GOLAGHAT, March 6: The Kaziranga National Park, home to about 65 per cent of the world population of one-horned rhinos, is gradually returning to normalcy after it was ravaged by floods last year. Highly-placed sources in the park informed that out of a total of 94 rhinos killed last year, 39 died in the floods while only eight were killed by poachers compared to 12 in the previous year. Incidentally since the inception of the park, this would be the first instance when the number of rhinos killed by poachers might remain in single digits. Sources informed that census of rhinos is undertaken...

GUWAHATI, March 6: The Gauhati High Court on February 28, directed the State's Inspector General of Prisons (IGP) not to allow any construction work on jail land of various jails of the State by any 'outside agency', besides asking the IGP and other authorities not to make any further allotment of land to any person out of the land belonging to the jails of the State. The Court directives, issued by the division bench of Justice AK Patnaik and Justice AH Saikia, came in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition moved by a city-based businessman Bijoyananda Choudhury. Choudhury...

NEW DELHI, March 7: The increased flow of synthetic drugs via the traditional heroin routes from Burma to India might soon snowball into a major problem for authorities in India. A seven-time increase in the seizure of the widely abused synthetic drug "ephedrine", and that too within a year, at the Indo-Burma border has sounded the alarm bells. It has also made the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) to issue a warning to authorities in New Delhi about the proportions the problem was assuming. The total amount of "ephedrine" seized at the largely porous border between these two...

AGARTALA, March 6: Contract killers and organised gangs of criminals have made inroads into the Tripura capital, compounding the law and order situation in the insurgency-ravaged state. Over the past year, four persons have been shot dead by contract killers in Agartala. Congress legislator Madhusudan Saha, alias Bhola, was one of the victims. He was killed in the heart of the town on February 20. Agartala's proximity with Bangladesh is one of the reasons why its crime rate is high. Goons active here cross over to Bangladesh whenever the police launch a drive against smuggling and other crimes...

SHILLONG, March 6: The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), despite being the smallest among the nine zonal railways in the country, has achieved the dubious distribution of claiming the highest number of derailments during the year 1999-2000. In fact, of the about 329 train derailments in the country during the year, the NFR accounted for as many as 67 or so such accidents. A report on the Safety Performance of the Indian Railways has revealed that derailments accounted for 71 per cent of all train accidents in the country during 1999-2000. However, in NFR, derailments constituted about 85 per...