Just two hours from Mysore to Chennai via Bangalore

 Murugesh Nirani led a delegation to Japan recently to woo investors. It held talks on a high-speed train project with Japanese Railway authorities, including Dr Diazo Nozawa, their leading train designer

Niranjan.Kaggere @timesgroup.com 

    You’ve heard this before from an assortment of netas and officials, but this time it could be closer to actually happening. Imagine travelling between Bangalore and Chennai in a bullet train at speeds of 300-320 kmph! 
    State industries minister Murugesh Nirani is pushing for everyone’s fantasy to turn into a reality. Ahead of the Global Investors’ Meet in Bangalore in June, Nirani led a delegation to Japan recently for talks on a highspeed train project with Japanese Railway authorities. 
    Speaking to BANGALORE MIRROR, Nirani said, “The project has been conceptualised in three phases —between Mysore and Chennai via Bangalore, between Bangalore and Belgaum via Davanagere and Hubli, and between Bangalore and Gulbarga.” 
According to Nirani, the first phase of the project will cost Rs 1 lakh crore at a per km cost of 
A MINI-JAPAN NEAR BANGALORE 
    Bangalore’s urban agglomeration is going to soon get even more cosmopolitan, with the state government thinking of setting up a township exclusively for Japanese expats on 1,000 acres of land. 
    With as many as 196 Japanese projects coming to Karnataka, and leading Japanese carmakers likely to pump in around Rs 10,000 crore in the coming months, setting up a mini-Japan near the city to cater to the needs of Japanese executives and workers is inevitable. 
    The government, in association with the Japanese government, also plans to set up a Japanese-language school in Bangalore to help Kannadigas learn Japanese and improve their chances of employment in Japanese firms, an industries department official said. 
    According to the minister, the state government has offered 1,000 acres of land at Vasantha Narasapura, Vemagal and a location between Tumkur and Sira. Called the Japanese Industrial Township, it will have residential accommodation, restaurants, pagodas, hospitals and schools. 
    Rs 200 crore. It will be a purely Japanese venture on a BOT (build-operate-transfer) basis. “The proposal will be placed before the chief minister and thereafter before the state high-level clearance committee,” he said. 
    If and when the bullet train project does come to fruition, the difference in travel time will be nothing short of startling — just two hours from Mysore to Chennai via Bangalore, as against the seven hours taken on the same route by our current fastest train, the Shatabdi. 
    The Karnataka delegation had the chance to interact with Dr Diazo Nozawa, a leading train designer and Japanese Railways board member who is seen as a technological ‘Visvesveraya’ in his country. The team also experienced first-hand the thrill of travelling from Tokyo to Osaka in the high-speed Shinkansen train. The train touches speeds of 320 kmph and has only one driver and two ticket collectors. Since its launch way back in 1964, it has not had a single accident. 
    According to Nirani, the high-speed train project will provide a boost to the state’s economic growth.

Anna Ramdev to launch a nationwide campaign for a strong Lokpal

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

New Delhi: Joining forces against the government, yoga guru Baba Ramdev and activist Anna Hazare on Friday said the duo will launch a nationwide campaign for a strong Lokpal and return of black money from May 1. The two leaders have also announced plans to sit on a daylong token fast in Delhi on June 3. 
    "We need two movements to bring back black money and for a strong Lokpal. I will sit on a token fast with Anna on June 3. We will start an agitation from Durg in Chhattisgarh from May 1. Anna will also start his yatra from Shirdi from May 1," Ramdev said. 
    Buoyed by the success of the Jantar Mantar fast last month, Hazare reiterated that he was planning a strong campaign for August. Incidentally, the two leaders have shared an uneasy relationship in the past one year. While Ramdev was part of the Jan Lokpal agitation in last April, there was a fall-out between Team Anna and the yoga guru. Team Anna members expressed discomfort with Ramdev’s closeness to saffron outfit RSS and there was some distancing between the two groups after the April, 2010, stir. 
    However, these differences appear to have been brushed under the carpet now, with waning interest in the Lokpal movement. In a bid to revive mass support, Team Anna has agreed to coordinate their respective movements and share a platform with Ramdev. 
    "We have decided to join hands and we are fighting for the country. We all know what the ground realties are. Out of one rupee even 10 paisa does not reach the villages due to corruption,’’ said Hazare. “We are not interested in toppling the government. We only want government to listen to people's voice. But we will not hesitate if the government falls due to the movement," he added. 
    Ramdev said he would observe a symbolic fast with Hazare and others on June 3 to mark the completion of one year of the beginning of his movement to bring back black money stashed abroad. 
    It was on the intervening night of June 4 and 5, 2011, when the Delhi Police had cracked down on Ramdev's protest at Ramlila Maidan that saw many people injured of which one victim later died in hospital.

