Organ donations get ticking again
The Hindu
Kidney the most transplanted organ
After a dip during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic, the number of organ donations and transplantations in Telangana is once again picking up. After the State government’s Jeevandan Cadaver Transplantation Programme was started in 2013, the highest of 573 organs were donated in 2018, followed by 263 in 2017. In 2019, it was 469. After coronavirus started to spread in the State from March 2020, the donations plummeted with only 257 organs being donated. A large pool of donors is brain-dead patients who suffer critical severe injuries to brain in road accidents. Minimal movement of people during lockdown and therefore, fewer accidents, was cited as one of the reasons for low donations.
In , the grape capital of India and host of the Simhastha Kumbh Mela every 12 years, environmental concerns over a plan to cut 1,800 trees for the proposed Sadhugram project in the historic Tapovan area have sharpened political fault lines ahead of local body elections. The issue has pitted both Sena factions against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra. While Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief, and Uddhav Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena (UBT), remain political rivals, their parties have found rare common ground in Tapovan, where authorities propose clearing trees across 34 acres to build Sadhugram and a MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) hub, as part of a ₹300-crore infrastructure push linked to the pilgrimage.












