Dehradun, January 12
Brutal deaths of five women at the Corbett in the past 10 months are not only the case of man-animal conflict, but also seem to have links to the extraction of the forest produce.

Starting from February 6 last year, when a tiger at Sundarkhal forest killed a woman, the causalities have grown manifold. The tigers have mauled women on November 12, 18, December 29 and the recent January 10.

In all these cases, the villagers have claimed that the women had ventured into the Corbett forest to get fodder, but sources revealed that it was not just the case of fodder, but the other forest produce, including tejpata, gular, honey and even curry patta, that lure these women into the forest, resulting into chance encounter with the tigers.

Uttarakhand Coordinator of the Wildlife Protection Society of India Rajendra Agarwal said in most of the cases, women were deep into the forest area, when they confronted the tigers resulting in their deaths. “It cannot be a case of just the fodder, women often venture deep into the forest to get forest produce, which fetch them good price in the market,” said Aggarwal.

Another Wildlife conservationist and former WWF coordinator for Terai Arc Landscape Dr Hem Singh Gehlot said extracting honey, plucking gulars, collecting fuel wood and fodder, particularly from the territorial forest areas of the Corbett were quite common.

The Uttarakhand forest officials also do not rule out villagers being lured by the forest produce in the name of fuel and fodder. The forest officials’ role to keep a check on the villagers entering the forests have been limited to the forest check posts, but the with a large numbers of villages in the close proximity to the park, checking people from venturing into the forest would be an uphill task.

Uttarakhand Principal Chief Conservator of Forests RBS Rawat admits that with the Corbett having porous borders, putting a complete check on the villagers from entering into the forest was not an easy task. “We certainly check the villagers at the barriers, but in case, like the Ramnagar Mohan road, where the entire road runs parallel to the Corbett, checking the villagers from entering into the forest is not so easy,” said Rawat. He also acknowledged that the forest did lure the villagers for more than just fuel wood or fodder.

Uttarakhand PCCF Rawat said it was an arduous task for the forest authorities to deal with man-tiger conflicts.

Dehradun, January 12
With the aim of strengthening medical services in Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank’s constituency, six doctors have been transferred to the Primary Health Centre (PHC) at Pauri, paralysing the Radiology and Gynaecology Departments at three hospitals of Doon.

The PHC at Pauri already has adequate medical staff and the recent transfers have only created a crisis at the District Doon Male and Female Hospitals and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Coronation Hospital.

Two medical officers, Dr Rita Dhawan, Gynaecologist (District Female Hospital, Dehradun) and Dr Dharam Sattu, (Medical officer with dual charge of Herbertpur and Vikasnagar Primary Health Centres) have been transferred while RK Singh from the administration section (Sahaspur PHC) too has been transferred. Together with these transfers five doctors have been attached to the Pauri Primary Health Centre from the Coronation Hospital and the District Doon Hospital Male and Female. The transfers have affected the services at both these hospitals.

Dr RK Singh (Pathologist with the Doon Hospital), Dr Sunita Singh (Pathologist with the District Women’s Hospital), Dr Shalini Dimri (Gynaecologist with the District Female Hospital, Dehradun), Dr Archana Verma (Gynaecologist with the District Female Hospital) and Dr Alok Jain, (from ENT Department of the Doon Hospital) have now been attached to the Primary Health Center at Pauri.

Opposing the transfers, doctors say these have been announced suddenly. “Our children are in the middle of an academic session. It will be very difficult for us to relocate suddenly,” said Dr RK Singh.

If the sudden transfers trouble doctors, even the patients are suffering. All the three hospitals in Dehradun are now under-staffed. “We are already facing a shortage of gynaecologists at the District Female Hospital. Now, with the fresh transfers, our doctors will have to work over time,” said Dr Deepa Sharma, CMS, District Female Hospital.

Similarly, the functioning of the Pathologist Department of the District Female Hospital and the Coronation Hospital too are bound to affect with the transfer of pathologists.

Nainital, January 12
Despite having utilised Rs 22 crore, the region is lagging behind its counterparts in the state. Commissioner Kunal Sharma stated this while chairing a meeting of the top brass of the districts in the region, here today.

Referring to the non-disbursement of sanctioned funds to various departments, he said the heads of these departments should take up the matter with the administration, so that the funds were made available for execution of the various schemes. Sharma said the officials should expedite development work and ensure that the money sanctioned to them was optimally utilised over the next three months.