Illegal resorts around Bandipur to go

State govt has decided to declare a 10-km radius around the park as an Eco-Sensitive Zone; only farming to be allowed near it

Niranjan.Kaggere @timesgroup.com 

    Life around the Bandipur National Park is set to change. Following months of dilly-dallying, the state government has finally decided to declare a 10-km radius around the park an eco-sensitive zone (ESZ). While this decision will put those engaged in running illegal spas, resorts, hotels and homestays out of business, it will be a boost for farmers in the region as the land around the tiger reserve can now only be used for agricultural purposes. 
    The move follows a recent surge in illegal commercial activity in the area. Several MLAs, MLCs and local politicians across parties had set up illegal resorts, spas and stone quarries in the area. But these commercial ventures would now have to shut shop and the buildings would be demolished. 
    Sources say the forest department has already drawn up a list of illegal buildings to be razed and has submitted it to the tahsildar and the deputy commissioners. The tahsildars have issued notices to these businesses. In some cases the mandatory three notices — a formality before buildings are razed — have already been issued. 
    Deepak, the owner of a homestay in HD Kote, said, “We have been running a homestay and paying regular taxes to the local village panchayat. When we began a homestay under the tourism promotional programme of the government, there was no condition that we should obtain permission from the forest department. Now we have been asked to use the land only for agricultural purposes.” 
    However, Sanjay Gubbi, member of the State Wildlife Board, said “The ESZ notification will not have any impact on resorts that are already in business. About five resorts have obtained permission from the forest department and they will continue to operate. But no new licences will be issued. If a person wants to buy land for agricultural purposes he or she may do so. But the land cannot be used or rented out for commercial ventures.” 
    The ESZ would cover 123 villages in four taluks of two districts — Mysore and Chamarajanagar. Once the area is formally declared an ESZ — which sources say would be done by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) within a few days — individuals, private entities and even the government cannot acquire land for setting up industry or townships within the 10-km distance from the park. The park itself is already protected under the Wildlife Act of 1972. 
    The move to declare the area an ESZ was initially opposed by several political leaders. The MoEF issued a preliminary notification on the issue in November last year, but it created a furore in state political circles. Fearing that it would jeopardise their business interests, several political leaders had reportedly instigated farmers in the area to oppose the government’s move. 
    Forest department officials then convened a meeting of farmers, members of the public and political leaders, and, following their suggestions, the draft notification was modified. As a result, the forest department decided to relax the rules for land conversion and exempted houses, buildings and cow sheds of the locals. 
    The forest department then wrote to the MoEF on March 16 requesting it to issue a final notification declaring an ESZ around Bandipur. The letter, a copy of which is with BANGALORE MIRROR, states that several suggestions and objections raised by the farmers, MLAs, MLCs and MPs have been included in the revised draft and “the government requests the Centre to issue final notification containing all these suggestions”. 
    “The ESZ tag would give us more power to monitor the area and implement forest programmes in a better way,” a senior officer of the forest department said. “It would put an end to cutting of trees, degradation of forest valley and extraction of non-timber forest produce apart from several other activities which harm the environment.”

The ESZ notification will not have any impact on existing resorts, but no new licences will be given 
SANJAY GUBBI, MEMBER, STATE WILDLIFE BOARD

Many politicians have established illegal resorts, spas and stone quarries around the reserve. The will now be shut down

