On a day the Trinamool Congress celebrated the first anniversary of the announcement of the 2011 Assembly polls results, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said here on Sunday that there has been an average of one farmer suicide every week since Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's government came to power in West Bengal.

Stating that the proposed Food Security Bill is “inadequate,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said on Sunday that the Left parties will stage an agitation pressing for the inclusion of everyone, irrespective of whether they are classified as below or above the poverty line.

“Every family should be entitled to 35 kg of foodgrains at the rate of Rs. 2 per kg. Only the rich should be exempted from this privilege,” he said, adding that at least 80 per cent of the people must be covered under the public distribution system.

Authorities of the Buxa Tiger Reserve are formulating plans for a major overhaul of the tourist facilities at the reserve.

“We are preparing our eco-tourism plans in accordance with the guidelines given by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. Tourist lodges will be set up at seven spots in the buffer zone of the reserve,” Buxa Tiger Reserve Field Director R. P. Saini told The Hindu over telephone.

With five more babies dying at the State-run Malda Medical College and Hospital on Monday, the number of children died in the facility over the past week has reached 32.

West Bengal Governor M.K. Narayanan told journalists here that the State government was deeply concerned about the deaths and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was personally looking into the issue.

For inhabitants of the Sundarban islands, the fear of crocodiles lurking in the estuaries is second only to that of tigers. But while there are some estimates about the number of the big cats in the Mangrove forests, no one knows how many crocodiles prowl the waters.

To rectify this gap in information, the Forest Department will launch the first-ever exercise to estimate the number of crocodiles next week. Experts are relying on the fact that crocodiles, being cold-blooded animals, emerge from the waters and bask in the winter sun at this time of the year.

The frequency of incidents of farmers committing suicides is “unimaginable” in West Bengal, State Left Front chairman Biman Bose said here on Friday.

“The government had fixed a target of 20 lakh metric tonnes for procurement of paddy from peasants in the State. According to reports, it has only collected 2 lakh metric tonnes so far,” Mr. Bose, who is also the State secretary of the CPI(M), told journalists.

Officials of West Bengal's Forest Department fear that there may be a massive decline in the number of migratory birds coming to the Santragachi Lake in Howrah district this winter.

“The preliminary estimates suggest that between 5,000 and 5,500 birds have come to the lake this season. However, the actual numbers can be determined only after a survey,” Divisional Forest Officer of Howrah Gautam Chakraborty told The Hindu on Wednesday.

Reports of a large number of fish dying in a river in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district have raised concerns about the toxicity of the water, particularly as it joins the Teesta river further downstream.

“The reports of the deaths of large numbers of fish in the Karola river first came in on Monday morning. We immediately began disposing of the dead fish. All the fish found floating in the waters as well those found by fishermen have been disposed of,” District Magistrate Smaraki Mahapatra told The Hindu over telephone on Tuesday.

Death of nine infants was reported over two days at the Malda Sadar Hospital in West Bengal's Malda district on Thursday.

While six were reported dead on Wednesday, three more deaths were reported till Thursday evening.

During the hearing of the appeal filed by Tata Motors Ltd. against the verdict of the Single Bench of Calcutta High Court that held the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011, “Constitutional and valid”, the company submitted before a Division Bench here on Tuesday that the Court “cannot rewrite the law”.