Mudumalai Tiger reserve
- Mudumalai National Park is a national park in the Nigiri Mountains in Tamil Nadu, south India, covering 321 km2 (124 sq mi).
- It is located in the Nilgiri District and shares boundaries with the states of Karnataka and Kerala.
- It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and was declared a tiger reserve in 2007. It harbours several endangered and vulnerable species including Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, Indian elephant and gaur.
- Mudumalai National Park harbours 266 bird species, including Indian white-rumped vulture and long-billed vulture
Basic Geography
- Mudumalai National Park is located in the eastern hills of the Western Ghats at an elevation range of 850–1,250 m (2,790–4,100 ft). It is bordered in the north by Bandipur National Park, in the east by Sigur Reserve Forest and in the west by Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.
- In the south, it is bordered by Singara Reserve Forest. The Moyar River and its tributaries drain this area, and several artificial waterholes provide drinking water for wildlife during dry seasons.
- The elevation range of 250–1,200 m (820–3,940 ft) in the Western Ghats is characterised by evergreen forest with dipterocarp species prevailing.
- Its undulating hills consist mostly of hornblendite and biotite gneiss with black sandy loam; red heavy loam prevails in the southern part.
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TB
Why in News?
- The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed years of global progress in tackling tuberculosis and for the first time in over a decade, TB deaths have increased, according to the 2021 Global TB report released recently by the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Worse, India (41%) was on the list of countries that topped those which contributed most to the global reduction in TB notifications between 2019 and 2020.
- India, along with Indonesia (14%), the Philippines (12%), China (8%) and 12 other countries, accounted for 93% of the total global drop in notifications.
- The WHO estimated that some 4.1 million people currently suffer from TB but had not been diagnosed with it or had not officially reported to the national authorities.
- This figure is up from 2.9 million in 2019. About TB
- A person may develop TB after inhaling Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) bacteria.
- When TB affects the lungs, the disease is the most contagious, but a person will usually only become sick after close contact with someone who has this type of TB.
- TB infection (latent TB)–A person can have TB bacteria in their body and never develop symptoms. In most people, the immune system can contain the bacteria so that they do not replicate and cause disease. In this case, a person will have TB infection but not active disease.
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Endemic Transmission
- In epidemiology, an infection is said to be endemic in a population when that infection is constantly maintained at a baseline level in a geographic area without external inputs.
- For example, chickenpox is endemic (steady state) in the United Kingdom, but malaria is not.
- Every year, there are a few cases of malaria reported in the UK, but these do not lead to sustained transmission in the population due to the lack of a suitable vector (mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles).
- For an infection that relies on person-to-person transmission, to be endemic, each person who becomes infected with the disease must pass it on to one other person on average.
- Assuming a completely susceptible population, that means that the basic reproduction number (R0) of the infection must equal one.
- In epidemiology, the basic reproduction number, or basic reproductive number (sometimes called basic reproduction ratio or basic reproductive rate), denoted of an infection is the expected number of cases directly generated by one case in a population where all individuals are susceptible to infection.
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Childhood infection
- Childhood infection with the coronavirus is mostly mild and self-limiting as children have lower density of the ACE2 receptor (the portal of cell-entry of virus) in their respiratory passages. Multi-system-inflammatory syndrome, a severe complication encountered in children, is fortunately very rare and treatable.
- Under these circumstances, children are best protected by fully immunizing all school personnel (teachers, non-teaching staff, and transport) and all eligible subjects at home, thereby creating a protective mantle.
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PM Gati Shakti plan
- PM Gati Shakti Plan, a 100 lakh crore national infrastructure master plan which will make a foundation for holistic infrastructure and give an integrated pathway to our economy,”.
- PM Gati Shakti targets to cut logistics costs, increase cargo handling capacity and reduce the turnaround time. The plan aims to lend more power and speed to projects by connecting all concerned departments on one platform
- The Gati Shakti scheme will subsume the Rs 110 lakh crore National Infrastructure Pipeline that was launched in 2019.
- It also aims to have 11 industrial corridors and two new defense corridors one in Tamil Nadu and other in Uttar Pradesh. Extending 4G connectivity to all villages is another aim. Adding 17,000 kms to the gas pipeline network is being planned.
- It will help in fulfilling the ambitious targets set by the government for 2024-25, including expanding the length of the national highway network to 2 lakh kms, creation of more than 200 new airports, heliports and water aerodromes.
- It will help in fulfilling the ambitious targets set by the government for 2024-25, including expanding the length of the national highway network to 2 lakh kms, creation of more than 200 new airports, heliports and water aerodromes.
- It also aims to have 11 industrial corridors and two new defense corridors one in Tamil Nadu and other in Uttar Pradesh.
- Extending 4G connectivity to all villages is another aim. Adding 17,000 kms to the gas pipeline network is being planned.
- Gati Shakti plan involves the creation of a common umbrella platform through which infrastructure projects can be planned and implemented with coordination between various ministries/departments on a real-time basis.
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E voting
- The Telangana SEC would be carrying out a smartphone app-based online voting experiment on October 20, the State Government had announced last week.
- The EC, on the other hand, had said last year that it was looking at the option of remote voting for those electors unable to reach the polling stations they are registered at.
- However, this could entail voting from another location set up by the authorities and not Internet-based voting from home
- The technology is simple, credibility and trust in the technology is the issue,” he said.
- if EVMs were still being challenged, how could an Internet-based system of voting be acceptable
- Elections are conducted with the total trust of voters, political parties, candidates and the public at large.
- One has to see to it that during voting, the voter ID, the environment , and the security of ballots cast till the time of counting are maintained,”
- It was not clear how verification of voter identification, maintaining a free voting environment and secrecy of ballots would be maintained
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Museum in Zurich
- Museum Rietberg, based in Zurich, Switzerland, has established a unique research center and fellowship programme with a focus on Indian art.
- The GBF Centre is meant for scholars, curators, and artists who specialize in Indian painting
- Research fellows will get a chance to engage with original art works from renowned collections for three to six months in a project of their own design.
- They will work with the museum’s team of scholars as well as experts from Switzerland and Europe
- The programme aims to enhance international scientific, artistic, and curatorial exchange on Indian art and advance the museum’s own collections through dialogues from different perspectives.
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