Indian pride may kill rare lions

An Indian state housing the world’s only natural habitat for the rare Asiatic lion is refusing to relocate the big cats despite calls from conservationists who say it is the only way to save the species. More than a dozen lions have died - mainly due to increased poaching - in the last two months in Gir National Park.  Yet authorities in Gujarat in western India are resisting calls to shift some of the population to a neighbouring state.

“The lions are a symbol of Gujarat’s uniqueness in the world,” Chief Minister Narendra Modi said.  “Why should we share it when we are capable enough?”

Environmentalists say pride is coming before the interests of the lions. A second home is needed, they say, because it is too risky to keep all the world’s Asiatic lions in one place.

Since March, 14 lions have died - seven were killed by poachers, four drowned in wells dug by villagers living inside the park, two died due to infighting and one died of natural causes.The carcasses of those killed by poachers had claws, skulls and bones missing. The bones are used for traditional Chinese medicine and the claws are worn by some men as pendants in the hope of increasing their virility.The Federal Government says it wants the lions moved fast, for the sake of the animals and the entire country. “It is a matter of the pride of India,” central Environment Minister A. Raja said.

Bride and prejudice

Turned down for marriage due to his dark complexion, an Indian man staged a hunger strike outside his would-be bride’s house for two days before she finally relented. Saral Prasad, the 23-year-old groom in eastern Bihar state, said he would not budge from the girl’s village home after she refused to marry him in an arranged marriage because he was too dark. Rajani, 19, changed her mind after two days and the couple got married. Most Indian women, especially those in rural areas, often have no choice in matters of marriage, and are coerced into it by relatives and parents.

Marathon boy banned

Budhia Singh, India’s famous child marathon runner, was told that he will not be allowed to participate in a 500-kilometre walk taking place on June 6. “Use of a child, be it for a marathon run or a walk, amounts to torture and we are here to stop that,”  a welfare official said. Budhia, age five, became a celebrity last year after a 60-km run. between Puri and Bhubaneswar. Budhia runs 45 km twice a week and 20 km on other days.  Biranchi Das, Budhia’s coach and adoptive father adopted Budhia after paying Rs.800 to his impoverished mother, who lives in a slum. 

Wife killer gets death

A court in Orissa yesterday awarded death sentence to a man for killing his wife and their one-year-old son in the steel city of Rourkela last year over a family quarrel.

The judge of a Rourkela fast track court, Sobhan Kumar Das, handed down the sentence to Mohan Mohant, a tribal, for killing his wife and their son at their residence in Rourkela, 470km from here, on January 12 last year. Mohant was arrested on July 23 and charge-sheeted after he confessed to have committed the crime. At least 21 witnesses were tried in the court.

No ‘new’ Al Qaeda

Bangladesh’s police chief says his force has so far found no trace of a group calling itself Zadid (new) Al Qaeda, which is suspected of carrying out bomb blasts at three railway stations across the country in early May. Metal plates found at the railway stations following the simultaneous blasts on May 1 bored scribbled Islamist slogans signed ‘Zadid Al Qaeda’, police said. One man was injured in the explosion in the southern port city of Chittagong. No one was hurt in the other two explosions, in Dhaka and the northeastern city of Sylhet, which were apparently intended to announce the group’s existence. Bangladesh has about half a dozen known Islamic militant outfits including the outlawed Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh.