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Watery
Grave for 65 at Kerala Tourist Resort
at Kumarakom Backwaters (Go
To Top) COCHIN: At least 65 people were drowned after a ferry boat, with 300 passengers on board, capsized on Saturday (July 27) in Kerala's Vembanadu lake at the newly-sprang up Kumarakom tourist resort which claims to attract foreign tourists in hordes.
According to local sources, the dilapidated boat, belonging to the Kerala State Government's Water Transport Department, was ferrying passengers from Muhamma to Kumarakom resort when it sank. Although some passengers could be rescued, most of the people got trapped and stuck inside the boat which had turned upside down and sank Although there are water transport offices and officials on both sides of the ferry points and conductors and other technicians accompany the passengers as a routine on the boat, it is alleged that their callousness led to overloading which also contributed to the tragedy. There was a crowd of students and job-seekers on the banks to be ferried across to Kumarakom, a short cut, for their onward journey to Kottayam for a public service commission test. The ferry takes 45 minutes to cross the backwaters.
DEHRA DUN: Ten people, including four women and two children, were killed and dozens were injured when the truck they were travelling in fell into a gorge in Champawat on Sunday (July 28). The truck was carrying Sikh pilgrims from Punjab. Eleven Sikh pilgrims were killed in a similar accident on June 30 near Joshimath.. The bus was returning from the Sikh shrine of Hemkund Sahib near Badrinath. The bus from Punjab was carrying over 40 pilgrims.
KAZIRANGA (Assam): Many wild animals in the Kaziranga National Park in Assam were washed away in the past week and large portions of the 430 square km park waterlogged forcing the animals to take refuge on the national highway or move to nearby Karbi Anglong Hills following floods. Some animals were hit by oncoming trucks and those remaining in the park were finding it difficult to survive.Park officials said at least 20 animals have died this year due to floods. Floods have a two-fold impact on Kaziranga. On the positive side the flood waters increase fertility of the grass land and the fishes lay more eggs, thus attracting more water birds. On the other hand, it brings about massive destruction. In 1988, at least 1200 animals, including 48 rhinos, perished in the floods that ravaged large parts of Assam. More than 60 artificial high rise platforms were erected by the authorities to save animals from floods, but most of the platforms have been damaged by the torrential rains. Kaziranga was first declared a reserve forest in 1903-04 when only a dozen rhinos were left in an area where they were once present in large numbers. In 1950 it was renamed as Kaziranga National Park after which the number of rhinos rose to 1164 in 1993. NEW DELHI: The UK, US, Germany, France and other countries have lifted the travel restrictions they had imposed on its citizens visiting India in the context of the escalating tensions at the Indo-Pak border in May. They had also pulled out some of their embassy staff.
The UK declared on July 23 that it has eased travel restrictions on citizens travelling to India. The British mission employees and their dependants who had left India will now be able to return. The US lifted all the restrictions on July 23. This supersedes the travel advisory of June 26 which only partially relaxed the curbs allowing its citizens already in India to stay on if they wanted. According to the new advisory, all embassy staff and their families who had left can now return to India. Earlier, a German embassy statement said on July 12, "after the reduction of tensions between Indian and Pakistan, the German Foreign Ministry currently does not see any reason to generally advise against travel to India." France had lifted the restrictions early this month. Australia and Japan also had diluted their travel warnings earlier.
India's hotel industry, airline business and info-tech companies have
been the worst hit by the travel curbs. Now they are expected to look
up.
KOLKATA: A two-year old giraffe has been the centre of attraction at the Lucknow zoo these days. The giraffe - a gift from the Kolkata zoo - was brought in a 18-feet long cage and after a four-day long journey on a truck. With this the Lucknow zoo too joins the exclusive zoo-clubs of Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mysore having a giraffe in its captivity.
Visitors, particularly children, are quite excited about the young giraffe. There are about 812 species of animals in the zoo. The young and the old are all enthusiastic to be able to watch the tallest species in the world right before their eyes. The zoo authorities have taken special care while feeding the animal. It is being fed with disinfected leaves and given boiled water for drinking. About one foot of sand has been spread in the giraffe enclosure to save the animal from coming in contact with the wet soil below.
Amarnath
Yatra Resumes (Go
To Top) JAMMU: A day after bad weather forced the authorities to suspend the Amarnath pilgrimage, the journey resumed on Tuesday (July 23) with a fourth batch of 6221 pilgrims proceeding towards the cave shrine from here.
Moreover, giving a go-ahead signal meant a reduction in the number of stranded pilgrims, which had increased to 15,000 till Monday evening. The shrine is at a height of 13,500 feet (4,000 metres) above sea level. The treacherous narrow 30-mile (50-km) path from Pahalgam takes the yatris along icy streams and around glacier-fed lakes and dense pine forests. This year's (2002) yatra, organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Government, began from Jammu early morning on July 19. Darshan of the Shiv linga at the holy cave began on July 22. The darshan period ends on August 22. Five
Die in Uttaranchal Flash Foods (Go
To Top) KHETGAON (Uttaranchal): Five members of a family died in flash floods and landslides in Khetgaon village, situated in a mountain valley in Pithoragarh district of Uttaranchal, on Friday (July 12). One school, post-office, windmills, bridges and nearly a dozen shops and residential houses were destroyed. Standing crops were also damaged as boulders, slush and pebbles got deposited on agricultural lands. The district administration says relief work is going on and the government has provided compensation to the affected families. Every year flash floods cause irreparable damage in Uttaranchal. Last year the state lost properties worth over Rs 13 billion, amounting to more than 10 per cent of the state's gross domestic product. New
Minister for Spiritual Tourism (Go
To Top) NEW DELHI: In a Cabinet reshuffle of the Union Government, film star Vinod Khanna has been inducted as minister for tourism and culture.
A long-time follower of Osho, Khanna is reported to have stated after his swearing-in that he would give priority to promoting a sort of spiritual tourism in the country by encouraging foreigners to come over for a spiritual overhaul.
Siliguri
Landslide: Toy Train Immobile (Go
To Top) SILIGURI: Two people, a woman and her daughter, were killed in a landslide that followed a cloudburst in a sparse roadside settlement, 55 km from Siliguri town in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, on Monday (July 1). Twenty-five families have been evacuated from the area and two pay-loaders have been pressed into service to clear the debris. The landslide has breached National Highway number 55, the main arterial connection between Siliguri and Darjeeling which has been declared closed for three days. The track of the famous steam engine-run toy train, a big hit with tourists, has also been badly damaged. It would take at least a week to restore the tracks.
11
Pilgrims Die in Bus Mishap (Go
To Top) DEHRA DUN: Eleven pilgrims were killed when the bus they were travelling fell into a gorge near Joshimath on June 30. The bus was returning from the Sikh shrine of Hemkund Sahib near Badrinath. The bus from Punjab was carrying over 40 passengers. The personnel of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police helped in rescue operations. The injured were taken to a hospital in Gopeshwar.
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