Chandrapura (Bokaro), Feb. 7: Five women — all illegal miners — were buried alive when the roof of a 15ft deep coal pit collapsed on them near Chandrapura junction, 35km from Bokaro steel city, this noon. Two others were injured in the incident. That the mishap took place at Jhungurghuttu, which is a stone’s throw from a bustling railway station and barely 400 metres from the Chandrapura police station, is a clear indication that illegal mining continues unabated in the coal belt region despite the administration’s tall promises to curb the menace.

New Delhi, Feb. 7 (PTI): The world’s largest steel maker ArcelorMittal, which was unable to get regulatory approvals for its proposed $30-billion investments, has for the time being put on hold its India business plans. “It is very difficult to say any thing... When will we start the construction, when we will really make progress. We are not even counting them in our business plans for the next few years,” ArcelorMittal chief L.N. Mittal said while announcing the results for 2011 in a conference call.

Coal belt police have pulled up their socks to wage war against drunken driving and illegal coal mining. Lakshman Prasad Singh, the coal belt DIG, while talking to reporters on Sunday said breath analysers from Dhanbad would be introduced in Bokaro to conduct surprise inspections. Those found guilty will be brought to book.

Ranchi, Jan. 15: A first-ever water pollution audit carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pegged Jharkhand at the bottom of the performance chart with most river conservation projects lying incomplete in the state. According to the report, Performance Audit of Water Pollution in India, the Ganga, Damodar and Subernarekha were selected for pollution abatement projects in Jharkhand under the National River Conservation Programme (NRCP), which was launched in 1995.

In a worrying development, hundreds of crows have died in Jharkhand due to bird flu, a government official said Thursday.

The crows first started dying mysteriously last month in Jamshedpur district. This was followed by their deaths in Ranchi, Bokaro, Khuti, Sahebganj and other districts of the state.

Ranchi: The Centre has sent an alert to the Jharkhand government to remain cautious about a possible poultry infection, after a mysterious bird flu-like virus is believed to have killed between 500 and 1,000 crows in Jamshedpur, Bokaro and parts of Hazaribagh. Though an official intimation from the Union animal husbandry department is still to reach the state, a study on the crow deaths conducted at the animal disease laboratory in Bhopal found a virus resembling that of bird flu.

Despite the decline in the number of migratory birds this winter in the coal and steel belt of Dhanbad-Bokaro in Jharkhand, poachers continue to kill the winter visitors. The exotic birds that come in search of a home here to escape the severe winter, are ironically finding their way on to the plates of locals.
Thousands of migratory birds belonging to more than 16 species used to visit the subcontinent during early eighties and at present, the number has dropped drastically into hundreds. Now about 500-odd winged guest are visiting in our country, told an official.

Over 2800 cases reported till October, officials asked to stay alert

The state’s plans of introducing two varieties of fish, gambusia and guppy, to control the spread of mosquito larvae in ponds has failed to make an impact, at least in Bokaro, with the district administration now gearing up to tackle the spectre of malaria.

The administration, which has taken up spraying of DDT in all earnestness, is handing out medicated mosquito nets, besides launching cleanliness drives, in all malaria-prone zones.

Bokaro/Ranchi, Nov. 10: Chief minister Arjun Munda today declared that the state government would contribute Rs 5 crore for the development of Luguguru, a tribal religious hub situated some 75km from Bokaro city.
Munda was in the village to offer prayers to Luguguru deity on the occasion of Kartik purnima.

In a bid to cap the polluting fumes emitted by thousands of vehicles in Jharkhand’s cities, the government is thinking of putting in place liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) dispensing stations.

In an affidavit filed before Jharkhand High Court in Ranchi on Thursday, the government informed that as a pilot project, the gas filling stations would come up in the four districts of Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Dhanbad.