Monica murder case: Police still in the dark

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Bangalore: Joint commissioner of police B Dayananda on Thursday said they haven’t yet got any definite clues in the Monica Srivastava murder case. Police are investigating many leads but haven’t zeroed in on any suspect. He said there’ll be a breakthrough soon and a special team has gone to Varanasi, Monica’s home town.
Meanwhile, Monica’s sister Anjali too has left for Varanasi. According to her neighbors, she cleaned up the house before leaving. The neighbors are not sure if she has vacated the house. Police sources said that during the initial interaction with Anjali, she didn’t voice her suspicion about anyone but later on, she mentioned some names. 
    Dayananda said deputy commissioner of police Krishna Bhatt has been given the mandate to create special teams if required but none has been put together so far. However, DCP Bhatt said many teams are working on the case. 
    Monica’s neighbors believe someone known to Monica committed the crime. A security guard in the adjacent building said there used to be a dog in front of her house and it would bark loudly every time a stranger went there. “I was in my room the entire day when the incidented happened. That day the dog didn’t make any noise at all and if someone went in, it was someone it knew,” he said. 
    On the day of the murder, police ruled out murder for gain as all the valuables in the house were intact. A week later, cops are revisiting this theory. Fingerprints and footprints in the house did not lead to anything concrete. According to some investigating officers, they were still unable to identify the fingersprints. 
23-year-old youth held for killing homemaker Bangalore: Parappana Agrahara police arrested Nagabhushan N Reddy, 23, for allegedly strangling a homemaker near Muneshwara Layout in Kudlu, off Hosur Road, on April 7. 
    The accused, a native of Pavagada was deep in debt. The victim, Padma, 42, wife of Venkatamana Reddy, made a living selling saris on instalment basis. Both were residents of Muneshwara Layout. 
    On April 7, Nagabhushan took Padma on the pretext of introducing her to some prospective customers. While they were walking through an isolated field, Nagabhushan pounced on her and strangled her to death using a nylon rope. He fled with her jewellery. 
    “By sheer luck, Venkataramana was at home and knew that his wife had gone with Nagabhushan,” police said. 
    Meanwhile, Nagabhushan’s bid to sell her jewellery came to naught as most of it was fake. He later threw away the jewellery after his attempts to pawn them failed. 
    Following the leads provided by Venkataramana, police arrested Nagabhushan on Wednesday. TNN

Monica

Agni V Success

Rajat Pandit TNN 

New Delhi: After the mischief played by the weather gods a day earlier, the god of fire, or ‘Agni’, came into his own on Thursday morning to hurl a potent fireball more than halfway across the expanse of the Indian Ocean at over 20 times the speed of sound. 
    India heralded a new era in its credible strategic deterrence capability by testing its most ambitious nuclear missile — the over 
5,000-km range Agni-V — that brings all of China and much more within its strike reach. 
    With the launch of the 50-tonne missile from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast at 8.07am, and its 20-minute flight to an “impact point towards western Australia’’, India also yanked open the door to the super-exclusive ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) club that counts only the US, Russia, China, France and the UK as its members. 
    India can, however, sit at this high table only when the 17.5-metre-tall Agni-V, which just about meets the 5,500-km ICBM benchmark, becomes fully operational after 4-5 repeatable tests and user-trials. It will be around 2015 that the three-stage, solid-fuelled missile will be ready for deployment by the tri-Service Strategic Forces Command, sources said. 
Mixed reactions from China 
    The official Chinese reaction downplayed the Agni launch, calling India a “partner”, while its media slammed the success as a nationwide “missile delusion”. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin said, “China and India are both big emerging countries, we are not rivals but cooperation partners”. But state-run Global Times warned India against attempting “containment” of China. Non-critical US urges restraint 
    Refraining from criticizing India for its landmark Agni-V missile test, and instead praising its “solid nonproliferation record”, the Obama administration on Wednesday called on “all nuclear-capable states to exercise restraint regarding nuclear capabilities”, without explicitly naming India.

