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Mangaluru, May 15: Dakshina Kannada saw a record spike in the number of fresh COVID-19 cases today, which triggered panic among the people of the district, which is currently under orange zone.   

According to the mid-day bulletin of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 16 people from Dakshina Kannada tested positive for the covid-19. 

Among them 15 are the Gulf returnees who were brought by an Air India Express special flight from Dubai to Mangaluru International Airport on May 12. 

As many as 179 repatriates had landed at Mangaluru Airport. Among them 125 are quarantined in Dakshina Kannada, 49 in Udupi and five in Uttara Kannada districts.  

Meanwhile, a 68-year-old woman from Surathkal area in Mangaluru, who is suffering from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) was also tested covid-19 positive.

This is the highest number of cases reported in a single day since first case registered in the district on March 22 when Dubai-bound youth from Bhatkal was tested positive. 

With this the total number of covid-19 cases in the district mounted to 50 including five deaths. Many of them have returned home after recovery.

3 members of a family test positive

According to Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh, three members of a same family are among 15 gulf returnees who are tested positive.  They are a 45-year-old man, his 33-year-old wife and their 6-year-old child. 

Six among those who tested positive today are above 60 years of age, said the deputy commissioner. 
 

Jan 2: A year after 12,000 acres of forests in Bandipur went up in smoke, the Karnataka Forest Department is gearing up for the summer even as the Forest Survey of India (FSI) has cautioned that 22.78 lakh acres (9,222 sq km) or about 20% of the green cover spread across three districts in the central part of the state is fire-prone.

The FSI studied forest fire incidents across the country between 2004-05 and 2017 before coming up with state-specific inputs.

According to the 13-year observation, Karnataka has 7,352 “fire points” or areas measuring 5 km X 5 km with frequent fire incidents.

Though the number is lower compared to states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha with over 20,000 points, the sheer spread of the fire-prone area itself is a challenge for the Karnataka Forest Department.

According to data, about three lakh acres (1,199.9 sq km) of forest area is very highly fire prone with 26 to 52 fire incidents in 13 years. This is followed by 7.6 lakh acres (3,067 sq km) of “highly fire prone” areas with an average of one to two incidents every year.

Almost all of the “red alert” areas are concentrated in Uttara Kannada, Chikkmagaluru, Shivamogga and Chamarajanagar districts. As temperature rises at the end of January, so does the risk of forest fires, requiring officials to be on vigil till the end of summer.

After an investigation into the Bandipur blaze revealed that faulty fire lines and poor supervision were the reason for the spread of the fire, the department has come up with a multi-pronged approach to prevent similar incidents this year.

“After the Bandipur incident, we have created a fire cell and a standard operating procedure (SOP) which everyone has to follow. Firstly, a fire management plan is prepared and approved by a competent authority.

The SOP has well defined firelines which have to be executed by December-end and burning must be completed by January 15,”  Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Head of Forest Force) Punati Sridhar told DH.

He said that to ensure its strict implementation, GPS readings of firelines are to be submitted for random verification.

“All the required equipment from fire jackets to shoes, gloves, backpack sprayers and tractors mounted with 2,000-5,000 litre tanks with high pressure pumps will be deployed at vantage points,” he said.

In addition, the department’s fire cell works in collaboration with the Karnataka State Remote Sensing Applications Centre (KSRSAC) to give fire alerts within half and hour of an area catching fire and detected by satellites.

“Earlier, the gap used to be four hours by when the fire would have spread beyond control. Now, with reduced time gap, it would be easier to control fire early,” he added.

The Department of Preuniversity Education, Karnataka has declared the board exams or pre university I exam results. To get results online, the students need to log on to result.bspucpa.com and have to provide their registration number and date of birth. 
Apart from the online portal, the students will get the results via mail or SMS.

“The results of the first year Pre-University Examinations will be announced on May 5. The results will be sent directly to students. Hence, colleges will not be displaying the results,” said S Suresh Kumar, Primary and Secondary Education Minister. 

The pre-university course of PUC is a two-year course including class 11 and class 12 called PUC I and PUC II. It is based on PUC score that candidates can get admission to varsities.

Earlier, the Karnataka PUC 1 result was to be announced on March 27 which was postponed and hence the revised dates are announced now.

The board exam results have been put on halt due to the nation-wide lockdown imposed after the coronavirus pandemic gripped India. As of May 3, the number of people infected by the coronavirus in India had crossed over 40,000.

The HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had in a meeting asked state and central boards to resume their evaluation process and declare the results to curb any further delay in the academic cycle. The academic cycle has been delayed by over a month due to the coronavirus. Now, the colleges will start by September instead of July.