Chattisgarh is on its way to accomplishing an action plan to develop the nation’s largest man-made forest on a vast area, mostly the abandoned and non-functional mining belt, at Nandini in Durg district, about 55 km from Raipur.
Category: Nature / Environment
** World-famous physicist Thanu Padmanabhan dies of a heart attack in Pune
A distinguished professor at Pune’s Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics and a cosmologist, Professor Padmanabhan was selected for ‘Kerala Shastra Puraskaram’ 2021 last month.
** Indian scientists develop noise control absorber mimicking beehives
Faculties at IIT Hyderabad’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, Dr B. Venkatesham and Dr Surya, fabricated low thickness and strong acoustic panels mimicking this property using biomimetic design methodology. The team also developed a mathematical model and calculated optimised parameters, and then fabricated the test samples using systematic, controlled parameters. Subsequently, fabrication of a large sample was done.
They have used two different approaches and their respective prototype machines with two different kinds of materials. One prototype is for paper honeycomb based on indexed Honeycomb Before Expansion process, and another prototype machine is for polymer honeycomb structure, based on hot wire technique.
** Sunday Story: Gujarat’s Dholavira village hopes for renewal via UNESCO world heritage tag
The last village on the western tip of Khadir island in the Great Rann of Kutch, Dholavira has a population of around 2,500.
** Bhupender Yadav inaugurates India’s first smog tower in Delhi’s Anand Vihar
The smog tower at Anand Vihar, with a height of over 20 metres, is of downdraft type and is intended for localised reduction in particulate matter.
** India’s highest herbal garden at 11,000 feet altitude inaugurated in Uttarakhand
The garden, located in Mana village of Chamoli district, has been developed by the research wing of state forest department on a three-acre land given by Mana Van Panchayat.
The garden, inaugurated by Mana sarpanch Pitambar Maulfa, has been developed in three years under the central government’s Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) scheme. It displays around 40 species, including important medicinal herbs, found in the high-altitude alpine areas of the Himalayan region.
** UAE: Meet the Indian scientist who discovered 11 species of insects
An Indian scientist based in Abu Dhabi has been awarded the prestigious Sheikh Mubarak bin Mohammed Prize for discovering 11 species of insects.
Dr Anitha Saji, scientist at the Environment Agency — Abu Dhabi (EAD), said insects are an important component of biodiversity and crucial for ecological balance.
** Geological museum and lab for Dhanbad’s premiere college
Newly established facility at P.K. Roy Memorial will strengthen the infrastructure and fetch a better NAAC ratings.
A state-of-art Geological Museum and Microscopic Lab established in the Geology department of Dhanbad’s P.K. Roy Memorial College was inaugurated on Friday by Anjani Kumar Srivastava, vice chancellor of Binod Bihari Mahto Koyalanchal.
** Leopards up from 7,910 to 12,852 in India’s tiger range landscapes
An estimated 12,852 leopards were counted in the tiger range landscape in 2018, a significant increase from 2014 when the figure stood at 7,910 in forested habitats of 18 tiger-bearing states of the country.
A maximum of these leopards are found in Madhya Pradesh (3,421) followed by Karnataka (1,783), and Maharashtra (1,690), according to the ‘Status of Leopards, Co-Predators and Megha-herbivores in India 2018’ report released by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav at an event to mark the Global Tiger Day on Thursday