Dehradun railway station reopens after 40 days

Railway authorities have announced that the train services through Dehradun would be resumed after it was suspended for 40 days carrying out construction and maintenance work on one of the platforms. The traffic block started on April 17 and is now ready to be thrown open. The closure affected at least 16 trains that crossed Dehradun or originated here and were rerouted to Haridwar creating in this period.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 27 May 2017.

Indian Railways have informed that the work was necessary to improve facilities and cleanliness at the station and the objective was to provide a cleaner railway station to the travelers. The work on the tracks are over and only the finishing touches on the platform remain.
The shopkeepers at the station premises were happy because their business had suffered and earnings had dropped for the period of closure.


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Another selfie death - 22-year-old boy slips and falls into a ravine in Dehradun

Another selfie death has takenplace when a 22-year-old college student slipped while clicking a selfie at the edge of a mountain on the Dehradun-Mussoorie road. He slipped and lost his footing and fell into a ravine 50-metre-deep ravine.
The victim was a first year B.Com student at a private university in Dehradun, and a resident of Kichha in Udham Singh Nagar. He had gone to Mussoorie on a day-long trip with his friend.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 6 February 2017.

It seems on the return journey to Dehradun, he stopped his bike near Kolukhet to click photos against the picturesque background when he lost hos footing. His friend raised an alarm and called local residents for help who informed police about the incident. The boy had sustained injuries on his head and died on the spot.
Incidentally, the number of selfie-related deaths has seen an upward trend in Uttarakhand.
On January 13 this year, a girl fell into Alaknanda river while she was trying to take a selfie near Koteshwar temple in Rudraprayag district. Earlier, on New Year's eve, a resident of Dehradun fell a victim to selfie - that happened near Chunakhaal on Dehradun-Mussoorie road.
In yet another incident in 2016, a 24-year-old girl fell into Song river at Maldevta on the outskirts of Dehradun as she was trying to take a selfie.


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Father-son duo of Dehradun set a Limca Record in trekking through the Thar Desert

A father-son duo of Dehradun have set a Limca Record in trekking through the Thar Desert - they have completed their planned trek of The Great Indian Desert (Thar Desert) covering on foot a distance of 305.17 kms in Bikaner-Jaisalmer area along the Indo-Pak Border in 9 days.
Both of them are products of Doon School - the father Manmohan Bhardwaj is an ex-student of the school batch of 1980 and his son Madhav Bhardwaaj is now a student of class 12.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 19 October 2016.

The earlier record of maximum length trek in desert was in the name of Indian Army with 261.59 km in 10 days in the month of February 2010.
After completing their record, the father-son duo had applied to the Limca Book of Records to consider their longer trek as the new record, in view of added achievements like less time, early summer hot weather as against February of the Army and being a father-son duo. The Limca Book of Records have accepted their record.


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Apple orchards in India produce inferior quality fruit because of senile trees

In the course of the two-day National Apple Festival in Dehradun, it has been brought out that over 60% of apple orchards in India are producing inferior quality fruit and need to be replaced. In the opinion of experts, many of the apple trees in the country have grown too old to produce good quality fruit and this is, in turn, adversely impacting apple production.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 18 September 2016.

As per estimates, out of 6.5-lakh hectares covered by apple orchards, almost 4 lakh hectares of land has senile trees and this is resulting in a year-on-year reduction in apple production since the last one decade.
In 2013, the Union government had launched a scheme to motivate farmers to replace old trees with new ones by giving them an incentive. The amount of Rs 351 per tree that was offered to uproot an old tree to plant a fresh one was considered as inadequate by many of the farmers and, hence, the scheme was not attractive and did not have many takers.
In the opinion of experts, the government should uproot all apple trees which were over 50 years old. Apple production can multiply within three years of uprooting all the old trees because the new variety of plants start to produce fruits from the third year of plantation. Only, the government has to support the farmers in the gestation period by providing them alternate sources of livelihood.


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Private bus falls into gorge in Dehradun - 10 killed, 38 injured

At least 10 people have been killed and 38 injured when an overloaded private bus fell in a deep gorge near Daragad on Tiuni-Dehradun route. The injured have been rushed to nearby hospitals, where the condition of 15 has been stated as serious. There could be an increase in fatalities.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 6 September 2016.

It seems a 32-seater private bus had left Tiuni and was headed for Dehradun. The bus had 47 passengers on board and several heavy luggage was kept on top of the bus. Roughly an hour into the journey, the driver of the bus lost control of the vehicle and it fell into a gorge near Daragad.
Locals rescued the passengers and the rescue operation lasted for over four hours. Six persons died on the spot and others were shifted to Community Health Centre at Tiuni, where four expired during the treatment.
The cause of mishap is yet to be established but indications point to overloading of the bus due to which the driver lost control of the vehicle while negotiating one of the bends.


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Dehradun to hold the spring bird festival as a part of eco-tourism

The state forest department of Uttaraknand has decided to hold the spring bird festival at seven venues this year - that way, all the regions of the state would get representation. The festival is being held for last three years and has become quite a popular event.
The first of these was held at Asan Conservation Reserve followed by Pawalgarh Conservation Reserve while last year, it was held in the Doon Valley where activities were held at Asan, Forest Research Institute and Rajpur Road.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 27 July 2016.

This festival has become an attraction for eco-tourism and, till now, only one destination was being promoted. But, since communities from all over the state were not able to participate and get benefit from the festival, a decision was taken to decentralize the program and give representation to maximum regions each year. The seven circles chosen are four at Garhwal namely Bhagirathi, Shivalik, Pauri and Yamuna, and three at Yamuna namely North, South and Western Circle.
The bird festival will provide opportunities to locals to display their handicrafts and products and sell the handmade stuff. The series of the spring bird festival will begin in October and go on till February next year. The specific dates and venues are yet to be announced.


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