DIG was killed in accidental firing, not by Maoists: Orissa government

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 24: Deputy inspector general of police Jaswinder Singh was accidentally killed by S.N. Panigrahi, one of his two accompanying personal security officers (PSOs), not by the Maoists as suspected earlier, state home secretary Tarun Kanti Mishra said on Tuesday.
"Interrogation of the two PSOs revealed that the DIG was killed as the service pistol held by the PSO S.N. Panigrahi accidentally went off on Monday morning," Mr Mishra said.
The slain DIG was in charge of operations against Maoists in South-Western range of Orissa. The 44-year-old 1989 batch IPS officer was on his way to Padmapur police station to interrogate a Maoist rebel who had surrendered on Sunday.
Initial reports had suggested that said some people stopped Singh's car at Gurja-Kutuli village, nearly 15 km from Rayagada district headquarters, and asked for a religious donation. When he stepped out, he was shot in the head by some unidentified gunmen suspected to banned Maoists.
Mr Singh was accompanied by his driver and two personal security officers – S.N. Sarangi and A.K. Sarangi.
"From the very beginning, we had doubts about the sequence of events and the behaviour of the two PSOs. We took them to custody and during interrogation they revealed that it was an accidental firing," police DG Amarananda Patnaik told reporters at Rayagada on Tuesday evening.
On Tuesday morning, the DG went to Rayagada for an on the spot inquiry.
After his return to Bhubaneswar in the evening, the police chief told reporters at the airport that Singh and his guards chased away some people who were collecting donations on the way. The police officer and the PSOs returned to the vehicle when some people pelted stones at them.
"After the DIG sat in the vehicle, a shot from service pistol of PSO S.N. Sarangi went off accidentally. It hit Singh in the back of his head and he died on the spot," Mr Patnaik said, adding, further investigation was on to ascertain how and under which circumstances the incident happened.
The DG stated that after the death of the DIG, the two PSOs were mentally disturbed and made a frantic effort to cover the incident. "PSO A.K. Sarangi fired a shot from his AK-47 rifle at the rear windshield and windscreen to create an impression that Maoists had fired at the vehicle," he said.
Meanwhile, the body of the slain DIG was flown to Visakhpatam from where it will be sent to Hoshirapur in Punjab via Delhi.
A murder case under sections 302, 201 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code and 25 of the Arms Act has been registered against the two PSOs at Laxmipur police station.

The river bridge, five cases of suicide, the fear..belief.. and the reality

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 10: As evening descends on the earth, the bridge over river Salandi at Kuans village near Orissa’s Bhadrak town becomes nightmarish place for the local people to visit.
Five cases of suicide – all by college girls between age 15 and 17 - in the last 10 years, has made the place uncanny and weird. Locals, including the parents of the victims, say the girls - who ended their lives by jumping into the river from above the bridge - were mentally sound and they might have been compelled to end their lives by some unseen force or evil spirit.
Although the local people were reconciling to their normal life after recovering from the shock of last incident that occurred on October 25, 2005, a fresh suicide bid by a higher secondary girl student on Sunday has again brought back shock and fear to them. Unlike the previous incident, this time the girl Kabita Das survived by swimming ashore.
Kabita says she never thought of ending her life. “On Sunday, when I was returning to my college hostel in Bhadrak, I felt somebody was whispering in my ears to come to the bridge. When I got down from the trekker near the bridge, I discovered a white-saree clad girl forcing me to jump into the river. As I resisted, she lifted me on her arms and then threw into the river. However, I was able to swim ashore and thus saved my life,” Kabita was quoted as saying in Pratidin, a local Oriya daily.
On October 25, last year, Pujarani Sriyanka Sahoo, of Bhadrak college student had ended her life in similar fashion. On her way to college hostel in Bhadrak, she stopped near the bridge and ended her life by jumping into the river.
Although her parents then maintained that their daughter was victim of some evil spirit’s motive, very few people believed them, says the paper.
Meanwhile, black-magicians were on Tuesday called in from the Anandpur in Keonjhar district to nab and nullify the evil spirit. Besides, puja and other religious rituals were performed to purify the bridge and its surrounding area.
Psychologists, however, dismiss presence of such evil spirits and say the girls who committed suicide might have suffered from mental disorders.
“It appears that the girls who committed suicides were suffering from schizophrenia. They might have taken the drastic steps under auditory or visual hallucination. In auditory and visual hallucination, schizophrenic patients see and hear commands and end their lives in most violent ways,” said Manoj Sahoo, a a renowned practicing psychiastrist.

