Uttarakhand space agency identifies over 26,000ha forest area for Tasar silk development

Uttarakhand Space Application Centre (USAC), under a comprehensive project in collaboration with North East Space Application Centre (NESAC), has identified over 25,000 hectares (ha) of oak forest areas in three districts — Chamoli, Pauri Garhwal and Bageshwar — which are suitable for Tasar silk production in the state.

As part of the project which was funded by the Central Silk Board (CSB), USAC identified forest land with the help of remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) mapping.

Based on the information collected using high resolution satellite data and ground survey, 26,621 ha of oak forests were found in the three districts. Chamoli has a maximum of 15,896 ha, of which 8,535 ha was highly suitable for Tasar silkworm rearing. Bageshwar district has 10,317 ha and Pauri Garhwal 1,408 ha.

The Uttarakhand government has awarded All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh with Ayushman Samman for its valuable contribution in treating patients under Ayushman Bharat Yojana. The hospital has so far treated 51,120 patients free of cost under the scheme. Since the inception of the scheme, 10,900 Ayushman cards have been made in AIIMS.

The hospital administration claims that apart from Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, patients of many states have been treated in the hospital under the scheme.

To tackle Covid-19 pandemic, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami announced an incentive package of about Rs 205 crore for the States health sector and the personnel employed in it.

This package will benefit about 3.73 lakh people of the State.

According to the package, Asha facilitators and Anganwadi workers will receive Rs 2,000 per month each for the next five months. Similarly, group C and D personnel of the Health department will receive Rs 3,000 each and Rs 10,000 each will be provided to the doctors. This will benefit about 61,000 personnel.

Additionally, 1,120 Asha facilitators and Anganwadi workers will also receive one tablet each. Homoeopathic and Ayurvedic kits will also be distributed to these personnel to boost their immunity and protect them from ill-effects of Covid. About 3,73,568 persons will benefit from these decisions. Regarding the expansion of health Services in the State, Dhami said Government medical colleges will be established in Haridwar and Pithoragarh districts for which Rs 70 crore each will be released in the current financial year.

CIMAP’s aromatic plants to bloom in Uttarakhand

Soon, new varieties ofRosemaryandDamaskrose – high-value aromatic crop – developed by city-based CSIR-Central Institute of Plants“>Medicinal And Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) will spread their fragrance in Uttarakhand and bring smiles to the faces of farmers struggling with financial, climatic and crop loss due to wild animals.

Under its ‘Aroma Mission’, the CIMAP aims at increasing the income of farmers through cultivation of aromatic plants.

It was started in India in 2016 but will be launched in Uttarakhand for the first time.

Uttarakhand to introduce modern farming tech in 9 hill districts

In one of the major steps to address the needs of locals, the directorate has now decided to generate livelihood for villagers living in the nine hill districts ofUttarakhandas per the changing Environment with the Climate responsive Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture system.

So, as per theWorld Bankapproved project — Uttarakhand Climate Responsive Rain-fedFarming Project, the State Government has now decided to introduce modern technologies and innovative ways to bring source of EMPLOYMENT at their doorstep keeping changing climate at the core of planning. Villagers will be provided different Options of farming and Livestock rearing so that the border areas and Mountains are not hit by the heat of Climate Change.

Uttarakhand is known for its Millets, pulses and rice. Even in the hills people have started complaining of huge variation between day and night temperature impacting their overall lifestyle, thereby earnings. It will be for the first time that in such a large scale, mountain people are being shifted to other kinds of farming.

As part of efforts to better deal with the Covid-19 situation, chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat virtually inaugurated oxygen generation plants in five hospitals in different parts of the state. The oxygen plants inaugurated by the CM include a 250 LPM plant at Bageshwar district hospital, 100 LPM plant at Champawat district hospital, 200 LPM plant at Pithoragarh district hospital and 1,000 LPM capacity plants each in Himalayan Hospital, Jolly Grant and Coronation Hospital in Dehradun.

These five Plants will generate a total of 4.76 metric tonnes of Oxygen per day. Rawat thanked Azim Premji for the 600 LPM oxygen plant being set up in Pithoragarh with the help of Azim Premji Foundation and social worker Gopal Goswami for facilitating CSR funding for the Bageshwar plant. The oxygen plants set up in Champawat, Pithoragarh and Dehradun have been provided for by the Government of India through the PM CARES fund.

U’khand asks to spend nights in rural pockets of hills & meet locals

In an effort to help people living in far-flung pockets of the Himalayan state, theUttarakhandgovernment has announced that Ias officers would now have to spend nights in rural pockets of hills and meet the locals.

Following the directives from senior authorities, the state planning department has passed an order in this regard which states that the process of visiting hill districts and staying in remote villages would commence from June. According to the guidelines for the next one year, the officers would have to visit the assigned areas once in each 15 days. Within a week of the visit, they would be required to hand over their report to the government.

For the plain areas of the state, additional chief secretaries Radha Raturi and Anand Bardhan would visit three districts of Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital once in three months. The first list for the month of June contains names of 21 IAS officers who would visit the remaining 10 districts.

For easy and fast communication during the time of natural disasters, the Uttarakhand government would set up community radio centres in all districts of the state.

It is pertinent to mention here that there is a provision to set up community radios in different districts with the help of nongovernmental organisations (NGO) and autonomous bodies under the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA). However due to official apathy, the scheme has not made any impact far.

Apart from them the proposals to set up community radios have been sought from the universities and autonomous bodies. In the order the department has said that the USDMA would provide a sum of Rs 10 lakh for setting up community radio centres in districts. Similarly a financial help of Rs 2 lakh per year for three years would be provided for operating these centres.

Uttarakhand plans 50 health kiosks on Char Dham yatra route

In a move to spruce up the Health for the upcomingChar Dham yatra, theUttarakhandgovernment on Saturday signed an MoU with IT firm Hewlett Packard Enterprise to openhealthcare kiosksat 50 points along the yatra route.
The move will help install ‘one-stop digital touch-point integrated built-in healthcare kiosks’ with diagnostic equipment which will be set up at the locations where pilgrims usually take a break while undertaking the pilgrimage. The diagnosis of almost all vital tests related to cardiology, neurology and pulmonary would be conducted through these kiosks, an official said.

15,000 tuberculosis patients to be adopted in Uttarakhand

In a bid to encourage community participation in eradicating tuberculosis (TB), the state Health and cooperative ministerDhan Singh Rawat announced that all the 670 Primary Agricultural credit Society (PACS) — multipurpose cooperative committees — of Uttarakhand, along with the chairman and secretary of thecooperatives, will adopt over 15,000 TB patients.

The cooperatives will ensure that the adopted TB patients get adequate treatment and proper care. Chairman and secretaries of these cooperatives will reach out to these patients to find out if they are getting medicines on time or facing any other issues.