Day after capture of tiger, calf killed in suspected leopard attack in Kodagu

Wildlife

However, forest officials speculate that the calf may have been killed by a leopard as well.

Soumya Chatterjee

Following a slew of attacks on people as well as animals in Karnataka’s Kodagu, another calf was killed suspectedly of a tiger attack on Monday. The calf’s death comes after officials captured a tiger, which is suspected to be responsible for the death of two persons, a 16-year-old boy and 60-year-old woman, in Kodagu’s Ponnampet taluk. Due to the close proximity of time and distance between the incidents, forest officials believed that the same tiger was responsible for both the deaths. The death of the calf on Monday morning comes after the tiger suspected of killing the two people, was captured by the forest department. As reported earlier, forest officials captured the animal with the help of trained elephants. Though its capture came as a relief for local residents, their sense of fear is back after the calf’s death on Monday. Read: Tiger suspected to have killed two people in Kodagu captured “We are not sure if Monday’s calf killing was done by a tiger as of now. It may have been a leopard, too, behind this calf killing. We are combing the area to spot pug marks and ascertain the details. The area is around 2 km from where the tiger was captured yesterday,” Hiralal, Chief Conservator of Forests and a senior Indian Forest Service officer, told TNM. Meanwhile, reports of the heads of cattle being found, suspectedly killed by big cats in Virajpet taluk, have also surfaced. This has prompted district and forest authorities to comb the area for the animals. Vijaykumar Gogi, senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Wildlife, had told TNM that the animal in question is a tigress of around nine years, who has an injury on her right paw. It is now being treated by the forest department and is unlikely to be released back into the wild, as it is old and injured. Read: Tiger kills woman in Kodagu, second such death within 24 hours Kodagu, located in Western Ghats, is a tourist hotspot and has been the site of increased human-tiger conflict in recent months. Conservationists suggest that recurrence of these events are due to loss of habitat, increased encroachment of forests and cutting off of migration paths of wild animals due to road and rail projects.  

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Karnataka shuts 13 Kerala entry points amid rising COVID-19 cases

COVID-19

As of date, there are around 58,000 active COVID-19 cases in Kerala.

Screengrab of a Protest video

Amid rising cases in neighbouring Kerala, authorities in Karnataka have decided to close 13 points of entry located in  Wayanad and Kasaragod district. This has come as a jolt for Kerala residents living in these border areas as the open borders provide a huge succour to the people living on either side. They move freely for various needs, especially the farming community who regularly move from Kerala to engage in such activities on the lands they either own or take on lease in Karnataka. NA Nellikunnu, senior opposition Legislator representing Kasargode Assembly constituency, said this is an unwarranted action by the authorities of Karnataka and is a violation of the unlock guidelines of the Centre. As of date, there are around 58,000 active COVID-19 cases in Kerala. "We are given to understand that their authorities are now insisting on the RT-PCR test results from all those travelling from Kerala and entering Karnataka. Fail to understand the logic, while people in Kerala strictly follow Covid protocols and wear masks, no such thing is happening in Karnataka and yet they do this unlawful act. We expect immediate intervention of the Kerala government," said Nellikunnu. At the entry points to Karnataka in the Wayanad district, people were caught unawares after vehicles were stopped by the Karnataka authorities. "We have no clue on this sudden decision to close the borders and are insisting on RT-PCR tests. This is going to create untold miseries to all those who used to freely cross the borders for various needs," said angry Wayanad residents, who were unable to move freely. Playing down the incident, Surendran said this might be an act done by Karnataka authorities as a measure of caution with COVID-19 cases continuing to rise in Kerala.

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It's 2021 but the ideal woman in Kannada TV serials is still in the kitchen

Entertainment

With the advent of remakes in the industry, the regressive quotient of these shows has increased manifold.

