‘Realignment of highways in forests will prevent big cat deaths’

The recent capture of a ‘man-eating’ tiger at Bommalapura hadi in HD Kote taluk in Mysore district (near Nagarahole Tiger Reserve) makes a case, once again, to defragment critical wildlife habitats. The tiger, according to wildlife experts, had a home range larger than any in its species. It was frequently spotted on the Mysore-Mananthavadi highway as camera trap evidences show.

23% of girls stop their education after reaching puberty. But with NGOs selling low-cost sanitary napkins, attendance seems to be going up. Better days ahead?

Almost all departments ignore three-year-old GO

Wondering why the State is facing a power crisis? Here’s another classic example of governmental sloth: The state’s public offices have failed to install power-saving equipment, despite it having been made mandatory, contributing to heavier power consumption in Karnataka.A government circular issued three years ago made it compulsory for all government departments to install electrical ballasts in their offices. This has been ignored by almost all the departments barring two electricity supply companies which are also not up to speed on installing ballasts.

Ramadevarabetta in Ramanagara district is declared sanctuary

The State government has declared 346.14 hectares in Ramanagara as Ramadevarabetta Vulture Sanctuary (RVS), to protect long-billed vultures, which are on the verge of extinction. The 15 vultures on cliffs of Ramadevarabetta are now protected under the Wildlife Protection Act, in the sanctuary which is claimed to be the first of its kind in the country.

Leading scientist P Rama Rao (file photo) will recieve the Defence Research and Develop-ment Organisation’s (DRDO’s) lifetime achievement award for 2011 from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here tomo

In a bid to declare the district malnutrition-free within six months, efforts will be made to screen, identify and treat malnourished children.

Assistance will be taken of the Central Food Technological Research Institute to formulate nutrition component in ready-to-eat food, which will be supplied to children. Announcing this here on Sunday, Minister for Medical Education and district in-charge S.A. Ramdas said that children in both Mysore Urban and Rural would be covered in programme. The screening process would be completed by the first week of August. He said the programme would be launched in conjunction with the Department of Women and Child Development, and the district would be free of malnutrition within six months.

The interim report submitted by a committee formed to tackle malnutrition among children in the State has suggested several measures, declaring that the present standards were woefully inadequate.

The committee headed by Justice N K Patil has advised the government to get medically examined all malnourished children in the 0-6 age group, enrolled in anganwadi centres. For severely malnourished children, it has suggested medical examination with the assistance of paediatricians or expert doctors, within two months.

State asked to submit report on the camps to court on July 23

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday asked the State government to organise health camps across the State on July 15 to identify and assess the level of malnutrition among children below six years of age. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice B.V. Nagarathna issued the direction after the State government submitted that it would conduct health camps across the State to identify malnourished children.

The State Forest Department, in a bid to create assets and popularise the concept of sandalwood estates, will take up the exercise of planting around 10 lakh sandalwood saplings in around 10,000 acres of forest land across the State.

Addressing mediapersons here on Friday, Forest Minister C P Yogeeshwara said that 10 places - Kolar, Ramanagara, Bangalore, Mysore, Shimoga, Belgaum, Dharwad, Chikmagalur, Hassan, Tumkur and Bidar - had been identified for planting sandalwood saplings.

Relies on Lokayukta report while filing reply in Supreme Court

The State government has washed its hands of a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged role of three former chief ministers — S M Krishna, N Dharam Singh and H D Kumaraswamy —in illegal mining, and decided to leave it to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to take an appropriate decision in this regard.