He warned the departments, which have utilised mere 50 per cent of the sanctioned funds, to speed up work, failing which action would be taken against the officials heading the departments concerned and particularly asked the top brass in Almora and Champawat to work in this regard.

The District Magistrates were told to initiate action against such officials, whose laxity was leading to the slow pace work execution in their districts. Sharma laid stress on providing power facility to villages that were still deprived of the same.

He also expressed his displeasure over the slow pace of work with regards to the 20-point programme, where several departments were presently faring in the D category. He has asked the District Magistrates to ensure that the performance of these departments picks up in the next three months.

Taking a serious note of the slow pace of development of homoeopathy facilities in the Kumaon region, Sharma has directed all the District Magistrates to hold meetings with the respective Homoeopathic Medical Officers (HMOs) and expedite the work in the sector. He expressed his concern at the shortfall in the achievement of targets in promotion of the homoeopathy in the districts.

Two girls have a walk as Haridwar witnessed one of the coldest days of this season on Thursday. ribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur

Speaking on the chances of snow in Mussoorie and Nainital, he said right now the western disturbances were in the initial stage of buildup and snow could not be predicted in these areas at this moment.

School holidays extended

Haridwar (OC): The cold wave and foggy conditions continued in the region. A little silver lining in the cloudy sky came around afternoon when for just half an hour sun rays pierced through the clouds, providing a little respite to people, who have not seen a sunny day for the past one and a half week.

In view of the unprecedented cold prevalent in the district, the administration has extended school holidays to January 17. A group of girls, who were coming from tuition, said seeing the sunshine, they had planned a bicycle ride alongside the Ganga ghats but as soon as they were about to move the weather once again got cloudy. "We have been confined to our homes for the past 10 days due to extreme cold," said Sakshita Negi, a high school student.

Nainital, January 12
The administration in Udham Singh Nagar will be undertaking an immunisation drive against Japanese encephalitis from February 1 to 20. All children from one to 15 years will be inoculated.

Announcing this decision at a meeting of health officials in Rudrapur on Tuesday afternoon, District Magistrate Dr BVRC Purshottam has called for timely preparation of a road map to carry out the drive successfully so that the entire target group of children is covered. He also asked for ensuring complete participation of private schools in the drive.

Purshottam said that anganwadi workers, ASHA workers and the Principals of different schools would be responsible for ensuring that all the children attending various schools, anganwadi centres etc are covered.

He has asked Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr RS Aswal, Programme Officer Akhilesh Mishra and Deputy District Education Officer Ashok Kumar Singh to make the required arrangements.

The Malaria Officer in the district BC Joshi said that as there have been some positive cases from the district, Udham Singh Nagar has been chosen for the vaccination programme.

The district borders Uttar Pradesh where there have been several cases in the recent past. He said that the administration was targeting vaccination of 5,14,354 children during the drive in the age group of one to 15 years.

For the programme, booths will be set up on the lines of the Pulse Polio drive. An ASHA worker, an anganwadi worker, a teacher and two ANMs will be deployed at every booth.

A total of 90 teams have been constituted for the purpose and one supervisor has been deployed for every five teams.

Joshi said that the vaccines have been made available to the district and all those deployed in the drive would be trained to administer the injections.

Talking about the next Pulse Polio drive to be carried out in the district from January 23 to 29, he asked the officials to particularly monitor the sensitive zones and ensure that all the children between the age group of one to five years are given polio drops.

Haridwar, January 12
The state Election Commission (EC) has started monitoring the build-up to the zila panchayat elections scheduled to be held in two phases next month in Haridwar district to ensure a free and fair poll.

Special instructions have been sent from the EC to the district administration to ensure a high level of security during the election process.

Sensitive areas will be placed under the vigil of paramilitary forces. Special tier security will be in place at the strong room where the ballot paper will be kept.

Uttarakhand Election Commissioner Harish Chand Joshi directed District Magistrate R Meenakshi Sundaram and district police chief Sanjay Gunjiyal to make a plan for the smooth conduct of polls.

All booths with over 750 voters will be bifurcated. No single booth will have employees from the same department. In addition to the state police, the Provisional Armed Constabulary (PAC) will be deployed as per the sensitivity and requirement at the polling booth.

He said that even minute details should be looked into like the rooms where the nomination process would take place. These should have enough windows for ventilation. Joshi also emphasised on having facsimile facility at all block and district headquarters for the proper flow of information.

