Palampur, May 8
The state Forest Department is heaving a sigh of relief this year as frequent showers this summer have helped keep down forest fires to extremely low across Himachal Pradesh thereby saving the rich forest wealth of the state. Till date no major fire has been reported in Kangra district so far.

Forests in the middle and lower hills of the state are prone to big fires between April and June keeping Forest Department officials on tenterhooks.

Besides disturbing the fragile flora and fauna, these blazes also cause huge damage to standing trees. Himachal Pradesh has one of the richest and most varied forests in northern India, particularly Himalayan pine variety, which is highly valued for its superior timber.

Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that this year the Forest Department had not been able to take up the required preventive measures like controlled burning of forests and maintenance of fire lines. It carried out controlled burning over a small forest area. However, rain god had come for the rescue of forest department.

As per norms, controlled burning has to be carried out at least over one-third of the total forest area susceptible to forest fires. The total area under pine forests, where controlled burning is required, is 1,50,000 hectare and as such preventive measures are to be carried out on over 50,000 hectare.

The high fire-risk pine forests are considered to be biotic climax forests and controlled fires are beneficial for their growth, even though uncontrolled blazes cause severe damage to soil, water, wildlife and the overall environment. Controlled burning enables to destroy the inflammable material which gets accumulated on the forest floor. An estimated 2 tonnes of pine needles are shed over 1 hectare of pine forest annually. As the mercury rises, highly inflammable needles virtually transform pine forests into tinder boxes.

In fact, the Forest Department required about Rs 30 crore for carrying out various control measures and to keep the fire risk at the minimum level of 0.2 annually. However, it received only around Rs 1 crore annually for the purpose.

Mandi, May 8
In a rare initiative, the Mandi police has started using social media like Facebook to book traffic law offenders and other rash driving youngsters in this temple town. The police booked youngsters indulging in rash driving in Khaliar near DAV Public School. The cops also booked offenders causing traffic jam in the town on three occasions.

SP Mandi Abhishek Dular said they made a list of 12 youngsters driving rashly during peak hours on the Khaliar road near DAV school. “We got their pictures on the website, identified them, and brought it to the notice of their parents,” he added.

“They did not mend their behaviour, so we seized their vehicles to ensure compliance,” Dular said, adding what the police failed to do earlier, they succeeded with the help of social media. The police also gets messages and pictures on the website of traffic jams and offenders who park their vehicles wrongly.

The social media site of Mandi police on Facebook has become a rallying point for residents. The police on an average receives 25-30 responses daily on the site regarding police action or inaction.

“We have received more than 270 responses in the past few days on the website,” said Dular. The site visitors not only share their views on police action but also put up pictures of traffic rule offenders on the site for police action.

Appreciating the steps taken by the Mandi SP, AC Thakur, a resident, said, “It is the prime duty of each individual to adhere the traffic rules in view to their safety to all. The SP is interacting with society round the clock to provide the best law and order services to the general public”.

“It is appreciable that the police is so much considerate to common public, but I have doubts,” commented Manish Sharma.

The SP said the public can flash pictures of drug abusers and chemists selling medicines without prescription or cops not following their duties in their beats, he added.

Hamirpur, May 8
A synthetic athletics track, which is being constructed at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Memorial Post Graduate College, Hamirpur, will be completed by the next month.

The construction work of the track is almost complete and now track-laying process is underway.

The state government had initiated the construction of two synthetic athletics tracks in the state, the other being constructed at Dharamsala. The track at Hamirpur is being constructed at the cost of Rs 6.55 crore.

At present, all national and international athletic events are organised on synthetic tracks. The local athletes and those hailing from the other parts of the state will be benefitted by practising on this track. Moreover, this will be an all weather track.

Talking about the other benefits of the synthetic track for the athletes of the state, local athlete Pushpa Thakur said, “Practising on grass ground is quite exhausting and athletes trained on such grounds can’t match the perfection gained on synthetic tracks. This will help in preparing for national and international events”.

In the next phase, an indoor stadium adjoining the track, residential accommodation for athletes and a pavilion will also be added to the synthetic track.

