14-08-21 Daily-Odisha-OPSC Current Affairs

In Keonjhar district of Odisha, there were 112 elephants in 2002. Now, it has only 40 elephants due to large-scale mining.

Recently, in last 20 days of July-August, five elephants were found dead in Keonjhar forest division.

Dhenkanal district had 81 elephants in 2002 which has increased to 169. Many elephants are getting trapped in the Rengali Irrigation canals.

On the similar lines, 70 elephants from Chandaka sanctuary have abandoned the area and have migrated to Nayagarh, Ganjam and Cuttack districts. Many of them were killed by trains or due to electrocution in Ganjam.

Around 20 adult breeding male elephants die per year, mostly because of poaching and electrocution.

Instance of the distressed elephants in Odisha has gone up with time because their habitats and paths are continuously encroached upon for farming, mining, industries and Urbanisation. In the districts like Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda and Angul, elephants lost their habitats due to rampant mining.

State had 2,044 elephants in Odisha in the year 1979. But as per census 2017, their numbers have reduced to 1976 as they were compelled to leave native forests. Now, elephants are restricted to 26 districts out of 30 districts. 2017 census highlights that, 344 out of 1,976 elephant Population were male.

Most of the elephant corridors and reserve plans are only confined to paper. Traditional elephant corridors have been degraded that has restricted their Migration. In 2010, Fourteen elephant corridors were officially identified covering over 870 sq. km.

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It was constituted under the Chairpersonship of Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.

The council look after the implementation of the Policy and advise the Government to formulate and implement policy and programmes for senior citizens.

NCOP was reconstituted in 2012 to encourage more participation from every region. Council was renamed as National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSrC).

Third meeting of the Council was held in June, 2018.

Issues like Schemes, Programmes and Act were discussed in the meeting for the welfare of Senior Citizens.

Status or action taken by the Government is listed below:

Council suggested to strengthen the Amendments to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (MWPSC) Act, 2007. Following it, government introduced Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in the Lok Sabha.

Council suggested to organise more distribution camps under Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RYY). Based on this, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment revised RVY to cover all the districts across country.

Council also advised to simplify the process of registration of NGOs following which, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment has been running a simplified Online NGO portal called e-Anudaan.

It suggests to provide financial assistance to senior citizens who are cancer patients from Senior Citizens Welfare Fund (SCWF). In line with the suggestion, government is providing financial assistance of up to Rs 2 lakh under Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) scheme.