'Poverty Rise in Mizoram Not Realistic': Experts

Aizawl, Nov 30 : The reported increase of poverty in Mizoram is not realistic, according to some economists in the state. Economist Dr James L T Thanga said the apparent increase in poverty ratio in Mizoram is due to change in the methodology of poverty estimates as suggested by Tendulkar Committee and it is not a real increase in the number of the poor.

The professor, who was presenting a paper on 'Poverty Estimates in Mizoram' at the annual conference of Mizoram Economic Association, said jhum cultivators in the hilly state remained the hardest hit by the scourges of poverty and agriculture development is the key to helping the poor.

It may be noted that in the latest poverty estimates by the Planning Commission, Mizoram, along with its four other Northeast states - Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland are the only five states in the country where poverty has been reported to have increased between 2004-05 and 2009-10. As per the estimates, Nagaland saw the highest rise of 12.1 percentage points in poverty between 2004-05 and 2009-10, followed by Manipur (9.2 percentage points), Mizoram (5.7 percentage points), Assam (3.5 percentage points) and Meghalaya (1 percentage point). The economists' annual conference held at Savidge Hall, here on November 28, saw renowned economists presenting papers under the theme of 'Mizoram Economy: Issues, Concerns and Challenges.' Prof Tlanglawma, a noted Mizo economist, delivered the keynote address, in which he emphasised that mechanism to curb corruption was the need of the hour to fight poverty.

"The need of the hour is developing a work culture that addresses the menace of corruption. If only ten percent of allotted budget is utilized for road maintenance, for instance, how could we ever have a good road," he observed. Prof Lianzela, in his paper on 'Industrial Sector in Mizoram,' highlighted various dimensions of industrial development in the state. "Mizo entrepreneurs are coming forward and with proper support from the government, they could make a huge contribution in the economy," said Prof Lianzela.

Prof Vanlalchhawna, who presented a paper on 'Mizoram State Finances', observed that while FRBM Act had a positive impact on state financial management, recent increase in fiscal deficit is unsustainable and need immediate strong measures to contain it.

Dr JV Nunchunga, who gave a detailed account of the development in service sector, observed that service sector is now the key sector of the economy with a share of more than 60 per cent of GSDP.

Dr Lalhriatpui also observed in her paper on Forest and Biodiversity Management that sustainable exploitation and judicious use is the key to managing our scare natural resources.

Each Year More Than 100,000 Amur Falcons Are Killed In Nagaland

Each year thousands of migratory Amur falcons (Falco amurensis) are hunted by locals in the Indian State of Nagaland during their passage through that region. On November 1, 2012, Shashank Dalvi and Ramki Sreenivasan first documented the massacre at Indian online campaign site ‘Conservation India‘.
Every October, a large numbers of Amur falcons arrive in northeast India and Bangladesh from Siberia en route to their final destination — Somalia, Kenya and South Africa. Amur falcons travel up to 22,000 km in a year, in one of the longest migration routes of all birds.

Amur Falcon (Falco Amurensis). Image by Alastair Rae, from Wikipedia. CC BY-SA.

Last month a group of activists (Ramki Sreenivasan from Conservation India, Shashank Dalvi, Bano Haralu, Rokohebi Kuotsu) travelled to Nagaland to check out information that thousands of falcons were being hunted annually on the banks of the Doyang reservoir during their passage through that region. They accompanied a hunting group and documented the massacre:

The Amurs spend the day on the transmission wires (almost entirely inaccessible to hunters) and descend to forested patches along the banks of the reservoir to roost (see map). The hunters ruthlessly exploit this particular behavior and set-up huge fishing nets (30-40m long, 10-12m tall) all over the roosting sites.
Birds get caught in the nets in large numbers. These birds get tangled in the nets while they come to roost during late evenings or when they leave the roost early in the morning. The nets were permanent and the hunters come every morning to remove the trapped birds. The nets were observed over the entire roosting area giving virtually no safe area for the birds. Branches and paths were cleared to set up the nets.

Here is a video of the terrible proceedings (warning: graphic images):

The Amur Falcon Massacre, Doyang, Nagaland from Conservation India on Vimeo.

Now the shocking figures:

Each hunting group had set-up at least 10 nets. On an average, 18 birds (18.30, n=23) were caught per net; hence each group catches about 180 birds per day. This was confirmed with interviews with hunters. We were also informed that about 60-70 hunting groups operate every day. This means during the peak migration about 12,000 to 14,000 birds are caught everyday.

