coimbatore l thursday l september 05, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION day after history, country’s paralympics medal rush goes on India won medal No. 21 at the ongoing Paris Paralympics thanks to shot-putter Sachin Khillari’s silver in the F46 final on Wednesday Mariyappan Thangavelu Harvinder Singh 2-3 for India in high jump on tuesday Late on Tuesday, India added two more medals in the men’s high jump T63 event. Tamil Nadu’s Mariyappan Thangavelu, who had won gold in 2016 and silver in 2021, added a bronze while Bihar’s Sharad Kumar took silver. Those medals meant India went past the tally for highest medals in a single campaign. Their previous best was the 19 they won in Tokyo FIRST harvinder in final of para archery ■ On Wednesday, Harvinder Singh became the first Indian archer to advance to the final in the history of the Paralympics ■ Bhavinaben Patel, a silver-medallist in table tennis (C4) in Tokyo, bowed out at the hands of China’s Ying Zhou in the last eight stage. Sonalben Patel (C3) existed in the round of 16 | P13 Mariyappan is the 1st indian to win medals in 3 straight paralympics CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Special arrangement Cong tickets for Phogat, Punia? E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Chandigarh / New Delhi 1,00,000 Thousands of uprooted trees in the Eturunagaram Wildlife Sanctuary in Mulugu district after a gale last Saturday. (Left) Volunteers rescue an woman from a flooded area on Wednesday | Prasant Madugula trees uprooted in t’gana forest Freak weather at Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary produced tornado-like effect U M a h e s h & A a r t i K a s h ya p @ Mulugu/Hyderabad A rare weather phenomenon left waste thousands of trees — some estimates put the figure at over one lakh — across 200 hectares in the Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary between Medaram-Pasara and Medaram-Tadavi in Telangana. While there was no loss to fauna due to what was described by some environmentalists as a squall, the ecological damage was incalculable. Panchayat Raj Minister Danasari Anasuya alias Seethakka said they never expected around one lakh trees getting uprooted due to a heavy gale. According to forest officials, trees like neem, banyan, peepal and others bore the brunt of nature’s fury. Leopards were spotted in the sanctuary spread over 81,200 hectares though wild animals seldom venture to this area. Elusing Meru, the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Protection and Vigilance) told this newspaper: “This is a very rare incident and very unlikely in a state like Telangana. This Threatened by accused, Pocso victim’s mother fights to file FIR M s a r a v a n a n @ Coimbatore The mother of a Pocso case victim, who was facing pressure from the family members of the accused to retract her statement in the court during the trial of the case, had to struggle for more than three days to get a police complaint registered against the family members for threatening her in the case. An FIR was finally filed late on Wednesday after the intervention of Coimbatore City Police Commissioner V Balakrishnan. According to the victim’s family, they had approached the police seeking protection on Monday after threats from the accused’s family, who are from the same neighbourhood, became unbearable. According to sources, the Kattoor All Women Police of Coimbatore arrested a 48-yearold man, a part-time temple priest who runs a grocery shop, for sexually assaulting the minor girl on July 22, 2024. The mother of the victim, who was working as a construction labourer, has three daughters and a son. The victim was studying in Class 11 when the incident took place in March this year.  P7 is probably the result of high winds and cloudburst.” Senior officials of the India Meteorological Department said, “This is a highly localised convective activity We are ex. amining the exact nature and cause. Our preliminary observations are that it was an effect of thunderstorm activity and strong pressure deficiency giv, ing it a tornado effect.” Experts concurred. Environmentalist and public policy expert Donthi Narasimha Reddy said: “What has happened in Mulugu seems to be a squall, a localised storm or sudden gusty winds, a very unusual weather condition, due to heavy rains and thunderstorms. Such occurrences are common in West Bengal and the Northeast but very rare in a geography like Telangana.” Mulugu District Forest Officer (DFO) Rahul Jadhav Yadav told reporters that the devastation occurred on August 31, possibly due to localised strong wind pressure and a cloudburst. He said the incessant rains appeared to have led to soil erosion, contributing to the uprooting of the trees. New role for fire engines Fire engines from across Andhra parked at BRTS road to clean the accumulated silt in flooded Singh Nagar since the water is receding, in Vijayawada on Wednesday. It was among the worst affected areas due to the rains | Prasant Madugula diagonal wind flattened them? “From the extent of damage, the squall appears to be over 90 kmph. Besides, the winds must have been diagonal, unlike the regular horizontal winds. Horizontal winds do not have the potential to cause such massive destruction,” said environmentalist Donthi Narasimha Reddy drone survey confirms tree loss A drone survey confirmed massive devastation, with thousands of trees of various types being uprooted. Additionally, a field survey is being conducted by forest staff to obtain a more accurate assessment, District Forest Officer Rahul Jadhav Yadav said Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia on Thursday met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Delhi amid speculation that the duo might be given party tickets to fight in the upcoming assembly polls in Haryana. According to sources, Phogat might fight from either Julana in Jind or Charkhi Dadri, while Punia might be fielded from the Badli constituency in Jhajjar district. Deepak Babaria, AICC general secretary incharge for Haryana, said clarity will emerge in one or two days whether both sportspersons will be given Congress tickets. “I don’t know what discussions they had with K C Venugopal. But whatever a solution comes out, it will be acVinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia ceptable to everyone. The ultimate goal is to defeat the BJP If possible, . they would contest elections,” he said. Sources in Delhi said Phogat is likely to get ticket, while Punia may be rewarded in some other way . An announcement is likely on Thursday . It is learnt that by roping in high-profile sports personalities, the Congress wants to strengthen its position among voters in the Jat land state. Phogat has been supporting the farmers’ cause. She recently met the protesting farmers at the Shambhu border, describing herself as “your daughter”. