Aizawl, Jun 12 : Many villagers in Mizoram's remote Lawngtlai district along the Myanmar border were taken sick due to suspected malaria, officials in the Lawngtlai district headquarters today said.
The Malaria-hit villages included Damdep-I, Damdep-II, Vathuampui and surrounding remote villages, they said.
Reports said more than 80 per cent of Damdep villagers were suffering from Malaria where very few of them went to south Mizoram's Lunglei town and Lawngtlai town for treatment as there were no doctors in the nearest Bungtlang South Primary Health Centre (PHC).
Unprecedented heat wave was experienced in the area during this summer aggravating spread of malaria, the reports said, adding there were no deaths.
Imphal, Jun 12 : The United Naga Council (UNC) has called a 48-hour bandh in the 'Naga areas' of Manipur from June 16 midnight in protest against what it termed as "unabated communal actions and policies of the state government."
The council also wants to urge the Centre to intervene and address its key demand - Alternative Arrangement (AA) for Nagas in Manipur outside the state government's purview until the Naga peace process is completed.
The seventh round of tripartite talks with the Centre, state government and UNC to discuss the arrangement was held on February 6.
A statement issued by the council said that instead of amending the Village Authority Act, 1956, and empowering their traditional institutions which has been a long-standing demand of the tribals, the state government issued a memorandum on January 6 this year regarding of establishment of the village development committee in each village in the name of development.
It said that instead of strengthening the village council/village authorities, a parallel body with development functions was to be put in place. It alleged that it is a move to destroy the village system of the Nagas and the tribals.
"Every Naga village and tribe has its own distinct territorial boundary. The tribals have their own way of life. To them, the land and the people cannot be separated as their culture, tradition and identity are interwoven with the land," the statement added.
In a remote tiger reserve, Namdapha in Arunachal Pradesh, I was most
amazed when I heard a “wired” sound, like some big aerial object flying
over my head. The guide told me it was a hornbill flying by. I had no
idea that hornbills were such huge birds and that their wingspan was as
broad as six feet and that they produce such loud sounds.
Hornbills get their name from the horn-like projection on their beaks.
This projection is called casque, and is also worn as a traditional
headgear by tribal people in the northeast. In fact, during the election
campaign in Arunchal Pradesh, prime minister Narendra Modi was seen
wearing this special cap at one of his rallies, a fact that had been
frowned upon by conservationists.
Conservationists have often lamented the fact that there is so much
ignorance about the importance of the hornbill that is such a rarity in
our country. Not enough is known about these birds and their role in
the ecosystem. Recently, there has been a citizen science initiative by
NCF, an organisation that is collecting information from all over India
about the hornbill’s presence on an interactive website- http://hornbills.in/. Such forums are involving scientists and common man to connect with nature.
A total of 55 different species of hornbill exist in the world, of which
nine can be found in India. The Great hornbill, Rufous–necked hornbill,
Wreathed hornbill, Narcondam honrbill, Malabar Pied hornbill, Oriental
Pied hornbill, White-throated honbill, Malabar Grey hornbill and the
Indian Grey hornbill. All these birds play a significant role in
maintaining the health of the forests, especially in fragmented
rainforests. How? These birds are mainly fruit eaters and can fly over
long distances with the fruit and seed and can spread them in open
patches. There are many fruit dispersal animals like primates and
rodents but they do not use open patches, so the importance of such
flying birds is even more, as they can easily fly over such rubber
plantations, paddy fields and orchards. Also, there are so many man-made
barriers like dams or highways or human settlements where other animals
cannot reach, but these birds can. Which is exactly why wildlife
biologists call them ‘Mobile Link Species’.
Out of the nine hornbills in India, at least five are facing
conservation threat, especially the Narcondam hornbill which is found
only on a small island called Narcondam in Andaman and Nicobar. The
Indian army was planning to install a large radar on this island but a
powerful campaign against it and conservationists’ intervention stopped
it. But only for a short while, it seems.
The latest development is that the government is in the process of
giving clearance for Indian Coast Guard radars on the island. If this
clearance happens, the future of the Narcondam hornbill is truly in
jeopardy, for it will be forced out of the only habitat it has. The
Coast Guards can surely look for other locations to install their
radars, but the hornbill does not have another home.
(The writer is a conservation biologist at Tiger Watch, Ranthambore)
New Delhi, Jun 12 : The Northeast may see a surge of young tourists soon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said
each of the over 30,000 colleges in India should send a hundred students
every year to the states in the Northeast. If the idea is implemented,
the annual domestic tourist number will be a whopping 30 lakh.
