The Central team touring the State to assess the drought situation has concluded that the drought in Chitradurga district is severe.

A member of the team, D Rajashekar, Deputy Advisor, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, New Delhi, told mediapersons in Chitradurga on Tuesday that the water table had depleted and borewells have dried up. The team will recommend to the Centre in its report to roll out development schemes to alleviate the sufferings of the drought-affected, he said. He commended the officials for the drought-relief works taken up in the district.

A three-day National Elephant Census will begin on May 22 in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Goa, simultaneously.

The synchronised census, taken up once in five years, will be conducted throughout the country, following a directive issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Unlike the Elephant Reserve Census, where enumeration is restricted to counting of pachyderms in reserve forests, the synchronised census will be conducted in forest, non-forest, reserve and non-reserve forest areas (landscape-wise), said Ajay Mishra, Chief Conservator of Forests, Project Elephant, Karnataka.

A model bus terminal planned in Kalasipalyam

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will soon introduce a bus with a passenger capacity of 110, Transport minister R Ashoka said on Thursday. The new bus will be 14.5 mt in length as opposed to the existing city buses which are 12 mt in length. The new bus would hit the road within a month and the idea is to provide more space for passengers, Ashoka said.

Projects to improve infrastructure discussed at Vision-2020

With an eye on improving waste management in the city, the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) is planning to install a computer controlled chip in each house, which would indicate if garbage has been collected. Think tank: Alert Citizens Team president Prof Shivaram Malavalli shares a point with district in-charge minister S A Ramdas in Mysore on Wednesday. Deputy commissioner P S Vastrad and police commissioner K L Sudheer are seen.

Protection of five river valley basins tops its agenda

The Western Ghats Task Force has submitted a proposal to recruit 1,000 forest personnel required to protect the natural forests of the Western Ghats. This was announced by Ananth Hegde Ashisara, chairperson of the Task Force, at a meeting on the protection of environment, forests and bio-diversity and pollution control at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in the city on Wednesday.

This is the pitiful state of the residents of the locality on the HMT Watch Factory-Jalahalli Road. What may seem like sheer incivility of the people is a situation they have been pushed into. Rajesh, a resident, said: “Most of us earn a living by working as construction labourers and hardly earn money for two meals a day. With great difficulty, we have been able to build these concrete houses, but, due to the lack of drainage facilities, no toilets were built.”

For Bangaloreans perennially at the mercy of power disruptions, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) could come out with a solar solution. The Mayor has issued a note to formulate an action plan to electrify all government and ‘private buildings’ that would be under construction within its limits, through solar energy.

With the demand for power surging by 18 per cent annually, as indicated by the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom), the Palike could make the use of solar energy mandatory for the buildings owned by State Government, BBMP and private buildings.

The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has sought a response from the Karnataka government to the demand for a CBI probe into the entire gamut of mining activities that took place in the State since 2002.

Following a petition filed by T J Abraham, a resident of Bangalore, the CEC has written to the Karnataka chief secretary seeking a reply to the petitioner’s allegations. Abraham had pleaded before the CEC that mining activities, including dereserving of forests and granting of permission for mining by past governments headed by former chief ministers S M Krishna, Dharam Singh and H D Kumaraswamy, should be probed.

Tension prevailed at some places in Haveri district on Tuesday, due to protests and stampede during distribution of Bt cotton seeds.

Farmers break barricades in a bid to collect seeds from an outlet of Bt cotton seeds company in Haveri district on Tuesday. The increase in demand for the ‘Kanaka’ variety of seeds and shortage of supply led to the rush. In Haveri city, police resorted to mild lathicharge as around 12,000 farmers fell over each other to collect the seeds.

Experts say a bigger area will help set up anti-poaching camps, aid patrolling

The delay in acquiring land on the northern fringes of the Nagarahole National Park has cost the tiger population dear. A view of the Devmachi Forest The demarcation boundary in Doddaharave, between Periyapatna and Kushalnagar range in the north of Nagarahole, has turned into a favourite destination for poachers. According to Forest Department statistics, eight instances of poaching had been reported from the area since January 2009.