Gandhigiri by child prodigy

Denied permission by authorities, boy runs for eight hours in playground, cover 82-km

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 7: One may call it Gandhigiri of a prodigious boy. Marathon runner Dilip Rana, who was not allowed by the authorities to run a 100 km distance, on Saturday created a sort of history when he ran in the playground continuously for eight hours and, in the process, covered a distance of 82 kilometres.

Rana, who sees Limca Book of Records holder Budhia Singh as his role model, hails completely from a rural background near Pipli in Puri district. Son a daily-wage earner, Rana is supported and trained by his foster uncle and coach Shaikh Zakir.

According to the boy's coach, Dilip had sought permission to run 100 kilometres on September 25, 2005. However, following the controversy over the issue of allowing kids for marathon races, the Puri district administration did not grant permission to him to run.

Frustrated, the 12-year-old Rana on Saturday began his running at 5 a.m. in the village playground. At around 1 pm, the coach stopped him as he developed cramps on the legs.

Rana, a class-8 student, in his first attempt had covered 38 kilometres in five and half-hours. Then he practiced for nearly seven hours a day and undertook 65-km run from Puri to Bhubaneswar on more than one occasion.

The five-year-old Budhia Singh's success has inspired many kids in Orissa who want to achieve similar feats. Some of them have already covered distances more than the wonder kid who on May 2, 2005, entered his name in Limca Book of Records by successfully covering 65 kilometres in just 7 hours and 2 minutes. Nine-year-old Mrutyunjay Mandol alia Akash of Ganjam district and Sundergarh's 11-year-old tribal girl Anastastia Barla – who started practicing long-distance running following Budhia's achievement, have covered longer distances than the latter, albeit competent authorities and agencies are yet to record their successes.

An attempt to protect Niyamgiri's flora and fauna through the camera frame

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo



Bhubaneswar, Oct. 5: As the Orissa government desperately tries to hand over Niyamgiri hills to a joint-venture company of the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation and the London based Vedanta Alumina Limited for bauxite mining, a leading environmental organization – Wildlife Society of Orissa – is making all-out efforts to desist the government from its bid.

The Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO), which has been arguing that the rich biodiversity of Niyamgiri hills would be seriously disturbed if mining is allowed there, organised an exhibition of photographs on plants, orchids, insects, mammals, snakes, frogs and tribes of Niyamgiri at Rashtriya Lalit Kala Kendra, Bhubaneswar, on Thursday (October 5 last). The exhibition showcased the hill's incredibly rich bio diversity.

For the first time, the people of Orissa, especially those who are living in cities and towns, got a rare opportunity to view a pictorial display of rare pictures of important flora and faunal species of the region.

The exhibition was inaugurated by not any VIP or VVIP, but by the members of the Dongria Kondh tribe who are Niyamgiri's indigenous inhabitants. Dongria Kondh is a primitive tribal group with unique dressing style and living habits who are confined to this hill only.

Their numbers are dwindling and are about 7, 500.

This hill range depicts a unique range of flora and fauna. Recent surveys have yielded more than 602 plant species belonging to 114 families. At least 15 high-altitude plants were found here which can only survive in the high hill range. Besides, 15 conservation dependent plant species were also identified from here.

Nearly 50 species of important medicinal plants, about 20 species of wild ornamental plants and more than 10 species of wild relatives of crop plants have been found on Niayamgiri hills.

"Wild relatives of cultivated sugar cane plant, like Saccharum arundinaceum and S.munja are not only used for medicinal purposes, but can also serve as a vital source of pure genetic material for generating new and improved hybrids of sugarcane," said Wildlife Society of Orissa secretary Biswajit Mohanty.

Latest orchidological studies, informed Mr Mohanty, indicate the presence of more than 50 orchidaceous species.