Modi made the reference as part of elaborating the government’s Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat
slogan mentioned in President Pranab Mukherjee’s address to Parliament.
“We have 30,000 colleges in the country, why can’t 100 students from
each of these colleges visit the Northeast once a year?” the Prime
Minister asked in Rajya Sabha during discussion on the President’s
address. “Imagine how it would help tourism, eco-tourism and help young
people understand the problems of their brothers and sisters in the
Northeast.”
Senior journalist and author B.G. Verghese
said while it is not a new idea, the concept of familiarisation with
the Northeast is a good one. “But it should be done with planning, may
be letting students live in a university and play a football match,”
said Verghese.
The Prime Minister’s move matches an idea
his determined opponent and former DoNER minister Manishankar Aiyar had
introduced. As DoNER minister, Aiyar introduced the practice of
providing airfare as LTA to central government servants in order to
holiday in the Northeast. The practice helped domestic tou-rism in the
region.
Capacities in the hilly region are limited
and infrastructure uneven. However, officials said if the government is
determined to increase domestic tourist potential, it would also have a
plan for backing it up with infrastructure like hotels, roads and
transport. Verghese questioned if 30 lakh students are going to visit,
can the railways cope with it? He felt concession tours during summer
months would be a good idea.
Currently, air connectivity to the region
is prohibitively expensive. Airfare from Calcutta to Bangkok costs less
than a ticket from Delhi to Dimapur.
Modi also spoke of an idea he had floated a
few years ago as Gujarat chief minister and referred to it during
election speeches also. As Gujarat chief minister he wanted 200 women
police personnel from each of the eight Northeast states to be deployed
in Gujarat for two years.
“The families would visit and people would
understand each other. This would help integration,” said Modi. The
plan had not worked out, allegedly because the Centre had not given the
nod to such a move.
Over the past two years, domestic tourism
in northeastern states, particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and
Nagaland, has risen by over 30 per cent. Coupled by a task of increasing
capacities as envisioned in Vision 2020, the Northeast could be a new
destination for domestic tourists.
Nitin
Gadkari, who recently took over as minister of road transport and
highways, has said that promoting infrastructure projects in the
North-East will be one of the ministry’s key focus areas. Photo: Hemant
Mishra/Mint
New Delhi: Myanmar has signalled its intent to
resume talks on the proposal to start a bus service to India, reviving a
long standing project to deepen ties between the two countries.
A delegation from India, including officials from the ministry of
road transport and highways and ministry of external affairs, is meeting
officials from the government of Myanmar for starting the process of
finalizing the agreement for the proposed bus service, said a road
ministry official on condition of anonymity.
“We had sent our memorandum of understanding (MoU) and
protocol for a passenger bus service for people-to-people contact a year
back. The proposal went on the back burner. The resuming of talks is a
welcome sign,” the official said.
The bus service is proposed between Imphal and Mandalay. Currently there is no road traffic between India and Myanmar.
“This could be a game-changer as it will be a precursor
for starting commercial activities between India and Myanmar on one hand
and an enabler for signing Asean-India trade agreement on the other,”
the official added.
Asean is short for Association of Southeast Asian Nations
which is a high growth economic bloc that includes Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos and
Vietnam in addition to Myanmar.
Another person familiar with the developments on the
Indian side confirmed that the Indian delegation was reaching Myanmar
for the meeting on 13 June.
“Protocol for operationalizing this MoU is to be
finalized. The delegation is coming to Myanmar to finalize this
protocol,” said this person, also requesting anonymity. “The idea is to
start the bus service as soon as possible.”
A proposal for starting a trans-national bus service was
submitted to the ministry of development of north-eastern region in
2009.
It found a mention in the India-Myanmar joint statement, issued when then Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh went there in 2012, signalling a desire on the part of both the countries to pursue the project.
The statement said, “Taking into account the importance
of enabling people-to-people contacts, the two sides agreed to launch a
trans-border bus service from Imphal, India to Mandalay. The two leaders
directed the concerned officials from both sides to finalize all
modalities to enable its early operationalization.”
“The starting of the bus service can improve
India-Myanmar relationship in several ways. First it will give a push to
several infrastructure projects like the Kaladan multi-modal transit
transport projects and Asian highway project that have been proposed
between the two countries,” said Biswajit Dhar,
professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University. “It will further act as a
bridge for Asean-India relations. Then, such initiatives can also give a
fillip to economic activities between India and Myanmar especially in
the service sector—areas like education and health.”
“Things have been slow of late but with both countries
showing interest this will send a positive message to all stakeholders,”
Dhar added.
