Young scientists from Puttur make it big internationally

The Himachal Pradesh police have confirmed the arrested a man for injuring a pregnant cow by feeding her wheat flour ball laced with firecrackers. 

The cow’s jaw was blown off-- reprising the tragic story of a pregnant elephant that lost its life after eating a pineapple stuffed with a firecracker in Kerala.

While the incident took place on May 26 in Jhandutta area of Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur district, it came to light only on Saturday, May 6, when the cow’s owner, Gurdayal Singh, uploaded a video of the injured animal on social media.

In the video, Gurdiyal Singh describes how the cow’s mouth had been injured after one Nandlal fed her explosives.

He confirmed that Nandlal works as a mechanic in Singh’s neighbourhood. Singh said that Nandlal has no remorse for his action. Nandlal has said that he is not scared of the repercussions and that he will continue to do whatever he deems fit. “Even the village sarpanch cannot harm me”, challenged Nandlal when confronted by Singh. 

The cow has given birth to a healthy calf since but Singh said the animal is still not able to eat because of an injured jaw and is being administered Glucose.

The video went viral with people demanding strict action against the person who fed firecrackers to the animal.

The practice of studding dough balls with firecrackers isn’t uncommon in Himachal, and farmers resort to this to keep wild animals, especially boards, off their fields. In the Kerala incident too, the explosive-filled-fruit was meant for wild boars. In many parts of the country, including Himachal, the method is also used to hunt for bush meat -- an illegal practice.

Bilaspur superintendent of oolice (SP) Devakar Sharma confirmed the incident and said the cow was fed a highly explosive firecracker popularly called “aalu bomb”. 

Aalu is Hindi for potato. He said a case under Section 286 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act has been registered and the role of the neighbours named by Singh is being investigated.

Mangaluru, July 23: Lavanya Ballal, national co-coordinator for social media department of Indian National Congress, has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of destroying the nation by misleading the youth.

In an interview with a regional Kannada news paper, the Dakshina Kannada based activist, lamented that instead of using social media for the welfare of the nation, BJP leaders used it to spread lies for their political gains. 

On one hand BJP fooled people through false promises and colourful dialogues, while on the other hand it misled crores of youth by spreading fake news, twisted facts and false information, she said.

Ms Ballal went on to accuse BJP of following the footsteps of the British. “BJP is following all the methods employed by the British invaders to divide the people of India and make them hate each other,” she said.

She said that Congress always used the social media for the benefit of the country. If the new generation realises this fact, the country will once again turn its direction towards development, she asserted.

Belagavi, Jun 25: Union Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi on Wednesday said that coronavirus was created to "scare us" and to create tensions on the border, in an apparent reference to China.

He said that everyone should learn to live with the virus and follow all norms needed to combat the disease.

"We all know who created the coronavirus. It was created to scare us and to create tensions on the border, we know who did it. We have to learn to live with the coronavirus. We do not need to be scared of it. We must maintain social distancing and follow all the sanitation norms," Angadi told reporters here.

Karnataka on Wednesday reported 397 new COVID-19 positive cases, taking the total count in the state to 10,118.

According to the state health department, the state's death toll has reached 164 after 14 fatalities were reported. As many as 6,151 people have been discharged so far.