Indian wildlife experts have urged the government to be vigilant against poaching of tigers and rhinos after China eased a 25-year ban on the trade of body parts of the animals, and said New Delhi should also raise their concern with Beijing at international fora.
They said that the decision by China is likely to result in a decline in the population of the animals and has potential “grave and devastating” implications for tiger and rhino conservation in India.
According to media reports, China has partially lifted the ban on the use of tiger bones and rhino horns for medicinal uses. The ban was imposed in 1993 to save the endangered species.
Dipankar Ghose, director-species and landscapes programme at WWF-India Secretariat, said the consequences of such a reversal is likely to adversely affect the population of the two species across the globe.
According to the latest survey, India has 2,226 tigers and 3,500 rhinos are left in both India and Nepal.
“People involved in illegal wildlife trade of tiger bones and rhino horns might target the wild populations in India. Our country, with 60 per cent and 85 per cent of global populations of wild tigers and greater one-horned rhinos respectively, will be under threat of poaching,” Ghose said.
Yoga Guru Ramdev on Sunday opined that if married couples have more than two children, their voting rights should be taken away.
Addressing the gathering on the second day of the Gyan Kumbh, Ramdev said that bachelors like him should be honoured. “Individuals who are yet to be married, like me, should get special recognition. Married couples having more than two children should not be allowed to vote,” he said.
Justifying this statement, Ramdev said that giving birth to more than two children can ultimately turn into a matter of grave concern, as the population is already rising at an alarming rate.
“In the present scenario, the total population of the country has already reached more than 1.5 crores. In such a case, giving birth to more than two children can ultimately become a matter of grave concern. Today, we should make sure that every person in the country is aware of the excess population in the country,” he said.
The first Gyan Kumbh, which is being jointly organised by the Higher Education Department of the Uttarakhand Government and the University of Patanjali in Haridwar, was inaugurated on Saturday by President Ram Nath Kovind.
The event aims at enhancing the quality of education in India.
Speaking on the inauguration of the event, Ramdev had said that through the Gyan Kumbh, India has to be built by incorporating knowledge in every field of the society. “We will be successful in this and through this knowledge Kumbh, the entire country will be appreciated, just as we have the yoga revolution in the same way as the knowledge of all the world,” he added.
A Delhi-based NGO has launched a unique campaign called ‘Drive Safe Daddy’ to check drunk driving and to aware motorists about the need to drive with care and caution, according to a statement issued Sunday.
The campaign involves some students of the Delhi University and they will be interacting with drivers at IGL CNG gas stations across the city.
“As the festive season and the Diwali fervour grips the city, roads in Delhi become more prone to accidents and tragedies as a result of drunk driving, which is at its peak during this time of the year,” the statement said.
Prince Singhal, road safety expert and founder of the NGO called ‘Community Against Drunken Driving’, said the campaign has been launched to reach out to the common man to sensitise them on the need of driving safely.
The campaign, which is spread over a period of three months to cover both Diwali and New Year festivities, would reach out to over 12,000 drivers of private, public and commercial vehicles, the statement said.
The campaign would involve putting a photo frame on the dashboard of the vehicle where a picture of the drivers’ family or loved ones would be put in order to remind them of driving safely as their family is waiting back at home, it said.
The NGO is also distributing stickers and road safety booklet titled “Drive Safe India” as part of the campaign.
The first passenger train to run on broad gauge between India and Nepal is likely to run from December this year, sources in the railways have told agencies.
The train will run from Jayanagar in Bihar to Kurtha in Dhanusa district in Janakpur Zone of south-eastern Nepal, which is a 34 km stretch.
An immigration check-post is likely to be established at Jayanagar station manned by either the Bureau of Immigration or the state government. No visa will be required for Indian and Nepalese nationals crossing the border through this stretch, a source said.
The Nepalese authorities have informed the railways that the section will be opened with four trips and will ply in eight to 16-hour shifts.
While the first train is to be a passenger train, the Nepalese have stated that they want to run both passenger and freight trains on this section.
The ministry of external affairs has had several inter-ministerial meetings with the railways, the government of Nepal and other stakeholders on this. More meetings to finalise logistics are likely to take place.
