JORHAT, July 1: The authorities at the world-famous but cash-starved Kaziranga National Park (KNP) have lately found the going uphill as the government is yet to release flood damage restoration (FDR) funds for the financial year 1999-2000, said KNP director BS Bonal. Speaking to The Assam Tribune at his Bokakhat office today, Bonal claimed that non-release of FDR funds had severely hampered restoration works at the park. With the dismal state of financial affairs as of now, even maintenance of the existing park infrastructure has proved to be a herculean task." Praising the efforts of the field staff in policing the 1,200-square kilometre park with a notified core area of 430 square kilometres, including additional and civilian land as well, he claimed that while royal Bengal tigers in the park had been able to claw their way up from 80 in 1997 to 86 as on March 2000 as per the latest tiger census, poaching of rhinoceros too had been restricted to only two till January last, while it was 12, 6 and 5 during 1997, '98 and '99 respectively. Speaking on their boosting up of the local Intelligence-gathering network over and above the regular field staff, Bonal said they organised frequent health check-up and animal vaccination/immunisation camps in the peripheral villages as a means to generate goodwill among the neighbouring folk, who subsequently pass on information about poachers to the departmental staff and thus help in curbing the menace of poaching. Lauding the efforts of NGOs, the Army, conservationists and local tea garden authorities in contributing to maintain the park and spreading general awareness on the need for eco-conservation to sustain wildlife, he thanked local volunteers who had been assisting the forest department personnel in enlightening motor vehicle owners, truck and omni bus drivers about going slow on the stretch between Bokakhat to Jakhalabandha and vice versa, considering the denizens of the forest frequently use the animal corridors by criss-crossing the NH-37. Terming recurrence of natural calamities with devastating effect each year as also another major setback in sprucing up the park's overall infrastructure, Bonal sought media assistance to highlight the plight of KNP and desperately sought prioritisation of maintenance assistance as keeping the existing set-up in good shape was gradually proving to be a challenge. "Under the circumstances, taking up of new plans and projects for the park do not arise," he said. However, harbouring hopes of reopening the park to tourists again on October next, Bonal maintained that they were lucky otherwise as the tourist flow to KNP had been encouraging during the last season. The flow had picked up over the years as did the star attraction of KNP, the unique one-horned rhinoceros, whose figure is presently pegged at 1,552 members. (Staff Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 2, 2000)

GUWAHATI, July 1: Dilip Hazarika is the Dhemaji correspondent of the leading Assamese daily Dainik Assam published from Guwahati. Last week, he was inTezpur - about 120 kms from his hometown - to attend a workshop organised for journalists working in rural areas. But though the workshop concluded on Monday, Hazarika is still waiting in Tezpur. He cannot get back since both road and rail links have been cut off due to the floods. Hazarika is lucky he has a hotel room. There are hundreds others in many of Assam's districts who are stuck at home, cut off from the rest of the state by the swelling Brahmaputra and its tributaries. Machkhowa, a small town near Dhemaji, became an island last week with the gushing flood-water surrounding it from all sides. About 120 families remain isolated off from the rest of the world. And the water level is still rising. Dhemaji MLA Dilip Kumar Saikia has sent an SOS to the state government to despatch helicopters to rescue marooned villagers. Meanwhile, the district administration has pressed into service several motor- and country boats to reach the residents of Machkhowa and other such areas. For the hundreds of thousands of people in Assam, getting marooned during the floods is nothing new they have been hit by floods virtually every year since 1950. It was on August 15 that year that the state was rocked by the worst earthquake ever in the area, which not only changed the course of the Brahmaputra and several of its tributaries, but also raised the level of the riverbeds. In 1998 that half of Dhemaji district was almost turned into a desert with Jiyadhol, Gai, Jalakiyasuti and other tributaries of the Brahmaputra bringing down silt from the Himalayas in adjacent Arunachal Pradesh and wiping out large tracts of standing crops. It took nearly three months for the Railways to repair the badly damaged track linking Dhemaji with the rest of the country, while National Highway 52 continued to look like a kutcha village road. As the second wave of floods began on June 12, more than 200people in Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh upstream Siang the main Himalayan river coming down to become the Brahmaputra, had to be rescued by Air Force helicopters sent out from Dibrugarh. Describing the rescue operation, a defence press note says: "Our men not only picked up marooned people from highlands and roof-tops, but some were even picked up from tree-tops and lamp-posts with the help of rope-ladders." Same was the situation at Neamighat, six km to the north-east of Jorhat town in Upper Assam, a ghat from where ferries and boats leave for Majuli, the world's largest river island. While the Brahmaputra gobbled up the PWD road linking Jorhat and Neamighat last Friday, 47 families were stuck in a small portion of the road which had, by that time, become an island. These families had only a week before shifted to the PWD road after their homes disappeared into the Brahmaputra. They remained there all through the dark rainy night, while the administration had no option but to send out rescue boats only the next morning. Across the river in Majuli, 51 families of Dorka Chapori village suffered a similar trauma. Their homes and lands had been washed away by the Brahmaputra seven days earlier. While the authorities took three days to shift them to a safer place, Dorka Chaporihas become history, with nothing of it to be seen. (Samudra Gupta Kashyap; The Indian Express; New Delhi; July 2, 2000)

