Other faces of India Marginalised
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Asserting that the Army was not against the peace process initiated with the ULFA, a senior Army officer on Tuesday welcomed "unconditional" talks with top leaders of the outfit. Meanwhile, "Jatinga", a film based on militancy in Assam, will be screened at the International Film Festival in Goa for its intense portrayal of youth who are trapped into terrorism. The maker of the film, an engineering lecturer Sanjib Sabhapandit, has carved a niche for himself by making films on social issues.
According to Sanjib, militancy has become an easy and profitable business instead of epitomizing the revolutionary spirit it was meant to embody.
"Jatinga" unmasks the reality behind militancy in the state, a situation people live in and realise, but do not speak of, said Sanjib.
"This is high time that things are put into correct perspective. So, Jatinga was conceived in that backdrop," he said.
Talking about the significance of the title of film, Sanjib says that Jatinga is a small place in Assam where birds are said to commit suicide. While this is not the case - birds do not actually commit suicide, they are lured to death. At night, people hold bamboo torches to attract these birds and when they fly close, they are clubbed to death. However the general folklore says that the birds come here to commit suicide.
Drawing a similarity between the birds of Jatinga and the youth who are lured to militancy with false promises, he gave the film its name.
"In the guise of a revolution the boys are lured into a death trap kind of situation," explained Sanjib.
He says it is now up to the State and Central Government to find a solution for the persisting menace.
"I thought that this is an issue which should be captured for posterity in the real perspective. I was not concerned more than that," added Sanjib.
Sanjib's first film "Juye Poora Hoon" (The Gold That Has Been Burnt) that was based on environmental preservation received the best Indian National Film in 2004.
Talking to reporters after the surrender of 33 ultras here, the operational head of the Unified Command structure and the Commander, four corps, Lt Gen B S Jaiswal said the Army was "not against the peace process".
"Even the Army chief has gone on record saying that the peace process could go ahead if the top leaders came forward for talks unconditionally", Jaiswal said.
The Army officer expressed surprise over a statement attributed to him in the media that he had warned the parents of ULFA to ensure that their wards shun violence or else be ready to receive their dead bodies.
"My statement to the press had been distorted... What I said was that the parents of the ultras should persuade their wards to come to the national mainstream...I did not even use the word dead bodies," he said.
The ULFA had criticised the reported statement of Jaiswal, who is the operational head of the Unified Command structure, formed in Assam to combat insurgency, alleging it showed the Army was not interested in the peace process.
In what could turn out to be a major set back to the proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), BS Jaswal, GOC of Army’s 4 Corps today said that some of the top leaders of the outfit are in touch with the Army and are considering to lay down their arms. This has once again added momentum on the speculations that were doing round pertaining to top ULFA leader Hira Sarania, who according to some reports is contemplating to lay down arms.
“The Unified Command’s joint endeavour to bring back more and more ULFA cadres into the mainstream has yielded positive results, and the surrender of 33 militants at the Red Horns Division HQ at Tamulpur in Baksa district of lower Assam today has proved this,” the GOC said while addressing the media during the surrender ceremony of as many as 31 ULFA militants, besides two KLNLF cadres.
This is the fourth surrender ceremony in past eight months at the Red Horns Division Headquarters. The last surrender ceremony was held on September 8 last.
The 33 militants included 31 ULFA cadres including two women cadres of the outfit’s 109 battalion and two KLNLF militants. The militants have also laid down 19 assorted weapons including one AK 47, two AK 56, one Muzzle loaded gun, five revolver, one pistol, five grenades, five AK magazine, 195 rounds of AK ammunition, detonators, 6.5 kgs of explosives and one radio set.
Jaswal while welcoming the move of the militants said, “ We are not against peace and we want the youths of Assam to prosper and militancy is certainly not the way to do so. We have repeatedly urged the parents of the cadres to ask their wards to come back to mainstream and work for the prosperity of the State.”
“Relentless operations is our way to bring normalcy in the State and anyone who tries to hurt the sovereignty of our nation will have to face the heat,” the GOC asserted.
“We are definitely not against the peace talks and for that matter it does not fall under our jurisdiction. But, I feel that before coming for peace talks, the militant group will have to shun violence and come for talks without any condition,” he pointed out.
