Himachal Pradesh Weekly Current Affairs
Kartar Singh for Padma Shri Award:
- Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has congratulated Kartar Singh for having being announced for Padma Shri Award by the Government of India for his outstanding work in the field of art.
- Kartar Singh, who belongs to district Hamirpur of Himachal Pradesh had brought laurels to the state with this achievement.
- His work is in woodcraft and carving wood inside the glass bottles.
CM hails Himachal’s achievement in India Innovation Index:
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has expressed happiness that Himachal Pradesh has received the top position among North Eastern/ Hilly states in India Innovation Index 2020, released by NITI Aayog, depicting capabilities and performances of the States.
Himachal Pradesh ranked Best Performing State in Biomedical Waste Management:
- In a comparative evaluation made by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) regarding implementation of the Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016, Himachal Pradesh has been ranked as top performing State in the country along with UTs like Chandigarh, Delhi, Puducherry and State like West Bengal. All these States/UTs have total score of 21 out of 24 according to a report submitted by the CPCB before the Hon’ble National Green Tribunal.
- The CPCB identified 12 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess States with respect to effectiveness in monitoring, ensuring compliance and implementation of the Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016.
- Pursuant to the notification of new Regulation in the year 2016, the State Board has taken several initiatives to sensitize the stakeholder institutions which mainly are Allopathic, Ayurvedic and Veterinary hospitals/institutions to achieve the better compliance of Rules.
- In this regard more than 100 trainings and workshops were organized by the State Board at State, District and local level to bring in all institutions under regulatory ambit of the Rules.
About Biomedical Waste Treatment Facilities in the state:
- There are two Common Biomedical Waste Treatment Facilities (CBWTFs) operating in the State with cumulative treatment and disposal capacity of 9.2 MT per day, of which incineration capacity is 2.4 MT/day.
- Approximately, 90 percent of the biomedical waste is collected and disposed-off by the two CBWTFs and remaining 10 percent through captive disposal facilities of the respective Health Care Institutions situated in remote/far flung areas of the State.
- To ensure the operational compliance of these CBWTFs, online continuous emission monitoring systems have been installed, which transmit its emissions monitoring data on real time basis with the server of the State/Central regulatory agencies.
- Besides, segregation, pre-treatment, on-site storage, barcoding and treatment of liquid waste etc. is also mandatory for all health care facilities.
Himachal becomes first State to complete assessment of snow leopard and its wild prey:
- Himachal Pradesh has become the first state to complete assessment of snow leopard and its wild prey.
- The assessment of snow leopard population in has been completed by the state wildlife wing in collaboration with Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) Bangalore following the protocol aligning with the SPAI (Snow Leopard Population Assessment in India) protocols of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
- It is the first scientifically robust estimate of snow leopards and its prey for the State. Since snow leopard is the state animal, the study assumes great significance for Himachal Pradesh.
- The state has an estimated population of up to 73 snow leopards.
- The exercise revealed that snow leopard density ranged from 0.08 to 0.37 individuals per 100 sq.km., with the trans-Himalayan regions of Spiti, Pin valley and upper Kinnaur recording the highest densities, both of the predator and its prey, mainly ibex and blue sheep.
- This study covered the entire potential snow leopard habitat of Himachal Pradesh: an area of 26,112 sq.km., utilising a stratified sampling design.
- Camera trapping surveys were conducted at 10 sites to representatively sample all the strata i.e. high, low and unknown.
- The camera trap deployment over the mountainous terrains was led by a team of eight local youth of Kibber village and more than 70 frontline staff of HPFD were trained in this technique as part of the project.
- Snow leopards were detected at all the 10 sites (Bhaga, Chandra, Bharmour, Kullu, Miyar, Pin, Baspa, Tabo, Hangrang & Spiti) suggesting that snow leopards are found in the entire snow leopard habitat in Himachal Pradesh either as resident individuals of a population or as dispersing individuals navigating through these connecting habitats.
- Another revelation from the study is that a bulk of snow leopard occurrence is outside protected areas, reiterating the fact that local communities are the strongest allies for conservation in snow leopard landscapes.
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