Each bird is sold door-to-door in nearby villages as a fresh food for a price of about Rs. 25 ($0.5). Reports say local villagers can earn a few thousand rupees by selling the smoked Amur falcons. It may be noted that Amur killing is illegal and banned by the local authorities since 2010.
This story went viral and news quickly spread around the world shocking many people. There were a number of petitions online. Soon other popular sites like National Geographic highlighted the issue and called for a global solution. National Geographic commented:

The local people filmed by Conservation India catching Amur falcons, breaking their wings, sorting them, smoking them, and trading in them, cannot possibly enjoy this annual activity and do this purely for money and trade goods.

Amur Falcons being extracted from the net by hunters. Screenshot from the video by Conservation India.

Birdlife International wrote:

The recent trapping and slaughter appears to have been taking place on an ‘industrial scale’ and unless stopped will clearly have a devastating affect on the birds’ global population at these unsustainable levels.

The site also confirms that with the help of their advocacy the following happened:

The Honourable Minister (for environment and forests), Miss Jayanthi Natarajan personally intervened and The Indian Forest Department and District Administration also acted fast to destroy nets and release several still-captive falcons. The sale of falcons has now been stopped and at least one person has already been jailed.

However, hunters in Nagaland has defied the ban for many years and it may happen again in future without changing behaviors of the hunters. The Chief Wildlife Warden, Nagaland, Dimapur stated in a press note:

Seizing and releasing of the birds from the possession of the offenders did not discourage them but rather, they resented and rebelled against the action taken and continued their offence.

The press note also talks about education and awareness campaign for the local villagers and stakeholders as a future course of action.
According to latest news the State department of forest, ecology, environment and wildlife has directed district forest officers (DFOs) of Mokokchung, Zunheboto and Wokha districts to immediately ban the act of capturing and killing of Amur Falcon.
Bogdan Draganescu comments at the Conservation India post:

Just because these birds are numerous and are not on the verge of extinction, does not mean they are food for humans. animals should be respected not only as individuals but also as groups and societies. just as a flock of birds is. a living entity and a result of evolution of life. this is what we have to respect and conserve.

Written by Rezwan

Dengue in Mizoram

Aizawl, Nov 30 : At least 15 people in Mizoram have been affected by dengue with the health department gearing up to combat the disease under the National Vector Borne Diseases Control Programme, officials said on Thursday.

The first three cases were detected in the state on October 19 and another six on November 02 by privately-run Genesis Laboratory here, while other six cases were recently found positive in the Civil Hospital, the officials said.

Health department officials said that those with dengue were infected during a stay in Delhi or areas surrounding the national capital.

The health department has taken steps to treat and prevent the spread of the disease.

WhatsApp Gets Bug, Spammers Make The Most Of It

WhatsApp users on Wednesday were in for a rude shock, when they  first found everyone on their contact list swith their status field listed “error: unknown” and then got a terse message from the CEO of the company complaining about how they weren’t making money and you needed to forward the message to all your contacts to prove you were a legitimate user.

Thankfully though there’s little to worry about: WhatsApp remains free to use, the CEO doesn’t hate as you as much as you thought from his message and it was just a spam message that made the rounds as a feature of the messaging service was affected.

On Wednesday morning, the official Twitter handle for WhatsApp put out the following message:

However within hours a message had begun to circulate on the messaging service saying the service was to become paid and that you needed to forward the message to stay on the service for free:

“Message from Jim Balsamic (CEO of Whatsapp): we have had an over usage of user names on whatsapp Messenger. We are requesting all users to forward this message to their entire contact list. If you do not forward this message, we will take it as your account is invalid and it will be deleted within the next 48 hours. Please DO NOT ignore this message or whatsapp will no longer recognise your activation. If you wish to re-activate your account after it has been deleted, a charge of 25.00 will be added to your monthly bill.”

And since everyone loves getting/using things for free, the message did the rounds with most people forwarding it to all their contacts. However, while the status message update feature has been restored to normal on some phones it is still displaying the error message on others.

If you still have the error message, you’ll just have to trust the folks at WhatsApp on their promise and wait for it to be restored to normal. And in case you don’t believe us check out the eerily similar messages that have done the rounds of WhatsApp in the past.

