TAMILNADU

The Naduassembly on Tuesday adopted a resolution against the “imposition” ofHindi. The resolution, piloted by chief minister M KStalin, contended that the recommendations submitted to the President on September 9, are against the state languages including Tamil.

With political outfits and students organisations continuing their anti-Hindi agitations, the Tamil Nadu assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution against Hindi “imposition”, backed by all parties, barring the BJP. The resolution said the report submitted to the President by Union Home minister Amit Shah in his capacity as chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language and its recommendations were “detrimental to the people of non-Hindi speaking states, including Tamil Nadu”.

Heavy rains lashing acrossTamil Naduhave yielded the 90 reservoirs in the state a combined storage of 88% of their total holding capacity. Half of the 14,138 Irrigation tanks in the state have more than 50% storage as on Monday. About 20,000 cusecs of water will be released from Mettur reservoir in Salem district on Tuesday morning. Initially about 5,000 cusecs will be released and it will be stepped up in due course, said officials.

The state received excess rainfall of 43% between October 1 and November 8, with 12 districts – Ariyalur, Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Erode, Karur, Namakkal,Pudukkottai, Sivaganga, Tirunelveli, Thiruvarur, Trichy and Villupuram – registering more than 60% increase compared to the corresponding period last year. The delay in the retreat of the southwest monsoon and continuous rainfall till October end had already brought copious inflow into most water bodies. The seamless entry of northeast monsoon is adding to the storage, said a senior official. Incidentally, some 527 irrigation tanks in certain parts of the state like Tirunelveli, Dharmapuri, and Namakkal have nil storage owing to diversion of water from supply channels, poor desilting and encroachments.

The combined storage of all the reservoirs stood at 197.5 tmcft water as against a total capacity of 224.297tmcft water. With an inflow of 27,600 cusecs of water into Mettur, the dam is fast filling up. Surplus water is being released from Kabini andKrishnarajasagarreservoirs in Karnataka as both are brimming. The storage in Mullaperiyar dam on Monday was 6.735tmcft water as against a total capacity of 10.57 tmcft water. Nadu has been drawing 1,867 cusecs through tunnels.

Everyone inTamil Naduwill soon get a unique Health ID (UHID) that will help them access medicare and provide the government with a Database to better prioritise and provide health care.

The unique ID will also be the backbone for schemes such as makkalai thedi maruthum, a scheme to provide comprehensive and holistic healthcare for non-communicable diseases at peoples doorsteps. Every listed beneficiary under the scheme is brought under thePopulation Health Registry(PHR). The registry will have the name, age, gender, mobile number, smart (ration) card number, health ID, street details, health sub-center of the beneficiaries.

A four-day long session was held beginning June 21, with governor Banwarilal Purohit making a customary address to the newly elected members of the 16th assembly.

Nearly 35% of the construction work has been completed on the upcomingjallikattuarena at Keelakarai village near Alanganallur and it would be ready in December end as planned, state public works, highways and small ministers E V Velu, said after inspecting the work.

Chief minister M K Stalin had announced a world-class arena for jallikattu, the traditional sport ofTamil Nadu. While the arena is coming up for 77,683sqft, the whole premises would be of 16 acres. The arena will have vadivasal, administrative blocks, dispensary, medical facilities, cloak and changing rooms, screening rooms and dormitories.

Researchers from themolecular laboratoryin the department of Zoology and Wildlife Biology in the Government Arts College in Ooty have discovered a newwingless insectin the Nilgiris.
A research paper on the new species has been published in international journal Biologia published by Springer Nature. The 1mm-long flightless insect has been named Bionychiurus tamilensis as it was recorded in Tamil Nadu, said associate professor and laboratory head R Sanil. There are only six species under this genus reported so far across the world and reported only from cold high-altitude regions of Switzerland, China and Korea.
The insect was first observed in 2018 in the Soil samples collected fromOoty Government Arts Collegecampus. Further surveys showed its presence in grasslands and unpolluted humus soil samples.

DNA profiling was conducted and details are deposited in the NCBI Database. None of the similar specimens obtained from other parts of the world are barcoded till date.

Chief ministerM K Stalininaugurated 500 urban public Health centres that will offer free healthcare Services, including Vaccines for pregnant Women and children, tests for diseases such as tuberculosis, hypertension and diabetes, and medicines for ailments to urban poor.

The 500 urban primary healthcare centres 140 under the Greater Chennai Corporation, 50 for Coimbatore, 46 for and 25 each for Salem, Trichy, and Tiruppur in addition to 189 UPHCs in municipalities were inaugurated from the new centre on Vijayaraghava Road in T Nagar. Inspired by the Aam Aadmi Mohalla clinics in 2022,Stalinmade the announcement in the assembly that the state would also have 708 urban primary health centres to cater to the needs of the people living in the cities. Three decades ago, when young doctors graduated, they would set up small clinics near their houses, benefitting people in their neighbourhood. However, such clinics have vanished, said health minister Ma Subramanian. Now these urban centres will work for the urban poor, just like how primary health centres have worked for the people in rural areas, he added.

Each of these clinics, built at a cost of 25 lakh, will have a doctor, nurse, health inspector and an assistant recruited through the district health societies.

These UPHCs will offer telemedicine facilities for e-consultations and utilise the e-sanjeevani app to refer patients visiting these clinics to higher levels of care, such as peripheral hospitals, district headquarters, or government medical college hospitals

Chief ministerM K Stalinon Sunday revamped theState Development Policy Council(SDPC) with Prof J Jayaranjan as the new vice chairman.

Besides a permanent member, the revamped council, headed by the chief minister, will have eight part-time members, including industrialist Mallika Srinivasan and DMK MLA from Manargudi T R B Rajaa.

Astate planning commissionwas originally established by former chief ministerM Karunanidhion May 25, 1971 as an advisory body to recommend developmental schemes for the state. It was renamed as State Development Policy Council (SDPC) by the earlier AIADMK government on April 23, 2020, but retained former state finance minister C Ponnaiyan as its vice chairman, a post he was handling for the state .

The synchronised elephant census 2023 will start from Wednesday acrossTamil Nadu,KeralaandKarnataka. Around 40 teams have been constituted in the Coimbatore forest division to carry out the three-day census.
As per the nationwide syncrhonised elephant census 2017, it was estimated that Nadu had 2,761 elephants.
The Karnataka forest department expressed plans to conduct a joint syncrhornised elephant census with Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu forest department then asked the Kerala forest department to join the census.

According to sources, the Tamil Nadu forest department has identified 708 blocks from 26 forest divisions in the state for the census. As many as 42 blocks from seven forest ranges in the Coimbatore forest division were identified. Each block would have a team consisting of a forest department staff, anti-poaching watchers and two representatives of NGOs or college students.

The Pulayar, also known as Pulaya, Holeya, or Cheramar, are a major ethnic community in Kerala, Karnataka, and historical Nadu (Tamilakam).

In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, they are classified as a Scheduled Caste.

Pulayas are known for their music, craftsmanship, and specific dances such as,

Klam-thullal, a mask dance that is used in exorcism rituals, and

Mudi-ttam , or hair dance that originated in a fertility ritual.

Pulaya King was the name given to Mahatma Ayyankali.

Anamalai Tiger Reserve:

It is one of Tamil Nadu’s four Tiger Reserves.

It is located in the Southern Western Ghats and is part of the Anamalai Parambikulam Elephant Reserve, which was established in 2003.

It is bordered on the east by Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, on the south west by Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, and Eravikulam National Park (all belong to Kerala).

The reserve is also surrounded by Kerala’s reserved forests of Nenmara, Vazhachal, Malayattur, and Marayur.

Amaravathi, Udumalpet, Pollachi, Ulandy, Valparai, and Manamboli are among the ranges found in this reserve.