Daily Times India

Shimla, March 1 (IANS) Security has been stepped up in leading temples in Himachal Pradesh following warnings of possible strikes by a Punjab terrorist group, police said Monday.

Superintendent of Police Atul Kumar Fulzele told IANS that there had been intelligence inputs that Babbar Khalsa might target temples during the Navratra season beginning March 16.

Accordingly, security has been intensified in three major temples of Kangra district – Jawalamukhi, Brajeshwari Devi and Chamunda. “We are not taking any chances,” Fulzele said.

Bomb disposal and dog squads have been deployed in the temples, he added.

The three temples draw hundreds of thousands of devotees – from India and abroad – during the Navratras.

Shimla, March 1 (IANS) Leopard attacks on humans are on the rise in several districts of Himachal Pradesh due to the depleting forest cover and shortage of prey in the wild which force the animals to stray from the jungles.

“In the past few years, attacks by leopards on humans have increased. Thirteen people, mostly women and children, have been killed by leopards in the last five years,” Chief Conservator (Faunal Diversity and Protected Areas) Sanjeeva Pandey told IANS.

Pandey attributed the straying of leopards into human habitations to the declining prey-predator ratio and human interference.

“The predator is not only blamed for the man-animal conflict. It’s the human who is intruding into the territory of the wild animals. Human interference is responsible not only for declining prey in the wild but also for degrading of their habitat. People are encroaching upon forest land in order to extend their habitation,” he said.

Though the leopard is protected under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, it is occasionally poached for its pelt. Sometimes, it is also killed to protect crops and livestock.

According to the state wildlife wing, there was an all-time high of 186 cases of leopard attacks on humans in 2008-09. However, such attacks were 34 in 2007-08, 38 in 2006-07 and 17 in 2005-06.

Divisional Forest Officer (wildlife) D.S. Verma said the leopard menace is more acute in Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Mandi and Kangra districts and parts of Kullu, Shimla, Sirmaur and Solan districts.

Neena Devi of Bhoraj village in Hamirpur district said: “The leopard menace has now become too common in our village as their number has grown substantially. People have stopped venturing out in the dusk. We don’t send children alone to the school. Last week, a leopard took away a goat from our house.”

Another villager Dheeraj Sharma said: “Earlier, the instances of wild animals straying into the village were more common during the winters. But now, with the rise in their numbers, leopards can be spotted in the village almost every night.”

According to wildlife experts, the leopard is an intelligent predator. It knows that there is easy and enough food in the villages. In most of the leopard-infested villages, the population of stray dogs is almost wiped out.

Sandeep Rattan, a veterinary surgeon with the wildlife wing, said: “Most of the time, the villagers attack the wild animals or lay snares in retaliation. This brings more trouble for them as the injured leopard easily turns into a man-eater and then it is most difficult to eliminate it.”

“Moreover, like other big cats, the leopard too is a territorial animal. It establishes its territory. Once the animal is killed, other leopards would occupy that space. So, killing is not the solution. The solution is to live and let them live,” he said.

In the last five years, over 50 leopards were killed by villagers using traps and snares.

“Shrinking habitat is mainly responsible for the man-animal conflict. The state has sent a proposal to the central government to increase the protected area of wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and conservation reserves from 7,160 sq km to 8,409 sq km. This will somehow manage to reduce the conflict,” Pandey said.

According to the last census conducted by the wildlife wing in 2004, there were 761 leopards in the state.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

Patna, March 1 (IANS) At least three people were killed and 12 injured during Holi revelry in Bihar, police said Monday.

Two people were killed in a village in Aurangabad district Monday while a man was shot dead in Patna district late Sunday.

Half-a-dozen people were injured in firing between two groups. “The injured were admitted to the Patna Medical College and Hospital,” a police officer said.

Violence linked to Holi was also reported from Lakhisarai, Muzaffarpur, Sheikhpura, Gaya and Nawada districts.

Kolkata, March 1 (IANS) A day after Bengalis celebrated Dol Yatra, the mainly non-Bengali population in West Bengal Monday marked Holi with the usual gusto and enthusiasm.

Reports from across the city and elsewhere spoke of people celebrating the festival of colours with songs, dances and thandai, a drink made during Holi.

Many visited houses of neighbours and friends, hurling water balloons and smearing ‘gulal’ colour powder.

The festival is a marriage of north Indian and Bengali cultures in Kolkata.

Washington, March 1 (IANS) Two to three times more pregnant women may soon be diagnosed and treated for gestational diabetes.

These findings are based on new norms for determining risky blood sugar levels for the mother and her unborn baby.

“As result of this study, more than 16 percent of the entire population of pregnant women qualified as having gestational diabetes,” said Boyd Metzger, professor of metabolism and nutrition at Feinberg School of Medicine who led the study.