Assam Launches Special Drive To Seize Illegal Arms

New Delhi, Nov 30 : Assam government has launched a special drive to seize illegal arms allegedly being kept by different groups in some areas, including Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).

“It is a fact that there are illegal arms in Assam. Not only in BTC areas but in other areas also. Many groups are keeping illegal arms,” Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said at a press conference here.

He said a special drive has been launched to seize the illegal arms and maintain peace in the state. Floating of illegal arms are said to be the key reasons
for many deaths in recent clashes between Bodos and immigrant Muslims.

Gogoi also said “certain forces” were instigating both Bodos and the immigrant Muslims and creating tension between the two communities.

He said out of nearly five lakh people affected in the recent violence, who stayed in relief camps, most of them have return home and only 37,000 were still staying in the camps now.

The Chief Minister also denied involvement of any Bangladeshi national in recent clashes saying his government was not protecting any foreign national.

Tirap Farmers Say No To Opium

By Pullock Dutta
























Jorhat, Nov 29 : Naglo and Lonliam, two nondescript villages in the Lazo area of Tirap district in Arunachal Pradesh, have taken a path-breaking decision that could stir others like them out of their opium-induced stupor.

The two villages have agreed to give up opium cultivation and will sign an understanding with the district administration to that effect when five frontier districts, including Tirap, of the state, bordering Myanmar and China, join hands to launch a massive awareness campaign on December 11 in the remote villages adjoining the Golden Triangle to make people aware of the ill effects of opium.

The campaign has been prompted by the largescale deforestation undertaken by the villagers of Longding, Tirap, Changlang, Lohit and Anjaw districts to clear land for opium cultivation. The opium grown in these districts makes its way not only into the domestic market in a raw form but also enters the international drug trade after being taken to Myanmar where there are factories to refine these products into heroin.

Tirap deputy commissioner Sachin Shinde said over phone today that this would be the biggest such campaign launched in the five districts. “It’s a sort of custom for many villagers to take to opium cultivation. Many of them are unaware of its ill effects and the awareness campaign will be the best way to check opium cultivation in these parts.”

The six-day campaign will begin with a motorcycle-cum-jeep rally at Khonsa, the district headquarters of Tirap, and will pass through the opium-growing areas before ending at Kibithoo, the easternmost point of roadhead in India, in Anjaw district.

Said Shinde, “Naglo and Lonliam have agreed to give up opium cultivation completely and will sign an understanding with the district administration as the rally passes through these villages. We will distribute chicks among the villagers so that they can start poultry farming instead.”

As part of the initiative, a documentary film has also been prepared with messages from political and religious leaders denouncing the practice of cultivation and consumption of opium.

“The legal implications of growing, selling, possessing opium have also been explained in the documentary. Interviews of farmers who have given up opium cultivation and taken to cultivation of cash crops such as cardamom, ginger and kiwi fruit have also been taken. The documentary is proposed to be screened at all the places through which the rally will pass during interaction with the public from these opium-growing districts,” Shindhe said.

An official at the Narcotics Control Bureau, Northeast, said opium cultivation was a major problem in these five districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

“We have been carrying out operations regularly to destroy poppy crop in these districts. But our efforts generally go in vain given the constraints of terrain and time. We are only able to destroy the crop growing in the immediate vicinity of easily accessible roads. It is impossible to cover the entire area before the crop is harvested,” he added.

Last year, the Narcotics Control Bureau, with the help of local administration, had destroyed 1,300 acres of poppy cultivation in these districts. But these efforts are generally opposed by the villagers for whom opium cultivation is a source of livelihood.

“We are also carrying out awareness campaigns to educate the people about the ill-effects of opium,” the NCB official said.

Indian, Chinese Aircraft Come Face To Face Near Arunachal

 

New Delhi, Nov 29: Chinese nuclear-capable SU-27 fighter aircraft came close to a confrontation with Indian Air Force jets on October 30 afternoon  in the Tawang region of Arunachal Pradesh, says a report in the Delhi tabloid Mail Today.

The news report, said to be based on reports filed by the IAF and external intelligence agency RAW, says,  on October 30, some IAF jets were on a routine sortie mission in Arunachal Pradesh, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army  Air Force's Lhasa-based radar picked them up, setting off a chain reaction.

