Wild animals attacking villagers, destroying crops
B.D. Kasniyal

Pithoragarh February 5
Wild animals unable to find their natural food in higher reaches in Kumaon region have not only started attacking villagers but also destroying the cultivation of marginal farmers in the interior parts of the region.

In first such incident, five women of Digot village in Chaukhutiya area of Almora district have been admitted to a local hospital after they were injured by a wild bear who emerged suddenly at the place from where these women were collecting fodder for their cattle in a nearby forest. “Four women have been given treatment in the local hospital while one, injured seriously, has been referred to Ranikhet hospital,” said Dr Manoj Joshi, medical officer at the local hospital in Chaukhutiya.

According to the information, the women, Kaushalya Devi, Mohini Devi, Preeti, Rekha Devi and Ganga Devi, were attacked by a wild bear as they were collecting grass for their cattle. “When we shouted, the bear fled to the Jungle,” said Preeti Tiwari (25), who has been discharged after treatment in the hospital.

In another incident of wild animal attack on humans, a 26-year-old youth Bhuwan Ram, a resident of Daushola Badiyar village near Danya town, also in Almora district, has been seriously injured in an attack of wild boar near his fields. “When Bhuwan was working in his field, the boar suddenly appeared from a bush and attacked him, injuring him seriously,” said J.C. Dani, Range officer of Jageshwar forest range in Almora district.

Bhuwan Ram has been brought to Almora base hospital by 108 emergency services and is undergoing treatment in the hospital. “The Forest Department has provided a relief of Rs 5,000 to the family of Bhuwan Ram,” said the range officer.

The brunt of the wild boar attack is also being faced by the villagers of Kanikot village of Champawat district where the villagers have opted for the profession other then agriculture due to rampant attacks on their crops by the herd of wild boars from the last decade. “Whatever we sow in our fields, is being destroyed by these animals, for which we have written to district administration and state government as well but we could not find any solution to this increasing menace till date,” said Trilok Singh Mehta, an ex-Army man. “During my service in Army, I came through several methods adopted by the state governments in Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim to ward off wild animals from the fields, but none of those have been adopted by the state government in Uttarakhand state,” complained Mehta.

The forest officials said that a policy draft of inducting herb cultivation in place of cereals in the places surrounded by forests and plantation of wild fruit trees and edible roots in the periphery of forest near the villages is on the cards and awaiting state government approval.

411 recruits of ITBP pass out
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 5
A total of 411 recruits of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police passed out after the successful completion of training at Dehradun situated on the 23rd BN ITBP campus here today.

Reviewing the parade, Uttarakhand Director General of Police JS Pandey lauded the role of the ITBP in guarding frontiers of the nation. He said the role of the force had been very important, particularly in Uttarakhand that shares international borders.

He also referred to the ITBP’s role in relief and rescue operations in case of natural disasters. “ITBP personnel have always led from the front in relief and rescue operations in natural disasters in Uttarakhand”, he said. He also greeted the participants for staging an excellent parade.

Earlier, 411 new constable recruits of the ITBP took part in the passing-out parade. There are 55 recruits from Jammu and Kashmir, 53 from Andhra Pradesh, 51 from West Bengal, 39 from Odissa, 33 from Chattisgarh, 37 from Uttarakhand and 21 from Jharkhand.

Among those awarded included Bhupendra Singh for standing the overall best trainee recruit of the parade. Further, Wang Kampa was awarded for being best in drill, Krishna Singh for firing, Suresh for PT, Narendra Lal Bahuguna for outdoor events and Nagram Tarang for indoor activities.

A presentation of martial art followed by PT display was highly appreciated by audience.

The 44-week training mainly had in its schedule classes on enhancing physical ability, arms training, guerrilla warfare, disaster management, first-aid and study of laws.

Inspector General of Police, Northern Frontier, ITBP, VK Uprety, DIG, Dehradun, ITBP, Sanjay Singhal, DIG KC Kapoor, SC Mamgain and Sanjay Bose were prominent among ITBP officials present on the occasion.

