<p>Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of In Re: Unchecked cattle sheds on the opposite side of police outpost in Bidhannagar, dispute regarding its demolition
Puducherry: There is a new delicacy that is in hot demand in hamlets in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry protein rich rat meat. It comes cheap, just Rs 2.50 per rat, and villagers swear nothing tastes better. Snake-hunting Irula tribals, desperate to peddle their rodent-snaring skills, have succeeded in getting the meat on the kitchen menu of villages in Cuddalore district and the Union Territory. The trend could catch on elsewhere too.
An 11-year-old male giraffe died after being electrocuted at Bagnan in Howrah yesterday. It was being transported to Nandankanan, in Orissa from Alipore Zoo. A senior zoo official said a low-bed trailer was used to ferry the giraffe. Zoo authorities received a call on Thursday night from Nandankanan saying that the animal was injured following an electric shock. Sundar was brought back to the city on Friday and it died in the zoo around 9.50 p.m. yesterday. The giraffe was buried after an autopsy. A probe has been ordered. SNS
With heaps of organic, inorganic matter and above all stray dogs in every nook and corner of Srinagar city, people have urged the concerned authorities to restructure functional mechanism, mobilise scavengers in order to keep the city clean and pollution-free. Although the governmental efforts are on to add more and more cosmetic arrangements to turn the valley more attractive and captivating, people believe that such attempts cannot yield positive dividends until and unless the functionaries of SMC do not mobilise their sanitary staff, especially scavengers.
Avian Influenza Control Project has said six districts bordering India are at risk of bird flu. According to Dr Manas Kumar Banerjee, coordinator of Avian Influenza Control Project of Epidemiology and Disease Control Division under Ministry of Health and Population, Jhapa, Ilam, Panchthar, Taplejung, Sunsari and Morang districts are at risk of the flu. "There is embargo on the import of poultry items but despite the ban, items like white eggs which are found only in India are also found in the local market of the mentioned districts," said Dr Banerjee.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) yesterday said a child was infected with the deadly H5N1, the strain of bird flu that infects people, in January this year and was cured before diagnosis. The DGHS, as part of its routine surveillance, sent a swab with samples from naso-pharyngeal of the 16-month-old boy to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta which confirmed the H5N1 infection Wednesday.
People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Mumbai, today linked bird flu in Tripura to unhygienic condition of chicken and egg farms. This comes at a time when the State Government has blamed Bangladesh for the spread of the H5N1 virus through unchecked poultry movement from across the border. PETA officials here said besides Tripura, they had issued general warning to every State in India early this year about filthy condition in poultry farms after conducting a random survey and cautioned that it could lead to spread of the flu virus.
Police arrested eight protesters on Wednesday as they tried to stop a cull of hundreds of kangaroos on a military base near the Australian capital, and local Aborigines joined the campaign against the slaughter. Elders from the local indigenous Ngunnawal clan said they were reclaiming the land from the Australian Defence Force, lighting a small ceremonial fire, which they attempted to carry onto the defence communications site. "We are claiming our land and that's what our sacred fire means," elder Isobel Coe shouted at police as protesters forced their way to the site of the cull.
Indian States bordering Bangladesh have become vulnerable to bird flu with the country continuing to be a breeding ground for the disease, officials here said on Monday. "Forty-seven of the 64 districts in Bangladesh are hit by bird flu. With the authorities failing to control the disease and no efforts at checking smuggling of poultry and poultry products, bordering Indian States are becoming vulnerable to avian influenza,' said Ashish Roy Burman, Director of Tripura's Animal Resource Development (ARD) Department.
The Central Zoo Authority wants to shed its responsibility of monitoring the upkeep of elephants in circuses, saying the task should be entrusted with the Animal Welfare Board in view of frequent instances of violation of norms by the owners. It has written to the environment ministry to keep the circuses out of its ambit, citing inability of circus owners to comply with the provisions of its Recognition of Zoo Rules 1992 in the upkeep of elephants.
The country would be deprived of its poultry stock if wheat, the basic ingredient of poultry feed, would remain out of their reach due to ban on its purchase from farm and open market. This was stated by the Chairman Pakistan Industrial Traders Associations Front (PIAF), Mian Abuzar Shad after holding a meeting with a delegation of poultry industry on Monday.