Nitin Gadkari,
who recently took over as minister of road transport and highways, has
said that promoting infrastructure projects in the North-East will be
one of the ministry’s key focus areas.
Constructing enormous new structures for a one-off sports event hardly ever works out
in the host country's favor; the choice these days tends to be between
minimizing cost (as London did with its easy-to-collapse 2012 Olympic
Stadium) and impressing the world with giant wasteful beauties (like
China and Russia did with their Olympic Games, to varying degrees of
success). The world is littered with huge stadiums that will never be
fully used again, and some of Brazil's 12 World Cup stadiums (some
brand-new, some merely redone for the events) will surely face a similar
fate. So let's rank them!
These rankings are based on a highly scientific* formula of how cool
the design is; how wasteful the stadium is (i.e., how likely a stadium
of that size in that place is to be used after the Cup); how remote it
is (from Rio, thus contributing a whole lot of burned fossil fuel from
players and fans), and how many people died while constructing it (This
is a real statistic! In 2014!). Also, I've thrown in how difficult I
think the name of the stadium is to pronounce. Your reactions are
welcome in the comments section below. These are in order from least
worst to worst.
12. Arena Fonte Nova
Nice. Nice. Located in Salvador, the largest city in the northeast coast of Brazil, Fonte Nova
seems like it was actually designed to be functional by architects Marc
Duwe and Claas Schulitz. It may look from above like a donut, but one
section of the blue-green stadium has a big gap, almost like a vent,
boosting air circulation in the hot city. Even better, it can be reused
later as an amphitheater, with the gapped section looking out on a paved
area for concertgoers. 11. Estadio Mineirao
This stadium was previously declared a national monument,
so even though it's new, it has kind of a cool old styling thing going
on. Vintage stadium! It sort of looks like, I don't know, like Wrigley
Field. It'll also be used in the 2016 Olympics, unlike some of the more
inconveniently located stadiums on this list. 10. Estadio Do Maracana
Estadio Do Maracana does not, as I had first thought, translate to
the "Macarena Stadium." It loses points (there are no points) for that.
Fortunately, it's not a one-event stadium; situated in Rio, it'll be
used by four of the city's soccer teams as well as during the 2016 Olympics. It is boring and round but at least it will be forced to be functional. 9. Arena De Sao Paulo
The Arena De Sao Paulo, which is in Sao Paulo, as you might have
guessed, looks very cool, with this curved windowed roof laid on top of
two huge blocks. Why is it ranked so low? Well, um, three people have died building it. Come on, guys. 8. Estadio Castelao
I like Castelao because it was completed on time and within budget.
Good work! Also I Googled Fortaleza, the stadium's home city, and the
pictures make it look really nice. It is probably the most
boring-looking of the stadiums, with a rounded soccer-field shape and a
white awning. 7. Estadio Das Dunas
This stadium gets a bump because I can understand what its name means. Also it's shaped like an undulating dune, which is nice. 6. Estadio Beira-Rio
How chilly can a Brazilian soccer stadium get? That's the kind of fun
question Estadio Beira-Rio will let us find the answer to, because, as
the farthest south of the stadiums, it's also the coldest (averaging
around 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer). Estadio Beira-Rio will get some use after the Cup,
as it'll be host to the team Internacional. I don't love the plain
donut-looking circular stadiums, of which this is one, but the texture
on the outside looks like folded paper which is kind of cool. 5. Arena Pernambuco
Located on the Atlantic coast more than 1,400 miles from Rio, it rains on average 224 days per year. The BBC says
it's built in an economically deprived area "and will eventually form
part of a leisure complex and residential development which it is hoped
will act as a catalyst for local regeneration." I'll believe that when I
see a disused World Cup or Olympic stadium act as a catalyst for
anything besides echoes. It has gently sloping sides so that it looks
like something Tony Hawk would do a sweet kickflip off of if he were a
few hundred feet tall. He's not, though. 4. Estadio Da Baixada
Over 500 miles from Rio, this stadium is situated in an area with
nice comfortable weather. That's about its only upside; even though it
was renovated years ago, the stadium just barely made it past FIFA's
gauntlet to be used this year. It looks like it's made out of Lego. 3. Estadio Nacional
The stadium located in Brazil's capital city, Brasilia, cost three times its estimate, making it the most expensive
construction project of this World Cup. Also no major teams play in
Brasilia, so who knows what it'll be used for after the Cup? One worker
died during construction. The stadium is perfectly circular with a round hole in the middle, which makes it look to me like a butthole. 2. Estadio Pantanal
Located near the Bolivian border, Pantanal's stadium ranks high on
the uselessness-after-the-games scale. The only teams that'll use it
afterwards are way down in the minor leagues of Brazilian soccer, and
yes, I know they're not called the minor leagues. Temperatures there can
reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Last October, the stadium caught fire,
and in May, a worker was electrocuted. Also it looks like a cardboard box with the top folded out. 1. Estadio Amazonia
Are you kidding me with this? Estadio Amazonia is 2,659 miles by road
from Rio. That's farther away from Rio than Los Angeles is from New
York City. If Estadio Amazonia were as far west from New York as it is
from Rio, it'd be 200 miles into the Pacific Ocean. All the players
would drown. It would be the worst catastrophe in World Cup history.
