Uttarakhand lost 21 jumbos last year
As many as 21 elephants, including 17 males and four females, died in Uttarakhand in year 2019 , according to state forest department. The silver lining was that none of these deaths were linked to poaching and poisoning. Forest officials claimed that this is the lowest death count in last four years. Eight died of natural causes, four lost lives in road accidents, two were run over by trains, three got electrocuted, three were killed in infighting, and one died of an unknown cause. Uttarakhand lost 38 elephant each in 2018 and 2017. Since the year 2000, 420 elephants have lost their lives in the hill state.
MoS status for ten leaders
Amidst talks of a Cabinet expansion, the government accorded state minister status to 10 BJP leaders. According to the list announced by the state government, Rajveer Singh has been made chairman of state seeds and organic products certification agency and Vishwas Dabar was made chairman of housing and development council. Rajveer Singh and Vishwas Dabar were made chairman, whereas the remaining eight were accorded positions of vice-chairperson. While Bahadur Singh Bisht was made vice-chairperson of state higher education development committee, Atar Singh Aswal the vice-chairman of irrigation advisory committee and Atar Singh Tomar were made vice-chairperson of irrigation advisory committee.
Breakthrough research
IIT-Roorkee has claimed to have discovered a new chemical compound that can be effective in dealing with multi-drug resistant bacteria. The study began in 2010 and its report was published in the ‘Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy’ in October 2019. Researchers said that the compound can kill highly multi-drug resistant strains of Escherichia coli (that causes diarrhoea), Acinetobacter baumannii (causing infections that occur due to hospital stay), Klebsiella pneumonia (bacteria that colonises human mucosal surfaces of the oropharynx and gastrointestinal tract) as well as Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Notice to establishments
The Uttarakhand State Pollution Control Board last week issued notices 196 hotels, dharamshalas, and restaurants for operating without requisite permissions. The notice directed the owners of these establishments to get clearance from the board by March 31 or action will be initiated against them. The move comes after the board conducted an inspection of 218 of these enterprises. The officials of the board added that the most of the owners have not applied for the permission yet.