“We have been able to bring the situation under control and the credit for such success in fighting militancy goes to the effective unified command structure existing in Assam where the Army, paramilitary forces and State police operate hand in hand,” said Jaswal while adding that his philosophy is to fight insurgency and not insurgents.
Director General of the Assam Police RN Mathur also echoed similar lines and said that there are indications that more cadres of the outfit wanted to join the national mainstream. “We welcome all whoever wants to shun violence and help bringing in peace,” said Mathur who was also present on the occasion.
He further said that the surrendered cadres would be given vocational training on computers, carpentry, tailoring, driving, fishery, poultry, bee keeping and several other aspects of earning livelihood.
Besides, the cadres would also be given a monthly stipend of Rs 2,000 each during the period.
“We have organized for accommodation of these cadres in Red Horns division HQ itself and they could stay here for one year. Besides, a sum of Rs 1.5 lakh would also be deposited against each of them which they could withdraw after three years of continued good behaviour,” he said.
Assam Police IGP (Special Branch) Khagen Sarma and GOC Red Horns Division Gyan Bhushan among other top ranking army officials were also present in the surrender ceremony.
Amnesty International India urges Prime Minister to support UN resolution for a global moratorium on death penalty. A nationwide campaign secured over 42,000 signatures asking the PM to support UN resolution.
Bihar is one of the first states to accept right to information applications on phone. The objective was to ensure transparency and to expand its reach to villages, where the literacy rate is low. But the real picture is different.
Police detain 40 Muslim women protesters in Kashmir
Srinagar : Police detained at least 40 Muslim women on Wednesday who clashed with police during an anti-U.N. protest, officials said.
Pervez Ahmed, a police officer, said they were likely to be released later Wednesday.
The women were protesting what they said was a failure by the United Nations to resolve the Kashmiri dispute. Police stopped them from approaching the U.N. Military Observer's office in Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state.
``The United Nations has failed the Kashmiris,'' said Yasmeen Raja, the head of the Muslim Khawateen Markaz, a women's separatist group, before she was taken away.
On Wednesday, more than 200 black-veiled women protesters chanted ``Down with the United Nations,'' and ``We want freedom.''
The protesters said the United Nations has failed to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir as agreed to by India after the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, which have fought two wars over its control.
Nearly a dozen rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. At least 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict.
As the muezzin called for prayers from the Kashmir mosque, Begum Rafiqa prayed in a dingy room of her old brick house for someone she has not seen for almost a decade -- her missing husband.
"I am neither a widow nor divorced, I am married but without a husband," said 35-year-old Rafiqa.
"God help me, I'm in limbo."
Rafiqa, a mother of four, is one of Kashmir's hundreds of "half-widows" -- women whose husbands disappeared after their arrest by Indian security forces. Many of these disappeared men are presumed kidnapped, tortured and killed.
Since a separatist revolt broke out in 1989, up to 10,000 people have gone missing following their arrest by security forces according to the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), an independent group in Kashmir.
At least 2,000 of these disappeared people were married, and nearly all were male and young, the APDP says.
Their wives now live a life of limbo, unable either to close an old chapter in their lives or to start a new one by remarrying, leaving them with the label of "half-widows".
Indian troops, engaged in fighting over 17 years of insurgency, have been accused of murdering innocent civilians in staged gun battles and passing them off as separatist militants to earn rewards and promotions.
You can forget the popcorn. At the only working movie theatre in Indian Kashmir, this is what a moviegoer endures: a frisking, a walk past sandbagged bunkers and a once-over by soldiers in body armour carrying assault rifles.
But there are plenty of seats. Every day, Noor Mohammad, the manager of the Neelam Cinema, stares at the empty rows, a fruitless wait for customers in a land where the violence of everyday life is more dramatic than on-screen fiction.
Mohammad has worked for the Neelam since 1966, when it first opened.
"Those were times when cinema halls used to bustle with life," said Mohammad, smiling as he sold an occasional ticket for 40 Indian rupees, about $1. For this haggard 65-year-old, a crowd of 10 is enough to roll his movie projector. Fewer than that, and he doesn't bother.
The theatre can seat 750, but it's a rare day when there are more than 40 people for all three shows. None are shown at night - few people venture outside here after nightfall.
Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, is a tough town.
