Table of Contents
The Hindu Editorial Analysis
We understand the significance of reading The Hindu newspaper for enhancing reading skills, improving comprehension of passages, staying informed about current events, enhancing essay writing, and more, especially for banking aspirants who need to focus on editorials for vocabulary building. This article will explore today’s editorial points, along with practice questions and key vocabulary.
Assam Eviction Drive Turns Deadly, One Killed
- One person died and several others, including some police officers, got injured when police fired their guns during an eviction drive in Paikan Reserve Forest in southwestern Assam’s Goalpara district on Thursday morning.
- District officials said that Assam Police and Forest Department teams conducted the eviction drive in the forest, which covers an area of 711 hectares. It was done as a follow-up to another similar operation that took place earlier on July 12.
- During that earlier operation, about 140 hectares of land were cleared from people living there without permission. The Forest Department also used an excavator to dig a channel to stop people from returning.
- An official shared that nothing happened on July 16 when the excavator dug the channel, but when the team arrived the next day to continue the work, the people attacked them and things turned violent quickly.
- Reports say the police then fired at the crowd, who were mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims, after the situation got out of control. This firing killed one person and injured at least two others.
- Officials mentioned that most of the settlers in that forest had come from Barpeta, Dhubri, and South Salmara-Mankachar districts and were living there without any legal land papers to prove their right to stay.
- Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma blamed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for encouraging the Goalpara forest encroachers during his political rally on Wednesday and said strict action would be taken against such attacks.
- The Chief Minister said cases will be filed against anyone who attacked police officers during the eviction. He also mentioned that the government plans to convert the entire Paikan area back into forest land as soon as possible.
- Sarma added that since June, more than 50,000 people living on forest land, wetlands, wastelands, and other government lands without permission have already been removed under the anti-encroachment drive.
Three Injured in Landslide, Amarnath Yatra Put on Hold
- The annual Amarnath Yatra had to be suspended on Thursday morning due to a landslide that occurred on the Baltal route in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir. Three pilgrims got injured while they were going towards the holy shrine.
- An official said the landslide happened at Z-mode near Upper Rail Patri area. It swept away some pilgrims who were on their way to the cave shrine, which is located at a height of 14,000 feet in the Himalayas.
- The authorities managed to rescue all the pilgrims who had been swept away by the landslide safely. Due to heavy rain over the past two days, the yatra was stopped on both the Pahalgam route in Anantnag and the Baltal route as a safety measure.
- The government spokesperson said the rainfall made repair work necessary on both routes. The Border Roads Organisation sent many workers and machines to finish the repair work before the yatra resumes on July 18.
- The spokesperson also said that urgent repairs are going on, and no pilgrims were allowed to go towards the holy cave from the two base camps today to ensure complete safety for everyone on these dangerous paths.
- However, pilgrims who had stayed at Panjtarni camp the previous night were allowed to come down towards Baltal. Border Roads Organisation staff and mountain rescue teams guided them safely down the mountain path.
- Since the pilgrimage started on July 3, over 2.47 lakh pilgrims have already visited and prayed at the holy cave shrine, despite the bad weather and landslides affecting the routes in Kashmir in the last few days.
Air India crash: Probe focuses on captain’s decisions, says report
- A Wall Street Journal report published on Wednesday said that a cockpit recording from last month’s Air India crash shows the captain cut off the fuel supply to the plane’s engines.
- The report mentioned people familiar with early findings by U.S. officials who are investigating the June 12 Ahmedabad crash, which killed 260 people, and they are focusing on why the captain turned off the fuel switches just after take-off.
- It stated that the first officer, who was flying the Boeing 787 Dreamliner at that time, asked the senior captain why he had moved the fuel levers to the “cutoff” position only a few seconds after the plane took off.
- The pilots involved in this incident were identified as Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kunder, and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s initial report confirmed that both fuel switches were moved from “run” to “cutoff” within seconds.
- However, the AAIB report did not mention clearly who had moved the switches, leaving it unclear whether the action was intentional or accidental during those crucial moments of the flight. The cockpit voice recorder caught one pilot asking the other about the fuel cut-off, but the reply was that he did not do it himself.
- Without fuel, the London-bound Boeing 787 lost power. After reaching around 650 feet height, the plane could not stay in the air and started coming down, said aviation safety expert John Nance in his comments.
- The report added that both engines’ fuel switches were turned back to “run,” and the plane’s systems tried to restart the engines automatically, but it was already flying too low and too slow to recover safely.
- On Thursday, the AAIB said it is too early to decide the exact cause of the crash. The agency requested people and media not to spread early guesses or theories, as it could affect the investigation and its accuracy.
Important questions
- Why did the Forest Department team use an excavator machine during the eviction drive in Assam’s Paikan Reserve Forest to remove encroachers?
- Who did Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma blame for encouraging the people living illegally in Goalpara’s Paikan Reserve Forest during the eviction incident?
- Why was the Amarnath Yatra pilgrimage in Kashmir stopped on both Pahalgam and Baltal routes after the landslide happened?
- What did the Border Roads Organisation send to repair the damaged paths before the Amarnath Yatra pilgrimage could continue again?
- What unusual thing did the Air India captain do just after take-off that is being investigated in the June 12 Ahmedabad plane crash?
- During the Air India plane crash investigation, what conversation was recorded in the cockpit voice recorder about turning off the fuel supply?
Important vocabulary
- Eviction: forceful removal of people from a place where they are living
- Encroachment: slowly taking over land or rights that belong to someone else
- Escalated: became worse or more intense very quickly
- Settlers: people who move to a new area and start living there
- Suspended: stopped for a short time but not permanently ended
- Pilgrims: people who travel for religious reasons
- Spokesperson: someone who officially speaks on behalf of a group or organisation
- Precaution: something done to prevent danger or problems
- Cockpit: area in a plane where the pilot sits and controls the aircraft
- Preliminary: done at the beginning as a preparation before the main part happens
- Thrust: the force that pushes something forward (especially aircraft engines)
- Investigation: detailed examination to find out the truth about something
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