‘Independent’ Jignesh Mevani gives a blow to BJP in Gujarat; wins from Vadgam

Mangaluru, May 31:  Even as the worst locust attack on India in recent years raised concerns over its impact on crops, swarms of locusts have triggered panic in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada too. 

Farmers in the coastal district were taken aback when they found the swarms of locusts, which they feared as the arrival of desert locusts in the region.

According to reports, Renjalady village under the limits of Nuji Baltila Gramp Panchayats in Kadaba taluk and Shirlalu village in Belthangady taluk witnessed locust attacks in last couple of days. 

“Locust swarms were seen in many areas. We have also alerted agriculture department. Already insects have destroyed crops of many farmers,” said a farmer in Shirlalu village.  

Joint director of Dakshina Kannada district agriculture department MC Seetha confirmed that officials have received information from villagers about the locust scare and entemologists have already visited the place to collect more information.

Not Desert Locusts?

“We contacted entemologists and forwarded the pictures that farmers sent to us. Looking at the picture, entemologists have opined that it may be calotropis locust or colour grasshopper. Desert locusts usually arrive in lakhs,” said Ms Seetha. Desert locusts that are destroying crops in other parts of India may not come to Dakshina Kannada, she added.

The government of India today said it will begin evacuating its nationals stuck abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic from May 7 in a phased manner. This facility would be made available on payment basis. 

A Standard Operating Protocol has been put in place and the travel would be arranged by aircraft as well as naval ships and will be available on a payment-basis, the government said.

"Medical screening of passengers would be done before taking the flight. Only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel. During the journey, all these passengers would have to follow the protocols, such as the health protocols, issued by the ministry of health and the ministry of civil aviation," it said in a statement.

Specifying the protocols upon entry in India, the government said the returning Indians would be medically screened and will have to be quarantined for 14 days, either in a hospital or in an institutional quarantine on payment-basis, by the respective state government.

French Nobel prize winning scientist Luc Montagnier has sparked a fresh controversy by claiming that the SARS-CoV-2 virus came from a lab, and is the result of an attempt to manufacture a vaccine against the AIDS virus.

In an interview given to French CNews channel and during a podcast by Pourquoi Docteur, professor Montagnier who co-discovered HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) claimed the presence of elements of HIV in the genome of the coronavirus and even elements of the "germ of malaria" are highly suspect, according to a report in Asia Times.

"The Wuhan city laboratory has specialized in these coronaviruses since the early 2000s. They have expertise in this area," he was quoted as saying.

The theory that Covid-19 virus originated in the lab is making rounds for quite some time.

US President Donald Trump last week acknowledged Fox News report that the novel coronavirus may have been accidentally leaked by an intern working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China.

The Fox News, in an exclusive report, based on unnamed sources has claimed that though the virus is a naturally occurring strain among bats and not a bioweapon, but it was being studied in Wuhan laboratory.

The initial transmission of the virus was bat-to-human, the news channel said, adding that the "patient zero" worked at the laboratory. The lab employee was accidentally infected before spreading the disease among the common people outside the lab in Wuhan city.

Professor Montagnier was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the identification of AIDS virus, with his colleague professor Franeoise Barre-Sinoussi.

His fresh claim on coronavirus, however, received criticism from scientists, including his colleagues.

"Just in case you don't know. Dr Montagnier has been rolling downhill incredibly fast in the last few years. From baselessly defending homeopathy to becoming an antivaxxer. Whatever he says, just don't believe him," tweeted Juan Carlos Gabaldon.

As per a recent Washington Post, two years ago, the US embassy officials in China raised concerns about the insufficient biosafety at the Chinese government's Wuhan Institute of Virology where deadly viruses and infectious diseases are studied.

Though the institute, located quite close to the Wuhan wet market, is China's first biosafety level IV lab, the US state department had warned in 2018 about "serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory".