PATHANAMTHITTA: The draft project report on the three new eco-tourism centres of Kakki, Anathode and Moozhiyar is ready for approval of the Forest Department authorities.

The growing number of cases of Hepatitis-B infection at Pramadom, Mallasserry, Thengumkavu and surrounding villages, near here, is causing concern for the district administration and the Health Department.

L. Anithakumari, Deputy District Medical Officer for Communicable Disease Control, told The Hindu here on Monday that nine cases had been confirmed through ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test in the past three months. Thirty more cases tested positive in the antigen card test.

Horn-shaped loudspeakers used for festivities in violation of rules

Residents of Maramon, Kozhencherry, and surrounding areas are left to bear with the blaring noise from loudspeakers, installed in connection with various public programme and religious festivals. Many local people complained that organisers were using horn-shaped loudspeakers, banned by law, for church and temple festivals in the locality.

Environment directorate official inspects airport project site

The row over the proposed private airport project at Aranmula has taken a new turn with the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) reportedly taking a serious view of the conversion of paddy fields and wetlands for setting up the project.

The MoEF had taken note of a report in The Hindu on February 2 (Airport project triggers widespread protest) and sought clarifications from the State government on the allegations that the site identified for the project included paddy fields and wetlands.

The Pathanamthitta District Panchayat will set up five small and mini hydro-electric projects as a joint venture of the grama and block panchayats in the district in the next five years.

This was announced by the panchayat vice-president, P. Vijayamma, while presenting the annual budget at the budget session held at the panchayat conference hall here on Wednesday.

Quarrying has been taking a heavy toll on Kerala's undulating terrain, altering the geo-physiological characteristics of the much-flaunted ‘God's Own Country'. There is, perhaps, no other place in Kerala as affected by quarrying as Pathanamthitta district where there are an estimated 800 quarries. A close look at the slow devastation being wrought in the district by the quarries even as the larger policy and ecological imperatives call out for attention.

Kuttanad Package to be taken up in three phases

The State government would soon launch various projects as part of the first phase of the Kuttanad Package prepared by M.S. Swaminathan Commission, said Sam Eapen, Upper Kuttanad Nelkarshaka Samiti (UKNS) president, here on Sunday.

The Central Travancore district of Pathanamthitta, especially its hilly tracts, is fast sliding into the grip of acute drinking water scarcity.

The summer had an early onset in January. Wells and natural streams in the hilly areas of Ranni, Konni and Adoor started drying up from mid-January onwards, leaving the common people in a difficult situation.

With a series of environmental problems and degradation threat looming large over the rivers Pampa and Achankovil in the wake of the recent Supreme Court order directing the Centre to implement the

Leopards straying into in villages nestling along the forest fringes in the State, attacking people and their cattle have become a matter of serious concern.

The killing of a healthy female leopard that had strayed into the small hamlet of Angamoozhy in the Ranni forest division by an unruly mob on Tuesday was the latest in the series of human-leopard conflict in the State.