RBI cuts rates; home & car loans to be cheaper

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

Mumbai: Home and auto loans are expected to become cheaper with the Reserve Bank of India cutting interest rates on Tuesday for the first time in three years by a morethan-expected half-a-percentage point aimed at boosting the sagging economy. 
    The RBI, in its annual policy, reduced by 50 bps its repo rate — the rate at which it lends overnight funds to banks — and announced a slew of consumer-friendly measures such as zero-balance savings account for all and abolition of prepayment 
charges for home loans. The availability of cheaper funds is expected to spur individuals to spend more and business to increase investment. This was expectedly cheered by bankers and industrialists. Giving the policy a thumbs-up, the sensex closed 206 points higher at 17,357, buoyed largely by the magnitude of the cuts since it was only expecting a 25-bps reduction. Bonds rallied with the yield on the 10-year benchmark bond falling to 8.34% down from 8.44% on Monday. In the foreign exchange market, the rupee rallied against the dollar to 51.49, up from Monday’s close of 51.68. Though banks agree lending rates need to fall, not all see an immediate decline. 
CONSUMER ACTIVISM, RBI STYLE 
    Borrowers can prepay home loans without forking out foreclosure charges 
    Fixed rate loans may now be a reality. But, some may not want fixed rates when interest rates may fall 
    Banks can no longer get away by paying higher deposit rates to companies. RBI asks for ‘minimal variation’ between individuals & companies 
    Work begins on savings bank account portability, like your cell number, with a unique customer ID 
    Zero-balance accounts 
with minimum facilities to be extended to all customers 
    Getting loan against gold may get tougher. RBI proposes tighter norms and initiates review of business 
    Special thrust on distribution of coins and currency notes, which will now be done through currency chests and bank branches EMIs will dip, but will take time: bankers 
Mumbai: Following the RBI's monetary policy, not all bankers see an immediate decline in lending rates. “With the reduction in interest rates, of course EMIs (equated monthly instalments) will fall that is the good news. But how fast the transmission takes place we will have to watch depending on our cost of funds. 
    But clearly, the trend is downward” said Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank, the country’s largest private bank. 
    The country’s largest bank SBI is, meanwhile, looking at a comprehensive reduction in lending rates. “On car loans and all other loans, wherever the spreads over the base rate (benchmark rate for loans) is high we will look at bringing down rates. I am not sure about base rate but it is our asset liability committee that will take a call,” said Pratip Chaudhuri, chairman, SBI. 
    The policy designed to give growth the much-needed push predicted that the economy would grow at 7.3 % even as it continued to remain concerned about inflation saying it would remain high at 6.5 % in 2012-13. 
    The RBI governor, however, denied that the government had any influence on the move but said the government needs to do its bit to spur growth. 
    “Monetary easing is necessary but not sufficient condition for growth. The government should adjust oil and other subsidies and address supply side constraints,” RBI governor D Subbarao said. 
    Besides addressing rates and setting forecasts for 2012-13, the policy also includes a number of announcements aimed at giving bank customers a better deal. New regulatory initiatives include specialised training to bankers to help them detect fake notes by the RBI, which wants banks to scan every currency note before re-circulating it.

CET put off to May 21-23 Results On June 6, Hall Tickets Will Be Sent By May 11

Sruthy Susan Ullas TNN 

Bangalore: Throwing the academic schedule of more than 6 lakh students out of gear, the Karnataka government on Tuesday postponed the Common Entrance Test (CET) to May 21, 22 and 23. The test was earlier scheduled to be held on May 3 and 4. The postponement is a ripple effect of PU question paper leaks and the valuators’ strike. 
    The CET results will be published on June 6. Verification of documents at helpline centres will begin on June 13. 
    Admission tickets will be sent on or after May 11. The students can also download their admission tickets from the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) website. The schedules notified in the CET-2012 brochure for seat selection, and other procedures, are unchanged. 
    The academic calendar of the department of pre-university education has gone awry due to unprecedented developments. The question paper leaks delayed the schedule by a week. The situation was aggravated by the PU lecturers going on strike. The department had planned to announce 
the results by April 26 — before the students wrote CET. 
CETBACK FOR STUDENTS 
• With CET dates rejigged to May 21-23, students planning to take several other entrance exams face severe time squeeze 

• Between May 5 and 27, more than half-adozen entrance tests to KLE varsity, Armed Forces Medical College and all-India medical and dental admissions, among others, are scheduled 

