Nearly 60 lakh voters opted for NOTA in 2014 elections

TNN

March 27, 2019

New Delhi, Mar 27: Nota made its Lok Sabha poll debut in 2014, allowing voters to reject every candidate. But as far as results are concerned, Nota has little electoral value. Even if Nota gets the most votes, the candidate with the highest tally still wins. A look at the states where Nota was the most popular in 2014.

Nota got more than 60 lakh votes or 1.08% of the total in 2014. UP, due to its sheer size, had the highest Nota tally at nearly 6 lakh. But that was only 0.7% of its total votes. In terms of constituencies, Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu got the highest number of Nota votes in 2014 at 46,559 while Lakshadweep got the fewest at 123.

Before Nota, voters could cast a ‘negative vote’ on a separate ballot but the Supreme Court declared the practice unconstitutional as it required voters to divulge their identities.

NOTA MATTERED IN 23 SEATS

In 2014, Nota votes were more than the winning margin in 23 seats. Of these, Congress finished runner-up in 11 seats and BJP in four. At 3 each, Karnataka and Odisha had the most such seats. In Ladakh, where the winning margin was 36 votes, the 1,207 Nota votes could have easily swung the result. In Odisha’s Nabarangpur, Nota got 42,000 more votes than the winning margin, the highest difference in 2014.

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Elusive bamboo shrimp resurfaces in Mangaluru estuary after 70 years

News Network

December 7,2025

Mangaluru, Dec 7: A rare bamboo shrimp has been rediscovered on mainland India more than 70 years after it was last reported, confirming for the first time the presence of Atyopsis spinipes in the country. The find was made by researchers from the Centre for Climate Change Studies at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, during surveys in Karnataka and Odisha.

The team — shrimp expert Dr S Prakash, PhD scholar K Kunjulakshmi, and Mangaluru-based researcher Maclean Antony Santos — combined field surveys, ecological assessments and DNA analysis to identify the elusive species. Their findings, published in Zootaxa, resolve decades of taxonomic confusion stemming from a 1951 report that misidentified the species as Atyopsis moluccensis without strong evidence.

The shrimp has now been confirmed at two locations: the Mulki–Pavanje estuary near Mangaluru and the Kuakhai River in Bhubaneswar. Historical specimens from the Andaman Islands, previously labelled as A. moluccensis, were also found to be misidentified and actually belong to A. spinipes.

The rediscovery began after an aquarium hobbyist in Odisha spotted a shrimp in 2022, prompting systematic surveys across Udupi, Karwar and Mangaluru. Four female specimens were collected in Mulki and one in Odisha, all genetically matching.

Researchers warn the species may exist in very small, vulnerable populations as freshwater habitats face increasing pressure from pollution, sand mining and infrastructure development. All verified specimens have been deposited with the Zoological Survey of India for future reference.

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