The thunderstorm and lightning which struck the state on Tuesday afternoon claimed half-a-dozen lives besides leaving as many people injured, including children. In Shravasti district, a thunderstorm followed by rains struck when the villagers were working in fields in Masahakala locality under the Sirsiha police station on Thursday afternoon.

The National Rural Health Scheme scam in Uttar Pradesh has turned murkier with another health official being found murdered at his home — the fifth victim in the past one year after the alleged bungling of over Rs.10,000 crore of Central funds surfaced.

The U.P. Police found the body of Mahendra Sharma, an accountant, with severe injuries on his head and face, from the Pasgawan health centre area in Lakhimpur Kheri district late on Wednesday evening.

LUCKNOW: More areas in Terai region along the UP-Nepal border and central UP were flooded as water level of rivers flowing via Nepal continued to rise on Tuesday. The situation in Barabanki and Gonda worsened with water from the Ghaghra river, which breached an embankment at Elgin on Monday, entering more villages forcing people to shift to safer places.

After three decades of sustained struggle with Forest officials, 340 families of the Tharu tribe of Surma village located in the core tiger habitat area of the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve are a happy lot. The state government has asked the Lakhimpur Kheri district administration to convert the village into a revenue one and give Tharus their rightful claims under the Forest Act of 2006.

When it originates from a lake called Fulhaar Jheel near Madho Tanda east of Pilibhit, the Gomti is a stream. Gradually, it starts growing. Around 100 km away from the point of its origin, this stream is joined by tributaries like Sukheta, Choha and Andhra Choha near Mohammadi Kheri, a tehsil of Lakhimpur Kheri. The stream now turns into a river.

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh government will shortly enact a law to constitute a special tiger protection force with its office based at Dudhwa National Park in Lakhimpur Kheri district.

The state government admitted in Vidhan Sabha on Monday that ground water in three districts had arsenic which was posing health hazards to the people of that region.

The year 2010 has brought new hope for the Gomti river, the lifeline of Lucknow. The river, which is a major source of drinking water for over 32 lakh people, is polluted the most in its 14-km stretch in the state capital, owing to millions of litres of untreated domestic waste that is released in it daily. In the next few months, things will change for the better.

LUCKNOW: The tiger population at Dudhwa might be poised on the upper side this time. At least 17 tiger cubs, under one year in age, have been spotted in the reserve. "They all must have been born this season and spotted now," said sources.

Vultures might be getting spotted in the wild but their near-stagnant population does not make it look like a real revival.

Lucknow: The decline of vultures has been the fastest among many other species. Their near-extinction in past one decade, ever since 40 vulture deaths were reported from Rajasthan in 1997, has made vulture-conservation a raging national issue.