17th December 2020.

 

Topic: Culture and Language

 

What is the news?

 

• Three new Pahadi dialects added to the Google keyboard.

 

Okay, what three dialects?

• Kangri, Mandyali and Mahasuvi

 

In what way will this be advantageous?

• Now, the state’s people can use these three Pahadi dialects in sending their messages through social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, etc. through their Android phones.

(Source: Giriraj Magazine 16th Dec 2020)

 

 

Topic: Infrastructure and Development

 

What is News?

 

• A center of excellence in tourism, hospitality and IT coming to Chausha close to Waknaghat.

 

Purpose:

• The centre will meet the demand of the IT industry in analytics, robotics and artificial intelligence.

(Source: - The Tribune)

Topic: – Wild Life

 

What is the news?

 

• Musk deer sighted in the Lahaul Valley.
• After observing a serow, a rare species of fauna in the Spiti Valley, now a Himalayan musk deer have been spotted in the Lahaul Valley.

 

Local Initiative:-

• The musk deer were on the brink of extinction at Lahaul-Spiti, but after the intervention of the local Mahila Mandals, their numbers increased. In 2012, the mandals banned hunting and decided to impose a fine on the violators and to boycott them socially.

 

Previous Success:-

• The number of ibex, a wild goat species that was also on the brink of extinction, is rising rapidly. The movement of the ibex is easily seen at Lahaul during the winters.

 

Contribution of women:-

• “The cooperation of Mahila Mandals is also commendable.”DFO

(Credit:WWF)

 

About Musk Deer:-

• The musk deer may refer to anyone, or the seven, of the species that make up Moschus, the only existing genus of the Moschidae family.
• Although they are commonly referred to as deer, they are not true deer in the cervid family.
• The musk deer family differs from cervids, or true deer, by lacking antlers and facial glands and by possessing only a single pair of teats, a gall bladder, a caudal gland, a pair of tusk-like teeth and—of particular economic importance to humans—a musk gland.
• The musk deer lives mainly in the forest and alpine brush of the mountains of southern Asia, especially in the Himalayas.
• Moschids, the proper term when referring to this type of deer rather than one/multiple species of musk deer, are entirely Asian in their present distribution, being extinct in Europe where the earliest musk deer are known to have existed from Oligocene sediments.

(Source:-The Tribune)