JORHAT, May 25 – Winging their way through highways in the sky, seasonal avian visitors to the numerous wetlands of Jhanjimukh area off Teok often found themselves fall prey to poachers nets. Either trapped, maimed or poisoned, they occasionally ended up in cooking pots till a few years back, until the birds eventually found a reliable protector in ‘Ketekee’. With senior citizens, housewives, full-blooded youth, and even impressionable schoolchildren among its rank and file, “volunteers of Ketekee today constitute an efficient and close-knit intelligence network”, the NGO’s dedicated secretary...

BISWANATH CHARIALI, May 25— About 58,000 hectares of reserve forest areas in north Assam have been devastated following aggression by Arunachal Pradesh on the one hand and encroachment by local people and migrants on the other. Though north Assam has been enriched naturally by 28 forest reservers, existence of many of them has remained in hoardings only. In the Sonitpur district alone, which is home to 13 reserve forests with total area of 77,064.22 hectares, about 30,943 hectares of forest cover has been eliminated and encroached upon by various sects of people.

Of late, Arunachali...

GUWAHATI, May 25 – The Federation of Industries and Commerce of the North Eastern Region (FINER) today demanded that the office of the Department for Development of the North Eastern Region (DONER) should be shifted to the region. The FINER congratulated PR Kyndiah for assuming the charge of the DONER and hoped that as the seasoned political leader from Meghalaya is well versed with the problems of the region, he would be able to ensure development of this backward region of the country. The FINER called upon the Minister to take immediate steps to shift the office of the DONER to the NE...

May 24: Indian intelligence agencies and the army have begun exchanging information with their Myanmar counterparts in preparation for a full-fledged offensive against Northeast militants operating from that country. A senior official of the army’s 4 Corps, headquartered in the central Assam town of Tezpur, said information had been received about the number of militant camps in Myanmar, their locations and logistical details.

“We have pinpointed the locations of the camps of Northeast militants in that country with their help. They have given us a list of camps that the Chin National Army...

Guwahati, May 24: When 16-year-old Guwahati student Abhinandan Goswami drew cranes at an art competition this year, he had no inkling that the painting would become the motif of an international campaign for conservation of the graceful winged species. The US-based International Crane Foundation (ICF) informed city-based non-governmental organisation Aaranyak recently that it would put Abhinandan’s painting on its range of promotional clothing, mainly T-shirts.

The ICF is spearheading a campaign to conserve cranes and their habitat, primarily wetlands and grasslands, across the world. Aaranyak...