• The delayed CET calendar likely to affect the rollout of BA, BSc, BCom academic calendar too TESTING TIMES Finding new CET dates was tough for KEA 
Bangalore: With the national exam calendar packed, the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) had a tough task finding new dates for the Common Entrance Test (CET). 
    The KLE University All-India Entrance Test — 2012 is scheduled for May 5; Armed 
Forces Medical College and ComedK entrance tests are on May 6; All-India Pre-Medical/Dental Entrance Exam and Common Law Entrance Test are on May 13; Banaras Hindu University has it on May 16; Christian Medical College, Vellore, has scheduled it for May 18; Amrita University on May 19; St Johns Medical College and JIPMER entrance tests are on May 27. 
    The KEA also had to counter-check with the CBSE as the AIEEE online window was between May 7 and 26. 
    The postponement of CET was inevitable because the same lecturers are going to be involved in the logistics. Pretest work for CET usually starts by April 23. This includes the despatch of OMR sheets, question papers and hall tickets. There is a series of meetings during this period. The PU lecturers perform different roles and PU colleges become the centre of activity. 
    CET is taken by around 1.5 lakh science students for entry into medical, dental and engineering colleges. This is the first time that seat selection process will take place online. 
    By the time the students sit for CET, they would have already known the results of the other competitive exams like IIT-JEE (May 18). 
    Nithin Kumar K, a student of Jnanodaya PU College who is taking CE, the Comed-K test and AIEEE, says: "Now I go for tuitions focused on CET as it was supposed to be the first and most important exam for me. But now AIEEE will be my first exam. Even when all other exams get over, we cannot relax and have to continue our preparations for CET. We started with intense preparations last March. The tension will go on till August. There is so much confusion. It's so frustrating!” 
    In the meantime, valuation of II PU answerscripts has resumed with more than 90% of the lecturers reporting to work. Some of them, who had gone to their hometowns or had travelled to Bangalore for the protests, are yet to reach the valuation centres.

MUCH AT STAKE: CET is taken by 1.5 lakh science students for entry into medical, dental and engineering colleges in Karnataka

SOUTH INDIA’S TOP EARNING HEROINES

With Priyanka Chopra earning 9 crore for a film, BT takes a look at how actors down south fare in comparison

Sunayana Suresh 

    Bollywood hottie Priyanka Chopra reportedly got paid a whopping amount of 9 crore for Zanjeer. While this sum makes her the highest earning actor in Indian cinema today, her pay cheque is a distant dream for her counterparts down south. 
    Till date, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan reportedly pocketed a whopping 6 crore to star opposite Rajinikanth in Endhiran. While this still is the benchmark for the girls down south to beat, the rest seem to have made little progress in their own way. 
    Besides Ash, other south stars who command fat pay cheques in Kollywood and Tollywood are Ileana D’Cruz, Trisha and Kajal Aggarwal. Since the two industries share a symbiotic relationship, the heroines flit between the two states and command an equal price and popularity in both. 
    Goan beauty Ileana, for instance, is said to have been paid the highest for her Tamil film Nanban for which she took home 1.5 crore. Nayanthara, who has signed on four films after nearly a year, is also rumoured to have been paid the same amount for her comeback films. 
    Trisha is said to be commanding a price of 1.2 crore, which makes her the highest paid Tamil actor. Others in the one crore plus club are rumoured to be Anushka Shetty and Kajal. Young sensation Samantha too is reportedly earning over a crore in Tollywood while Tamannaah and Taapsee Pannu are inching their way up. 
    Says a top Telugu producer, “The Tamil and Telugu film industries today command markets that have challenged some big Bollywood films. This is one reason why heroines too make an equally big factor for these films.” 
    While Kollywood and Tollywood have actors earning big bucks, their not-so-flamboyant counterparts in Mollywood and Sandalwood lag far behind. The top most paid Sandalwood heroine till date is Nayanthara, 
    who got paid over 50 lakh for the film Super, while Kannada girl Ramya (Divya Spandana) earns over 40 lakh. 
    A Kannada film producer says, “The budgets of the biggest Kannada and Malayalam films are still onetenth of the big budget Tamil and Telugu films. The markets for these films too aren’t as wide. The Telugu and Tamil films have a big overseas audience today just like Bollywood. One of the reasons why the money invested isn’t that big as compared to other industries.” 
    In Malayalam, Bollywood and Kollywood imports fetch somewhere between 20 to 30 lakh. But, the highest paid local actor is Kavya Madhavan, who’s said to be taking home 
    17 lakh per 
    film. 
L E T ’ S TA L K 
    F I G U R E S ! BOLLYWOOD’S TOP EARNERS PRIYANKA CHOPRA – 9 crore for Zanjeer 
KAREENA KAPOOR – 6 crore for Heroine 
KATRINA KAIF – 3 crore for Dhoom 3 
DEEPIKA PADUKONE – 2.5 crore for Race 2 
VIDYA BALAN – 1.5 crore for Kahaani 
SOUTH SIDE STORY TOLLYWOOD – KOLLYWOOD NAYANTHARA AND ILEANA – 1.5 crore TRISHA – 1.5 crore reportedly SANDALWOODRAMYA – 40 lakh plus PRIYA MANI – 30 lakh plus MOLLYWOODKAVYA MADHAVAN – 17 lakh MAMTA MOHANDAS – 15 lakh

