The Supreme Court has banned mining in the Aravalli Hills to stop degradation the forest cover and to maintain ecological balance. However, the stone mining to still prevalent in the border district of the affected State with connivance of certain corrupt forest officials and politicians. Young and dynamic SP who was recently posted in the affected district promised to himself to stop this menace. In one of his surprise checks with his team, he found loaded truck with stone trying to escape the mining area. He tried to stop the truck but the truck driver overrun the police officer, killing him on the spot and thereafter managed to flee. Police filed FIR but no breakthrough was achieved in the case for almost three months. Ashok who was the Investigative Journalist working with leading TV channel, suo moto started investigating the case. Within one month, Ashok got breakthrough by interacting with local people, stone mining masia and government officials. He prepared his investigative story and presented to the CMD of the TV channel. He exposed in his investigative report the complete nexus of stone mafia working with blessing of corrupt police and civil officials and politicians. The politician who was involved in the mafia was no one else but local MLA who was considered to be very close to the Chief Minister. After going through the investigative report, the CMD advised Ashok to drop the idea of making the story public through electronic media. He informed that the local MLA was not only the relative of the owner of the TV channel but also had unofficially 20 percent share in the channel. The CMD further informed Ashok that his further promotion and hike in pay will be taken care of in addition the soft loan of 10 lakhs which he has taken from the TV channel for his son’s chronic disease will be suitably adjusted if he hands over the investigative report to him. 1) What are the options available with Ashok to cope up with the situation? 2) Critically evaluate/examine each of the options identified by Ashok. 3) What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by Ashok? 4) Which of the options, do you think, would be the most appropriate for Ashok to adopt and why? 5) In the above scenario, what type of training would you suggest for police officers posted to such districts where stone mining illegal activities are rampant?
What the examiner wants
In this Mining, Ecology & Livelihood Ethics case (The Supreme Court has banned mining in the Aravalli Hills to stop degradation the forest cover and to…), separate facts/constraints from the value conflict and resolve the explicit asks in order: What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by Ashok; then Which of the options, do you think, would be the most appropriate for Ashok to adopt and…; then In the above scenario, what type of training would you suggest for police officers posted…. Defend the preferred option against realistic alternatives.
Demand-wise check
- 1What are the options available with Ashok to cope up with the situation?≈40 words
- 2Critically evaluate/examine each of the options identified by Ashok≈40 words
- 3What are the ethical dilemmas being faced by Ashok?≈40 words
- 4Which of the options, do you think, would be the most appropriate for Ashok to adopt and why?≈40 words
- 5In the above scenario, what type of training would you suggest for police officers posted to such districts where stone mining illegal activities are rampant?≈40 words
Open in about 30 words and close in about 30.
Answer plan
Where marks usually go
- Over-writing ‘What are the options available with Ashok to cope up with the situation’ while reducing ‘Critically evaluate/examine each of the options identified by Ashok.’ to a token paragraph
- Naming values without testing each feasible option for legality, affected stakeholders, consequences, implementation risk and reversibility
Value addition
- Mining, Ecology & Livelihood Ethics: stakeholder map beside a 4-column option matrix — option | legality/ethics | consequences | mitigation
→ Draw it in the body, next to the point it supports.
Official source anchors
These are authoritative sources selected for this exact PYQ. Where a card is an official-domain anchor rather than a fact-level citation, verify the precise provision, definition or data point on the linked source before using it.
Next: plan for one minute, write it in 14 minutes, then get it checked.