Tiger hunts horse among settlements and drags it into the forest

The Supreme Court (SC) has decided to ensure the actual observance of elephants' right to free movement by obliging the Union government to conduct a fresh assessment. This assessment must identify which states have erected walls or dug trenches on the inter-state migration routes of these animals.

The judicial bench, comprising Chief Justice Suri Kant and judges Joymali Bagchi and Vi Mohana, stated that obstacles, blockades, or hindrances to the movement of elephants from one state to another are unacceptable.

As part of the case concerning the protection of elephant corridors in West Bengal, the court directed Additional Solicitor Aishwarya Bati to convey the court's concern to the Ministry of Environment and Forests and demand an inspection of the condition of elephant corridors in various states.

When petitioner's lawyer Pirna Singh Bindry pointed out a specific problem in Bengal, Judge Bagchi noted that herds of elephants from Nepal and North Bengal migrate to Odisha and Chhattisgarh, but these two states have built walls on their migration route.

Chief Justice Kant emphasized that creating such barriers is inadmissible, and that states cannot evade responsibility for maintaining elephant corridors for the free movement of herds solely due to crop damage, farmers' complaints, or difficulties for villagers. He added that the solution is not to block the corridors, but to find alternative routes.

The bench ruled that the ministry's guidelines for maintaining corridors must be strictly followed. When Bati informed the court that such an inspection was conducted in 2023, the court demanded that the government conduct a new assessment.

Judge Bagchi highlighted the need for synergy between states, noting that 'elephant corridors are not specific to any single state. Elephants move across states.' Chief Justice Kant questioned how any state could block traditional migration paths if they exist.

The court granted the government eight weeks to submit a report on the results of the new inspection. This report must also include information on compliance with the ban on using firearms, explosives, or torches to divert elephant herds from their natural migration routes.

The traditional idea that the increase in the consumption of animal-derived foods, which occurred approximately 2.5 million years ago, was the essential factor in human evolution is being questioned by new research. Paleoanthropologists argue that proteins and fats supplied the energy demands of ancestral brains, which were constantly developing.

However, a recent study published in the journal Science points out that dietary sugars, or glycemic carbohydrates, may have been equally important in sustaining the brain growth of hominids.

Over four million years, the brain of our lineage increased significantly, going from about 300 grams to 1,500 grams. These progressively larger brains, along with a high reproductive rate, demanded calories derived from carbohydrates, which constitute the main source of bodily energy and are not found in meat.

Energy sources such as starch only became available after much of this brain growth, at a time when early humans learned to use fire and cook.

The researchers sought to understand where the small amount of carbohydrates in the hominid diet came from. They discovered that, for the older hominids, similar to chimpanzees, this energy source consisted of sugars present in fruits and honey. It is estimated that, during much of the evolution, more than two-thirds of these individuals' energy came from fruit.

Additionally, the study identified traces of dental caries in fossils of primates and hominids, such as Homo erectus, indicating that their diet included soft and sweet items.

Jennie Brand-Miller, a scientist specializing in human nutrition at the University of Sydney, Australia, and the article's first author, had previously suggested in a 2017 paper that primates consuming fruit had larger brains compared to species that fed exclusively on leaves.

Driven by an interest in human evolution and specifically in changes in dietary patterns, the researcher focused on the diet of hominids over four million years. Initially, Brand-Miller and her team calculated the amount of glucose needed for the function of hominid organs and tissues, including red blood cells and kidneys, in addition to the brain.

Subsequently, they considered reproductive needs, since the fetus and placenta use glucose not only as energy but also as material for forming tissues. The synthesis of nerve cell membranes and DNA and RNA also requires glucose.

With all this information gathered, it was possible to model the diet of hominids, specifically Australopithecus afarensis, taking into account the availability of macronutrients such as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. It is concluded that these early ancestors had a predominantly vegetarian diet and depended on fruit for millions of years while their brains grew.