Ranchi Zoo to get two female leopards from Lucknow Zoo in exchange of two male sloth bears

As part of an animal exchange program, Ranchi Zoo is expected to get two female leopards from Lucknow Zoo in exchange of two male sloth bears. The leopards are aged around two years each. Ranchi already has four leopards - one female and three male. The two males were rescued from Mandar in 2013 while the third came from Guwahati in 2012.
The main reason for the induction of the two young females was to accelerate the breeding program in the zoo because the lone female is aged around 17 years and too old while the two-year-old ones are young, hale and hearty.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 2 March 2017.

The Lucknow team will take sloth bears from the Bhubaneswar zoo also apart from Ranchi zoo.
The arrival of the leopards comes at a time 3when the number of people visiting the zoo has gone up, because there is lion cub on public display. It was born on December 17 and was the first ever successful lion breeding in the zoo. It has been put for public viewing about two weeks ago.


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Tigers in Pilibhit tiger reserve kill 7 villagers - panic in the air

Pilibhit tiger reserve is facing the terror of a tiger believed to be a "man-eater". It is on the prowl and has already killed seven villagers in the last three months. There is almost a tiger curfew in the thirty villages of the area. Moreover, some feel there is more than one tiger involved.
The farmers muster attend to their fields during the day and in tight little bands armed with whatever weapons they can manage. Children go to school under escort, or are just kept at home.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 19 February 2017.

A forest department team managed to corner and tranquilise a tiger which is believed to have killed six villagers since November 28. It was then sent to Lucknow Zoo. But, there was a seventh killing on February 16 and forest officials did not arrange for a second hunt because the woman who was killed had crossed the outer boundary of the reserve and had gone inside to a distance of 300 m. The tiger did not enter a human settlement.
There are six teams led by experts who are monitoring the villages and are trying to fence the forest area. There are 44 tigers in the reserve and nine cubs had been spotted. Since the villagers are unable to protect their fields at night, animals like nilgai and wild boars are destroying the crops.


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Chaos in Lucknow mango festival - visitors loot mangoes on last day

It was a two day festival of mangoes in Lucknow and, on the last day, nearly 250 exhibits of various species of the delicious fruits were looted by public. The district magistrate has claimed that it was a mango eating competition that gave rise to the situation but, the 'plundering' was evident to those who were present on the spot.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 27 June 2016.

The incident happened at around 5 pm, when the crowd was at its peak. The mango growers had started packing up but the the visitors in the exhibition area refused to leave. When security persons came on the scene, there was a stampede like situation and, taking advantage of that, some visitors barged into the exhibition area and walked away with the mangoes on display.
The free-for-all went on for about 20 minutes and had to be controlled by the police.
Farmers and shopkeepers from Agra and Barabanki and even Lucknow lamented that they could not sell anything yesterday because of late inauguration and when they expected to sell them they were looted. Obviously, it was an example of poor management because there were more than 20,000 persons who visited Janeshwar Mishra park, the venue of the exhibition.


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Government announces another 13 Smart Cities with Lucknow on top

The government has announced 13 winners of Fast track Smart City competition and Lucknow topped the list. Others are Warangal, Dharamsala, Chandigarh, Raipur, New Town Kolkata, Bhagalpur, Panaji, Port Blair, Imphal, Ranchi, Agartala and Faridabad - in that order.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 24 May 2016.

Various criteria for being labeled as a Smart City are - assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management systems, efficient urban mobility and public transportation, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation. Under the Smart City Mission, a total of 100 cities across the country will be identified and developed as smart cities by 2019-20. The Union government will provide financial support to the extent of Rs 48,000 crore over five years.
Already 20 smart cities were selected during 2015-16 as per the Mission guidelines. Another 40 would be selected during 2016-17 and the remaining 40 during the next financial year. Each city that will be selected in different rounds of competition will be given central assistance of Rs 200 crore in the first year and Rs 100 crore each during the subsequent three financial years. State governments and respective urban local bodies will be expected to provide matching funds of the same amount to the cause.


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