Sanjana Deshpande

Representative Image/Picxy/lakshmiprasad

The Sooraj Barjatya era of the Hindi cinema industry, even today, is etched in the minds of many film buffs for better or worse. The chief of conglomerate Rajshri Productions, he has produced and directed many films that propound the idea of ‘ideal family’ through his [questionable] hits like Hum Saath Saath Hain. Mamaji [maternal uncle] from Hum Saath Saath Hain once said the family where ladies serve men, at the dining table, is an ideal family. The daily soaps took it so seriously, they still follow it. It has been decades since! Following suit are Kannada TV serial makers who have continually created regressive shows. With the advent of remakes in the industry, the regressive quotient of these shows has increased manifold. These serials have been silently advocating patriarchal ideas that make women the centre of familial life, and any woman with modern sensibilities is vilified since she does not represent what an “ideal woman” looks like. From Subbalakshmi Samsara to Bramhagantu, the plots of shows have worsened, and so have standards for women. Subbalakshmi Samsara, a remake of the popular Marathi serial Mazhya Navryachi Bayko (My Husband’s Wife), was a disaster in most aspects but was well received by the audience. The plot revolves around a married couple wherein the husband is having an affair with another woman. On one hand, the wife—Subbalakshmi—is shown to be an obedient and righteous character, on the other hand, Shanaya is depicted as a woman of no morals; she is a manipulative and selfish character. The two are constantly pitted against each other by the supporting cast to fight over the man. The show only gets ridiculous from there. The two women are forever trying to shove each other down. Even when Subbalakshmi tries to start her own business, it is only to win over her husband. Until it went off-air in May 2020, the serial had managed to impress the viewers with its archaic plot that suggests women are always each other’s nemesis. One would have thought that this trope has been exploited by serial makers enough, but there are more serials that are based on the same concept. This popular Kannada serial takes the trope a notch higher by adding supernatural elements to the mix. Yaare Nee Mohini’s plot revolves around the character Mutthu, whose stepmother secretly plots to kill him and amass all his wealth. However, his first wife Chitra's spirit is always around to foil all her attempts. The stepmother, in her quest to amass wealth, plans to get Mutthu married to her niece Maya, who’s shown to be equally sinister. However, Maya has to compete with Belli, a naïve relative who had harboured the dream of marrying the male protagonist ever since she was a child. What ensues is a back-and-forth fight between the characters, with the assistance of tantric means to get rid of the enemy. In this day and age when people are striving to promote scientific and rational thinking, this serial upholds the veneration of superstitious beliefs in black magic and spirits. As if the show was not regressive enough already.  Decades of debates surrounding feminism and women's issues in the country lose ground when serials like these are produced ever so often. Such shows reiterate and amplify the patriarchal system that women have been trying to fight, by glorifying the idea that a woman's life revolves around that of her husband, and by extension, his family.   Another remake of a Hindi show, Bramhagantu, became the epitome for setting the standard for how women are expected to silently bear with all the abuse hurled their way and keep being the glue that holds the family, no matter what. Geetha is an obese woman who often has to bear constant remarks from her sister-in-law and always has to go through trials and tribulations just to see her husband Lucky fulfil his dream of playing kabaddi professionally. It is the same husband who once was body-shaming her, bullying her because he had an athletic build unlike her. She puts up with it silently while her mother-in-law shoots daggers her way because she was not keen on the match either. The protagonist often throws herself under the bus, wanting to safeguard familial ties, only to be met with more criticism. In spite of it all, the serial is touted to be one of the more progressive ones for breaking conventional norms, like having an overweight lead.  The lopsided narrative of the shows relegates the real issues that need to be discussed in the backseat while enabling abusive behaviour directed at women. They solidify the belief that women are subdued and the "weaker sex". Attempts at creating more progressive shows eventually meet the same result; they stay within the safe confines of gender stereotypes.  It is about time this changes. 

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Karnataka private school associations to protest on Feb 23 over 30% fee cut

Education

The private school associations have been demanding the repeal of the state government order on tuition fees.

TNM Staff

Representative Image/PTI

The private schools’ associations in Karnataka will be staging a protest in Bengaluru on February 23 over the government’s order asking schools to take a 30% cut in tuition fee. The associations are agitating against the state government’s order dated January 29 that private schools can collect only 70% of tuition fees and cannot charge fees under any other header. School managements have been demanding that the order be revoked, and labelled it “unscientific”. The protest will begin from Bengaluru’s Sri Krantiweera Sangolirayanna Railway Station to Freedom Park. Teachers, non-teaching staff and management members of ten private school associations across the state including KAMS, Independent Schools’ Federation of India, Archdiocesan Board of Education Bengaluru, will be participating in the protest. As many as 25,000 people including teachers, non-teaching staff and management members will be a part of the protest, said Shashi Kumar, General Secretary of Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) in a press release. “The objective of the protest is the financial distress of private education institutions, unscientific fee reduction, the imposition of a new school clause for the old schools under the COVID-19 pandemic in the name of accreditation renewal,” the press note read. The private school managements have been alleging that fee cut will intensify their financial crunch and that they have been facing harassment at the hands of Block Education Officer (BEO) and Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) officers and have not received any reimbursement for students admitted under Right to Education scheme. They had earlier in February asked the government to cap the limit of fees concession to 15 per cent, demanded waiver on property tax, water bills and had submitted a memorandum of the same to Health and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar. The Karnataka Private Schools’ Parents’ Associations’ Coordination Committee has urged the government not to give in to pressure being exerted by private schools to revoke the order. Demanding a fee determination committee, parents alleged the school associations have been creating an unnecessary ruckus. They also had warned of protests if the order is changed based on the school associations’ insistence. 

