KOKRAJHAR, May 1 – The Chirang-Ripu reserve forest has been declared as an elephant reserve under the guidelines of the Centre’s “Project Elephant”. The reserve convers an area of 2600 sq km comprising six districts of Kokjrajhar, Bongaigaon, Barpeta, Nalibari, Kamrup and Darrang with seven forest divisions.

Meanwhile, senior forest officials said the Chirang-Ripu reserve has a minimum of 650 elephants and the number of pachyderms had registered a rise in the Haltugaon, Kachugaon and Aie valley wildlife division after the elephant census conducted in 2002. The officials were hopeful that...

Kohima, May 2: The NSCN (I-M) today threatened to “reconsider” its truce agreement with the Centre if security forces continued to raid its camps and arrest activists. However, the threat had little effect on the Assam Rifles, which said the outfit should stop endangering peace in “civilian-populated areas” if it wanted to be left alone.

A team from the 10th battalion of the Assam Rifles had raided a camp of the “UT-1 battalion” of the NSCN (I-M) in Dimapur town early yesterday and arrested three activists, including the “camp commander”. It also seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition and...

May 2: In the Eighties, elite soldiers of Saddam Hussein had undergone training on anti-terrorism combat at the Counter-insurgency and Jungle Warfare School, sprawled across 600 acres of rugged terrain at Vairengte in North Mizoram.

A week ago, even as US-led forces were bombing Iraq to eliminate the Iraqi president, American troops landed at the exclusive training centre for a three-week-long session in jungle warfare.

The joint Indo-US army exercise — codenamed “Balance Iroquois 03-1” or “Vajra Prahar” — was cloaked in utmost secrecy from the beginning to the end on April 26. “We maintained...

DIMAPUR, May 1 —The Consultative Committee for Peace, set up by the ruling Democratic Alliance government in Nagaland, headed by the state Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio in its first meeting held at Kohima on Tuesday has decided not to recommend extension of ‘Disturbed Area’ notification under Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 in 20 km belt bordering Assam beyond May 4 next.

The committee also decided to convey the state Government’s view to the Central Government for further necessary action. The Committee after thorough deliberations also expressed its happiness and welcomed the extension...

IMPHAL, May 1—Contrary to the predictions and speculations, the much-awaited allocation of the portfolios to the newly-inducted ministers was effected after a gap of eleven days late Wednesday evening. The portfolios to the newly-inducted ministers were allocated soon after the arrival of the Governor, Ved Marwah from New Delhi on Wednesday. However, the government notification was made available to the press late in the evening.

Mention may be made here that nine ministers of state were elevated to the Cabinet rank while two other MLAs were inducted into the Council of Ministers of the...