies and people?
