Beware of dangerous stingrays at beaches of Udupi, Mangaluru

coastaldigest.com news network
September 13, 2018

Udupi/Mangaluru, Sept 13: Beachgoers in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada must exercise restraint and watch where they step when wading in sea water at least for next couple of weeks as the dangerous stingrays are back. The chances are that visitors might get stung by these cartilaginous fishes that swim close to the shore.

In the last few days, nearly a dozen people have suffered injuries after being stung by the stingrays at Malpe beach in Udupi district. In September, 2014 around 60 tourists were reportedly stung by stingrays at the same beach.

According to Sudesh Shetty, leaseholder, Malpe beach, all necessary precautionary measures have already been taken. Lifeguards in the beach have kept the vaccines ready to counter the effect of the sting. A board also has been installed warning people against stepping into the sea.

Even though no such incidents have been report from other beaches in the region so far, experts have urged the tourists and locals to be cautious while venturing into the sea across coastal Karnataka. Experts say that semi-grown stingrays make their way into craters developed on the shores due to the absence of rip currents.

Yathish Baikampady, CEO, Panambur Beach Tourism Development Project, said that normally during this season lifeguards will not let tourists venture into the water as they are aware of the situation.

Attacks if provoked

In fact stingrays are not usually aggressive and attack humans only when provoked, such as if a ray is accidentally stepped on. To avoid stepping on a stingray in shallow water, the water should be waded through with a shuffle. Alternatively, before wading, small stones can be thrown into the water to scare stingrays away.

Contact with the stinger causes local trauma (from the cut itself), pain, swelling, muscle cramps from the venom, and later may result in infection from bacteria or fungi. The injury is very painful, but seldom life-threatening unless the stinger pierces a vital area. The barb usually breaks off in the wound, and surgery may be required to remove the fragments.

It could be recalled here that Australian zookeeper and television personality Steve Irwin was also a victim of stingray. He lost his life on September 4, 2006, within minutes after being pierced in the heart by a stingray barb while filming an underwater documentary.

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coastaldigest.com news network
August 6,2020

Karwar, Aug 6: In a shocking incident, a 40-day-old girl child was murdered by her own parents in Sirsi town in Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district.

The accused are Priyanka (21) and her husband Chandrashekhar Bhat (42), residents of Ramanakoppa in Sahasrahalli in Yellapur.

According to police, the couple did not want a girl child and hence threw it into a well. The couple was arrested by the police the very next day.

The incident came to light after the child’s maternal uncle, Abhishek Jagadeesh Singh Choudhari, a resident of Rajeev Nagar in Sirsi, lodge a complaint with Yellapur police station. 

He had claimed that his sister Priyanka’s baby had been kidnapped and subsequently killed. 

Priyanka had claimed that she woke up around 2.30am on August 2 to find that her baby, Tanushri, was not in her cradle. Her husband’s family subsequently started searching for the baby, which they found dead inside a well. 

Choudhari suspected that Tanushri had been kidnapped, and had been killed by her abductors to erase any evidence of their crime.

Uttara Kannada superintendent of police Shivaprakash Devaraju constituted a team to crack the crime, and the cops, who subjected the parents to an interrogation, found that they were the culprits.

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News Network
May 15,2020

Mysuru, May 15: The Temple Town of Nanjangud was till now treated as one unit or a Cluster Containment Zone and was put under complete lock-down as per the containment protocol listed under COVID-19 regulations and Disaster Management Act, 2005.

However on Friday, some of the restrictions have been lifted by Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Sankar who permitted certain activities as no fresh positive cases were reported from the cluster area. The Cluster Containment Zone was declared on March 29 following one employee of Nanjangud-based Jubilant Generics tested positive for the killer Coronavirus. As there were chances of the positive person spreading the disease to other employees of the factory, the cluster rules were enforced. Moreover, there were over 1,000 employees in the Pharma Company and a majority of them lived in and around Nanjangud.

The declaration of Cluster Containment Zone with complete lock-down and quarantining of all the Pharma Company employees proved a success to the District Administration as whoever tested positive – over 73 were later tested positive — had already been quarantined and the dangerous community spread phase was successfully prevented. To a major extent, the Corona virus curve has been flattened. As such, restrictions have been relaxed a bit on Friday.

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News Network
February 16,2020

Mangaluru, Feb 16: An elderly woman from Tamil Nadu was on Saturday reunited with her daughter and son after 14 years at the Mangaluru's White Doves destitute home.

"Mary only knew her name when she came here 10 years ago. Recently, she told us about her home town," Corrine Rusquinha, founder of White Doves told media.
Mary had gone missing 14 years ago from her hometown Kortampet in Tamil Nadu.

"Ten years ago, she was spotted by Mangaluru police who brought her to White Doves home late one evening. Initially, she could only speak Tamil, so it was presumed she was from Tamil Nadu. She was on psychiatric treatment," Rusquinha said.

A few days back, a visiting priest at the White Doves home spoke to Mary in Tamil and asked about her hometown.

"Surprisingly, she could recall the name of her hometown, following which the visiting priest contacted the pastor at Kortampet. Mary's family, including her daughter Gnana Anthony, who is a paramedic student in Coimbatore, was informed about Mary," she said.

Soon after, Gnana and her elder brother came to Mangaluru to take their mother back to their home.

Mary's husband Jhonson, who worked as a cook, had died within a year of losing his wife.

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