Tripura has been declared ‘malaria prone’ following the detection of 346 positive cases of Plasmodium Falciparum (PF) in the State during the last one month, official sources said on Thursday.

Health minister Tapan Chakraborty said that medical experts have advised the State government to use second generation drugs instead of traditional medicines to prevent malaria.

Agartala: Worried at the frequent outbreak of bird flu and its effect on the poultry industry, the Tripura government has decided to urge the Central government to send special expert-teams to study the sporadic resurfacing of the contagious disease, an official said here Saturday.

“Sporadic outbreak of bird flu has been badly affecting the poultry industry in the north-eastern States, bordering Bangladesh, where avian influenza is rampant in many districts,” Animal resources development department director Manoranjan Sarkar said.

Agartala: While Forest Survey of India (FSI) Report 2009 showed a steady increase of forest cover in the North-East states, the latest report of FSI revealed that the region has lost about 549 sqkm green cover over the years.

FSI Report 2011 stated that Tripura alone had degraded about 96 sqkm of forest cover. The report, however, blamed shifting cultivation (Jhuming), slash and burn method of production in hilly parts of the region for degradation of natural forest and stated,

Agartala: Acquiring of land has come in the way of upgrading Agartala airport into an international airport, Tripura Transport minister Manik Dey said the assembly on Thursday.

Replying to a calling attention notice on Upgrading the Agartala airport in the standard of an international airport brought by ruling CPI-M member Padma Debbarma, Dey said the Union Ministry of Aviation has now decided to upgrade the airport into a Air hub.

The Indian government will soon start work on a new rail link to Bangladesh that would ease surface transport in the mountainous northeastern states, a railway official said on Tuesday.

India will build a 15-km railway track linking Tripura capital Agartala with Bangladesh’s southeastern city of Akhaurah, which is also an important railway junction connected to Chittagong port, resource-rich Sylhet and Dhaka. An agreement to this effect was signed between between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina during her visit to India in January 2010.

AGARTALA: The Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) will begin final survey for the proposed rail link between Gangasagar (Bangladesh) and Akhaura, close to Agartala very soon.

AGARTALA:The proposed up-gradation of Agartala airport to an international airstrip has run into rough weather with the dispute over land acquisition for expansion of the runway and other mandatory infrastructure.

Officials here on Saturday said that the state government had been demanding an international airport for the past two years but the Airport Authority of India(AAI) sought land as the state’s contribution.

AGARTALA: Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd (TSECL) has finally proposed to hike in the existing power tariff to tide over the financial constraint.

The TSECL has been facing tough time following hike in the gas price, implementation of new pay structures for its employees and increase in operation and maintenance cost.

Over 6,200 poultry birds and ducks were culled in Tripura after reports of a fresh outbreak of bird flu, officials said here on Thursday.

The culling was done in Lembuchara area of western Tripura. “Mopping up operations and disinfection of poultry farms, birds and ducks enclosures and cages have begun,” Tripura animal resource development department director Manoranjan Sarkar said.

Agartala: Tripura, which grows 25 varieties of bamboo, is about to make the most of this natural wealth by developing India’s first bamboo park.