GUWAHATI, July 2: Unplanned growth and inefficacious management have turned city's Paltan Bazar area into a pedestrians' "nightmare." Commuters jostle for space on manhole-littered pavements, while buses ply at a snail's pace belching toxic fumes. Autorickshaws blow their horns incessantly as rickshaws trying to manoeuvre their way through non-existent passages. Very little has changed in Paltan Bazar over the years. Despite the chaos, it remains one of the most important commercial centres in the city. So many buildings have come up in the area that there is virtually no space to widen the roads. According to officials, the level of noise and air pollution in the area is one of the highest in the city. Says Arun Barua, a school student who stays in Paltan Bazar, "It is impossible to study at night because of the noise made by trains entering the station or leaving it." Apart from congestion and noise pollution, heaps of garbage on the roadside add to the mess. Roads are often waterlogged after rain. Workers leave gaps between concrete slabs covering the manholes resulting in "accidents." Rajesh Barua, a resident of Ganeshguri, barely escaped falling into one of these manholes recently. "Thank god, there was a street light and I noticed the gap between two slabs of concrete," he recalls. Residents of the area and shopkeepers say the authorities seldom bother to redress their grievances. "Instead of doing something to reduce the chaos in the area, they dump stones and filth on the main road," says Mohan Singh, who owns a grocery store. With the area becoming more congested each passing day, people do not take the trouble to shop there. "Why would customers come to our shops if the situation is so bad. Renovation of roads has been going on for several months now. There appears to be no end to it," says Singh. Adding to congestion, every tourist agency has opened a counter at Paltan Bazar. The situation worsens after 7 pm when night buses start departing. These buses do not pick up speed unless they have adequate passengers. "A bus takes almost half-an-hour to go out of the area even after everyone is seated," says Sonali Phukan, who goes to Tezpur once a week. Criminal activity has also increased in Paltan Bazar. According to police, people living in the jhuggis (shanties) along the railway line are to blame for the spurt in crime. "They are driven out once in a while, but they come back again," says Rajen Singh, who runs a tea stall near the Panbazar flyover. Even the footpaths have been encroached upon by hawkers. "The police evict these hawkers in sporadic anti-encroachment drives, but they come back after a couple of days. There are people selling goods right at the edge of the railway bridge behind the station," says an NF Railway employee. There is a proposal to shift the bus stop from Paltan Bazar to Six Mile in Khanapara, but transport operators are opposed to it. "Shifting the bus stop to Six Mile will ruin our business. This place is accessible from all sides and is an ideal location," says a tour operator. "Do the authorities think shifting the bus stop to Six Mile will solve the congestion problem? Actually, the same problem will arise there," he adds. Several new hotels and shopping complexes have come up in Paltan Bazar over the past few years. Most of these hotels do not have any parking space and vehicles have to be kept by the side of the road. This makes the parked vehicles vulnerable to thefts. (Roopak Goswami; The Telegraph; Calcutta; July 3, 2000)