The move is being seen as part of efforts to counter China’s plans to forge rail links with Nepal. After Beijing decided to extend its railway network up to Kathmandu, New Delhi proposed the construction of new railway links during Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli’s recent visit to India.
Nepal and India have plans for four cross-border railway links, including one to link Raxaul to Kathmandu.
The sale of tickets, the source said, will be through an unreserved ticketing system and passenger reservation system in Nepal which will be facilitated by the railways.
Tigress Avni was shot dead as a last resort when all attempts to tranquilise her failed and she attacked officials, said Maharashtra Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar on Sunday.
The tigress, T1, as she was known officially, was shot Friday night by sharp-shooter Asgar Ali in compartment no 149 of Borati forest under the jurisdiction of Ralegaon police station in the state’s Yavatmal district.
Speaking to agencies, Mungantiwar said nobody in the Forest Department wanted to kill the tigress and, thus, hundreds of personnel from the department were trying to capture her alive since the last 3 months.
He added that there was unrest among local farmers and Adivasis after she had reportedly killed 13 people in the past two years.
“Ministers and secretaries do not sit in Mumbai and protect forest and animal species. It is done by farmers and Adivasis. In this case, there was a lot of unrest among them. We didn’t want them to eventually become enemies of wildlife,” Mungantiwar said.
He added that all possible means were tried to capture the animal, but it had to be shot down to save the lives of forest staff trying to tranquilise her.
He further said the right to kill wild species did not lie with his department and that the Centre and the Supreme Court have laid down stringent guidelines for the purpose.
After following these guidelines and holding deliberations with concerned officials, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest gives an order to shoot an animal.
When queried about the two cubs of the deceased tigress, Mungantiwar said that the two were now nearly 11 months old and capable of survival in the wild.
“Yet, the Forest Department will ensure their upkeep,” he said.
Taking a dig at NGOs criticising the killing of Avni, the minister said the government has been at the forefront of saving tigers on a mission mode and has roped in film megastar Amitabh Bachchan for the purpose.
“When we plant trees, NGOs do not come forward and lend a helping hand. When we plan programmes for saving endangered species, they do not say a word. We could not have let humans die to save an animal,” he said.
In September this year, the Supreme Court had said Avni could be shot at sight, which prompted a flurry of online petitions seeking pardon for the tigress.
Animals rights organisation PETA India condemned the killing. Its Lead Emergency Response Coordinator, Meet Ashar, in a statement Saturday said, “Avni was killed illegally satisfying a hunter’s lust for blood in possible contempt of court and in apparent violation of the Wildlife Protection Act and the guidelines of National Tiger Conservation Authority.”
“This matter must be investigated and treated as a wildlife crime. Whether sanctioned by the state or not, nobody can be above the law. This is a dark day for our nation and we must hang out heads in shame now and again if this killing goes unpunished,” the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals functionary said.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Saturday mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him a “hero on a white stallion with an upraised sword in his hand”.
Tharoor had waded into a controversy at the Bangalore Literature Festival on Sunday last by claiming that an unnamed RSS leader had compared Modi to “a scorpion sitting on a Shivling”. A criminal defamation complaint had been filed against him in a Delhi court earlier in the day for his “scorpion” remark.
Tharoor again took a swipe at the prime minister, calling him “a hero on a white stallion with an upraised sword in his hand saying I know all the answers”.
“Modi is a one-man government and everybody dancing to what he says,” he said at an event organised by an industry body, adding India now has the “most centralised PMO” in history.
“Every decision is taken by the PMO (prime minister’s office). Every file has to be sent to the PMO for approval,” he claimed. On the next parliamentary election, Tharoor said that there will be both pre-poll and post-poll alliances between the Congress and other opposition parties, but Congress president Rahul Gandhi “may not be” the prime ministerial face.
The coming Lok Sabha election is important in that it will deny the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a second term in power, the Congress MP said.
He said the decision on the prime ministerial face of the Congress alliance would be a collective one and “it may not be him (Gandhi). The Congress has a broader notion of a leader unlike the BJP. We had people like Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram and others having tremendous track record”.