“Before, between five to eight percent of pregnant women were diagnosed with this,” added Metzger.

Based on a study of more than 23,000 women in nine countries, Metzger and an international group of 50 experts concluded a fasting blood sugar level of 92 or higher, a one-hour level of 180 or higher on a glucose tolerance test or a two-hour level of 153 or higher on a glucose tolerance test constitute serious risks to the mother and baby.

Blood sugar levels that were once considered in the normal range are now seen as causing a sharp increase in the occurrence of overweight babies with high insulin levels, early deliveries, cesarean deliveries and potentially life-threatening preeclampsia, in which the mother has high blood pressure that affects her and the baby.

Large babies, the result of fat accumulation, are defined as weighing in the upper 10 percent of babies in a particular ethnic group.

Because large babies increase the risk of injury during vaginal delivery, many of the women in the study were more likely to have a cesarean section, says a Feinberg School release.

The good news, Metzger noted, is recent studies show that women with mild gestational diabetes, who were treated with lifestyle and diet changes as well as blood sugar monitoring, greatly reduced their risk of complications.

The study is slated for publication in the March issue of Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association.

New Delhi, March 1 (IANS) It was a proud moment for the “liberated” women manual scavengers when they were received by US Ambassador Timothy J. Roemer and his wife Sally at their Roosevelt House residence here.

The group of 100 women have left behind their ignominious job of manual scavenging – cleaning human excreta with the hands, an inhuman practice banned in India more than 16 years ago – and have been trained in tailoring, weaving and embroidery as a means of livelihood.

The women, who belong to villages in Rajasthan’s Alwar and Tonk districts, interacted with Roemer and his wife Sally and shared their life stories. Roemer’s wife Sally was wearing a sari woven by one of the women, who are being taught vocational skills at Nai Disha, a rehabilitation centre run by NGO Sulabh International.

“I feel touched as they shared their stories full of hope, change and progress,” Sally said on the occasion.

The women shared their experiences with the Roemers and the many challenges they had to face in their journey towards self dependence – beginning from being labelled “untouchable”.

Laxmi, one of the guests of the US envoy, recited the ordeal of being forced to clean human excreta through her poems and of having to carry the “night soil” on her head and being neglected by society.

“We thought it would never end. We felt like dying every day while cleaning toilets and carrying the faeces to the dumping ground in our village,” said Dolly, another member of the group.

The group also included 36 women who had taken part in a cultural programme at the United Nations in 2008 when it celebrated the Year of Sanitation.

The US diplomat said the rehabilitation of manual scavengers vindicates abolition of the caste system and other social barriers in society, according to Sulabh International which facilitated the meeting.

“At the Nai Disha training centre the women learn how to earn their livelihood and live a dignified life. They also motivate other such women to reject the lives of indignation,” said Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of Sulabh International.

There are officially 676,000 manual scavengers in India, according to Berdaza Wilson, president of the Safai Karmachari Sanghatana.

“Officially there are 676,000 manual scavengers in India, though unofficial figures put the figure at 1.3 million. We are working on an Action 2010, according to which we aim at eradicating manual scavenging by December 31 this year,” he said at a conference earlier.

(Himanshu Vatsa can be contacted at himanshu.v@ians.in)

Hong Kong, March 1 (DPA) Movie star Jackie Chan has been voted one of the least trustworthy Hong Kong personalities in a poll, scoring lower than the city’s unpopular Chief Executive Donald Tsang.

Chan, 56, who stunned his home city last year by saying Chinese people needed to be controlled and that too much freedom might harm China, finished behind Beijing-appointed Tsang, who ranked 77th out of 80 in the most-trusted poll.

Hong Kong’s most trustworthy personality was philanthropist and anti child-abuse campaigner Josephine Siao. Olympic gold medallist Lee Lai-shan and champion cyclist Wong Kam-po also finished in the top 10.

Another famous Hong Kong actor, Chow Yun-fat, ranked sixth in the annual poll by Reader’s Digest magazine which involved online interviews with 760 people and was published in Hong Kong newspapers Friday.

The least trusted profession was fortune teller, the poll found, following a celebrated case in which a feng shui master tried unsuccessfully to claim the $13-billion fortune of Asia’s richest woman Nina Wang using an allegedly forged will.

Insurance agents and property and stocks traders also finished in the bottom five professions for trustworthiness.

The most trusted professions in the poll were firefighters, medical technicians, doctors, physiotherapists, pharmacists and dentists.

Srinagar, March 1 (IANS) The strategic Jammu-Srinagar national highway was closed for traffic Monday morning due to shooting stones in the Panthal area of Ramban district.

“Incessant rains at night triggered shooting stones. For the safety of passengers and vehicles, we have closed the road for traffic,” an officer of the traffic department said here.

