UTTARAKHAND

Uttarakhand: Artificial water sources quenching the thirst of wildlife in forest of Rajaji Tiger Reserve

Erratic weather patterns have been hitting the natural sources of water in forests for years now, forcing wild animals to move out of their natural habitats in search of water. This would often lead to human-animal conflict incidents in Uttarakhand.

To address this issue, the state forest department, sometime ago, started a massive drive to arrange artificial water sources for wild animals in the reserved and protected forest areas, including Rajaji Tiger Reserve and Haridwar forest divisions — where the cases of human-animal conflict deaths were going up.

This year, the Rajaji Tiger Reserve has recorded just one human-wildlife conflict incident whereas no such case surfaced in the Haridwar forest divisions.

Notably, Uttarakhand is home to 2,026 elephants, according to an estimation done by the forest department in 2020. A majority of these jumbos are found in the Shivalik Elephant Reserve, which is spread across more than a dozen forest divisions and protected wildlife areas of Uttarakhand.

INTERNATIONAL

International Everest Day is on 29th May

May 29 is the International Mount Everest Day. Tenzing Norgay of Nepal and Edmund Hillary of New Zealand climbed Mt.

On this day in 1953, Mount Everest became the first human to achieve this feat. Nepal decided to make the 2008 International Mount Everest Remembrance Day an International Mountaineering Festival, and the legendary climber Hillary passed away. Everest Day commemorates the first summit on May 29 every year. In 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa climbed Mount Everest. This day is celebrated with commemorations, parades and special events in Kathmandu and the Everest region.

International Day of UN Peacekeepers is on 29th May

May 29 will be the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. On May 29, 1948, the first United Nations peacekeeping mission was established when the Security Council authorized a small number of United Nations military observers in the Middle East.

Highlights:

♦ United Nations peacekeeping is a joint effort between the Department of Peace Operations and the Department of Operations Support. The Security Council authorizes every peacekeeping mission.

♦ The financial resources of UN peacekeeping operations are the collective responsibility of UN member states. According to the “United Nations Charter”, each member state has a legal obligation to pay its share of peacekeeping.

NATIONAL

Panel Constituted to Suggest Reforms to IPC

The Union Home Ministry has established a panel to recommend changes to the Indian Penal Code (IPC)

Highlights:

♦ It will almost certainly propose a separate Section on “offences relating to speech and expression.”

♦ Because there is no clear definition of what constitutes “hate speech” in the IPC, the Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws is attempting to define such speech for the first time.

Creation of a Lakshadweep Development Authority – LDA

The people of Lakshadweep are dissatisfied with the new administrator Praful Khoda Patel’s decision to establish a Lakshadweep Development Authority (LDA).

The establishment of the Lakshadweep Development Authority (LDA) with broad powers includes the eviction of landowners.
It is generally believed that this was promoted by the real estate lobby group and violated the interests of the islanders.

Technology Development Board (TDB) Carbon Technology

TDB National Award 2021 was given to a Bangalore start-up for its recycling carbon technology.

Highlights:

The award was given to the start-up for creating a commercial solution for converting CO2 to chemicals and fuels.

Breathe Applied Sciences, a start-up incubated at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), created efficient catalysts and methodologies for converting CO2 to methanol and other chemicals.

The advancement is significant because of the aid of the solution in the conversion of anthropogenic CO2 generated from various sources such as coal and natural gas power generation sectors, steel industry, cement industry, and chemical industries.

Launch of SeHAT OPD portal

The Ministry of Defence launched the Services e-Health Assistance & Tele-consultation (SeHAT) OPD portal.

Highlights:
♦ The portal offers telemedicine services to serving Armed Forces personnel, veterans, and their families. This is the final version of the SeHAT OPD portal, which includes advanced safety features.

♦ The trial version became operational in August 2020.

♦ It is developed by the Department of Military Affairs (DMA), the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS), the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS)and the Centre for the Development of Artificial Computing (C-DAC) Mohali

♦ The portal will assist hospitals in reducing their workload, and patients will be able to obtain contactless consultations in a simple and efficient manner.

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