The experiment made by an engineering graduate from Puttur taluk to use dung powder as an alternative to chemical fertiliser and thereby improving the yield, has succeeded. We keep hearing about the efforts being successfully made by farmers to rid the land of chemical fertiliser. Jayaguru Achar, a resident of Hindaru village in the taluk, has given the field of organic farming a new weapon in the form of dung powder. He does not use chemical fertiliser, and is entirely dependent on dung manure. He has improved fertility and got increased yield.
Author: wellnmed@gmail.com
** Progressive Karnataka farmer generates power from pond
Suresh Balnad, a resident of Bayar in Balnad village of Puttur taluk, uses water from a pond that is above 60 feet to generate power. He has fixed a wind turbine with a pipe to generate electricity. For the last 17 years, Suresh has been producing 2 kilowatt (KV) of power as water flows via canal.
** Goa stakes claim over 12 islands close to Karwar
The Union home ministry forwarded Goa’s demand to the Karnataka government, following which the Inspector General of Police, Internal Security, sent a letter, dated September 21, 2021, a copy of which is available with The New Indian Express, to the Uttara Kannada district administration seeking details as to which taluks these islands belong to.
** Reading between the lines
With a plethora of options to choose from in the book space, zeroing in on a book that really interests you could be quite a challenge. Which is where these ‘Book Doctors’ intervene. MyBookWorks is a Bengaluru-based startup that aims to provide a hyper-personal reading programme to corporates to boost the personal and professional development of employees.
Founded by IT professionals Deepthi Rajan, Prayukth KV and Nitin Saxena, the birth of MyBookWorks took place following the downward trend in the reading habit among working professionals.
** Seismometer installed at tremor-hit Gadikeshwar village
Taking note of the frequent tremors striking a few villages in Kalaburagi district in the past couple of weeks, a team of scientists from the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) visited the area and took stock of the situation.
The team comprised seismologists Suresh and Shashidhar from NGRI and Ramesh and Abhinaya from Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority. Associate scientist Anaveerappa Biradar from Sharan Sirasagi Seismic Centre in Kalaburagi was also present.
** JEE Advanced results: Two from Bengaluru get high all-India ranks
Veeresh B. Patil, from Oxford Independent PU College, Ullal, and Premankur C., a student of National Public School, Yelahanka, Bengaluru, bagged the first and second ranks at the State level, with the 39th and 54th ranks at the all-India level, respectively.
** A gecko named Jackie Chan in the Western Ghats
A new revision of Cnemaspis gecko in the Western Ghats has described 12 new species
A new revision of Cnemaspis geckos (day gecko) in the Western Ghats has described 12 new species, including ones named, among others, after Jackie Chan and dragons from Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings. Of the 12 species, 10 were found in southern Western Ghats.
The paper, ‘Diversifying on the Ark: multiple new endemic lineages of dwarf geckos from the Western Ghats provide insights into the systematics and biogeography of South Asian Cnemaspis (Reptilia: Squamata)’, authored by Saunak Pal, from the Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, Princia D’Souza and Kartik Shanker from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bengaluru; and Zeeshan A. Mirza from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru, was published in Zoological Research recently.
** Actor, activist G.K. Govind Rao passes away
A prominent voice championing secularism and constitutional values, he never minced his words and often ran into controversies
Writer, theatre personality, film actor and activist Prof. G. K. Govind Rao, 86, passed away in Hubballi on October 15. He breathed his last at 4.30 a.m. in his daughter’s house. As per his last wish, he was cremated in a simple manner, family sources said.
He is survived by two daughters. He was suffering from age-related illnesses, and was with his daughter in Hubballi for some time now.
** Mangaluru: Ullal municipality bags award for solid waste management
From the last two years, Ullal municipality has been encouraging people to sort out solid waste at source, and use wet waste for growing vegetables etc after preparing manure at homes. As reward for its successful use of solid waste by creating awareness, the municipality has bagged the state government award.
** Mangaluru: Assistant professor raises beautiful lotus terrace garden
- Sneha Bhat, resident of Ullal in the city outskirts, is an assistant professor in a private college here. During spare time, she also serves as an announcer in Mangaluru Akashvani. She also has lot of interest in agriculture.
Because of shortage of space and also as she lives in city, she undertook terrace farming initially. She grew vegetables needed for household use on her terrace. The idea of growing lotuses struck her and she thought of raising a lotus garden at her home. Now, this thought has blossomed into a deep interest in raising variety of lotus plants.