Gandhi is the unquestionable choice of Congress workers as their leader. “If free and fair elections are held among the Congress workers, Rahul Gandhi wins hands down,” the Congress MP said.
Continuing his criticism of the Modi government, Tharoor said, “We are having a top-down, over-centralised and inefficient government running the country and there is nothing positive in the Indian economy.” “Demonetisation was a bad idea implemented badly and GST was a good idea implemented badly,” Tharoor said.
He said that the Indian stock is down across the globe. “The rupee was heading towards the ‘Margdarshak Mandal’ (a reference to a BJP panel comprising its elderly leaders),” he quipped and later clarified that the BJP panel had leaders above the age of 75.
He said that communalism, cow vigilantism and mob lynching have been so extreme that India had never seen such “bizarre politics in the past”. “There are damning statistics to prove that,” he added.
Tharoor, who was the minister of state for external affairs in the UPA government and is currently chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, said there was “total collapse of relations between India with other countries”.
“Nobody knows what is the coherent foreign relations policy with Pakistan, similarly with Nepal and Sri Lanka,” he said.
Tharoor regretted that Gandhi is being dubbed a ‘Pappu’ by some in the social media. “This is not fair and it is unjustified. Congress workers are really stitched to the Gandhi family and want their leader to be from there,” he said.
Regarding the Sabarimala temple controversy, Tharoor said, “These issues are being whipped up to distract attention from the real problems like oil price rise, Rafale deal, etc.” Speaking at another programme, he alleged that the trend of erecting statues and raising the issue of Ram temple in Ayodhya were attempts to distract the masses from “failures” of the BJP government at the Centre.
He said the trend of erecting statues reminded him of the Roman empire when people where distracted from the oppression they faced through ‘bread and circuses’ (distribution of free food and staging of huge spectacles).
“The issues of Statue of Unity, Ram temple, Ram statue at Ayodhya are distractions. I would urge the public of India to move away from these distractions and focus on the realities and lives of the Indians,” the Congress MP said.
“The reality is the Indian Aam Aadmi (common man) has been suffering for the last four and half years… This suits the agenda of the government that has failed to perform,” he said.
Tharoor’s comment comes in the backdrop of plans to install a statue of Lord Ram on the banks of the Sarayu river in Ayodhya.
Joining the chorus for the construction of Ram temple in the Uttar Pradesh pilgrim town of Ayodhya, Union minister Vijay Goel had Friday said it should be done at the earliest through any means — constitutional, legislative, judicial or community dialogue.
The VHP and the RSS have demanded an ordinance to acquire land for constructing the temple in Ayodhya.
Petrol price has been cut by over Rs 4 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.33 in the last 18 days on softer international rates, a pace faster than the spike in prices witnessed in the two-month period beginning mid-August.
Petrol price Sunday was cut by 21 paise a litre and diesel by 17 paise, according to a price notification issued by state-owned fuel retailers.
In Delhi, petrol now costs Rs 78.78 per litre while diesel is priced at Rs 73.36, it said.
Petrol in Mumbai costs Rs 82.28 and diesel Rs 76.88.
With this, the reduction in rates in last 18 days now totals Rs 4.05 per litre for petrol and Rs 2.33 for diesel.
Rates have been on the decline since October 18.
Petrol price had touched a record high of Rs 84 per litre in Delhi and Rs 91.34 in Mumbai on October 4. Diesel on that day had peaked to Rs 75.45 a litre in Delhi and Rs 80.10 in Mumbai.
Prices had started to climb from August 16.
Petrol in Delhi was priced at Rs 77.14 and in Mumbai at Rs 84.58 per litre on August 15. Diesel on that day was priced at Rs 68.72 per litre in Delhi and Rs 72.96 in Mumbai.
Between August 16 and October 4, petrol price was hiked by Rs 6.86 per litre and diesel by Rs 6.73.
On that day, the government decided to cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 1.50 per litre each and asked state-owned fuel retailers to subsidise the price by another Re 1 a litre by reducing their margins.