After Kashmiri militants rose up against Indian rule in 1989, launching an insurgency that has left more than 68,000 people dead, this once-thriving city wilted. Protests shook the streets as Kashmiris demanded India allow the Muslim-majority region to become independent or join neighbouring Pakistan. Bombings became daily occurrences, and Indian soldiers flooded the Himalayan region.
The Muslim militants ordered liquor stores, movie theatres and the handful of bars to close, saying they were vehicles of India's cultural invasion and anti-Islamic.
Many of the city's eight movie theatres soon became something far more ominous. In the early 1990s, the Indian military converted most - including the Neelam - into makeshift army camps, detention centres or interrogation centres. Soon, places where audiences thrilled to Bollywood blockbusters became feared buildings, where witnesses say torture was commonplace.
Two theatres - the Broadway and the Neelam - reopened in 1999 amid an official push to project the idea that life had returned to normal in Kashmir. But weary Kashmiris largely stayed away, and the Broadway locked its doors within a year.
The Neelam stuck it out.
It looks more like a military installation than a place for an evening out. Coils of barbed wire surround the building, and gun-wielding soldiers stand guard behind sandbag bunkers.
The popcorn machine has been switched off. The snack bar serves only cookies, potato chips, tea and cold drinks.
Few people come, fearing the possibility of a bombing or the wrath of the militants, who still oppose movie theatres.
Employees, speaking on condition they not be identified, say the privately owned theatre gets a subsidy from the government, which still wants to make Srinagar appear normal. The theatre owner and government officials declined to comment.
A generation has grown up in Kashmir without ever visiting a cinema hall - something incredibly rare in a country with the world's largest moviemaking industry and where passion for movies runs deep.
On a recent day, 21-year-old Mohammad Abdullah Lone entered the Neelam to watch "Aag," or "Fire."
He was awed.
"It's my first experience watching a movie on the silver screen," Lone said. "But I wonder whether movie theatres are all like this."
Most Kashmiris watch movies at home, on DVDs or satellite television. Some 2,000 new subscribers sign up every month for satellite TV, local operators say.
That's more bad news for the Neelam.
"I don't know how cinema will survive here in these conditions," Mohammad said.
He counts one statistic as the most depressing: Since the theatre reopened eight years ago, not a single family has come together to see a movie.
Elderly people in Indian-administered Kashmir have recently got together to set up a home for themselves - the first such accommodation for senior citizens in the area. BBC reports.
The launch signifies a major change in a society where parents have traditionally been revered.
Traditionally, aged parents have been looked after by their sons and daughters in the extended family.
But, now some elderly people in the Kashmir valley have felt the need to fend for themselves.
One of them, retired Professor SN Ganjoo, says his son rings him up from Delhi barely once a month.
'Psychological satisfaction'
"It's the age of hedonism," he says, "and the new generation is mad after riches. We have lost our values. Therefore, the elderly people who are past 70 or 80 need a place where they can chat freely among themselves and share hearty laughter.
"That'll give them at least some psychological satisfaction, because the youngsters have no time for them."
The home has been so popular it will soon become residential
Seventy-eight-year-old Ghulam Mohammad Dar, a prominent businessman, recently took the initiative to set up a Council of Senior Citizens in Indian-administered Kashmir.
He says that even those who still live within the nuclear family are feeling lonely, and that the attitude of young people towards the old has been changing.
This he attributes to the fast pace of life as well as growing materialism.
"My sons, who are in business, come home late in the evening. Whatever time they have is spent with their own children, with hardly a moment spared for their parents."
Among the elderly, such views appear very much to represent a consensus.
Former Indian Administrative Service officer, Syed Ahmed Sayed Qadri, was a big name in Kashmir's bureaucracy until his retirement 20 years ago.
Now he says that he would be the first to move into a home for the elderly.
At 80 years old, Mr Qadri is quite healthy.
He's always meticulously dressed and looks as if he is quite happy with life.
Loneliness
But he is lonely too.
"My health is normal. I have got enough money to hire the most expensive servant. But I am not getting the support I need.
"Having my meals on time or having things of my choice is not possible any longer - it's rather a luxury."
He says the establishment of a home for the elderly is a noble initiative.
Many elderly Kashmiris have to cope alone
Mr Dar says the home will, for now, have room for elderly people to sit, chat and play games.
Later, it will be expanded so people can actually live in it.
