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THE WALLACE LINE

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The Wallace Line is an imaginary line that intersects the Lombok Strait between the Indonesian islands of Bali and Lombok to the south, and extends north through the Makassar Strait between Kalimantan (Borneo) and Sulawesi.   Wallace’s Line is not a static boundary—it has shifted over time due to the interplay of geological transformations and climate change. As sea levels fluctuate, land bridges appeared and disappeared, offering brief windows for species migration. The two regions are different continental plates that have been moving independently — the Asian and Australian plates. On the shoreline of Bali and its eastern part. Across the water channel, there is island of Lombok. There is a narrow 21-mile-wide stretch of ocean, known as the Lombok Strait, separates these two islands. In 1858, British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace wrote Charles Darwin a letter , from the Malay Archipelago.   He had spent years documenting species across the region. The natural w...
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EXTINCTION OF MEN : A MYTH OR A REALITY ?

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The Y chromosome is a never-ending source of fascination particularly to men because it bears genes that determine maleness & make sperm. It’s also small & seriously weird; it carries few genes and is full of junk DNA that makes it horrendous to sequence.  The sex of human & other mammal babies is decided by a male-determining gene on the Y chromosome. But the human Y chromosome is degenerating and may disappear in a few million years, leading to our extinction unless we evolve a new sex gene. However two branches of rodents have already lost their Y chromosome and have survived successfully. In humans, as in other mammals, females have two X chromosomes and males have a single X and a puny little chromosome called Y. The names have nothing to do with their shape; the X stood for “unknown”. The X contains about 900 genes that do all sorts of jobs unrelated to sex. But the Y contains few genes (about 55) and a lot of non-coding DNA – simple repetitive DNA that doesn’t se...
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DOMICILE POLICY OF JHARKHAND

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The Forest, Environment & Climate Change Department of Jharkhand, mentions the association of the state with the forests. It has 29.76% forest cover, spread over 23,721 sq km; 32 indigenous communities classified as Scheduled Tribes (STs) make up one-fourth (26%) of the state’s population; 13 districts are fully covered & three are partially covered under the Fifth Schedule Areas (FSAs). A third of Jharkhand’s population (31.6%) is urban, nearly half of which is concentrated in four cities—Bokaro, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, and Ranchi (Census 2011).  The Jharkhand Definition of Local Persons & for Extending the Consequential Social, Cultural & Other Benefits Bill , 2022,  was passed on 11 November 2022, by the Jharkhand legislature.  As per the bill, a person can claim to be domicile of Jharkhand, if they can link their ancestry to the “1932 Khatiyan.”  Khatiyan is a record of rights, including land rights. Almost all the states have some domicile policies ...
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BRUS REFUGEES

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The Brus, also known as Reangs, are spread across Tripura, Mizoram and southern Assam. In Mizoram, they are scattered in Kolasib, Lunglei and Mamit districts. While many Brus of Assam and Tripura are Hindu, the Brus of Mizoram converted to Christianity over the years.  The conflicts between the Brus and the local Bengali non-tribal people have started taking place in Tripura. In Mizoram, the Bru is called Vai, a term for non-Mizos, indicating they are ethnically and linguistically different from Mizos.  Due to the fear that non-locals will take over their land and its politics, clashes between communities in Northeast India are common conflict ensued between the Mizos and the Brus in 1995.  Mizo organisations demanded the removal of Brus from the state’s electoral roll, claiming that the Brus are not indigenous to the state. But the successive governments didn’t agree to their demand, and soon an armed organisation called the Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) was forme...
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