NEW DELHI, July 4: The floods came out of nowhere at night and overwhelmed three districts in Arunachal Pradesh which were enjoying bright sunny days. Till June 27, twenty-six people had died and the toll is expected to rise with about 2,000 people missing. About 15 crucial bridges have been swept away and the villages are totally cut off from the rest of the state. Senior ministers of the Arunachal government, who have rushed to Delhi to ask for relief, are pointing an accusing finger at China. Siang river, called Sangyo in China where it originates, is know to be placid. It flows through Upper, Lower and East Siang, the three districts which have been inundated. "We have never seen the river flow so dangerously in our lifetime," says Arunachal's Minister for Home Kameng Dolo. "There is no reason for the floods on the Indian side as Arunachal has not yet received any rain and the weather has been characteristically dry for the past so many months," he says. "In the circumstances, we are left with no option but to believe that the cause of the flood is in China. It could be a dam which breached on the Chinese side or even some construction activity near the border like laying of roads," feels Dolo. "We do not know the exact reason but we are having to pay dearly for the disaster," he says. "We want the Centre to take up the matter with China and ask them what exactly went wrong. Without the Centre's intervention, we are very helpless in Arunachal," he adds, listing the demands he had made before Home Minister LK Advani whom he met on Monday. "We do not have enough money to provide relief on such a large scale and so unexpectedly," says Dolo. "Our coffers are in a bad shape, especially since a ban was imposed on cutting trees in the state because of which we lose about Rs 52 crore every year." About 2,500 households have been affected and thousands of farmers are crowding the relief camps. The central government has released Rs 2.20 crore from the Calamity Relief Fund and Rs 1 crore from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. However, the state government estimates the damage to be over Rs 100 crore. Last week Minister of state for Agriculture Nitesh Kumar went on an aerial survey of the area. Meanwhile, Arunachal Chief Minister Mukut Mithi was in the Capital to meet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for seeking assistance. Says Joint Secretary, Agriculture, Anil Sinha, "The situation is very serious and all possible help is being considered. The only way of taking relief to the villages is through air for which Indian Air Force choppers have been pressed into service." Sinha had accompanied Nitish Kumar on the survey of the flood-hit areas. "We have tried to capture images through a remote sensing satellite of the path of the river. But for the past few days, we could not get clear pictures because of a thick cloud cover over the area. That is why we have not yet been able to say conclusively what the reasons for the flooding are," he added. A number of minor rivers and tributaries from China and Tibet join to form the mighty Brahmaputra in India, the world's widest river, before it empties into the Bay of Bengal. The districts which have been flooded by the Siang river are a short distance away from India's border with China. (Kota Neelima; The Indian Express; New Delhi; July 5, 2000)

GUWAHATI, July 5: Guwahati, city of the famous Kamakhya temple - the ancient seat of tantric studies, is also home to a wide variety of bird species and as many as 50 leopards. The forests here are fast shrinking, bringing the cats face to face with the humans more frequently than before. Last week, residents of Joynagar, a small colony close to the Kamakhya temple, woke up to the growl of a leopard which had fallen into a dry well in the backyard of a house. The people, police, and the state zoo authorities got together to rescue the animal and shifted it to the zoo within four hours. Guwahati is surrounded by 12 reserved forests, with a total area of about 261 sq km. These forests, mostly on hills and hillocks, are home to 45 varieties of mammals, 25 kinds of reptiles and 200 bird varieties. However, due to increased human activity, these reserved forests are fast shrinking, making way for encroachers who are rapidly constructing houses. "The worst-affected are the bigger animals and birds, especially leopards, which get easily spotted and are attacked by men at the slightest provocation," says Bibhav Kumar Talukdar, secretary of Aranyak - a leading conservationists' group in the city. He recalled that in 1995, a leopard had strayed out of its habitat to a busy locality of the city, only to be shot dead by a group of CRPF personnel who were passing by. State zoo DFO Ritesh Bhattacharjee blames the people who have encroached upon the hills and reserved forests in and around Guwahati. "There is tremendous pressure on land, and the leopards are the worst sufferers," he says. In 1999, forest officials rescued four adult leopards from various residential areas of the city, and sent them in the state zoo. Several leopard cubs were also rescued by the wildlife authorities, according to Bhattacharjee. Leopards are most commonly sighted in the Neelachal Hills, on which the Kamakhya temple is located, and there have been instances of people being seriously injured by the animal. They also occasionally appear in the Narakasur Hills area where the Guwahati Medical College and the state film studio are located, or the Saraniya Hill, on which a Gandhi Memorial is located. PC Bhattacharya of Guwahati University claims that Guwahati is the Number One urban wildlife hub of the country. He has been urging that new small pockets be created to preserve urban wildlife. (Samudra Gupta Kashyap; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 6, 2000)

NEW DELHI, July 6: Jahnu Barua's Pokhi won the award for best feature film in Assamese while Hemanta Das Koihatir Dhulia was adjudged the best anthropological film at the 47th National Film Awards for 1999, which were announced here today. Malayalam actor Mohan Lal bagged the best actor award for Vaanaprastham which also won the best feature film and best editing awards. (The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 7, 2000)

