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- Odisha’s first captive breeding program for sambar will be carried out at the Satkosia division of the Satkosia Tiger Reserve.
- About Satkosia Tiger Reserve:
- Location: Situated in the central part of Odisha, the reserve spans across four districts: Angul, Cuttack, Boudh, and Nayagarh.
- Composition: It consists of two neighboring sanctuaries, the Baisipalli Sanctuary and the Satkosia Gorge Sanctuary.
- Size: The total area of the reserve is 963.87 sq km, with the core area covering 523.61 sq km.
- Significance: It forms part of the Mahanadi elephant reserve.
- Ecological Importance: Satkosia serves as the convergence zone of two distinct biogeographic regions of India—the Deccan Peninsula and the Eastern Ghats.
- Landscape:
- The terrain is predominantly hilly, with moderate to steep slopes and narrow valleys. The Mahanadi River meanders through the valleys, cutting across the center of the reserve. The average elevation ranges from 37 meters at the lowest point (Katrang) to 932 meters at the highest (Sunakhania).
- Vegetation:
- The forest is predominantly composed of North Indian tropical moist deciduous forests and moist peninsular low-level sal forests.
- Flora:
- The dominant tree species is sal, which grows in dense clusters. Other important species include Asan (Terminalia alata), Dhaura (Anogeissus latifolia), Bamboo (Dendrocalamus strictus), and Simal (Bombax ceiba).
- Fauna:
- The reserve is home to a relatively low population of tigers, leopards, elephants, spotted deer, sambar, chowsingha, barking deer, bison, wild dogs, sloth bears, jackals, giant squirrels, and porcupines. It also serves as a natural habitat for the endangered freshwater crocodile and gharial species.
- The Union government’s recent decision to amend the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act (CLNDA), 2010, and the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, is expected to excite American and French nuclear energy companies, whose projects have been stalled for over 15 years due to legal issues.
- About the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damages Act (CLNDA), 2010:
- The CLNDA was enacted by the Indian Parliament in 2010 and forms the legal framework governing India’s response to nuclear accidents. It aligns with international civil nuclear liability principles set out in the Vienna Convention, the Paris Convention, and the Brussels Supplementary Convention.
- The Act establishes a mechanism for compensating victims of nuclear accidents, defines liability, and outlines the process for compensation.
- Key Features:
- No-Fault Liability: The CLNDA holds the operator of a nuclear plant strictly liable for any damage, regardless of fault.
- Operator Liability: It mandates that the operator is liable for nuclear accidents up to ₹1,500 crore, which must be backed by insurance or financial security.
- Government Involvement: If claims exceed ₹1,500 crore, the government is expected to intervene, with its liability capped at 300 million Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), approximately ₹2,100 to ₹2,300 crore.
- Compensation Timeline: The Act specifies a timeline for processing compensation claims and grants the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board the authority to report incidents within 15 days.
- Nuclear Damage Claims Commission: It establishes a commission dedicated to facilitating fair compensation and resolving disputes related to nuclear damage claims.
- Chinese researchers recently deployed advanced detectors deep within the South China Sea to investigate the potential for establishing a large underwater observatory dedicated to detecting neutrinos.
- About Neutrinos:
- Neutrinos are almost massless, electrically neutral subatomic particles that interact extremely weakly with matter. This characteristic makes them incredibly challenging to detect.
- Initially theorized in 1930, neutrinos were not detected in experiments until 1956, and their mass was believed to be zero until more recent discoveries.
- Neutrinos belong to the lepton family of particles, which do not interact via the strong force. Instead, they are influenced by the weak force, which governs certain types of radioactive decay.
- Source: Neutrinos are produced in a variety of processes, often originating from heavy particles decaying into lighter ones. They are the most abundant particles in the universe, with about 100 trillion neutrinos passing through your body harmlessly every second.
- Neutrinos are essential in the standard model of particle physics and play a vital role in areas such as stellar physics, black hole studies, cosmology, and even in our understanding of the Big Bang.