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Himachal forms 4.80 percent of India’s forests
Shimla: Himachal Pradesh constitutes 4.80 percent of India’s total forests and the state’s cover has swelled by over 2,900 sq km in 24 years due to plantation programmes, an official said on Monday.
Out of the total geographic area of 55,673 sq km in the state, the forest comprises 37,033 sq km, which is 4.80 percent of the total forests in the country, an official of the state forest department said.
Quoting the latest Forest Survey of India report of 2013, he said the state had 14,683 sq km under green cover which was only 11,780 sq km in 1991.
He said plantation has been carried out on 29,745 hectares in the past two fiscals.
Saplings of broader leaves, wild fruit-bearing and medicinal plants are being given special priority during plantation drives.
To further expand the green cover, the state government has fixed a target of bringing 8,712.45 hectares of additional area under forests in this fiscal by spending Rs.45 crore.
The forest department aims to plant 100,000 saplings of “shahtoot”, “jamun”, “saru”, “shisham”, “spheda”, “pipal”, “deodar” and “neem” alongside roads constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna.
Workers under MGNREGS will be involved in the project.
In addition to this, he said, 45 lakh medicinal plants would also be planted.
Forest ponds have immense importance in maintaining the land humidity besides being helpful in extinguishing forest fires.
The ponds are associated with the livelihood of rural communities and catering to the water needs of wild animals.
A total of 100 forest ponds are being constructed during this fiscal whereas 405 ponds have been constructed across the state.
Foreign-aided projects are being effectively implemented in the state as well.
The World Bank-aided Mid-Himalayan Watershed Development Project’s amount has been enhanced from Rs.365 crore to Rs.630.76 crore and the term period has also been extended till March 2016.
The project is being implemented in 710 panchayats after bringing in 102 new panchayats under it. A total of Rs.60 crore is being spent during this fiscal in these panchayats.
The Himachal Pradesh Forest Eco-System Climate Proofing, a German Development Bank project of Rs.310 crore, has started recently in the Kangra and Chamba districts.
A memorandum of understanding has been signed for a grant of two million Euros under this project and the amount would be utilised on forest officials’ training programmes and development of local communities.
Likewise, the government has submitted the Forest Eco-system Management and Livelihood Project to the Japanese International Cooperation Agency for obtaining financial assistance.
The Rs.1,507 crore project would be implemented in 10 out of 12 districts.
The hill state is aptly called home to rich flora. The survey say out of the country’s total 45,000 flora species the state holds 3,295 species or 7.32 percent.
Ninety-five percent of the species are endemic to the state and characteristic of western Himalayan flora, while the remaining (150 species) are exotic, introduced in the last 150 years.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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