09 Sep 2019 Prelims Sure Shot

Happiness Department – Madhya Pradesh

• The state government, which started a novel ‘happiness department’ in 2016, has also prepared a ‘happiness calendar’ for helping citizens to remain happy and dedicated to the right causes.
• The Happiness Department will work under a working committee headed by a chairman. The committee will evaluate the state’s gross happiness.
• The department will prepare guidelines for coordination between different departments like women and child development, health, and sports for propagating happiness in the state.
• It will prescribe action plan and activities for experiencing happiness by identifying and defining the parameters of happiness and efficiency.
• It will also undertake constant researches and surveys for expanding means happiness and improve norms to assess them. It will publish reports pertaining to status of happiness.

North Sentinel

• North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands, an archipelago in the Bay of Bengal which also includes South Sentinel Island.
• It is home to the Sentinelese, a tribe who have rejected, often violently, any contact with the outside world. They are among the last uncontacted people to remain virtually untouched by modern civilization.

Tribes of Andaman and Nicobar

• The Andaman Islands are home to four ‘Negrito’ tribes – the Great Andamanese, Onge, Jarawa and Sentinelese. The Nicobar Islands are home to two ‘Mongoloid’ tribes – the Shompen and Nicobarese.
• The ‘Negrito’ tribes are believed to have arrived in the islands from Africa up to 60,000 years ago. All are nomadic hunter-gatherers, hunting wild pig and monitor lizard, and catching fish with bows and arrows. They also collect honey, roots and berries from the forest.
• The ‘Mongoloid’ tribes probably came to the islands from the Malay-Burma coast several thousand years ago.
• Great Andamanese – The tribe that has suffered most from contact with outsiders: 99% have been wiped out since the British first colonized the islands.
• Onge – Their forest home has been plundered by poachers and loggers. They were settled by the Indian administration and are dependent on food handouts.
• Jarawa – are the only ones who have had peaceful contact with outsiders for six years. They live on the west coast of South and Middle Andaman. They are still completely independent and live entirely by hunting, gathering and fishing.
• Sentinelese – The most isolated of all the tribes, they have no peaceful contact with outsiders. They are completely self-sufficient hunter-gatherers.
• Shompen – A relatively isolated tribe of Great Nicobar Island, the Shompen are hunter-gatherers who have some, limited, contact with outsiders.
• Nicobarese – Unlike the other tribes, the Nicobarese are largely horticulturalists. Most have converted to Christianity, and are much more assimilated than the other Andaman and Nicobar tribes, but still maintain their own distinct culture.

Mukurthi National Park

• Mukurthi National Park (MNP) is a 78.46 km² (30.3 sq mi) protected area located in the western corner of the Nilgiris Plateau west of Ootacamund hill station in the northwest corner of Tamil Nadu state in the Western Ghats mountain range of South India. The park was created to protect its keystone species, the Nilgiri tahr.
• The park is characterised by montane grasslands and shrublands interspersed with shoals in a high altitude area of high rainfall, near-freezing temperatures and high winds.
• The park is a part of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, India’s first International Biosphere Reserve. As part of the Western Ghats, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1 July 2012.

Nilgiri tahr

• IUCN status- Endangered.
• It is listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972.
• It is Endemic to the Nilgiri Hills and the southern portion of the Western Ghats in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in Southern India.
• It is the State animal of Tamil Nadu.

Bandipur Tiger Reserve

• In 1974, Bandipur Tiger reserve was established as one of the first 9 Tiger Reserves under Project Tiger. In 1985, by including adjacent areas, it was enlarged and named as Bandipur National Park. 
• Location: Tiger Reserve is situated in two contiguous districts (Mysore and Chamarajanagar) of Karnataka. It is located at the tri-junction area of the States of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. 

Bandipur Tiger Reserve is surrounded by – 

1. Nagarahole Tiger Reserve (Karnataka) in the North West (Kabini Reservoir separates the two) 
2. Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (Tamil Nadu) in the South and 
3. Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (Kerala) in the South West.