PASIGHAT: The Pasighat district health department is going all out to control mosquito-transmitted diseases like malaria, dengue and recently detected Japanese Encephalitis (JE) in the district. Headed
The Meghalaya Health Department was today sent into a tizzy following a suspected case of bird flu admitted at the Shillong Civil Hospital today. State Director of Health Services Dr KH Lakiang said one Anjalina Paslain (21) has been admitted with "fever and rashes' and has been kept in the "isolation ward'. "The blood and stool samples of the victim has been collected, and will be sent for tests for Bird Flu virus to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in Delhi tomorrow,' he said, adding, "Nothing can be said as of now.' While not ruling out the possibility of Bird Flu, Dr Lakiang said the tests have been done for "prevention' and "diagnosis'. District Surveillance Officer (Integrated Diseases Surveillance Cell) Dr M Basaiawmoit and other senior officials of the Health Department also did not rule out the possibility, but said nothing can be confirmed till the tests results. Two specialists doctors attending the victim refused to divulge much but at the same time did not rule out the possibility. "Nothing can be said. Certain respiratory problems also have similar symptoms. We have to wait for the test results to come. It will take three to four days,' they said, requesting not to be named.
After the devastating earthquake of 1869, Barak Valley was hit by another tremor of serious dimension in 1984. The studies then carried out by experts from the Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), Jorhat, and the National Geographical Research Institute, Hyderabad, revealed that this valley and the entire North-east region is active seismologically. Interestingly, the Trans-Atlantic belt and the Circum-Pacific belt that form part of the two great earthquake zones or seismic belts in the world unite at the corner of Asom and Myanmar, which is the most unstable seismic region.
The Jorhat Forest Division has begun an elephant count in the district from today. Assistant Conservator of Forests Gunin Saikia said that the exercise would continue for five days and would cover three forest reserves
I n two separate raids against Rhino poachers conducted jointly by Forest officials and police personnel recently total 14 Rhino poachers including four Rhino horn, elephant smuggler and poachers were arrested.
The forest guards who had accompanied the 110-strong herd of jumbos, which had left a trail of death and destruction in three districts, up to the Kaziranga National Park (KNP), had breathed a sigh of relief too soon. Hardly had one week elapsed when the herd split and 70 per cent of the mammoths are wending their way back wreaking havoc in their wake. Yesterday night, 14 huts were destroyed at Dainigaon near Nimatighat.
Government attitude towards flood victims condemned Embankments which were breached during the last devastating floods in 2007 in Barak Valley have become a cause for concern among the people as the rainy season is not far off.
The Forest officials of Nagaon have been conducting surprised raids in illegal saw mills in Nagaon and has intensified its drive against timber smugglers.
The United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared Manas as a "World Heritage Sight in Danger' in 1992, when the region had been under the threat of extremists and suffering from an acute lack of infrastructure.
The Government has formulated guidelines for mercy killing of elephants suffering from debilitating injury in a bid to relieve the animal from pain and distress. The move has come in the wake of the case of Arundhati, an aging elephant which died after suffering for long due to a fractured leg in Uttrakhand late last year. While authorities debated over the mercy killing, the pachyderm went through severe agony in the process and died before it could be put to sleep.
The Citizens' Welfare Forum, Jorhat, has expressed serious concern over the depredations wreaked by herds of wild elephants in Jorhat and Majuli subdivisions. In a strongly-worded statement, office-bearers of the body have asked Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain to visit the jumbo-ravaged areas of Majuli to assess the losses suffered by poor sections of people residing on saporis. If an outcry is raised against the killing of rhinos in Kaziranga National Park, adequate attention should be paid to the rampage caused by wild elephants, too, the forum members reasoned.
