The fragrant smell of mud filled the nostrils of the denizens early Monday morning, announcing the arrival of the south-west monsoon.

The denizens, reeling under heat wave, were much relieved as heavy showers lashed the city for over one-and-half hours.

And for once no one complained as the mercury plummeted by five degrees.

Expressing grave concern over the delay in monsoon and insenstivity of the state government to provide power in rural areas, the state BJP has demanded that Uttar Pradesh be declared a drought-hit state.

Katarniyaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, a unit of the Dudhwa Tiger reserve, remains the safest haven for the wildlife in the state. While the last census carried out by Project Tiger gave an estimated count of 110 big cats in the entire Dudhwa National Park, the state census in 2005 put the figure for Katarniyaghat alone at 58.

To further improve child care across the state, the government will provide specialised health services to the new-borns at select 24 x 7 health units. The facility will be available in 36 districts -- 17 selected in 2007 and 19 in 2009.

UP's first confirmed case of swine flu has been reported from the state capital on Monday. The patient was on a business trip to the USA and returned to the country on June 16-17.

With the aim to give an impetus to industrialisation, the state government has formulated a new infrastructure policy under which projects would be completed in a phased manner.

This new policy would focus on completion of major projects like overbridges, metro rail, bridges, by-passes, warehouses and power stations in a stipulated time frame.

A study undertaken by a city doctor has found the children of Lucknow not only underweight but also higher in all the other new parameters issued by World Health Organisation (WHO) for estimating malnutrition among kids.

The Forest department has sent a proposal to the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for a third tiger reserve in the State.

The location of the proposed tiger reserved was identified at Amangarh in Bijnore adjacent to Corbett National Park

Sharmila Krishna | Lucknow

Its bad news for the Forest department. As if the growing man-animal conflicts in the recent years were not enough, the Forest department is now to set to lose land under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers Act (2006). The implementation of the Act has been slow in UP but is expected to be completed by the year end.

The National Alliance of Farmers' Associations (NAFA) has urged the Central government to include some key points in its 100-day action plan.

The points sought to be included in the action plan include interventions to be made in the agriculture sector, which NAFA, an apex body of Indian farmers' association, believes would result in development of both farmers and the agriculture sector.