But loneliness is not the only problem facing elderly people in Kashmir. Many are also short of money.
Ali Mohammad, a carpenter, stopped working four years ago. He still lives with family.
But as a result of what he says is corruption and red tape in the administration, he has not received an old age pension and other benefits offered by the government.
"Often the official concerned is not available or asks for money which I don't have," he says.
People like Ali Mohammad have now pinned their hopes on the Senior Citizens Council, which uses a combination of volunteers and paid staff to speak up on their behalf.
'Materialistic values'
But the younger generation is not convinced that homes for old age pensioners is necessarily a good thing.
Tariq Andrabi, 29, runs a garment shop.
"It is not a right step," he says.
"Old people are themselves responsible for their predicament because they didn't give religious education to their children, and instead have inculcated them with materialistic values.
I have come back to Kashmir for the sake of my parents who would have been living alone
Bilal Malik,
Software engineer
"The parents told them to become engineers or doctors, and told them to go to the US to pursue their careers.
"Now, understandably, they don't want to go back."
Businessman Syed Mushtaq argues that young people must bear more responsibility for the plight of their parents.
"At the same time parents should also be understanding," he says. "I am still unmarried. I leave for work early in the morning and come back home very late in the evening. It does not mean I am ignoring my parents."
Social psychologist AR Rather believes that the elderly are losing out because of changing social values.
"There's greater emphasis on individualism and competition today," he says.
"The joint family has broken up and youngsters secede from their parents soon after marriage."
But the old values have not been discarded completely.
Bilal Malik lived in London for five years where he worked as a software engineer.
"I have come back to Kashmir for the sake of my parents who would have been living alone," he says.
IN A NATIONWIDE campaign, Amnesty International India (AI India) has urged the Indian government to support the resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions, at the ongoing 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
In an open letter addressed to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the global human rights organisation asked the Indian Government to take this opportunity and declare a moratorium on death penalty.
A nationwide campaign by the human rights organisation secured over 42, 000 signatures.
Amnesty International India campaign and communications coordinator Joe Athialy said that the signatures would be handed over to the Prime Minister in the coming days.
He said that the resolution moved by the European Union is supported by countries from all regions of the world and would be an important milestone towards achieving the General Assembly’s stated aim: the world wide abolition of the death penalty.
The open letter says, “A step towards abolishing death penalty would go well with the principles of Gautam Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, of which the whole country is proud.”
Those who signed on the memorandum include Justice Krishna Iyer, former Supreme Court judge; Justice Leila Seth, former Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh; Justice Rajinder Sachar, former Chief Justice, Delhi High Court; Justice SM Daud, former Judge, Mumbai High Court; Admiral Ramdas, former Chief of Navy; Mohini Giri, former Chairperson, National Commission for Women; Upendra Baxi, former Vice Chancellor, Delhi University; Shyam Benegal, filmmaker and Member of Parliament; Medha Patkar, social activist; Mahesweta Devi, Litterateur; Ashgar Ali Engineer, Muslim Scholar and Aruna Roy, social activist.
They said that they oppose the death penalty believing it to be a violation of the right to life and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. They further added that the death penalty legitimises an irreversible act of violence by the state and will inevitably claim innocent victims, as has been demonstrated, time and again.
AI India felt that it would be a great opportunity to realise the worldwide abolition of death penalty as already momentum is gathering to end capital punishment in all countries.
According to Amnesty International 133 countries, from all regions of the world, have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. Only 25 countries carried out executions in 2006.
The words of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon shortly after assuming office on January 11, 2007 should be recalled: “I believe that life is precious and must be protected and respected, and that all human beings have the right to live in dignity. International law affirms these values. I recognise the growing trend in international law and in national practice towards a phasing out of the death penalty.”
SHILLONG: Ruing that maximum trade between India and ASEAN has so far bypassed the North East, noted social worker and columnist Patricia Mukhim on Tuesday said the region should come up with a coherent framework to reconnect the North-East to the world economically.
Giving a presentation at a seminar on the North East today, Mukhim said trade between India and the ASEAN has multiplied four fold since 1992 after the LEP was outlined.
"However, the North East contributes only 12 per cent of the trade, as most of the trade is done through the sea routes, thus benefiting the eastern coastal places more," she said.
She said the focus of the northeastern states should be on transit arrangements, proliferation of trade routes, setting up custom check post and easy visa regime facilities.
