Around 50 students of the Government Polytechnic for Women staying in the hostel on Bharathiar Road were hospitalised after some of them swooned while others complained of nausea and vomiting.

Late on Sunday, students complained of uneasiness and nearly 15 of them swooned. At midnight, the students were admitted to a private hospital. However, the number of students complaining of uneasiness grew on Monday morning. The Government Polytechnic campus witnessed commotion, with a number of ambulances rushing students from the hostel to the hospital for treatment.

With the help of geospatial technology, it is possible to generate and update information about natural resources, in spatial format, at much more frequent intervals, so enabling proper inventory and management of natural resources, said P. Subbian, Registrar, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU).

Inaugurating a 21-day summer training on “Geospatial Technologies and Applications” at TNAU, he said the Indian geospatial industry’s current annual productive capacity was nearly Rs. 4,000 crore.

To create awareness among cattle owners to avoid drugs that are toxic

Even as the vulture (Gyps indicus) population is dwindling, Arulagam, an NGO, and Care Earth team have embarked on a mission to generate awareness among cattle owners to avoid drugs that prove to be toxic to vulture population as well as to other scavenging birds. The programme was organised with the support of Critical Eco-System Partner Fund.

Certain section of population seeks relaxation of ban on tourism; specialists are against any dilution of the scheme

The Tamil Nadu Government’s latest notifications on demarcation of core and buffer zones of three tiger reserves in the State may still require a fine-tuning to strike a balance among ecology protection, tribal welfare and tourism promotion, feel conservationists and wildlife experts. As the demand for relaxation of the ban on tourism becomes shriller in the reserve areas, the specialists are against any dilution of the scheme spelt out in the notifications.

Certain section of population seeks relaxation of ban on tourism; specialists are against any dilution of the scheme

The government’s latest notifications on the demarcation of core and buffer zones of three tiger reserves in the State may still require a fine-tuning to strike a balance among ecology protection, tribal welfare and tourism promotion, feel conservationists and wildlife experts. As the demand for relaxation of the ban on tourism becomes shriller from certain section of the local population in the reserve areas, the specialists are against any dilution of the scheme spelt out in the notifications.

“Protect tigers but protect us too.” This is the appeal of several sections of society in Valparai, a hilly town located in the midst of lush green plantations and about 105 km from here.

Contending that the Supreme Court’s recent decision to ban tourism in core zones has the scope for several adverse implications, sections of the local population, especially the plantation sector and the trading community, argue that the local society has never been against regulated tourism and it is acutely conscious of the need for tiger conservation.

Minister reviews situation with senior officials

The ban on entry of tourists into the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) will in no way affect the normal life of the local population living in and around Valparai and there is no need for any apprehension, Minister for Forests K.T. Pachamal said recently. A delegation of people from Valparai representing various organisations led by Valparai MLA M. Arumugam along with Agriculture Minister S. Damodaran met the Forest Minister at Chennai representing the inconveniences that they have been put to because of the ban on tourism.

The process of land acquisition for 20.5 km in six revenue villages along the Podanur – Pollachi section was derailing the pace of gauge conversion works, railway officials said.

Senior officials from the Construction Wing of Southern Railway, Chennai, led by Chief Administrative Officer K. Vijayakumar inspected the ongoing works from Podanur to Pollachi.

A delegation of nearly 15 persons, including office-bearers of the Valparai Merchants Federation and various other associations, on Wednesday left for Chennai to urge officials to exclude Valparai from the core and buffer areas of Anamalai Tiger Reserve.

A. Jebaraj, president of the federation, said that traditionally Valparai had been a land of plantations providing livelihood to thousands of workers from backward and suppressed communities. It houses a number of reservoirs and hydrel power stations. In addition, there are a number of places of worship frequented by devotees for hundreds of years.

All seven functioning quarries ordered to be closed in Karur district

Sand quarries in the river Cauvery that are more than five years old have remained shut since Saturday following the Madras High Court directive. Through Friday night, vehicles awaiting their turn to load sand were hurriedly cleared and excavators at the quarries withdrawn on orders from PWD officials. Field officials visited the quarries on Saturday and erected road blocks and dug trenches across the entrance to prevent truck movement.