ODISHA
WSO: Elephant landscape witnessing dramatic change in Odisha
According to WSO, elephant landscape has changed dramatically in last two decades.
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.
Elephant count in state
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.
Status of elephant corridors
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.
INTERNATIONAL
Wildfires in Algeria: Highlights
President of Algeria, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, expressed condolences for 25 soldiers. They lost their life while rescuing people at the epicentre of the blazes.
Areas of Bejaiea and Tizi Ouzou are epicentre of the blazes. Dozens of fires started in Kabyle region also.
The Kabyle region is located 100 kilometres east of capital city Algiers. Area comprises of difficult-to-access villages and limited water.
Algeria joins the string of countries like Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and western United States that were hit by major blazes recently.
Wildlife Fires
Forest fires are also called as bush or vegetation fire or forest fire. It can be defined as uncontrolled and non-prescribed combustion or burning of plants in natural setting like forest, brush land or tundra, grassland. It consumes natural fuels and spreads in accordance with environmental conditions such as wind or topography. Such fires can be incited by human actions like land clearing or extreme drought or by lightning.
NATIONAL
AL-MOHED AL-HINDI 2021 exercise between India & Saudi Arabia
To participate in the exercise, India’s guided-missile destroyer INS Kochi reached Saudi Arabia.
The joint naval exercise will showcase the reflection of growing defence and military cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia.
INS Kochi reached to Saudi Arabia after conducting a naval exercise with the UAE Navy off the coast of Abu Dhabi.
Harbour phase of the exercise
Harbour phase of the Al-Mohed Al-Hindi 2021 exercise started on August 9, 2021. Sea-based drills started from August 11. After INS Kochi arrived at the Jubail port, it was given a warm welcome by officials of Royal Saudi naval forces.
India-USA: agreement on Monsoon Data Analysis
MoU was signed by Ambassador of India to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu and Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Acting Administrator of NOAA, Dr Neil A Jacobs.
The agreement seeks to improve weather forecasting in Indian region.
Under the agreement, scientific groups from India and the US have decided to put their expertise together.
Both the countries seek to gain some new understanding on monsoon by collecting data and analyze it.
Under it, both the countries would enhance technical cooperation in development of the Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA) as well as the Ocean Moored buoy Network in northern Indian ocean (OMNI) in order to improve weather and monsoon forecasts between NOAA and Ministry of Earth Sciences, India.
Delhi Airport among world’s top-50 best airports in 2021
Delhi Airport emerged as best airport in India for the third consecutive year.
Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru have also found a rank among world’s 100 best airports.
Airport ranking list
According to Skytrax 2021 world airport’s awards list, Delhi has been ranked at 45th position. Ranking has improved by five places as compared to number 50 in 2020. Delhi airport is first Indian airport to achieve this mark.
Hyderabad has been ranked at 64th Its raking has been improved by seven places against 71st in 2020.
Mumbai is at 65th number, 13 places down from 52nd position in 2020.
Bengaluru is at 71st number, 3 places down from 68th rank in 2020.
Ranking of airports globally
World’s top-5 airports include:
- Doha Hamad International Airport
- Tokyo Haneda airport
- Changi airport Singapore
- Seoul Incheon International Airport and
- Tokyo Narita
National Council for Older Persons
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.
Reconstitution of NCOP
NCOP was reconstituted in 2012 to encourage more participation from every region. Council was renamed as National Council of Senior Citizens (NCSrC).
Meeting of NCOP
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 Citizen’s 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.
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