"We should also look to harness the vast river networks and establish air links to foster the trade relations wit
The South East Asia," Mukhim suggested, underlining the need o mobilize political, intellectual and material resources so t at the region can engage in the LEP.
President of the Society for Informed, Conscious and Responsible Existence, Toki Blah said LEP was never Northeast centric.
"But suddenly, the Centre realized that to secure the countries trade routes, the Northeast region should take centrestage in the LEP. The Bay of Bengal is no longer a private pool. Growing Chinese influence in Myanmar has posed a threat to India, making its sea routes vulnerable," he said.
The same night after North East Support Centre and Helpline was officially launched at the Press Club of India with the main objective of taking up measures to prevent harassment and abuse meted out to students and young people from North East in the National capital, a tribal girl aged 21 years old from Manipur was sexually assaulted by a tenant at around 12.30 am on Oct 21.Instead of protecting the victim, the landlord forced the victim's cousin and other students from North East living in the rented house to vacate the rooms without giving any notice.
The incident happened when she along with her cousin sister went to visit their cousin brother who lives in a rented room in Mahilpalpur.
The victim's report to the North East Support Centre and Helpline said, 'When my cousin sister went to the bathroom outside the room, I was waiting outside for her, a tenant claimed to be police man started taking picture of me and molested me'.
When she screamed, her cousin brother and other tenants came out to rescue her.
But they were also abused by the man in front of other residents.
Next day, the landlord, instead of protecting the victim forced three students from Manipur living in the rented rooms of the same building to vacate the house immediately without any prior notice.
Students sought shelter with their friends living nearby after they were pushed out by the landlord.
The Fact Finding Team consisting of Supreme Court Lawyer Langsinglu Rongmei, All India Christian Council's Regional secretary Rev Madhu Chandra, Journalist Lemyai Shimray, Peace Campaign Activist Dr Alana Golmei and Mandali Devi rushed to the sport and gave trauma counselling to the victim and lodged a complaint with Vasanj Kunj Police Station.
At first the Duty Officer Nalka Ram refused to entertain the complaint, However, after waiting for two and half hours, the application was endorsed under the instruction of the Station House Officer of the Police Station Rajesh Kumar and First Information Report was registered under appropriate sections of IPC and SC/ST Atrocity Prevention Act, 1995.Girls from North East India have suffered sexual abuses at work places, colleges, rented houses, roads and market places in recent time.
In 2005, a girl was raped in a moving car, Another girl was molested by a manager of a Mall in Gurgoan last year and in last September, two girls were assaulted in Delhi University campus of which duty officer of the Police Station refused to take their complaint.
North East Support Centre and Helpline (nesupportcentre.blogspot.com) is a combined initiative of various human rights activists, social workers, students, journalists and lawyers seeking to prevent harassment and buses meted out to North East people and tribal communities of other States.
When monks took to streets in Burma last month, the world's spotlight came on the decades-long ongoing pro-democracy movement within the country. We are witnessing that despite and in spite of all control-measures of Junta Government in Burma (State Peace and Development Council), it is impossible to freeze information flow of human rights excesses. We hope the Junta Government is aware of, that unlike the way it succeeded in crushing the pro-democracy movement in 1988, this time the 'world is watching'!
Interestingly the ongoing struggles in Burma have given a strong beam of hope and vigour to similar pro-democracy movements going near its North-East border of India.
Hundreds of people came in support of pro-democracy movement led by Irom Chanu Sharmila in Manipur – a North-Eastern Indian state. They were fasting in solidarity and hundreds of other people in many countries apart from those in other states of India, prominent amongst which are Bangladesh, Pakistan, UK, Thailand, Nepal, and US, also took part in the five-days fast and demonstrated solidarity to the pro-people movement in Manipur.
Nava Thakuria, a senior Journalist in another North-East Indian state of Assam, who is also the General Secretary of Journalists' Forum in Assam, is part of an open public meeting at Guwahati Press Club on issues around Burma and its implications to North-East.
"In the recent uprising in the military ruled country that is adjacent to northeast India, a number of people (including a Japanese photojournalist) were killed. To suppress the pro-democracy campaigners and also the media, the Burmese junta has already taken numerous unethical means, where the military continued massive crackdown on the unarmed monks and the common Burmese with strict restriction on the media" remarks Thakuria.