Nurpur, May 8
Members of a gang, who duped a resident of Tanda Urmer in Punjab recently by taking Rs 8 lakh with the promise of allotting him a cooking gas agency, have started alluring inhabitants of lower Kangra district.

The gang kingpin, who has his in-laws at Teukar village in this subdivision, along with his wife and three other accomplices, was booked by the Pathankot police in Punjab last month under Sections 420 and 34, IPC, following a complaint lodged by Tarsem Singh of Tanda Urmar for cheating him of Rs 8 lakh with a promise of providing him a petrol pump licence.

The Kangra police has cautioned people not to fall prey to the gang.

Talking to this correspondent on the telephone here recently, Daljeet Thakur, SP, Kangra, has called upon people of the district not to get allured in the racket. He said three out of the five members had been arrested and remanded in judicial custody until May 9.

“The police has information that the kingpin of this racket, who hails from the Dakki area of Pathankot, was working with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd as executive operation (retail) at Jammu. He had been dismissed from the services after absconding from his job from October 10, 2009, onwards. The company had issued a public notice in this connection in newspapers on March 3 this year,” the SP said.

Palampur, May 8
The Saurabh Van Vihar, an amusement park coming up in the memory of martyr Capt Saurabh Kalia, has become a victim of politics. The differences between the two top leaders of the BJP, Shanta Kumar and Chief Minister PK Dhumal, have put a question mark on the early completion of the park.

Captain Kalia had sacrificed his life in the Kargil War. He was brutally tortured and murdered following his capture by the Pakistani army during the Kargil War in May 1999. He laid down his life at the prime age of 22, serving for less than five months in the Army. His title to eternal fame and glory lies in the fact that he was the first officer to detect and inform about Pakistani intrusion in the Kargil area.

In 2000, Shanta Kumar, former Union minister and senior BJP leader, announced to set up the Saurabh Van Vihar in the memory of Captain Kalia at Palampur. He contributed over Rs 2 crore from his MPLAD funds for the execution of the project. Later, the project was taken over by the state government and the Forest Department was made the execution agency.

Due to the government’s apathy, the project remains incomplete even though 10 years have passed since its construction began. Not only the Captain Kalia’s parents, but all residents of Palampur are also hurt over the partial attitude of the government towards the project. Due to differences between Dhumal and Shanta Kumar, the government neglected the project. No funds were released by the government in the past four years and no attention was paid for the early completion of this project.

Today, the Saurabh Van Vihar is in a bad shape. The lake inside the park has not been completed. Roads leading to the park are yet to be metalled. Shanta Kumar has lodged a protest with Dhumal over the non-cooperative attitude of the government and stopped attending all meetings of the state BJP.

Local BJP MLA Parveen Sharma said on Wednesday that despite his best efforts, no one in the government bothered to complete the project. He said Rs 50 lakh was needed for the completion of the project. The works assigned to the IPH Department were going at a snail’s pace. Sharma had already requested the Chief Minister for the release of funds, but no funds were given till date.

Alumni from all over the world joined the golden jubilee celebrations of Tibetan Central School in Shimla held early this week.

The institution was set up in 1962 after the Chinese aggression and it had played an important role in enabling the Tibetans, who were forced to flee the country, not only start their lives afresh but also keep the struggle for freedom going. Tibetan Prime Minister in exile Dr Lobsang Sangay, who was the chief guest at one of the functions during the three-day celebrations, thanked India for all the help extended to Tibetan refugees, particularly making modern education accessible to them.

The Tibetans were able to learn English, Hindi and other languages only because of the chain of such schools run by the Central Tibetan Schools Administration. The pass outs from these schools were spread across the world and they were contributing to the Tibetan struggle in their own way. The only area which needed attention was that there were not many engineers, doctors, scientists and other professionals among the Tibetans.

A former Prime Minster, Samdong Rinpoche, underlined the need for preserving the culture and said the tendency of the modern generation to embrace alien lifestyle, language and culture, particularly costumes, should be curbed.