Amit Shah’s son’s company grew by 16,000 times in one year

Bengaluru, Feb 14: Raja and Rani got married on Valentine's Day at Cubbon Park here.

The bride and the groom were decked up in bridal finery were heralded with traditional wedding music with nadaswaram and thavil (percussion) . The catch was that the married couple were horses.

Pro-Kannada activist and Kannada Vatal Party chairman Vatal Nagaraj performed the marriage ceremony of the two horses.

Nagaraj gave a dhoti and shirt to Raja (male horse) and a saree along with a taali (mangal sutra) to Rani (female horse).

Nagaraj has been conducting such ceremonies in the past too. Last year he had married off two sheep- Jacob and Carolyn in a similar ceremony.

The activist says he is all for love and urged anti-Valentine's Day supporters not to oppose lovers and their Valentine's Day celebration.

He also urged the Central government and the Karnataka state governments to give Rs 1 lakh and RS 50,000 respectively to the "lovers to support their love" by helping them get married.

Meanwhile, sweets were distributed to all the guests who had participated in the Valentine's Day marriage ceremony today.

Shivamogga, Apr 13: Banana farmers in Shivamogga say their crop is rotting and they are incurring huge losses amid lockdown due to COVID-19.

The farmers alleged that although permission has been granted for the sale of agricultural products, with inter-district movements being affected, the local buyers are forcing the farmers to sell their produce at ridiculously low prices.

"Local buyers are asking us to sell bananas at Rs 4-5 per kg which is impossible for us. I do not know what we can do," Vijayendra, a farmer told ANI here.

"We expected the markets to be good during the summer season, I have cultivated bananas in four acres of land. There are thousands of other farmers who cultivate it in smaller hoardings," he added.

The farmer further implored the government to ensure there is an open market and inter-district movement of agricultural produce is allowed to ensure the farmers get the right price.

Vijayendra also said that the bananas have started rotting as they were not being harvested due to the lockdown.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last month announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country effective from March 24 midnight to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.

There is also the likelihood that the nationwide lockdown might further be extended even after the completion of the 21-day period on April 14, based on the statements from several chief ministers following a video conference with the Prime Minister held a few days earlier.

A motley group of as many as 150 birders ‘walked the chirp’ in search of their feathered friends in and around the countryside of Manipal. The occasion was the 10th Edition of Manipal Bird Day organised by Manipal Birders Group on Sunday, February 2nd, 2020.

The day began ‘Bird Walk’ from Hotel Sheela Sagar (Opposite MIT campus) at 6:30 a.m. The birders divided themselves in smaller groups of 10-12 members and followed 13 different trails which took them through different terrains like hills, plains, paddy fields and wetlands. The idea was to sight as many birds as possible and record their presence in the region.

When the walk ended at about 10:00 a.m., the different groups have recorded a total of 125 species of birds, which was a bit lesser than the sighting of the yester years. “The 10th edition this year has seen a very good growth of interest among people. At the same time a decline has been seen in the bird species sighted compared to previous years,” said one of the organisers. Some of the rare birds sighted were Indian Pitta, Oriental Turtle Dove, Fork-Tailed Drongo Cuckoo, Orange Breasted Green Pigeon, Eurasian Marsh Harrier and Malabar Pied Hornbill.

The bird walk was followed with an interaction session at KMC Food Court and MAHE Vice Chancellor Dr. H. Vinod Bhat presided over the function. He felicitated six people who actively participated recently in a rescue mission of abandoned birds in Manipal.

A program then continued with a talk on ‘Ethical Photography’ by Dhruvam Desai, final year student of MIT, Manipal. This was followed by ‘Backyard Birding’ with Shubha Bhat from IISc Bangalore. She spoke on different ways to feed the birds with water using different materials for bird baths. “I have recorded 120 species of birds from bird baths in my garden,” she said. She encouraged the participants to have bird baths in their gardens or flats which will help quench the thirst of these little winged wonders during summer.

The participants involved themselves actively in the interaction sessions. The event was accompanied with an art exhibition titled ‘Feathered Jewels’ by Aditya Bhat. He presented around 18 paintings all from his memory of birding encounters.

Participation in Manipal Bird Day was open to all and entry was free.

MANIPAL BIRD DAY

Manipal Bird Day is an annual event dedicated to celebrating birds in Manipal. This day long event brings together a large number of birders from Manipal, Udupi, Mangalore, Mysore, Bangalore, Davangere and other places. Around 150-200 people gather and are split into different teams. They visit the assigned regions and count as many birds as possible. This non competitive event focuses on spreading awareness regarding the diverse avifauna around us. Turn out for this event has been increasing from 3 people to 200 in last 10 years. This is the 10th edition of Manipal Bird Day.

MANIPAL BIRDERS CLUB

Manipal Birders Club started as a Facebook group after the release of the first edition of “A Birders Handbook to Manipal” to share information about the latest sightings. It is now a formal group of over 500 like-minded members that meets at least once a week to go on bird walks. It is now a large birders community and a medium to organize events, bird walks and discussions about birds and sightings.

The next step would be to involve a higher number of local and young birders who will dictate the change in environment around the town in the coming years. With the co operation of Zoology and natural sciences students and other nature enthusiasts and faculty of different colleges weekly birding sessions have been conducted to involve and encourage more and more people to bird and get connected to the nature and to try to understand the changes happening around us, the media release issued by the group said.