"The junta government has already cut the telephone lines of working journalists based in Burma and also slows down the Internet connectivity, such that no legitimate information from the county could reach the outer world" furthers says Thakuria.
No matter how hard the Junta government in Burma may try to snap communications and thwart efforts to get information out of the country, it is virtually impossible to stop the world from watching and feeling outraged. Also ongoing people's movements are also slowly aligning themselves with the pro-democracy struggles in Burma.
The minimum pre-requisite of many people's movements around the world in recent past has been a singular demand –free Aung San Suu Kyi! She is imprisoned under the 1975 State Protection Act in Myanmar (Burma), which grants the government the power to imprison persons for up to five years without a trial. She has been intermittently under arrest of one kind or the other since 1990.
By 1988, Burma was burgeoning with pro-democracy movement, fueled by the energy and idealism among the country's young people. There were demonstrations against the repressive, one-party socialist government. Aung San Suu Kyi was drawn into the pro-democracy movement, which was snuffed out by State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which seized power on September 18, 1988. Thousands of pro-democracy advocates were killed.
Next came a general election in 1990, which political parties were allowed to contest. Aung San Suu Kyi, who was leading the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a landslide victory, with 80 percent support. SLORC leaders refused to accept the election results putting the elected pro-democracy leaders under house arrest, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Despite the restrictions of house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi continues to campaign for democracy. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in 1991.
The solidarity fast by hundreds of people in Manipur last month wasn't only in support of Irom Sharmila, but also demanded freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi as a minimum step forward towards establishing a just social order.
"It is with bated breath and great expectations the entire world is looking at current events in Myanmar and Pakistan. And the expectations are for change and democracy in these two countries, close neighbours of India" said Tiamerenla Monalisa Changkijathe, Editor of a tabloid 'Nagaland Page' in another North-East state of India – Nagaland.
The alignment of people's voices not only within Burma but globally is a positive development.
Only time can tell whether the voices of common people will be heard or the state will continue to trample over people's rights with anti-people laws and policies.
After getting drunk on stolen liquor and vandalizing an electrical cable support, 6 thieves were killed by electrocution.Although you could be forgiven for assuming that the deceased were likely a group of the idiotic young yobs ever present in Britain and America, the crooks in question were in fact wild Asian elephants.The elephants were part of a group of 40 wild elephants in Chandan Nukat, North East India. The 6 elephants became drunk after consuming rice beer brewed by area tribesmen, and in their search for food ended up uprooting an electric pole. The massive shocks killed 6 of the creatures, including 3 calves.
Local conservationist Dipu Mark praised the quick thinking villagers for limiting the carnage, saying “there would have been more casualties had the villagers not chased them away.”
Believe it or not, this is not the first time elephants have electrocuted themselves after drinking. It seems to be an almost regular occurrence throughout North East India, home of the world’s largest concentration of wild Asian elephants. A similar scene has actually occurred in Chandan Nukat itself before. Four other elephants suffered the same fate after drinking 3 years ago.
Dr. Kushal Konwar Sharma, elephant expert and instructor at Guwahati College of Veterinary Science in India, said: “There have been several incidents of elephants drinking country liquor and going berserk, at times plundering granaries and tearing apart huts, besides inflicting fatal attacks on human beings.”
Over 600 people have been killed in elephant attacks in the North East state of Assam, a sign of both the huge numbers of elephants and their shrinking habitats as humans encroach.
The problem of drunken elephants appears to be on the rise as the pachyderms and humans share space. Hopefully, the problem can be handled before it causes a massive hangover in the region.
Are there crude oil deposits in the jungles of the northeastern state of Nagaland? That is what India’s Oil and Natural Gas Company (ONGC) and Canada-based Canoro Resources will soon scout for.
The Nagaland government has signed agreements with Canoro Resources and ONGC to look for oil deposits in the jungles, the state Industry and Commerce Minister Khekhiho Zhimomi said.
Nagaland has the potential to yield some 600 million tones of crude oil, according to preliminary government estimates.
”Nagaland is literally sitting on a multi-million dollar oil reserve. The state's economy would definitely witness a massive turnaround if oil is struck,” the minister pointed out.
\
president even as affiliated clubs are moving to seek his resignation.