Subsequent to this, the petrol price came down to Rs 81.50 per litre in Delhi and diesel to Rs 72.95 a litre on October 5. In Mumbai, rates fell to Rs 86.97 per litre for petrol and Rs 77.45 in case of diesel.
As the international oil prices continued to rise, price of petrol and diesel in Delhi increased to Rs 82.83 and Rs 75.69 on October 17. In Mumbai, rates touched Rs 88.29 a litre for petrol and Rs 79.35 for diesel.
But since then, international oil prices have been falling and rupee has also appreciated, resulting in decline in retail rates.
Industry sources said as per the assessment, the retail prices of petrol and diesel may reign easy in the next few days.
The retail selling price of petrol and diesel is dependent on the international prices of benchmark fuel and the rupee-US dollar exchange rate. This is because a large proportion of country’s requirement is met through imports.
In a veiled reference to the ongoing Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid case, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday asserted that wishes of scores of Hindu devotees of building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya will soon come true after Diwali.
Speaking at an event in Bikaner, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said, “Light a Diya for Lord Ram this time, work there (Ayodhya) will start very soon. We have to take this up after Diwali.”
The statement from the Chief Minister came a day after Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan stated that the Uttar Pradesh government will soon announce a statue for Lord Ram in Ayodhya.
Speaking to ANI on Saturday, Khan said that Lord Ram’s statue, which is likely to be built near the Sarayu River in the temple town, should be constructed taller than the recently-inaugurated 182-meter tall statues of Sardar Vallabhai Patel.
Reportedly, saints in Ayodhya have been pressing for construction of a statue of Lord Ram similar to that of Statue of Unity. Located on Sadhu-Bet Island, Gujarat, the 182-metre tall statue of Unity occupies over 20,000 square metres and is surrounded by a 12 square km artificial lake.
The Statue was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the 143rd birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India.
A witness in the Sohrabuddin Shaikh alleged fake encounter case told a trial court here Saturday that Shaikh had killed former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya. The killing had allegedly been ordered by former Gujarat IPS officer D.G. Vanzara, the witness further claimed.
Pandya was murdered in Ahmedabad in 2003. The witness—name not disclosed—said he met Shaikh in 2002 and became good friends with him and his wife Kausar Bi and his associate Tulsi Prajapati.
“During that time, Sohrabuddin told me he had got money from D.G. Vanzara to kill Gujarat’s home minister Haren Pandya and he completed the job. I then told him that what he did was wrong and he had killed a good person,” the witness told the court.
The witness further said that in 2005 he was arrested by Rajasthan police and lodged at Udaipur jail where he met Prajapati. “Prajapati told me that the Gujarat police killed Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi,” the witness said, deposing before special CBI Judge S.J. Sharma.
The testimony will continue next week. Shaikh and his wife were killed in an alleged fake encounter in 2005 by Gujarat police. Prajapati was later killed in another alleged fake encounter by Gujarat and Rajasthan police.
Of the 38 people charged by the CBI for the two alleged fake encounters, 16 were discharged by the trial court. Those discharged included BJP chief Amit Shah, Vanzara and all senior officers of Gujarat and Rajasthan police.
Maharashtra Governor CV Rao has ordered restoration of two identical British-era cannons each weighing 22-tonne, which were found in Raj Bhavan here on Saturday.
The two cannons, separated from each other by 25 meters, were found undetected and covered under mud at the foothills of Raj Bhavan. The cannons were discovered during a tree plantation drive. They were later lifted using cranes in the presence of Governor Rao.
Considering the historical significance of the cannons, the Governor has asked the Raj Bhavan officials to seek the assistance of Indian Navy to obtain the technical details of the cannons and also to find out the archival records, if any.
He has asked the officials to place the cannons in front of ‘Jal Vihar’ (Banquet Hall) in the Raj Bhavan complex.
Each of the cannons weighs 22 tonnes, measures 4.7 meters in length and has a diameter of 1.15 meters.
In 2016, a 13-room and 15000 square feet long British era underground bunker was found below the lawns of Raj Bhavan. The bunker is being restored under the guidance of an expert architect firm.
The Governor has also asked for the creation of a museum inside the bunker after which it will be opened for the general public.
