Author: Indmedia

Guwahati: Assam will tighten security at the Behali Reserve Forest after surveys found extensive damage, officials said Thursday.Forest minister Jayanta Malla Baruah ordered intensified surveillance, infrastructure upgrades and immediate restoration after satellite imagery and drone assessments showed encroachment and destruction across nearly 400 hectares in the reserve forest along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.Acting on chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s directions, Baruah reviewed the situation with senior officials of the forest department, Assam Police and the civil administration. He asked officials to plug gaps in forest camps, improve approach roads to vulnerable areas and start work on an additional access road…

Note Racket: Fake note printing machine seized by Uppinangady police Mangaluru: Uppinangady police busted an alleged counterfeit currency printing racket operating from a building in Adinje, Kaniyooru village, Belthangady taluk, and arrested seven persons.Addressing reporters Thursday, Dakshina Kannada SP Arun K said Uppinangady PSI Suthesh KP and his team carried out the raid following credible information.The arrested have been identified as Ibrahim, 60, of Kasaba village, Puttur; Shareef, 51, of Chengala village, Kasaragod district; Sandeep Pundalik Sholambi, 30, of Haliyal taluk, Uttara Kannada district; Mohammed Nabas, 37, Kasaragod district; Salman Faris, 25, of Olamogru village, Puttur; Sirajuddin, 34, of Uruvalu…

Elephant proof trench in Ubrani forest Shivamogga: A growing human-wildlife conflict is unfolding around the unique circular landscape of the Channagiri Range in the Bhadravathi Forest Division. Comprising the interconnected forest patches of Kukwada, Bandigudda, Ubrani and Hanumagiri, this isolated hub of deciduous forest and dense shrub vegetation is facing a multi-pronged crisis.Environmentalists contend that shrinking forest resources, the absence of perennial water bodies, and poorly planned elephant-proof trenches (EPTs) have aggravated the situation. The lone tusker, believed to have strayed from the Bandipur Tiger Reserve, had taken shelter in the Channagiri forests and was finally captured on Thursday. The…

Praveen Goyal (L) claims his family faces unnecessary harassment after the FDA suspended their shop. PUNE: Praveen Goyal, father of murder accused Siya Goyal, on Thursday alleged that his family was being “harassed unnecessarily” after Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suspended operations at their spice and dry fruits shop over alleged food safety violations.Maintaining that he was fully cooperating with the investigation into the murder of Pune realtor Ketan Agarwal, Goyal said people should stop circulating “baseless stories” linking his family to the case, news agency PTI reported.“I stand with the judiciary and the law, and I will fully…

LUCKNOW: Siddharthnagar police on Wednesday exhumed the body of a 20-year-old woman from the mud floor of a room in her matrimonial home in Chak Majhari village of Dumariyaganj, after her husband was accused of killing her and attempting to pass the case off as a disappearance.The deceased was identified as Mufidan. Police said her husband, Shamsher, 22, allegedly murdered her, dug a pit nearly 6 feet deep inside the house, buried her body, plastered the floor with fresh mud and placed a cot over the spot. Investigators said he continued sleeping on the cot for several days before trying…

Bettiah: Janaki Devi, popularly known as the “Snake Lady”, was bitten by a king cobra while rescuing the reptile in Bisaha village of Valmikinagar along the India-Nepal border in West Champaran district on Wednesday evening. She was rushed to a military camp hospital in Triveni, Nepal, where doctors said she was out of danger.According to her son, Krishna Kumar, the incident occurred after a king cobra entered the house of a resident of Hathi Malkhanta Tola near Bisaha village. Following information from locals, Janaki reached the spot and rescued the snake.“After the rescue, Janaki took the king cobra to 6…

Nagpur: A financial crunch in Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) transport department threw the city’s public transport system into disarray on Wednesday after around 1,800 conductors attached to the Aapli Bus service went on a flash strike over delayed salaries, stranding thousands of commuters during peak morning hours.The strike brought to the fore the mounting financial stress within the city’s public transport network, with officials admitting that NMC has not released nearly Rs12 crore due to Chalo Mobility Private Limited (CMPL), the Integrated Bus Transport Management (IBTM) operator responsible for deploying conductors. The payment delay led to salary arrears, triggering the…

Jamshedpur: A 39-year-old man was arrested in Seraikela-Kharsawan district for allegedly murdering his wife and concealing her body in an under-construction septic tank, police said on Thursday.The accused, Somra Hembrom, a resident of Swarnpur village under the Sini outpost in Seraikela police station limits, killed Sambari, 30, after suspecting her character.Seraikela-Kharsawan SP Manoj Swargiary said, “Hembrom confessed during interrogation that he first strangled his wife with an electric wire and then assaulted her with an iron strip before disposing of the body in a septic tank located on the outskirts of his house.”Hembrom has been booked under relevant sections of…

khuti puja of Sreebhumi Sporting Club, Photo Mayukh Sengupta Kolkata: In a symbolic departure from earlier years, Sreebhumi Sporting Club in Lake Town on Thursday held a low-key Khuti Puja under a new organising committee, marking the end of the Sujit Bose era sans his faithful committee members and signalling a return to a resident-driven community puja.While unveiling Hawa Mahal as this year’s theme, the organisers said the festival would retain its trademark grandeur but without political interference, abandon the practice of inaugurating the pandal on Mahalaya, and instead open it only on Chaturthi or Panchami to restore traditional norms…

According to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System, the vast majority of wildfires are burning out of control.The large cluster of fires affecting western areas of Ontario are responsible for sending thick plumes of smoke and poor air quality across Thunder Bay and Toronto, with lower concentrations of smoke high in the atmosphere drifting over the Great Lakes and above New York with hazy skies and redder sunrise and sunsets likely.There will be quite widespread thunderstorms in Ontario over the next few days, but the rain may not be enough to make much of a difference. Northwesterly winds will continue…