ITANAGAR, August 11: The National Afforestation and Eco-development Board has honoured DN Singh, field director of the Namdapha Tiger Project in Arunachal Pradesh with the Mahavriksha Puraskar for preserving the finest specimens of dipterocarpus macrocarpus (hollong) trees. The award carries a plaque, a citation and a cash of Rs 25,000. The Namdapha Tiger Project was created in March 1983 as the 15th tiger reserve of the country under Project Tiger scheme. Singh said the Namdapha project was spread over 1985 sq kms of virgin forest ranging from tropical, temperate to alpine vegetation and was...

GUWAHATI, August 11: A virtually open Assam-Bangladesh border and a favourable demographic pattern along the border areas has encouraged the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agents to use Assam as a route to enter the country. This fact came to light after the arrest of four important ISI men in the city recently, police sources said. They said during interrogation of the four arrested ISI men - Md Fasih Ullah and Md Javed Wakhar of Pakistan, Maulana Hafiz Md Akram Mallik of Kashmir and Qari Salim Ahmed of Uttar Pradesh - the police came to know that those people came to Dhaka from...

NEW DELHI, August 10: The Delhi High Court today asked the Centre to place on record the report of Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) on alleged misuse of proceeds of state lottery by Nagaland. A division bench comprising Justice Devinder Gupta and Justice SK Aggarwal directed Union government counsel Lalan Chaudhary to place the report before it by October 12, the next date of hearing. The court was hearing a public interest litigation by Movement for National Awareness (MNA), a nongovernmental organisation, seeking a CBI probe into the alleged diversion of state lottery proceeds by the...

JORHAT, August 10: A cloak-and-dagger game is on all over Assam. Bitten and embarrassed by the Kargil bug that showed India's intelligence personnel in bad light, the sleuths appear to be waking up to seek revenge against Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). It was once again the Army that issued the wake-up call. On July 31, Major-General B P Bopanna, GoC 21 Mountain Division, made a startling disclosure: Some madrassas (schools) in Assam were helping the growth of separatist forces with the help of ISI. The General was specific: the madrassas engaged in anti-national activity were...

GUWAHATI, August 10: The activities of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Assam is an issue concerning the security of the nation and no political party or organisation should try to give a communal colour to it, according to the advisor of the All-Assam Students' Union (AASU), Samujjal Bhattacharyya. Bhattacharyya pointed out that certain political parties and organisations of the state were trying to give a communal colour to the issue of arrest of four ISI men in the city. He said that AASU would thwart any move to create communal tension in Assam on the issue. Bhattacharyya...