Ileana D’Cruz

Anushka Shetty

Ramya

Nayanthara

SC to decide on big cats’ transfer to MP

Nitin Sethi TNN 

New Delhi: Should India import and implant the Namibian cheetah in Madhya Pradesh or the ‘Gujarati’ Lion? The decision is now to be made by Supreme Court with the wildlife experts and government agencies unable to come to a decision. 
    The case for taking some lions from Gujarat — home to the last remaining wild population of the grassland big cat to Palpur-Kuno in Madhya Pradesh has been hanging fire in the apex court for seven years now. Now the issues has got muddled further with the Centre deciding to also import the cheetah from Namibia and attempt to make the same forest patch a home to the animal that went extinct in India. Not to forget, the tiger already resides in the same forests. 
    The court’s final order could also push the line on how far the judiciary and the Centre can intervene in matters of wildlife conservation with the subject being in the concurrent list of the constitution. 
    To compound the matter further Gujarat has made the lion its animal, or rather, matter of pride and does not want to part with even a few animals from the animal’s lair in the Gir wildlife sanctuary. 
    Gujarat has argued that the lions are doing just fine in Gir; in fact growing in numbers and Madhya Pradesh has a bad track-record with tigers. 
    It’s also pointed out that the Union government has decided to introduce the cheetah after importing it from Namibia and this should be done before the lions are taken. 
    Madhya Pradesh government has pitched its hat in the ring for both the animals. It claimed the forest patch in the state has a better prey base for the lion which is cramped in the relatively small Gir wildlife sanctuary and its prepared the grounds for long — including relocating people years ago. 
    The original move to translocate lions from Gir was started by the Union environment ministry with worries that the single population could be wiped clean in case an infectious disease spread through the region and a small group should be reared separately in Madhya Pradesh. 
    But now there are wildlife activists advocating for the cheetah as well. The Union environment ministry gave a nod to this wild cat too a year back even though there was opposition internally to bringing another carnivore back into India, with its attendant large international funding and high profile and intensive requirements, when its already difficult to manage the existing tiger population.

BONE OF CONTENTION: The MP government wants both the Gujarati lion and African cheetah. The state claimed that its forest patch has a better prey base for the lion which is cramped in the relatively small Gir wildlife sanctuary

Karnataka Drought affects WilfLife

M B Maramkal | TNN 

Bellary: The Daroji Bear Sanctuary was specially created to protect the sloth bear. Just 15km from Hampi, this sanctuary gives the town another identity besides heritage. But today with the water zones in the sanctuary almost dry, the bears are forced to trek miles in search of water in this hilly dry deciduous forest region. 
    Most of the tanks located inside the park such as Hirehuli, Hande Gowramma, Obalapur and Karimatti which get filled up during rainy season have either dried up or drying. Along 
with water, food seems to be turning scarce for the bears with the yield in fruit-bearing trees like jamun (Eugenea jambolana) and Kavale (Carissa carandas) dwindling. 
    A park official said that this was for the first time in recent years that tanks inside the park limits had dried up. Efforts of the officials to fill check dams and water ponds created inside the park with water drawn from Tungabhadra high level and low level canals have failed to provide respite. The official said that the worst affected would be bears as they being sluggish in nature cannot trek long distances in search of water. With day temperature rising to 42 - 43 degrees Celsius in this rocky region, the water transported in tankers to these check dams and water ponds dries up within a day or two, a source said. 
    “We are working overtime to provide relief to the bears as this the only sloth bear park in the country and it is imperative on our part to protect them,” the source added. In addition to nearly 200 sloth bears, the park boasts of providing shelter to scores of leopards, 120 species of birds, jackals and monkeys. 
    Admitting the severity of the situation, chief conservator of forests K N Murthy said the department was fully geared up to meet the water demand of bears and other animals in the sanctuary. “We will soon work out a contingency plan,’’ he said.

FEELING THE HEAT: Forest staff fill up tanks to quench the thirst of bears at Daroji sloth bear park in Bellary district