Jaipur: The ghosts of the grid breakdowns that plunged half of India into darkness last week may continue to haunt us as the network remains susceptible to wild overdrawing by state governments in the face of increasing demand and poor capacity addition. But there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Even as the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) meets on August 14 to get to the bottom of the blackouts, 22-year-old Yashraj Khaitan, a graduate from the University of California, feels that the power

Jaipur: The recently notified buffer zone for the Sariska tiger reserve seems to have got a better deal. About 250 sq km was added to the CTH of the reserve.
According to sources, “The buffer zone here is a continuous chain of land unlike the fragmented buffer of Ranthambore. However, the buffer area in the north western and southern part of the CTH here is much more than the other parts.”

For creating the buffer zone in Sariska, parts of forest land from the Alwar and Jaipur forest division were included. While areas such as Sirawas, Digani and Bhasra were included from the Alwar forest division, the Digota block of the Jamua Ramgarh sanctuary was included from the Jaipur forest division.

The Reserve Had To Bear The Brunt After NTCA Guidelines Were Implemented To Create A Critical Tiger Habitat

Jaipur: It was a National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guideline way back in 2006 that eventually left the Ranthambore tiger reserve bereft of enough forest area on the periphery that could be declared as a buffer zone after the Supreme Court directives now. Though the state forest department has notified a buffer zone for the Ranthambore tiger reserve after the Supreme Court directives but instead of a continuous, peripheral zone, the buffer in this case is fragmented, isolated pieces of land at various corner of the critical tiger habitat. Sources revealed that soon after the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) act in 2006, the NTCA came up with guidelines for declaring Critical Tiger Habitats (CTH) for reserves across the country.

In a dubious distinction, Rajasthan has topped the list of states with kids being born underweight. In about nine states in northern, central and eastern India, where nearly half of the country’s population lives, a quarter of the children born in 2010-11 were underweight, that is, less than 2.5kg in weight at the time of birth.

In Rajasthan, the proportion was as high as 39% with Jharkhand not far behind with about 36% children born underweight. In Madhya Pradesh and UP about 28% of newborns are underweight while in Bihar and Odisha about 22% fall in this category.

Land Acquisition, Tardy Planning To Blame

Jaipur: Jaipurites dreaming of owning a house in the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA) proposed schemes may have to wait longer with several projects hitting a roadblock. Land acquisition is plaguing as many as six colonies proposed by the authority. Lack of planning is another reason for the delay in starting the projects.

JAIPUR: For the treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) at the malnutrition treatment centre (MTC), the medical health and family welfare department has decided to give Rs135 per day for stay at the MTC to the parents of the SAM children.

"We have increased the amount from Rs35 to Rs135 from this year," National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) mission director Gayatri Rathore said. The decision has been taken to bring the amount equal to the minimum wages in the state. Rathore said that there was a demand to increase the amount from Rs35 to Rs135 per day. "If he (labourer) works as a labourer than he gets Rs135. If he stays at MTC for his child's treatment, it was a loss of Rs100 for the labourer. So we have increased the amount to Rs135 per day," she said.

JAIPUR/AJMER: Six workers were injured during illegal mining at a mine which was purportedly closed six months ago at Makrana in Nagaur district late on Wednesday. The incident occurred at mine no. 135 at Gunwati range.

According to sources, though the mine was closed six months ago, the contractor started working again at the spot as there were still some marbles left. Three of the injured -- Hukma Ram, Dhachi Ram and Sita Ram -- were admitted to Makrana government hospital while three others who sustained serious injuries were shifted to JLN hospital in Ajmer on Thursday. They are Sachdev, Bharatlal and Sohanlal.

JAIPUR: The state government's report on the initial action plan in dealing with encroachments and other unplanned and illegal construction activities in the Ramgarh dam's catchment area submitted to Rajasthan High Court has exposed its own flaws.

Admitting that the encroachments exist, the government report mentioned that in the Ramgarh dam area there is rampant illegal mining, illegal borewells, encroachment of forest land and reduction in size of catchment area resulting in depletion of both surface water and underground water table.

JAIPUR: The state government has declared drought in Jodhpur, Nagaur, Barmer, Bikaner and Jaisalmer districts on Wednesday. The five districts have been worst-hit by deficit rain and will remain in the status of 'drought-affected' from August 1 to July 31 next year.

As per the emergency relief plans, collectors of all the above districts have been asked to do an early assessment of the total losses. To get maximum aid, chief minister Ashok Gehlot instructed the officials to mention everything in detail in the letters that will be presented to Centre. He also asked them to take the assessment exercise of losses seriously. To gauge the situation in the state, Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar will visit Jaipur on August 3.

JAIPUR: The Supreme Court's interim order to ban tourists from core zones of tiger reserves, where the concentration of tigers is particularly high, has dampened the spirit of wildlife lovers across the world. Be that the international media, Facebook, Twitter or blogs these were abuzz with the news.

Though the final verdict is yet to come, travellers across the globe don't want to take any chances. "I have already started receiving cancellations from repeat visitors for next year," said Paul Goldstein, an award-winning wildlife photographer, philanthropist and TV presenter in UK.