Dehradun diary

Trilingual film on British expedition
‘Gadera’, a feature film in Garhwali, Kumaoni and English languages based on the British expedition of 1913 to the Uttarakhand Himalayas and its aftermath will be released soon. Yogesh Vats, director of the film, said: “The aim of the film is to introduce the present generation of Uttarakhand to its history and cultural values. It will inspire youths to conserve nature and natural resources. This film will show the younger generation how their forefathers risked everything to conserve water, forest and land during the British Raj, and how they used guerilla warfare to chase the British out of the jungle.” 

Door-to-door survey to trace unvaccinated people
The Uttarakhand government has launched ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ drive under which ASHA workers and social groups enrolled with the state health department will go door-to-door to check on those who have not yet been vaccinated. The ASHA workers will visit houses with specific questions including reason for not getting vaccinated. District-level officers will forward these reports to the state government authorities for further action. The teams will pay special attention to pregnant women. The drive has been launched to step up Covid-19 vaccination drive as the state government aims to completely vaccinate eligible population by December 15. A total of 80.50 lakh adult population is to be vaccinated in the state, requiring 1.61 crore doses to be administered.

Forest dept to study human-wildlife conflict
The Uttarakhand forest department has launched a project to study human-wildlife conflict in the Himalayan state. As many as 44 people have already died due to the conflict till September this year while 150 have been injured. Apart from this, 61 leopards, 10 elephants and 5 tigers too have died till July this year in the state. The project also aims to study behavioural changes in wild animals. Experts say the Himalayan black bear, which used to remain asleep for four months, has been reported to be awake for 12 months in a year. Attacks from bear have registered a rise in recent years.

4% of voters eligible for postal ballot
With the Election Commission of India allowing voting through postal ballot for voters aged 80 years and above along with Divyang and service voters, percentage of voters eligible for postal ballot has risen to almost 4 per cent (3,12,991). Analysts say these 4 per cent voters can be a decisive factor if the state witnesses a close electoral fight. Assembly elections are due in March 2022. At present, Uttarakhand has 93,978 service voters and 1,65,113 voters aged 80 years and above. The state also has 53,900 physically challenged voters. The hill state has  11,647 polling booths. This could changed when the final electoral roll would be published on January 5, 2022. 

vineet upadhyay
Our correspondent in Dehradun
vineet.upadhyay@newindianexpress.com