Dehradun, January 13
The woman-eater tigress of the Jim Corbett National Park continues to elude forest officials even as member secretary of the National Tiger Conservation Authority Rajesh Gopal today issued the necessary directives regarding the search operations.

Having been hit on January 11, the injured woman-eater tigress, which has so far killed four women in the Sundarkhal forest area of the Corbett, is being frantically hunted by five teams of the Uttarakhand Forest Department.

Deputy Director, Jim Corbett National Park, CK Kavidayal said the search operations had been further strengthened to get to the woman-eater tigress. “Some forest guards did come across the injured tigress today near the very Sarpduli range where she made her last kill, but it escaped. Services of dogs have now been sought from Kathgodam”, he added.

Meanwhile, Gopal visited the site of the incident and issued the necessary directions to the forest officials. Uttarakhand Chief Wildlife Warden Srikant Chandola accompanied the member secretary. Gopal also held discussions with the forest officers regarding the relocation of villagers from the Sunderkhal area in order to provide a long-term solution to the tiger-human conflict in this region bordering the Corbett.

The woman-eater tigress killed the first woman in the Sunderkhal area on November 12, followed by the killing of another woman on November 18. After this, a woman was killed by the tigress on December 29. The fourth victim of the tigress was 60-year-old Shanti Devi who was killed on Jan 10 in the Sarpduli range of the park.

Pithoragarh, January 13
Residents of 18 disaster-hit revenue villages of Dharchula subdivision of Pithoragarh district have threatened to start an agitation at the district headquarters if they are not resettled before June this year.

“From the past 30 years, more than 50 per cent of our cultivable land has vanished in landslides, which have also taken toll of 50 persons of the area,” said zila panchayat member from the area Aan Singh Rokaya.

Rokaya said the villages situated at the Tawaghat mountain range were highly sensitive to natural disasters, especially landslides.

“During five months of rain from June to October every year, people of our area live in the community buildings or have to face calamity in their broken houses, as sharp rains trigger the landslides,” said Rokaya.

“Our agricultural land is sliding slowly, forcing people to leave the villages,” said the zila panchayat member, demanding that the villagers needed either cultivable land or jobs to sustain their families.

The villagers submitted a memorandum to minister in charge of Pithoragarh district at Dharchula Balwant Singh Bhoriyal.

“Due to poverty and unemployment, the villagers can neither shift to other places nor can sustain their families in their villages, as the fertile land has been washed away by the landslides occurring for the past 30 years,” said Rokaya.

Dehradun, January 13
A pregnant injured leopard today strayed into the densely populated Govindnagar locality in the Shastradhara Road area on the outskirts of Uttarakhand’s capital Dehradun. The leopard, that had injured itself most probably due to a metal trap, was recovered in the close vicinity.

Poorly equipped Forest officials were finding it hard to rescue the leopard and have sought the services of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) for tranquilising the beast.

According to Divisional Forest Officer, Mussoorie, Ram Gopal, a pregnant leopard strayed into Govindnagar at around 3 pm today and was initially noticed by some villagers. “From a distance of 50 m, the female leopard looks pregnant and we have now sought the services of the WII’s Parag Nigam for tranquilising the beast,” Ram Gopal pointed out.

The hurt leopard hid herself in the lantana bushes even as forest officials tried to corner her. Lack of search lights and other equipments were hampering the conduct of the rescue operations.

The Shastradhara Road feline incident comes only a day after a leopard was sighted in the Anarwala area of Dehradun. Hardly 15 days back a leopard was rescued in the very Mussoorie Forest Division. Leopard sightings have become quite common in Dehradun, particularly in winters. The weed lantana is growing on the outskirts of Dehradun and proving to be a safe hideout for the leopards. The Dehradun Forest Division authorities had ordered uprooting of lantana.

Dehradun, January 13
To facilitate a smooth Char Dham yatra, an extensive survey of the Char Dham circuit was undertaken by the Uttarakhand Home Affairs Department and the Transport Department to identify the accident-prone areas on the Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri routes. Also owing to a lack of adequate signboards at important junctures, tourists face a lot of problem to get information regarding the destinations that fall on the route.

Crash barriers have been set up at a few places. These have been effective in bringing down the number of accidents. Considering the importance of these crash barriers, a plan has been prepared for the Char Dhams roads. The PWD has been given the task to installing signboards and W beam crash barriers at critical junctures.

The installation of W beam guardrail (weak post and strong post) has been advocated as it has been used for decades because of its effective guardrail system. Moreover, it can be used in a variety of roadside situations.

