Assam is likely to be the first state in the country to expand the central anti-tobacco campaign to all its districts, with Jorhat as the role model. Satisfied with the performance of the National Tobacco Control Programme in Jorhat, the Centre has asked the state government to start the drive in other districts, propping the Jorhat district cell as a role model.

Jorhat, May 20: A forest guard, Ananta Dev Sarma, in-charge of the Pichhla anti-poaching camp in Orang National park, was suspended today for alleged dereliction of duty after an adult female rhino was killed by poachers last night and its horn and tail taken away.

Jorhat, April 29: Asam Sahitya Sabha, the premier literary organisation of the state has decided to join the anti-tobacco campaign of the state tobacco control cell. Sabha general secretary Paramananda Rajbonshi told The Telegraph over phone from Guwahati today that since tobacco is consumed as part of social traditions in Assamese society, a strong campaign is needed to educate people about its harmful effects.

GUWAHATI: For implementation of the Total Sanitation Campaign in Assam, National Coordinator of New Delhi’s Sulabh International Social Service, Rupal Roy, met Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi yesterday.

Roy briefed the Chief Minister as to how this sanitation programme should be carried on in the State. The Total Sanitation Campaign is a comprehensive programme to ensure sanitation facilities in rural areas with broader goal to eradicate the practice of open defecation.

Jorhat, April 22: A lonely cowherd who spent lazy afternoons planting trees while his cattle grazed along a sandbar on the Brahmaputra and single-handedly grew a forest, was honoured by the Jawaharlal Nehru University with title of “Forest Man of Assam” on Earth Day today. Jadab Payeng, popularly called Molai, is a self-appointed keeper of a 300-hectare woodland, every plant of which he has painstakingly grown over the past three decades on the desolate chapori.

JORHAT: Within only a week, three leopards lost their lives in Dergaon area with the third one having been found dead in Karunating tea garden on April 14 last. The other two leopards had earlier lost their lives at the hands of the villagers of Bahikhowa and Khakandguri on April 7 and April 9 respectively.

The most unfortunate parts of the incidents were that the insensible villagers did not rest only on killing the animals but also chopped off their body parts and took away their flesh. It is noteworthy that during the last five years, 21 leopards lost their lives at the hands of people in Upper Assam.

March 21: On World Water Day tomorrow, when UN experts will mull ways to save the world’s shrinking freshwater resources, animals in Gibbon wildlife sanctuary in Jorhat will wake up to another thirsty day. Water sources inside the sanctuary, which is home to at least seven species of primates, are drying up, forcing animals to flee the park frequently in search of water.

NEW DELHI, March 19 – The Centre has on Monday claimed comprehensive technical studies were carried out for safety of dams including dams in the North-East. In a Rajya Sabha reply to a question by Biren Baishya, Minister of State for Planning and Earth Sciences, Dr Shwani Kumar said the technical studies are carried out according to the guidelines issued by the Central Water Commission (CWC) for safety inspection of dams.

JORHAT, March 18 – Veteran filmmaker, director and scriptwriter Robin Chetia is making a full-length feature film dealing with man-elephant conflict. Titled Mur Desh, Mur Hati, the story, script and dialogues have been conceived, prepared and written by Chetia who also directs the film. Talking to this correspondent, Chetia pointed out that the Assamese mainstream cinema has overlooked the serious and burning problems in the society and is showing an unrealistic and artificial world on the silver screen.

JORHAT: Incidents of man-leopard conflicts are on the rise in the nearby areas of Gibon wildlife Sanctuary in Jorhat district. After a leopard attacked a person in Kathalguri tea estate on Monday, another person was injured in leopard attack yesterday at Meleng tea estate.

During the last one week, dead bodies by two leopards were recovered from New Sonowal tea estate. People suspect that some miscreants might have killed these two leopards by administering poison with food.