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Bengaluru’s Malleswaram to be made pedestrian-friendly, audit underway

Urban infrastructure

The project saw citizens, architects and designers participate in the audit.

TNM Staff

Representative Image/Wikemedia Commons/Annapoornima Koppad

As a part of the Directorate of Urban Land Transport’s Sustainable Urban Mobility Accord (SUMA), residents of Malleswaram, in Bengaluru, are putting the first step forward in ensuring the area is pedestrian-friendly again. As many as 70 residents participated in a ‘walking audit’ over Saturday and Sunday. The ‘walking audit’ is an initiative led by Malleswaram Urban Living Lab, a citizen group, in a collaboration with two other citizens’ groups, Malleswaram Social and Sensing Local. Aimed at creating a safe pedestrian network in Malleswaram, the audit involves the assessment of existing infrastructure and identifying problem areas. Based on data collected, with photographs, a plan will be drawn to make the locality more pedestrian-friendly. It also aims to provide solutions to the problems faced by senior citizens, due to traffic congestions, faulty footpaths and lanes. In the course of a year, work will be done on an 11-km stretch from Sankey Tank to MKK Road. The residents of the locality recorded multiple issues like missing kerbs, broken pavements, unmarked speed breakers, in the locality during the audit of three wards: Aramane Nagar, Malleswaram and Kadu Malleswara. Suchitra Deep of Malleswaram Social told The Hindu that they have completed two sessions of the audit and will take up further sessions in the evening hours to ascertain the status of street lighting. Meanwhile, Sobia of Malleswaram Urban Living Lab told DH that many including architects, designers apart from citizens are a part of this initiative, who are divided into teams and each will audit a stretch of two km and gather information about the locality. They have begun a design workshop under the project as well; many young architects have signed up, she said. Behavioural, tactical and structural interventions will be devised for the existing problems, and reports will be submitted to the Directorate of Urban Land Transport, and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike will further implement the changes recommended.

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Azim Premji urges Union govt to involve private parties to accelerate vaccination

COVID-19 Vaccination

Wipro chief Azim Premji was attending a post-budget interaction organized by Bengaluru Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) in the city.

IANS

Flickr/Sandipan Das

Wipro czar Azim Premji on Sunday urged the Central government to involve private hospitals to speed up the COVID-19 vaccination drive across the country. "If the government involves private hospitals and nursing homes to join the COVID-19 vaccination drive, about 500 million people can be inoculated in 2 months," he told Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here. Participating in a post-budget interaction with industry leaders, organised by the Bengaluru Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) here, Premji said scaling up the vaccination drive to cover more people at the earliest was critical though the government was doing its best. "I suggest that the government should supplement its efforts by involving private parties to accelerate the vaccination programme," he reiterated. The nationwide vaccination drive, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched on January 16 from New Delhi, has till date covered over 1.1-crore healthcare workers and frontline warriors across the country. "If more vaccines are produced and supplied to private hospitals and nursing homes, more people can be given the shot through mass vaccination in less time," Premji said. Calling upon the private sector to be part of the country's growth story, the Finance Minister said India had proved its mettle as a soft power by supplying COVID-19 vaccines to over 100 countries the world over. "The Union Budget for fiscal 2020-21 facilitates the private sector to energise growth, as it has set a path for this decade. Sustained growth will enable the economy to recover rapidly in the post-pandemic year," she added. Besides captains of industry and India Inc, noted cardiologist Devi Shetty and former Infosys board member T.V. Mohadas Pai participated in the interaction.

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Fauci calls 500,000 coronavirus deaths 'terrible'

"People decades from now are going to be talking about this as a terribly historic milestone in the history of this country."

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