Madhya Pradesh

• 12 Mar 2022

1652 Wild Animals in Van Vihar National Park

Why in News

• On March 11, 2022, the director of Van Vihar National Park Zoo, Bhopal, H.C. Gupta said that the number of herbivorous wild animals living freely in the Van Vihar National Park Zoo and kept in the enclosures is 1652.

Key Points

• The Director said that in the census conducted on February 24, 25 and 26 this year, 1516 wild animals were found to move freely. These include 522 chital, 362 sambar, 81 nilgai, 90 wild boar, 257 peacock, 51 jackal, 60 langur, 71 black deer, 3 chausingha, 3 sehi, 11 reindeer, 3 wild cat and one chinkara and pegolin each.
• In the last 3 years, there has been an increase in the number of chital, wild boar, peacock, langur, reindeer, gharial and mountain tortoise etc. So far this year 38 chitals have been shifted to Gandhi Sagar, Mandsaur and Seoni sanctuaries.
• 3 lions, 13 tigers, 1 white tiger, 10 leopards, 20 bears, 1 hyena, 13 crocodiles, 2 gaur, 28 mountain tortoises, 33 aquatic tortoises and 6 alligators have been found in the park. 6 wildlife have gone to the Quarantine Center. These include 1 leopard and 5 African tortoises (court case).

Raageshwari Anjana of Bhopal Got First Place in National Youth Parliament

Why in News

• On March 11, 2022, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla presented awards to the winners of the third edition of the National Youth Parliament Festival (NYPF). Among them, Raageshwari Anjana of Bhopal got the first position.

Key Points

• Addressing the participants, the Speaker said that the National Youth Parliament is an innovative program to acquaint the youth with parliamentary procedures and democratic processes.
• In the National Youth Parliament Festival 2022, Siddharth Joshi of Dungarpur, Rajasthan got the second position and Amarpreet Kaur of Bathinda got the third position.
• In the National Youth Parliament, Rageshwari spoke on the topic 'Importance of patriotism in nation building'. Rageshwari is a student of BUIT, Bhopal, she is also a member of NSS Cadet Corps.
• NYPF is organized to elicit the views of the youth who will be involved in various careers including public services in the coming years.
• The first edition of NYPF was conducted from January 12 to February 27, 2019 and the second edition from December 23, 2020 to January 12, 2022.
• The third edition of NYPF was launched on 14th February, 2022 through virtual medium at the district level. From 23rd to 27th February, 2022, more than 2.44 lakh youth from across the country participated in the State Youth Parliaments followed by the District Youth Parliaments through virtual medium.
• Certificates and prizes (Rs. 2,00,000, Rs. 150,000 and Rs. 100,000 respectively) were given to the top three national winners and consolation prizes of Rs. 50,000 were given to the 2 participants.