Forest official injured in Manas National Park
Barpeta : In a freak incident, a senior forest official of the Manas National Park was injured when he was hit by a stray bullet fired by another team of forest personnel engaged in driving away a herd of wild elephants. Park’s Chief Conservator Dharanidhar Bodo went for patrolling duty inside the Bahbari Range of the Park along with a team of forest personnel Friday night when the other group coming from the opposite side opened fire to drive away the elephants from the way at Hatpali under the same range, a senior Park official said. A bullet fired by a forest guard hit Bodo causing serious injury to him. Bodo was admitted to the Barpeta Road Public Health Centre and his condition was stated to be stable though the bullet was yet to be extracted, the official said. (PTI)
Six injured in bus-army vehicle collision
Tezpur: At least six people were injured when a bus and an army vehicle collided head-on Saturday morning on NH-15 in Assam’s Sonitpur district, police said. The bus, which was on its way to Guwahati from Biswanath Chariali, collided with the army vehicle which was coming from coming from the opposite direction at Balipara. The army vehicle was carrying milk, the police said. The injured were admitted to Tezpur Kanaklata Civil Hospital, the police added. (PTI)
Incessant rains trigger flash floods, landslides in Arunachal
Itanagar: Incessant rains and an unprecedented rise in the water level of the Subansiri have triggered landslides and flash floods in Arunachal Pradesh with the swirling river water leaving a trail of destruction. The Subansiri river recorded an unprecedented rise in the water level at Daporijo in Upper Subansiri district on Thursday night. “The water level of the river rose between 6-7 feet on Thursday night but receded Friday morning,” Upper Subansiri DC T Tagu said. District Information and Public Relation Officer (DIPRO) N Namchoom said that the flood water from the Subansiri submerged the villages located on its banks, damaging over 200 dwellings and washing away livestock. There was, however, no human casualty, she said. The affected areas include, Sikarijo, Pagarijo, Laila Majnu Colony and Dilidi village in Daporijo, Sippi, Menga, Kuporijo, Dumporijo and other areas. Daporijo MLA Dikto Yekar along with panchayat members personally surveyed the devastation caused by the flash flood at Sikarijo, Pagarijo, Laila Majnu Colony, Dilidi village, Sippi and Menga on Saturday. He said that it was the first time that the Subansiri had risen to such a level in the area. Pasighat DIPRO said that landslides triggered by torrential rain have snapped road communication in Pasighat. The Pasighat-Pangin and Pasighat-Mariyang roads remained cut off for the past few days due to massive landslides triggered by continuous rain since early this week, PWD (highways) sources said. (PTI)
Driver’s body found, hunt for murder suspect
Aizawl: A body, identified as Tahir Ahmed from Karimganj district in Assam, was found near a stream about six kilometres from Aizawl on Friday, Mizoram police said. Police said that Ahmed (23) was a passenger vehicle driver and the suspected murderer, also a non-tribal, was believed to have absconded to Silchar in Assam’s Cachar district. A police team went there. An autopsy was performed at the Civil Hospital here on Saturday on the highly decomposed body. (PTI)
Acharya for teacher exchange with other metros
Agartala: Tripura’s officiating Governor Padnabha Balakrishna Acharya has taken initiative of exchanging teachers in schools and colleges between the state and other metros for harnessing skill of teachers so that they could impart better education to rural students. “I have put forward a proposal to the state government on Thursday last when the Chief Executive Member of Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomus District Council (TTAADC) and Education Director of the state met me. “Some teachers could come from other parts of the country to the state to teach in remote and tribal-inhabited areas and simultaneously teachers from here can go to metros like Mumbai, Delhi etc which would help in developing skill among teachers in the state”, Acharya told a press conference here. Acharya is the Governor of Nagaland and holding the additional charge of Tripura. About his experience in Bairagipara school on whose ground his chopper had landed on August 19 due to bad weather, Acharya said, “In Bairagipara school I found ten teachers, all of them tribal, but I was shocked to see that there were only 15 students present and few were on way to school. The total presence of students was only 31 that day. It means that the presence of students despite good infrastructures is very low. So I decided that an exchange programme would be useful for the students”, he said. Acharya said he had already taken up the matter with the Vice-Chancellors of five universities in Delhi, Mumbai and Karnataka and the authorities of Vidyanidhi Vidyalaya of Juhu in Mumbai and all of them had agreed. (PTI)