KAMALABARI, July 9 ? A herd of wild elephants numbering 50 to 55 recently caused extensive depredations to ripe Ahu crops in east Majuli. The wild elephants also devoured the standing crops of about 600 bighas of land. The villagers of Napamua, Baghargaon, Gayangaon, Chinatoli, Nikinikhowa, Kalanibari, Meragarh, Salmara etc are now spending sleepless nights, protecting their hearth and homes from the onslaught of the elephants. The inhabitants of the area demand the subdivisional administration to take adequate measures to drive away the wild elephant from the river island. They further urge...

AGARTALA, July 9 : In what seems to be an attempt to pre-empt desertion of important leaders with top portfolios en masse, the Trinamool Congress high command dissolved the Tripura unit of the party. A 15-member steering committee has been formed with Amal Mallik as convenor while both the chairman and president Sudhir Ranjan Majumdar and Ratan Chakrabarty were made members. General secretary of the TMC Mukul Roy in a communication on July 6 informed the State unil that the high command had decided to dissolve the Pradesh Trinamool Congress and form a steering committee. The steering committee...

AGARTALA, July 9 : Due to a massive landslip on the railway line between Bandarkhal and Damcherra about 75 kilometres from Badarpur, rail link between Tripura and Assam has been snapped. The two-kilometre stretch of railway line between Bandarkhal and Damcherra was washed away by the sliding mud and rocks from the adjoining hills early Sunday morning. ?It would take at least three weeks to restore the railway link between Tripura and Assam,? sources said. Though restoration works have started from both sides, but due to incessant rainfall for the past two days, works could only progress at a...

SHILLONG, July 9? The north-eastern States have received funds totalling Rs 1,444.87 crore from the non-lapsable Central pool during the period 1998-99 to 2001-2002 for implementing various development schemes. Official sources said that an amount of Rs 121.95 crore was released from the pool during the year 1998-99, which jumped to Rs 509.92 crore the next year. The following year, the releases from the non-lapsable pool slipped to Rs 313.04 crore. During 2001-2002, funds released to the North-east from the Central pool was Rs 499.96 crore. Assam secured Rs 293.16 crore (about 20 per cent) of...

Imphal, July 09: Thanks to the mass deforestation and changing demographic Structure of Manipur, the total forest cover which was once a healthy 67.6 percent of the total area of 22,327 sq kms have now shrunk to only about 50 percent. Disclosing this, a reliable source said that as per the claim of the State Government the area that comes under the Reserved Forest category is 1467 sq kms, Protected Forest 4171 sq kms while 11,780 sq kms are under the other forest. This works out to a total 17,418 sq kms of forest cover. According to information deducted from satellite pictures, Manipur is one...