JORHAT, July 6: The Forest Department here is presently giving final touches to a project report sought by the United states-based Asian Elephant Conservation Fund and US-Fish and Wildlife Service, for funding upkeep of natural habitats which are home to elephants, under the foreign NGOs' 'Project Elephant' scheme. The Forest Department has suggested names of Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary off Mariani and Gejera Sapori of Majuli as recommended sites where elephant depredations are frequent and hence fit in for funding by the US-based NGOs in their bid to save such habitats in the state. The Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary off Holongapar with a core area of only 19 sq km is hardly enough to sustain a herd of 31 elephants that are presently available, as per Forest Department sources. With a normal fully grown pachyderm requiring atleast 10 sq kms of forested area during the course of its daily sojourn, the carrying capacity of the Gibbon Sanctuary going by the book, is in fact sufficient for only two mature elephants, whereas ten times that number have been compelled to 'jam-pack' themselves into the area. It is due to such reasons coupled with the fact that shrinking forest areas even on the periphery or fringe areas, including lack of necessary foliage has forced these elephants from time to time to stray out of the core area to adjoining villages in the hope of finding new food reserves. Gregarious by nature and normally walking large distances in their quest for food and water, such herds usually end up in the barns of local villagers or sniff out households where brew of the local variety of liquor is fermented. Irresistible for the elephants, the huge mammals easily locate the utensils where the fermented brew is stored by using their keen sense of smell and thus create havoc among human habitation in their hurry to guzzle down a swig or two. The elephant's bid to include variety into its daily diet is also at times responsible for its straying out of core forested areas. Over and above, population explosion as the prime cause behind elephant depredations, dearth of natural food and encroachment of its habitat by humans are also primary causes for the goliaths creating occasional panic by destroying home and hearth of villagers living in the fringe areas. As for Gejera Sapori of Majuli, it is a relatively new sand bar formed by siltation of the Brahmaptura and having taken shape over the last 10 years. Approximately 5 kms wide and 50 kms long, with rich, dense vegetation, it is already home to a variety of wild animals, a few of whom use it as a temporary refuge during particular times of the year, according to Forest Department sources. Only on July 1 last, a 20-member herd of wild elephants that had taken refuge in the area since over two months and had been creating panic among the local residents, had been shooed out of the area after a 12-hour ordeal. Assisted by a local NGO named Kherkata Surakshya Samiti and supported by Forest Department personnel in their hundreds, the herculean effort paid dividends as the herd finally reached Bhandana under Dhakuakhana Sub-division in Dhemaji district after having crossed Bonoria Sapori and Gejera Sapori in Majuli. The herd also had a newly-born calf among its fold. If the areas under review ever come under 'Project Elephant,' then the gentle giants of the forest along with other denizens of the wild will definitely be better-placed to face the future as their habitats will be more secure in the backdrop of global monitoring, felt sources at the Forest Department. Their chances of survival too will receive a boost. (Staff Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 7, 2000)

AGARTALA, July 6: CRPF jawans allegedly assaulted a journalist of a local daily Deser Katha, run by the ruling CPI(M), at Teliamura in West Tripura while he was covering the Governor's visit there recently, reports UNI. Journalist Ajoy Ghosh, who was admitted to GB Hospital here, said that the jawans had severely assaulted him on Tuesday last and his identity card along with Rs 600 had been snatched away by them. An FIR was lodged at the Teliamura police station in this connection and the matter was brought to notice of the Chief Minister and the director General of Police. Local journalists also condemned the attack and urged the government and the CRPF authorities to take stern action against the guilty jawans. (UNI; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 7, 2000)

NEW DELHI, July 7: Assam has been included in the list of five populous states that have been identified by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for specialised thrust in the area of development of rural health infrastructure and family planning. The other four states are Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. Addressing a press conference here today, the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Dr CP Thakur said that a detail plan of action is being worked out for the Special Category states. Assam, it may be noted here, has been singled out as a state where the health care facilities particularly in the rural areas have deteriorated considerably. Dr Thakur said that the centre plans to provide maximum thrust in these five states. The Ministry is currently formulating an Action Plan for Population Control which is likely to be announced by the Prime Minister on July 22. (Staff Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 8, 2000)

GUWAHATI, July 7: Editors of local newspapers in a letter today requested the Chief Minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, to make public the government stand on the alleged assault of a journalist by the Sivasagar Deputy Commissioner, LN Tamuli in his office chamber on July 4 last. The Editors expressed concern over government's inaction even after 72 hours of the incident despite the Deputy Commissioner himself acknowledging that he had assaulted the scribe, Parag Saikia. Signatories to the letter addressed to the Chief Minister included, Anil Baruah, Radhika Mohan Bhagawati, Wasbir Hussain, Manoj Kumar Goswami, Hyder Hussain, Kanaksen Deka, Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, Adip Kumar Phukan. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 8, 2000)

