Killer landfill: Large-scale contamination leads to health hazards

Feasting dogs, scavenging crows and kites dot the three-kilometre dirt trail that leads to the settlement in Mavallipura, Bangalore’s official dump yard, a sea of plastic bags, batteries, shoes, tyres, discarded clothes and rotting food that decays in the sun and floats during the rains. The stink of garbage, which for many Bangaloreans is a vague, indistinct smell, is unmistakable and overwhelming for Mavallipura’s occupants.

Among the southern states, death toll highest in Karnataka As many as 320 people in Karnataka have lost their lives to H1N1 (swine flu) from the time it was first detected in the country in May 2009.

Accounting for 12 per cent of H1N1 deaths in the country, Karnataka has lost more number of people than Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. Maharashtra, which accounts for 34 per cent of the deaths, saw 1,883 people lose their lives to the virus.

In a clear message to the Centre, the State government, toeing the line of the BJP central leadership, has decided to keep the CBI out of the State’s boundary as far as the investigations into illegal mining is concerned.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said: “We have no trust in the CBI and we do not think we want them to probe into illegal mining here. The Supreme Court had asked us to submit a status report on illegal mining. We have submitted that and also sought that the CBI does not investigate into the matter.”

Scourge a major cause for depletion of species

Karnataka was crowned the ‘Tiger State’ of the country after the recent tiger census. But, it has now come to light that the State has accounted for the most number of poaching cases in the last four years.

Bangalore : In a bid to take its civilian products to the masses, the Defence Research and Development Organisation, through its new H1N1 detection system, has made testing for the deadly flu more affordable and less time consuming.

The steel project at Gadag won