According to sources in the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board, W beam guardrail will be installed on the important Char Dham locations because this technology can also be used at curves, bridge approaches and at the places where there is a little room for lateral deflection of vehicles. The cost of W beam guardrail varies depending on the type of posts used and the post spacing but overall W beam guardrail is relatively inexpensive and readily available in large quantities. Besides, the maintenance costs associated with the strong post W beam guardrail are typically less than those associated with flexible systems.

The boards carrying road signs are also being erected on the Char Dham roads to provide information to the pilgrims. These signs were first developed in Europe and have been adopted by most countries. The roads where the signboards and W beam crash barriers are proposed to be installed are: The Dharasu Bend-Phoolchatti road (NH-94), Herbertpur-Barkot Bend road (NH-123), Rudraprayag-Gaurikund road (NH-109), Dharasu-Gangotri road (NH-108), Rishikesh-Mana road (NH-58), Jeolikot-Almopra-Ranikhet-Gairsain-Adibadri-Karanprayag road (NH-87 ext.), Tyuni-Chakrata-Mussoorie-Chamba-Kirtinagar road (SH-8), Chamoli-Guptkashi road, Tehri-Ghansali-Tilwara road, Bhaldiyana-Lambgaon-Uttarkashi road, Chaundhar-Okhla link road, Pratapnagar-Tehri road and the Ghansali-Tehri-Pratapnagar road. The department is confident that it will complete this task in the next six months.

Dehradun, January 13
Aggrieved over the irregular supply of water in the Sayeed Mohalla of Kishan Nagar, members of the Mahanagar Congress Committee today submitted a memorandum to assistant executive of the Jal Sansthan here today.

Harish Virmani, president of the committee, stated that the area was getting a regular water supply for the past two years. It had been limited to two hours for some time now which was making the lives of people uncomfortable.

He further said despite various requests the sansthan had failed to make the supply normal. It was not only in ward No. 8 that the supply was disturbed, the situation was the same in ward No. 59, Anand Vihar, Raj Nikunj and Narender Vihar.

Virmani claimed that the area that was developed 30-35 years back got the water supply just for two hours in comparison to Rajender Nagar, which was getting more water supply.

He stated that if the Jal Sansthan failed to take action, the workers of the committee in association with the residents would come on the streets to protest.

Nainital, January 13
In an unfortunate incident reported from Gadarpur in Udham Singh Nagar district, a man in an inebriated condition shot his son when he was stopped by the latter from consuming more liquor. The youth is struggling for his life in a hospital.

According to information, Jeet Singh of Khushalpur village is a habitual drinker. He had a verbal spat with his 18-year-old son Sona Singh over the issue of consumption of liquor. The son was adamant that he should give up drinking.

Following the spat, the son went to the fields to work. He was followed by his enraged father who shot him in the stomach.

Leaving the son struggling for life, Jeet Singh fled from the spot and hid in the fields. Hearing the gun shot Sona Singh’s mother reached the spot and got him admitted to a hospital in Rudrapur with the help of other villagers. The police is learnt to have arrested Jeet Singh.

Dehradun, January 13
In view of the cold wave and foggy weather in the Doon valley for the past few days, District Magistrate (DM) Sachin Kurve issued an order yesterday for change in school timings. But the late release order created confusion today among students and their parents.

The DM has ordered that all government and private schools in the district will function from 9.30 am with effect from January 13, 2011. The order was given as per the direction of Geeta Nautiyal, District Education Officer.

Since early morning, many parents were in a dilemma, as to on what time they had to send their wards to schools. There were many who kept waiting for their school conveyances to pick them up, but couldn’t go due to receiving no information from the school authorities.

“In utter confusion, my daughter couldn’t go to school today. Her rickshaw wallah came at 7:30 in the morning, while we were expecting him to come according to the changed timing of schools from 9:30 am as published in newspapers today. The rickshaw wallah went back and my ward couldn’t go to school,” said Radha Rastogi, a mother.

Neha, a student of Bright Land School, said, “I returned home in the morning as someone on the way to school informed me that the school had already started at its regular time and it was no point going so late. Now, I’d come here to clear the doubts regarding the school timings from tomorrow”.

According to principals of various schools, the order passed by the DM didn’t reach them on time. “We have made it clear with the authorities about the timings and we have put up the new timings on the notice board to avoid inconvenience to parents as well as students,” said Manju Grover, Principal, Brooklyn School.

Talking to The Tribune, Kurve said, “We make all the announcements through public medium such as newspapers and posters. We instructed all the schools to change their timing to 9:30 am instead of their regular timing. The order is passed to provide some relaxation to the students from cold waves and fog especially during early mornings.”