Red jungle fowl population declines
Jotirmay Thapliyal
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 5
The confusion between Red Jungle Fowl (Gallus gallus) and domestic chicken may end soon. This has been revealed in the recent study on the Red Jungle Fowl (RJF) conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun.

Fears have been expressed that the wild RJF population may be genetically contaminated, leading to an inference that there may not be any pure RJFs in the wild.

It was believed that the wild RJF population has been hybridised with the domestic stock, especially near the villages causing an introgression of domestic genes into the wild population. But the study reveals that such tendencies are very rare and thus, there was no cause of worry.

The wild Gallus gallus is one of the most important species to the mankind due to its economic and cultural significance.

First domesticated in Mohenjodaro and Harappa in the Indus Valley Civilization, the RJF is believed to be the ancestor of all domestic chickens in the world. Habitat loss, fragmentation, degradation and poaching are some of the major challenges for the wild fowl population in the country.

The Wildlife Institute of India had initiated a research project ‘Conservation of Red Jungle Fowl in India’ sometime ago, with objectives to assess the current status and distribution of the RJF in the country, to identify pure RJF populations, to investigate social interactions and behaviour of RJF and domestic chicken, particularly in the forest-village interface, and to propose a conservation action plan for the RJF in the country.

Fortunately, the current distribution was found to be more or less similar to the historical distribution, barring some gaps where it is discontinuous due to challenges in cities, changed landscapes and unsuitable habitats like wetland, high altitude areas and fragmented forest patches.

The present day multi-billion dollar poultry industry is based on the wild RJF and may have to depend on it in the future as well. Poultry epidemics, like repeated occurrences of bird flu in the country and in the other parts of South-East Asia in the recent past could spell doom for the poultry industry. They will then have to fall back on the wild fowl for their occupation.

NAINITAL DIARY
ND Tiwari an enigma in Uttarakhand

ONE person who came back to limelight during the poll campaign after a political hibernation in the state is Narayan Dutt Tiwari. The octogenarian hogged lots of publicity all the while.

From getting three ticket for persons of his choice (including one for his nephew Manish Tiwari from the Gadarpur seat) from the Congress high command, the grand old man of Uttarakhand politics was all over the place in the media, be it the print or the electronic medium.

There was lots of news for mediapersons as Tiwari never disappointed them by his acts and words. The first major news was his campaigning for his friend-turned-foe to being a friend again Indira Hridayesh. Hridayesh was a Cabinet Minister in the Tiwari government from 2002 to 2007 and contested the current poll from her traditional Haldwani seat. Tiwari not only held a media briefing in her favour but also participated in a road show in her favour. He went to the Muslim-dominated area of Vanbhoolpura seeking votes for her.

He gave a story to the mediapersons when he said he rued not having been able to become the Prime Minister in 1991. At that time he was one of the top contenders for the post after the demise of Rajiv Gandhi but he had lost the Lok Sabha poll held after Rajiv’s assassination. PV Narasimha Rao had been chosen the Prime Minister.

Sometime later during the campaign he sent the Congress into a disarray when he said he would not mind becoming the Chief Minister once again for a spell of two years.

People are yet to comprehend what he had meant when asked in Gadarpur about who would win the poll. He had said, ”Jai Maa Kali” and had gone to make the traditional invocation sound of Bengalis. Incidentally, an independent candidate with a nickname of Kali was also contesting from the seat against Tiwari’s nephew Manish Tiwari.

No matter, what Tiwari continues to be an enigma in Uttarakhand.

During a visit to his native area of Padampuri on the day of polling, some journalists came across an old man who narrated a story that during his young days, boys were asked to fetch wooden blocks brought down by gushing waters of local streams. The old man says, “I had a friend who could not swim. Same was the case with me. My friend had made an arrangement with other boys who were good swimmers that they would extract the blocks from the stream and we would carry them up half the distance to the village only to split the booty equally later. This friend was none other than ND Tiwari. You can imagine how good a manager he was even as a child.”

