Guwahati, May 23: Poachers struck for the first time in Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary this year, electrocuting a female rhino and a calf this morning.

Divisional forest officer of Nagaon wildlife division Chandan Bora said the poachers had tied a naked wire to a bamboo pole and connected it to an overhead high tension line near the Tamulidova waterbody. ?The moment the animals came in contact with the wire, they were electrocuted,? Bora said.

Fifteen people have been rounded up for questioning, Bora said.

Experts said the poachers prefer electrocution, as it is a silent operation. They took...

Guwahati, May 23: After much cajoling over the past two days, NSCN (I-M) leaders Isak Chisi Swu and Th. Muivah today met the Centre?s chief interlocutor, K. Padmanabhaiah, in Bangkok but indicated that this was the last time they were holding talks with a bureaucrat.

There was speculation that the latest round of talks ? originally slated for Wednesday ? would be no more than a stock-taking exercise by Padmanabhaiah and middle-ranking leaders of the NSCN (I-M). The top leadership of the outfit, however, consented to meet the former Union home secretary following meetings between him and other...

New Delhi, May 23: Incredible as it may seem, only eight forest personnel man the 500-square km Dampa Tiger Reserve in Mizoram.

Located in the western part of the state and skirting the Indo-Bangladesh border, the sanctuary is a treasure-trove of biodiversity. But in a move that could have serious consequences, the Mizoram government recently terminated the services of the entire temporary staff employed by the forest department.

Forest departments across the states are heavily dependent on temporary staff. The strength of the forest department contingent at the Dampa reserve was 38 as on...

Agartala, May 23: The Union home ministry has blacklisted as many as 824 NGOs operating in the Northeast and Sikkim for suspected links with militant outfits.

Sources said the ministry last week informed the governments of six states of the region ? only Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh do not figure in the list ? about the presence of pro-militant NGOs in their areas and specifically asked them not to extend any form of assistance to these.

Meghalaya tops the list with 323 NGOs of doubtful integrity, followed by Manipur, which has 197. Assam is third with 151 such organisations, Nagaland has...

GUWAHATI, May 23?Poachers last night killed two rhinos ? a mother and her calf at Pobitora wildlife sanctuary, home to the second largest population of the endangered great Indian one-horned rhinoceros after Kaziranga National Park, and decamped with the horn. The two rhinos were killed by electrocution near the Kamarpur camp, adjacent to the roadside, the Pobitora ranger said. This is the second time in the last two-and-a-half-years that poachers electrocuted a rhino, but failed to take away the horn. Mentionably, Pobitora, situated at a distance of just 52 km from the city, shelters nearby...