“There was no scope of closing down the schools or extending winter vacations due to the ensuing examinations. But the decision of changing the timings is taken keeping in view of bad weather conditions,” he added.

Nainital, January 13
The industrial unrest in a paper mill in Lal Kuan has been resolved for now with the management and the government agreeing to the employee regularisation demands over the next one year.

Both the sides took up the matter at a meeting, in which Cabinet Minister Bansidhar Bhagat was also present. The meeting was held at a government guest house in Haldwani yesterday.

The employee leaders were reluctant to accept the oral promise made to them, saying that despite having a written agreement from the management for their regularisation since 1997, all that they had been getting was the annual renewal of the contracts.

However, the management, which promised to initially regularise the oldest contractual employees against the fresh vacancies and enroll others within a year, persuaded them.

The premises and the area around the paper mill had erupted over the issue of employment on Saturday, as the workers employed on the temporary basis were joined by the local youth in an unprecedented protest. The venue had witnessed industrial unrest for close to 14 hours and it was only after the assurance of the proposed meeting yesterday that the tempers had cooled down.

The trouble had started on Saturday morning, when the temporary employees climbed on top of a crane and a tower and started raising slogans.

This had triggered off a protest in the other sections, as the workers shut work and took over the gates of the mill, stopping the movement of the vehicles.

Coming to know about the protest, the unemployed youth in the vicinity of the mill had also joined the protest.

Dehradun, January 13
The Uttarakhand Government is going all out to strengthen the ayuryedic and naturopathy infrastructure in the state.

The government has appointed Joint Director (yoga), Joint Director (naturopathy) and also appointed five medical officers on contract in the ayush wing of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

The appointment of Joint Directors of yoga and naturopathy departments are aimed at streamlining the systems so that a standardised practice is followed in the state.

Notably, there has been a major thrust on establishing ayurvedic dispensaries/wings both by the Central as well as the state governments.

According to data provided by the Directorate, there are 538 ayurvedic dispensaries and five Unani dispensaries in the state.

Twentythree ayush wings have been set up at 23 community health centres and 116 primary health centres in the state.

The ayush wings offering ayurvedic, Unani and homeopathy treatments are proving to be a boon for patients who have faith in traditional Indian systems.

Dehradun, January 13
The festival of Lohri was celebrated with traditional fervour at different places in the state capital despite the cold wave sweeping the city here today. Late in the evening, after sunset, people started gathering around bonfires in various colonies to celebrate the festival with friends and family members. The residents were seen enjoying huge bonfires, music and dance in parks and in front yards of their houses.

The Punjabi Sangathan was also seen enjoying the festival at Prem Nagar. It included a combination of Punjabi music and dance.

Sonia Anand, president of the Punjabi Sangathan Women’s Wing, who is also a singer, along with with Prabha and other singers, performed and made the audience dance to their tunes.

Dr Harak Singh Rawat, Leader of the Opposition, inaugurated the programme by lighting the lamp. Other than him, Sudha Bahuguna was present as the chief guest of the programme and social worker Harish Arora was the guest of honour.

A food stall was the centre of attraction of the programme. Prasad of peanuts, popcorn and rewri etc was distributed among people after lighting the bonfire.

Dehradun, January 13
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank today reviewed the progress of the various developmental works in the state.

At a meeting held at the Secretariat, Dr Nishank asked officers to come up with positive results by visiting villages personally and getting developmental schemes implemented on ground. He asked all the department heads to present the report of the action taken by them on Vision-2020 within 10 days.

The Chief Minister asked the officers to conduct physical verification of the schemes to examine their quality. He also ordered them to make cent per cent utilisation of the funds available for externally-aided and centrally-sponsored schemes. He asked the Principal Secretaries and Secretaries to conduct physical verification of the schemes with a view to monitor the implementation of the schemes and initiate strict action against the negligent officers.

The Chief Minister also ordered speedy disposal of all the pending matters. He directed to improve sanitary system in all the cities and towns of the state and asked the Chief Secretary to issue necessary guidelines to all the District Magistrates and municipal bodies in this connection.

Dehradun, January 13
Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva has greeted the citizens of Uttarakhand and the country on the auspicious occasion of Makara Sankranti and Pongal, which will be celebrated tomorrow.

In a message, the Governor has said: "I wish you all a happy and prosperous Makara Sankranti and Pongal. We must celebrate all festivals joyfully with a spirit of togetherness to create an environment of unity and tolerance in the society". — TNS