The Northeast Notebook

Project ends primate fearPROJECT Primate, launched by the Tripura government, has come to the help of Phayre8217;s Langur popularly known a...

Project ends primate fear
PROJECT Primate, launched by the Tripura government, has come to the help of Phayre8217;s Langur popularly known as the spectacled monkey or chasma bandar. Endemic to the hills of Tripura, Phayre8217;s Langur and six more species of primates including the slow loris, pig-tailed macaque, rhesus macaque, golden langur, hoolock gibbon and capped langur have been travelling the road to extinction following destruction of forests in the state. Tripura is also looking for donor agencies to start a conservation awareness campaign for the monkeys in the state who have been attracting researchers and poachers alike.

Beauty calls the shots
GUNSHOTS are fast becoming a thing of the past in the Naga hills. Five years after the government called a ceasefire and initiated negotiations with underground Naga leaders, residents of state capital Kohima are now more fond of watching beauty pageants that have taken models like Esther Jamir to national limelight. Kohima is now preparing to host the Miss north-east contest early next year.

Bamboo republic
TWO weeks after chief ministers of the eight states of the region met at Gangtok for the North Eastern Council NEC meeting, the latter has identified tourism and bamboo-based units as ways to accelerate the pace of economic development in the region.

While the new NEC chairman, Assam governor Gen Ajai Singh has asked the states to join hands to promote the north-east as a single circuit, the Council has also asked the states to take up bamboo-based projects, particularly before half the bamboo groves of the region disappear in 2005 as a result of the massive flowering that scientists have predicted.

Assam to ban tobacco
THE Assam health department has raised an alarm following reports that tobacco in various forms is very popular with students, especially at the high school level. Gutkha has been identified as the main culprit. The health department last week said a ban was the only solution to save young people.

At last count
WITH some sub-divisions of the state showing abnormally high or low population growth in recent sample surveys, the Manipur government has ordered a fresh census to see what was behind this disparity.

Some of the sub-divisions like Purul at 168 per cent, Paomata at 122 per cent and Mao-Maram at 143 per cent registered an abnormally high growth rate.

Story continues below this ad

Others like Lamsang at 1.5 per cent, Lamphel at 8.2 per cent, Wangoi at 18.5 per cent, Jiribam at 11 per cent, Moirang at 12.8 and Bishnupur at 14.5 have shown strikingly low population growth rates. The movement of people as a result of ethnic disturbances is said to have caused these disparities.