The decision would be reviewed after the weather improves.

The Panthal road stretch, falling almost midway on the 300-km highway, is the most vulnerable because rains often trigger landslides and shooting stones from the mountainside.

Meanwhile, the weather office said widespread rains would occur in Jammu and Kashmir because of a western disturbance.

Authorities have also issued avalanche warnings for people living in the higher reaches.

“People in higher reaches have been asked to move with extreme caution, especially in avalanche-prone areas,” said Amir Ali, who heads the disaster management cell here.

Chilika (Orissa), March 1 (IANS) Wild life experts are hoping the highly endangered dugong or sea cow could again come visiting Orissa’s Chilika Lake, thanks to the expanding beds of sea grass growing in the shallow waters – a critical requirement for the big marine animal.

Seagrass meadows are the only marine flowering plants found in shallow waters. They serve as spawning and nursery grounds for a large numbers of fish and invertebrate species, and provide a critical habitat for dugongs and turtles.

The seagrass beds, which also play an important role in the food web of inshore coastal ecosystems, are declining globally.

However, experts have found the seagrass meadows to be expanding in the Chilika Lake, the largest brackish water lagoon in Asia.

The lake, some 100 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, is spread over Puri, Khordha and Ganjam districts. It is home to the largest congregation of migratory birds in the country and also to more than 150 endangered Irrawaddy dolphins.

“The seagrass meadows were only 20 sq km in 2000 in the lake, but it has now expanded to 80 sq km due to various conservation measures,” Ajit Patnaik, chief executive of Chilika Development Authority (CDA), told IANS.

Till date, 58 species of seagrass belonging to 12 genera are known to occur the world over. “In Chilika, five species of seagrass are recorded so far,” he said.

According to Patnaik, the dugong was last sighted in Chilika in 1902. “Unfortunately, they are now extinct from the lake,” Patnaik said.

“We hope the dugongs again come back to the lake as the seagrass meadows are now a common sight,” he said.

The dugong is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a species vulnerable to extinction. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species also limits or bans the trade of derived products in the large marine animal.

The mammal, which has a lifespan of over 70 years, has a slow rate of reproduction and heavily depends on seagrass for subsistence. At birth, a dugong can be around 27.5 kg and an adult could be around 360 kg.

The dugong is threatened by hunting, habitat degradation, pollution and human activities. Their natural predators are sharks, whales and crocodiles.

Commonly found in the Indian and Pacific oceans, dugongs are seen along the coasts of Africa, India and Sri Lanka.

Despite a recent surge in research activity, studies on Indian seagrass are few and inadequate. Large regions and a major stretch of coastlines of the country are still unexplored for sea grass.

“We (CDA) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Leibniz University, Hannover, Germany, to do a study on the seagrass here,” Patnaik said.

Jutta Papenbrock of Institute of Botany, Leibniz University Hannover (LUH), who is a molecular taxonomist, visited the lake along with Matthias Pilz from Cologne University last week and carried out an in-depth study, he said.

(Jatindra Dash can be contacted at jatindra.d@ians.in)

Hyderabad, March 1 (IANS) India’s international exhibition and conference on civil aviation, India Aviation 2010, begins here Wednesday.

A Who’s Who of aviation sector will be there at the second edition of the expo, jointly organised by the civil aviation ministry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

The five-day event (March 3-7) at Begumpet airport features exhibition, conference on civil aviation industry, CEOs Forum, flying display, customer demonstration flights, static display and media conferences.

Over 200 companies will showcase latest global aerospace technology at the event, which offers opportunities for them to do business in India.

Like the first edition held at the same venue in October 2008, giants like Airbus, Boeing, Cessna, Bell and Bombardier will display their products and services.

As many as 120 international and 75 Indian companies like service providers, airport infrastructure developers and aircraft manufacturer will participate in the biennial event.

According to FICCI Regional Director Vivek Kodikal, over 40 aircraft will provide static and flying display at the show. Antonov UAC Russia will display its AN-148 passenger aircraft.

The organisers said the event offers huge business opportunities in India as investments are being made to build and renew airport infrastructure to handle the growing air traffic of over 580 million passengers by 2016-17.

The Airport Authority of India proposed to spend of Rs.4,662 crore to modernise 35 non-metro airports to world-class standards. As many as 80 airports will be upgraded while 10 green field airports are also planned.

The government proposed to establish a premier pilot training institute at Gondia, Maharashtra, and will look for entering into joint ventures, said the organisers.

The proposed multi-modal cargo hub, upgrading of training facilities at the Indra Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Academy at a cost of Rs.24 crore and MRO business also offer huge opportunities to the participating companies.

While the first three days of the event will be exclusively for business visitors, it would be thrown open to public March 6 and 7.