SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 107, NO. 3, 10 AUGUST 2014 367 basement and overlying sediments. These faults probably acted as conduits for transfer of uranium-bearing solution from basement rocks. Kanhari and adjoining areas can be looked for struc- turally controlled and fracture-bound unconformity type of uranium minerali- zation considering favourable geological set-up where Paleoproterozoic Nandgaon Group (Bijli Rhyolites) is unconformably overlain by Mesoproterozoic Chilpi Group. This finding has opened up a new tar- get area for future uranium exploration within rocks of Chilpi Group and under- lying basement rocks of Nandgaon Group. 1. Basu, A. K., Geol. Surv. India, Spec. Publ. , 2001, 55, 181–204. 2. Thorat, P. K., Natrajan, A., Guha, K. and Chandra, S., Geol. Surv. India, Spec. Publ., 1990, 28, 167–180. 3. Tripathi, C., Ghosh, P. Thambi, P. I., Rao, T. V. and Sibendra, C., Geol. Surv. India, Spec. Publ., 1981, 3, 17–30. 4. Condie, K. C., Chem. Geol., 1993, 104, 1– 37. 5. McLennan, S. M. and Taylor, S. R., J. Geol., 1991, 99, 1–21. 6. Sensarma, S. Hoernes, S. and Muk- hopadhyay, D., Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. (Earth Planet. Sci.), 2004, 113(4), 619– 648. 7. McKelvey, V. E., Everhart, D. L. and Gar- rels, R. M., Econ. Geol., 1955, 15th anni- versary volume, p. 491. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. We thank the Director, Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD) for encour- agement and granting permission to publish this paper. We thank our colleagues from the Physics, Chemistry, XRF and Petrology labo- ratories, AMD, Nagpur for providing labora- tory support. Received 2 February 2014; revised accepted 16 June 2014 U. P. SHARMA 1, * S. SHUKLA 1 P. K. SINHA 1 R. K. PUROHIT 1 A. MAJUMDAR 1 A. K. RAI 2 1 Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, AMD Complex, Civil Lines, Nagpur 440 013, India 2 Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research, AMD Complex, Begumpet, Hyderabad 500 016, India *For correspondence. e-mail: upsharma.amd@gov.in Occurrence of Asian small-clawed otter Aonyx cinereus (Illiger, 1815) in Eastern India The Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus) is found across much of South and Southeast Asia, with a continuous population in Southeast Asia, Northeast India and Himalayan foothills and a pur- portedly disjunct population in the hill ranges of the Western Ghats in South India 1,2 . Five subspecies have been iden- tified, namely Aonyx cinereus (Illiger, 1815), A. c. fulvus (Pohl, 1926), A. c. wurmbi (Sodi, 1953), A. c. concolor (Rafinesque, 1832) and A. c. nirnai (Pocock, 1940). Among these, the former three occur in Southeast Asia, A. c. con- color occurs in Upper Myanmar, Yunnan (China), Nepal, Bhutan, Assam, Arun- anchal Pradesh, Garhwal, southeast of Kumaon and the Himalayan foothills through Sikkim to Kolkata, and A. c. nirnai has been recorded from southern India in Coorg (Kodagu), Karnataka; Ashambu, Nilgiri and Palani hills, Tamil Nadu and some places in Kerala 3–5 . This species was earlier not recorded from the Eastern Ghats and other regions of Odisha. Here we report the occurrence of the species from this area, specifically from Odisha (Figure 1). Only one species of otter, smooth-coated Otter Lutrogale perspicillata (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Figure 5. a, Sericite masked with limonite/iron oxide and very fine size quartz in radioactive shale. b, Alpha track matching with limonite and iron oxide on radioactive shale. c, Adsorbed uranium on radioactive phyllite corresponding with alpha track. d, Alpha track on radioactive phyllite.