Also, as its name suggests, it's in the Amazon rainforest--like, on the
Amazon River--which means there's a 40% chance of rain at all times and
temperatures in the high 80s. Oh, and four workers have died constructing this stadium. Design-wise, the stadium looks pretty cool, the product of German firm gmp Architekten; it's designed to look like an indigenous woven basket, except made out of steel girders. Still, though. Last place. *That's a lie
It's
a long-held myth that athletes should refrain from sex before a
competition, for fear of exhaustion or a lack of testosterone. Nearly
all scientific studies agree that there's no danger, but the belief
persists. To that end, managers for a number of countries have banned
their players from having relations with loved ones (or otherwise) at
the World Cup.
Citing
public statements, we've broken up the World Cup field into those
nations that will be celibate and those that will be boning like
bunnies. It'll be fun to come back and look at this list once the
tournament's over.
Limited or No Sex
Mexico
"Forty days of sexual abstinence is not going to hurt anyone," said manager Miguel Herrera. To be fair, El Tri
are just three years removed from crashing out of the Copa America
after kicking eight players off the team following a hotel party with a
group of prostitutes.
The
Mexicans may not be too bummed when they crash out of the World Cup;
Herrera has also banned players from consuming red meat or alcohol while
in Brazil.
Chile
Manager Jorge Sampaoli, taking a page from his predecessor, has banned his players from sex at this World Cup. And to avoid temptation, wives and girlfriends aren't even allowed in the team hotel.
"There will be no sex in Brazil," warned manager Safet Susic. But he's not unreasonable: "They can find another solution, they can even masturbate if they want."
Manager Luiz Felipe Scolari will not ban players from sexing, but asks that they keep it "normal"—and promises to keep tabs on them.
"The
players can have normal sex during the World Cup," he said. "Usually
normal sex is done in a balanced way but some like to perform
acrobatics. We will put limits and survey the players."
Australia
Sex for the Socceroos! "With everything we need to do in camp," said coach Ange Postecoglou, "I don't think those things are of primary importance."
Roy Hodgson has yet to hand down official rules regarding relations, but he rescinded invitations to wives and girlfriends
for the team's World Cup tour. They can still travel independently, but
will be barred from spending time with players except on specific days.
There is hope, though; coaching Switzerland in 1994, Hodgson initially
banned sex altogether before changing his mind just before the tournament.
This
marks a radical change from the past, when sex bans were the rule, even
if they weren't enforced. In 2002, manager Giovanni Trapattoni caught
the wife of one player inside the team hotel. She had snuck in by
wearing a media credential. "If you're here as a reporter, get out now."
Trapattoni supposedly told her. "If you're here as Vincenzo's wife, here's his room number."
The status of this year's side is unknown, but Colombian legend Carlos Valderrama is advocating free love.
"If
we'd had sex during the World Cup, it would've been better," Valderrama
said. "We would have relaxed after games - especially after defeats.
It's total relaxation. "It's not an impediment. It should be quiet,
cool, without inventing crazy poses."
Honduras
Unknown.
Manager Luis Fernando Suarez banned sex as the Ecuador coach in 2006,
and announced the rules applied to everyone, including him. "That's
good," one reporter said. Retorted Suarez: "No, it is not good…It is not
good at all."
Argentina
The 2010 squad was allowed to have sex, but not to stay out all night looking for it. "Players are not Martians," the team doctor said.
Russia
Unknown, but manager Fabio Capello handed down an absolute sex ban to his England side at the 2010 World Cup.
There are good options whether you use Google Calendar or something like Apple’s Calendar app:
If you use Google, go to this site,
then hit the little button in the lower right hand corner. It should
show up on your calendar, but you can toggle it on and off in the left
pane of Google Calendar.
If you use the Calendar app, download this .ics file,
then click on it. It’ll bring up a dialog box asking where you want to
put all the events. You probably want to add the games to their own new
calendar.