Dehradun, January 12
The Uttarakhand Principal Secretary has asked the departments concerned to appoint nodal officers to facilitate timely preparation of the climate change work plan for the state.

Presiding over a meeting, Uttarakhand Principal Secretary and Forest and Rural Development Commissioner Rajeev Gupta directed the departments to appoint nodal officers for preparing a climate change work plan in the state. "The information about the appointment of nodal officers must be submitted by all the departments to the office of the Chief Conservator of Forests Environment before January 25," Gupta said.

He told the meeting that as per the agenda of the recent Chief Ministers' conference, Uttarakhand has to prepare its climate change policy at the earliest.

Referring to the concept of green buildings and green roads, the Uttarakhand Principal Secretary directed all the departments for seeking valuable suggestions from the Public Works Department and the Central Building Research Institute in Roorkee for carrying forward the concept of green buildings and green roads. He also ordered for the immediate start of the plastic recycling plant at Srinagar in the Garhwal region.

Director of the Uttarakhand Space Application Centre MM Kimothi spoke on the Himalayan glaciers. Uttarakhand Planning Secretary S Ramaswami, Secretary (Agriculture) Om Prakash and Secretary (Finance) Radha Raturi were prominent persons who attended the meeting.

Dehradun, January 12
The students of the Vivekanand Study Circle, on the occasion of Swami Vivekanand’s 150th birth anniversary, celebrated the National Youth Day with great enthusiasm.

“We as the volunteers of the study circle are privileged enough to share our experiences and knowledge with those who are deprived. We don’t conduct schools for the slum kids, but often volunteer in their coaching sessions. We interact with them and share the dogmas and philosophies of Vivekanand, while inspiring them to attain a respectful life in future by studying and working,” said Astha, a volunteer.

Another participant in the mission, Lalu Ram Icchan desired to gain as much knowledge from the ashram so that he could render the same to the others to lead a self-motivated and prosperous life.

While talking to The Tribune, Brahmchari Yogeshwar Chaitanya said, “Swami Vivekanand stands as a role model for the coming generations in various respects. The path laid by him inspired many young people and great leaders. His work and knowledge is an ideal inspiration for the youth to achieve greater things in life.”

Brahmchari Yogeshwar said youths could do wonders if guided properly. “We need to teach the youth about moral, cultural, and spiritual values in human life. It is for this reason, Swami Vivekanand’s birthday has been declared as the National Youth Day by the Government of India,” he said.

The volunteers and members of the Shri Ramakrishan Mission Ashram held a programme that began with lighting of the ceremonial lamp by chief guest Swami Nigmanand. Nigmanand reminisced the idealistic approach of Swami Vivekanand.

Meanwhile, CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said the youngsters were the future of the country and they had always been the pioneers of positive change. Remembering Swami Vivekanand, Nishank said his teachings were still meaningful in this modern age. He urged the youngsters to plant a sapling each in their houses, so as to help Uttarakhand become a green state. He announced that from next the Rashtriya Yuva Diwas would be celebrated at the government level. Posters of Samvedna Programme were also released on the occasion. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Yuva Vichar Manch celebrated the day at DBS PG College, here. The chief guest on the occasion was Harbans Kapoor, Speaker of the Assembly.

Pithoragarh, January 12
Uttarakhand BJP president Bishan Singh Chufal said today that the BJP would not support the no-confidence motion brought by some members of the party against Pithoragarh Zila Panchayat chief Ranjana Devi.

“Ranjana Devi will continue as the Zila Panchayat chief. To resolve the issue, a meeting of Ranjana and the BJP members, who have brought the no-confidence motion against her, has been called,” said Chufal. The day of January 19 has been set by Pithoragarh District Magistrate NS Negi for voting on the no-confidence motion brought by 30 members of the Pithoragarh Zila Panchayat.

The BJP chief said his party was committed to uplifting the weaker section of the society, especially the Dalit women. “Ranjana Devi is from the BJP and has been elevated to the post of first citizen of the district by the BJP and she will continue as the BJP Zila Panchayat chief,” said Chufal.

Nainital, January 12
Almora District Magistrate DS Garbyal has ordered immediate replacement of blankets and mattresses at the District and Women Hospital. Garbyal carried out an inspection at the hospital premises today and was appalled to see the filth at the premises and said immediate steps should be taken to clean the hospital premises.

He visited the surgical ward, private wards, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) ward and emergency departments. He called for proper maintenance of the generator in the hospital for round-the-clock utilisation of the lift.