Political gossip on rise

With the votes having been cast and results awaited in the first week of March, the people of the area have enough time for political gossip and speculation. This is precisely what the people are doing these days. For those who have contested the poll, the wait is a bit too long but for those who just played the part of the voter or the supporter, there is enough time to indulge in gossip and analyse the polling that took place from various angles.

The question foremost on the mind of the people is that who will form the government. The second scenario being analysed is whether there will be a party securing a simple of two-thirds majority.

The third obvious question is who will be the Chief Minister. While in case of the BJP it is expected to be Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri as it was in the name of his “clean” image that the party had gone out seeking votes in the state.

But in case of the Congress forming the government, there are several claimants and choices available at hand. Speculation is rife whether it will be the Hardwar Lok Sabha member Harish Rawat who will eventually be the Chief Minister or will it be someone else.

This brings the people yet another point to ponder whether Congress president Sonia Gandhi will want a bypoll in Hardwar as making Rawat the Chief Minister will also mean one Lok Sabha member less in Parliament at a time when the graph of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is not looking too good.

It is amid all this that people are spending their time particularly in places like Nainital where it is an off-season in context of tourism-related activity which is the mainstay of the majority of the people of the town.

Koshiyari hai majboori

There is a question among the young BJP workers with regards to former Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshiyari. These youngsters are perplexed over the party giving so much importance to Koshiyari despite the fact that he has played the role of a “destabiliser” every time someone other than him from the party was in the driving seat.

The youngsters point out that be it the case of Nityanand Swami, Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri and later Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, Koshiyari has had a role to play in the removal of every single one of them.

When the curiosity of the young brigade from the party was aired to a senior party functionary, he evaded the issue while joking, “Our slogan for the poll ‘Khanduri hai zaroori’ should have had a rider. It should have read Khanduri hai zaroori aur Koshiyari hai mazboori.”

There is a sentiment among a section of BJP workers that Koshiyari supporters were annoyed when the slogan “Khanduri hai zaroorie” was coined. “Did that mean that Koshiyari and others were gair zaroori (unimportant)?” they asked.

— Rajeev Khanna

Provide basic amenities in Haldwani: DM
Tribune News Service

Nainital, February 5
The administration has stepped in to provide some relief to the residents of Haldwani, who have been reeling under a crisis of basic amenities for the past several days.

Nainital District Magistrate Nidhi Mani Tripathi convened a meeting of the officials yesterday and directed them that the work pertaining to the covering of the canal running through the town must be completed within the stipulated time frame.

The work on the canal has become the bane for the town on several counts. To begin with, a large number of roads are occupied with the debris, which has led to their becoming a high accident-prone zone. Secondly, the use of heavy machinery for this work has been leading to the breaking of water-supply lines, thus leading to chaos and a crisis of drinking water in several localities of the town.

For the past several days, a large section of the population has been engaged in spending a major portion of the day trying to procure water. While the Jal Sansthan authorities claim to be distributing water through tankers, people contend that the supply is either erratic or simply inadequate.

Even the supply to the Sushila Tewari Memorial Hospital has been badly hit, causing a lot of inconvenience to the hospital management and the people.

Tripathi has underlined that the Jal Sansthan must make alternate arrangements for the supply of water to the areas that are hit by the scarcity. She laid particular emphasis on restoring to the supply to the hospital at the earliest.

In the meeting, it was decided that the contractors carrying out the work pertaining to the covering of the canal would be responsible for getting the water supply lines repaired, which are broken because of the use of heavy machinery. Similarly, directions have also been issued with regard to the removal of debris that has been blocking the roads leading to several residential areas of the town.

Tripathi has ordered the officials of the Jal Sansthan to carry out inspections of various areas to take stock of the water supply and take remedial measures wherever required. She has also asked the members of a committee constituted to supervise the work on canal covering to carry out on-the-spot inspections at repeated intervals to ensure that there is no compromise with the quality of work being done.