At 3:04 pm, two chinese nuclear-armed Sukhoi-27 jets took off from Gonggar air base in Tibet to confront the IAF jets.  The Chinese aircraft, according to the Mail Today report, flew southeast towards the Indian side, and were picked up on the radar at 3:29 pm near Cuona.

The drama lasted for nearly 50 minutes, just 30 km short of the Line of Actual Control, but the Chinese fighter aircraft realizing that the IAF jets had no intention of any offensive move, turned back, says the report.

The Research and Analysis Wing sent to the government a report on the incident on November 9.

The newspaper report says the radars twice lost track of the Chinese Sukhoi-27 aircraft, giving anxious moments to the top IAF brass. The Indian jet fighters too disappeared from the radar once, says the report.

The Chinese Sukhoi-27 aircraft was provided tactical radar support by the 42 Radar Regiment of the PLAAF, which is deployed all over Tibet.

The PLAAF is Asia's largest air force with nearly 1,600 aircraft. China has already five operational airfields in Gonggar, Pangta Linchi, Hoping and Gar Gunsa.  

HSA FC and Zeliangrong FC to meet in the final match

By Lalremlien Neitham

New Delhi, Nov 29 : In the semi-finals played today in the sixth edition of the NE Tamchon Football Trophy at Dr.Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi, HSA FC (Hmar) ousted last year's champion Kangleicha Sanaroi Lup (KSL) in a penalty shoot-out while Zeliangrong FC also enters the final with a 1-0 win against TSFD FC (Tripura) .

In the first semi-finals match played between HSA FC and KSL, the HSA FC were given a penalty kick, scoring a goal on the 6th minute of the game.

KSL were also given a penalty kick evening the score.

Before the first half was over, both the teams scored two goals each.

In the second-half, HSA FC scored another goal which was soon evened by KSL with another goal.

As the match ends with a 3-3 draw, extra time of 30 minutes was played but both team failed to score any goals.

In the penalty shoot-out, HSA FC goalie saved a goal and HSA FC won the match by 8-6 .

In the second semi-finals, previous year's runner-up Zeliangrong FC played against TSFD FC (Tripura).

Zeliangrong FC scored a goal in the first-half of the match.

Zeliangrong FC dominates the match and with TSFD FC not scoring any goal, Zeliangrong FC won the match with a 1-0 win.

For the HSA FC, this is the third time that it enters the finals at the NE Tamchon Football Trophy.

It played finals against Zeliangrong FC in 2008 and again with DMZP FC in 2010.Zeliangrong FC lifted the trophy in 2008 and were runners-up in the previous year.

The final match between the HSA FC and Zeliangrong FC will be played at 5:30pm on December 1, 2012 at Dr.Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi.

The tournament is supported by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and the Ministry of DoNER.

It is also co-sponsored by ONGC, Oil India Limited and COSCO.

The champion will be awarded the North East Tamchon Football Trophy in addition to Rs.five lakhs cash prize, medals and certificates.

The trophy can be owned by any team who wins the trophy consecutively for three years.

No team has owned the trophy yet.

The first runners up will be awarded medals and certificates, with a cash prize of Rs.three lakhs.

And the second runners up will be awarded medals and certificates, with a cash prize of Rs.two lakhs.

Consolation prizes of Rs.25,000 each will be awarded to 5 teams who qualified for the quarter-finals.

Cash prize of Rs.5,000 each will be awarded to the best goal keeper, best striker, best mid-fielder, best defender, best coach and man of the tournament.

And Rs.20,000 will be award to the Best Team of the Tournament (Fair Play Award).

The closing ceremony of the tournament will be held from 4:00pm before the final match.

Salman Khurshid, Minister of External Affairs, Govt of India will grace the occasion as chief guest and HS Brahma, Election Commissioner, Govt of India as guest of honour.

Other special invitees and guests includes Members of Parliament from North Eastern States, Delhi Commissioner of Police Neeraj Kumar and President of Delhi Soccer Association Subhash Chopra, MLA.

Shillong Chamber Choir and various artistes from North East India will also be performing during the event's evening of music.

The tournament, organised in memory of late RN Tamchon (ACP, Delhi Police) by the Tangkhul Naga Society Delhi (TNSD) since 2007, aims to promote friendship, unity and interaction through games and sports among North Eastern people in Delhi.

* The sender of this news can be contacted at lalremlien(at)gmail(dot)com .