Dendrobium transparens is an uncommon species with large and showy flowers. The dominant species is Cymbidium aloifolium, which is an indicator of the presence of mature forest trees as it thrives on mature trees.

Among the plant species threatened elsewhere but found commonly in Niyamgiri are Persea macrantha, Rauvolfia serpentina, and Gloriosa superba. The first species (Persea macrantha) has its great commercial importance in the agarbatti industry.

Rare plants like Krushna Jubaraj (Melasma Thomsonii) have been found in this region. The Proctological Society of India during a survey in 2002 had observed that Niyamgiri was among the four major spots of Orissa for medicinal plants and rich diversity.

Several wildlife species including the tiger, elephants, leopard, sloth bear, sambhar, chital, barking deer, pangolin, four-horned antelope and rare birds like the Great Indian Pied Hornbill, Hill mynah, Racket tailed drongo, Grey jungle fowl are reported from this area

A species of Cat snake ( Boiga spp) has also been reported from here.

Zoologists are striving to identify the specimen of which there is no known photograph and it is believed that this could be a species new to science. The Travancore Wolf snake (Lycodon travancoricaus) earlier reported by British zoologists from the Jeypore hills has been rediscovered after 128 years. Similarly, a skink (Scincella spp.) is the first report from Orissa.

Rare lizards like Golden Gecko (Callodactylodes aureus) and Large Termite Hill Gecko (Hemidactlyus subtriedrus) have been discovered from Niyamgiri. The large termite Hill Gecko (Hemidactlyus subtriedrus), is the first record from Orissa from this place. This Gecko is also extremely rare since no photo of this species is available so far in any published book in India.

The Golden Gecko is of special interest to world herpetologists as it represents one of two known genus Callodactylodes, who are considered as Gondwana relics. This Gecko is one of the rarest lizards of India, and is endemic to the Eastern Ghats of India and was previously located at only one location in AP. Due to its extremely rare status, this lizard is classified in the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

It is worth mentioning here that Niyamgiri is a hill range, about 250 square kilometer in area lying between 19.33 degree North latitude and 83. 25 degree East longitude with a maximum height of 1306 metres in Western Orissa's Kalahandi district.

The Niyamgiri forests were declared as a game reserve by the erstwhile Maharaja of Kalahandi in view of its extremely rich wildlife populations

Son ostracised by villagers for sending parents to old-age home

By Akshaya Kumar Sahoo



Bhubaneswar, Oct. 3: It's warning for all those who consider their parents a burden, prefer to shun them or leave to them to their fate.

Residents of Kanpur village in Jagatsinghpur district have set an unprecedented example by ostracising a son who had shunned his septuagenarian parents and dumped them in a old-age home.

The plot of the story runs like this.

Balram Mohanty (75) and his wife Haramani of Kanpur village, like any other parents, had taken utmost care of their only son Bishnu and hoped that he would support them in the future and take care of them during the old age. But all their hopes dashed against despair. Bishnu treated them as a liability, allegedly stopped giving them food and made life miserable for Balram and Haramani.

Bishnu's torture was unbearable and finally, the parents were forced to taken shelter at a Jara Nivas or old-age home run by social organization Assa in Balikuda area.

The incident had angered villagers and some of them had even offered accommodation to Balaram and his wife.

Things turned worse as Bishnu started picking up quarrel with all those who showed sympathy towards his parents and also lodged false complaints against them with the police.

A land dispute with one Narendra Sahu was the last straw and villagers decided to teach Bishnu a lesson.

Initially, villagers tried to intervene and settle the land dispute between Bishnu and Narendra. But Bishnu did not agree with the proposal of villagers, as a result Narendra lodged an FIR with police. The police arrested Bishnu and his son in this connection and forwarded them to the court. After release from jail, he misbehaved with the villagers and threatened to lodge false FIR against the villagers who had sent him to jail.

Being aggrieved on the activities of Bishnu, villagers decided to ostracise him from the society. He alleged that the villagers had barred him from using drinking water from tube well and purchasing grocery from shops. Aggrieved by this, Bishnu has submitted a memorandum to district collector and district superintendent of police against villagers. Stating that the villagers have prevented him from going to his agricultural land, Bishnu has sought the intervention of the collector.