No health facility in remote Nainital areas
Tribune News Service

Nainital, February 5
The residents of the remote Okhalkanda region of Nainital continue to face an acute paucity of health services. Despite tall claims of the government with regard to the appointment of doctors and improving the health facilities in the areas, nothing has materialised on the ground.

With the result, the people of this region have to cover long distances to reach Haldwani, Nainital and Champawat to get some medical attention. There is widespread resentment amongst the people against

the prevailing state of affairs in the region. Reports suggest that the government hospital in Joshyuda village has been functioning without a doctor for several years. Built during the Bristish era, the condition of the hospital has gone from bad to worse.

Similarly, the posts of doctor in the Primary Health Centres at Dholigaon, Dalkanya, Khanasyu, Patlot, Nai and Gauniyaron have been lying vacant for several years. There are about 40,000 people in the area who have been deprived of medical assistance. All this in the face of the government that has been making tall claims with regard to improving health facilities in the remote areas of the hilly terrain in the state. The people have expressed hope that the new government would look into the issue after assuming office.

Health Directorate, Khurbura XI romp home
Tribune News Service

A batsman in action in a match in the 60th Dehradun District Cricket League in Dehradun on Sunday. A Tribune photograph

Dehradun, February 5
The Health Directorate cricket team and Khurbura XI won their respective matches in the 60th Dehradun District Cricket League played here today.

In the first match, Khurbura XI defeated Hitters XI by 102 runs. Batting first after winning the toss, Khurbura XI scored 171 for five wickets in 25 overs. Opner Shivesh was the highest scorer with 56 runs while Rohit took two wickets for 30 runs.

In reply, Hitters XI was bundled out for 69 runs losing the match by 102 runs. Opner Mohd Azkar was the top scorer with 25 runs. Shivesh Bahuguna took four wickets for 33 runs while Deewan Singh and Shivam took two wickets each.

In the second match, the Health Directorate cricket team defeated the Agriculture Directorate team by eight wickets. Batting first after winning the toss, the Agriculture Directorate team scored 62 runs all out. Nitin took three wickets for 16 runs. In reply, the Health Directorate team scored 68 runs for the loss of only two wickets. Ashish scored 31 unbeaten runs.

600 students attend IGNOU’s induction meeting
Tribune News Service

Senior teachers at the induction meeting of IGNOU study centre at DAV College in Dehradun on Sunday. A Tribune photograph

Dehradun, February 5
A daylong induction meeting of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) was held at DAV PG College here today.

About 600 students attended the meeting and took information on various courses offered by IGNOU along with the academic study material, which were distributed during the programme.

Anil Kumar Dimri, Regional Director, IGNOU, presided over the function accompanied by the Principal of the college, Dr Devender Bhasin, programme coordinator Dr HS Randhawa and academic counsellors.

Dimri gave detailed information about the policy and programmes of the university. He said, “At present, we have so many students enrolled in different course at IGNOU. Our centres are running successfully not only in India but also in 30 other centres outside the country.”

“IGNOU fulfils the need of those students who cannot continue their regular studies for some reason,” he added.

Dr Randhawa discussed about various subjects opted by newcomers and advised them to study sincerely to set new records in the sphere of education.

He further said fee structure was also less as compared to other universities.

Blood donation camp at gurdwara
Tribune News Service

Dehradun February 5
Under the aegis of the IMA Blood Bank, Uttaranchal Punjabi Mahasabha, youth wing, organised a blood donation camp at Gurdwara Amrit Darbar here today.

Harbans Kapoor, Speaker, state Assembly, inaugurated the camp where a large number of people participated in blood donation. Accompanying him was Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli.

Speaking on the occasion, Kapoor said due to the scarcity of blood, thousands of people died every year. “There is regular shortage of blood in blood banks of the country due to lack of awareness about importance of donation.”

He exhorted people to come forward and create awareness of donating blood among others and said: “There is no substitute to human blood. We should call upon the students as well as others to take part in such camps in a big way.”