GUWAHATI, July 9: Meghalaya Minister of Border Areas RL Tariang recently inaugurated the first ropeway in West Khasi Hills district at Rangjadong village under the Langrim constituency, an MIPR press release received here informed. While emphasising the keenness of the government to see that most remote villages of the state are somehow connected with any means of communication, Tariang urged the people to form a society to oversee the operation of the ropeway for the benefit of the local people. He also assured his sincere assistance and help in alleviating the difficulties faced by the local people. He also formally handed over the operation of the ropeway to the local community of Ngunraw, Ranjadong and Kensiphlang villages. With the commissioning of this ropeway, the village of Ngunraw, which is accessible only by foot, is now partially relieved of the acute problem of transportation. Earlier, M Danggo, Deputy Speaker Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, who also presided over the meeting, lauded the practical and cooperative attitude of the land owners who donated their land for the construction of the relay points of the ropeway. (Staff Reporter; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 10, 2000)

NEW DELHI, July 11: Assam has been sanctioned Rs 135.62 crore for the World Bank-assisted Ninth India Population Project revised by the Union cabinet here today, cabinet spokesman and Union Minister for Information Technology Promod Mahajan announced this here today. The corpus of the fund has been enhanced from Rs 336 crore to Rs 414.06 crore and the project is under implementation in only the three states of Assam, Karnataka and Rajasthan. The project is an area development project under the National Family Welfare Programme primarily to strengthen health and family welfare infrastructure, increasing outreach and coverage and aiming to bring down maternal and child mortality and birth rate. In another decision, the cabinet granted its seal of approval to the continuation of the Watershed Development Project in shifting cultivation areas of Northeastern region during the Ninth Five Year Plan. Under the scheme 1.20 lakh hectares of land would be taken up for treatment of watershed at an estimated cost of Rs 75 crore. The unit cost has been revised from Rs 5000 to Rs 10,000 per hectares. (Staff Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 12, 2000)

KAMALABARI, July 10: The executive committee meeting of the Jorhat District Journalists' Association held at the Kingshuk Club Mariani in July 8 under the presidentship of Kishore Mohan Paul, president of the Association condemned the barbaric and inhuman manhandling of a journalists Parag Kumar Saikia by Laksme Nath Tamuli, Deputy Commissioner, Sivasagar in his office chamber and demanded deserving punishment to the latter for violating code of a civilized society. Meanwhile, the Majuli unit of AGP has demanded punishment of guilty involved in illegal appointment of teachers. A meeting of the Majuli District Committee Asom Gana Parishad held here on Sunday demanded cancellation of all illegal appointments of teachers in Majuli subdivision, appointment of bonafide candidates and befitting punishment to the corrupt employees of the office of the deputy inspector of schools, Majuli and other corrupt persons involved in the illegal appointment of teachers. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; July 12, 2000)

AGARTALA, July 11: The Assembly witnessed uproarious scenes for the second successive day today over the appearance of a minor rape victim in the Well of the House. The minor girl, who was raped by a CPM worker on Saturday, appeared in the Well of the House on the lap of Congress MLA Ratanlal Nath. The issues of the rape and failure of the police to arrest the culprits, alleged to be politically affiliated with the CPM, were raised in the Assembly yesterday by the Opposition. Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, in a statement in the House yesterday, had said he would look into the matter and apprise the House of the latest position of the case. Speaker Jiten Sarkar had put four watch-and-ward staff of the Assembly under suspension yesterday for their failure to prevent the entry of the girl into the House with Ratanlal Nath. The matter was raised today by Congress and Tripura Upajati Juba Samity members during Zero Hour, demanding immediate revocation of the suspension order passed on the four watch-and-ward staff. Nath said the offence, if any, had been committed by himself and the watch-and-ward staff were innocent. TUJS legislator Rabindra Debbarma said everything had happened in front of the Speaker and he had done nothing. The fracas continued and proceedings in the House remained paralysed for three hours and there were three adjournments. Finally, the Speaker held a meeting with leaders of the Opposition and made an announcement that he would look into the matter and inform the House. The chief minister made his promised statement at the fag end of the proceedings and said the police were investigating the rape case and he would inform the House of all details before the end of the current session. (Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Calcutta; July 12, 2000)