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Haryana on October 5. @ New Delhi Sam Pitroda, a close confidant of the Nehru-Gandhi family and a Rajiv Gandhi aide, on Wednesday claimed that Rahul Gandhi is more intellectual and more of a strategist than his father Rajiv. Pitroda, who heads the Indian Overseas Congress, described both as “custodians of the idea of India”. He made the remarks in an interview with a news agency ahead of Rahul’s visit to the US next week. Pitroda, who had worked with former prime ministers Rajiv Gandhi, P V Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh, V P Singh, Chandra Sekhar and H D Deve Gowda, said Rajiv was a little more doer. “I had an opportunity to see many Pms from very close quarters but the difference between Rahul and Rajiv maybe is that Rahul is much more intellectual, and thinker, Rajiv was a little more doer. They have the same DNA, concerns and feelings for the people, genuinely believe in building a better India for everybody, and are genuinely simple people,” he said. “Rahul is a strategist, more so than Rajiv was. They are products of different times... Poor Rahul has gone through two big shocks in life, the death of his grandmother and his father. So they have had different paths to travel,” he said. Wind projects: TN releases repowering policy Chennai: Tamil Nadu became the first state in the country on Wednesday to come out with a repowering policy for wind energy projects. The policy makes it mandatory for all wind energy generators (WEGs) that have completed 20 years of operational life to take up refurbishment | P4 Eaton to invest `200 cr for R&D centre in TN Chennai: Power management firm Eaton will invest `200 crore in Tamil Nadu to set up a research and development and global application centre in Sholinganallur. The company and Guidance Tamil Nadu in Chicago signed an MoU in this regard in the presence of Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday | P4 In Brunei, Modi takes swipe at China E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took a swipe at China saying India supports a “policy of development, and not expansionism” as he concluded his two-day visit to Brunei Darussalam. Modi’s comment, which did not name any country at a banquet , hosted by Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah came at a time when an aggressive China is engaged in territorial disputes with the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, and Taiwan. “A code of conduct should be finalised in this region,” Modi said, adding: “We support freedom of navigation and overflight under international laws like UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)”. This was the first bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Brunei. According to a joint statement issued after the visit, India and Brunei have elevated their relationship to an ‘enhanced partnership’. After concluding his Brunei visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Singapore on Wednesday for a two-day official visit. This is PM Modi’s fifth visit to Singapore. His last trip to Singapore was in 2018. Modi kicked off his Singapore visit by meeting members of the Indian diaspora and then having dinner with Singapore PM Lawrence Wong. “Happy to have met my friend, PM Lawrence Wong. Had an excellent discussion on a wide range of issues. India cherishes the friendship with Singapore,” Modi wrote on X. PM Modi and PM Wong will have an official bilateral meeting on Thursday . PM Modi is also scheduled to meet Sing apore President T har man Shanamurgaratnam. Rahul more intellectual, Rajiv more doer: Pitroda E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e express read Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, in Singapore, on Wednesday | PTI Four Kovai youth killed in car crash in Chennai E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Chennai Let there be light People gather at Shyambazar Five Point Crossing during a protest against the rape-murder of a trainee woman doctor at the RG Kar hospital, in Kolkata, on Wednesday | PTI FOUR youngsters died in a road accident after the car they were travelling in crashed into the rear of a stationary mini-truck at Semmancheri Kuppam near Kovalam on the East Coast Road (ECR), roughly 30 km from Chennai, around 5.30 am on Wednesday . The deceased were identified as Sultan (23), Ashraf Mohammed (22), Akhil Muhammed (19) and Muhammed Ashik (19). A police officer said all the four were relatives hailing from Coimbatore and were residents of Royapettah in Chennai. The mini-truck was left on the middle of the road after it broke down. Pallikaranai Traffic Investigation Wing (TIW) arrested the truck driver, Ranganathan (55), as he had allegedly not turned on the parking lights of the vehicle to alert other motorists. The police said the car, travelling from Mamallapuram to Chennai, must have been driven at a high speed since the collision displaced the mini-truck almost 180 degrees. CCTV footage from private establishments near the accident spot would be collected soon, they said. The car got crushed under the truck in the impact. The bodies were recovered using a crane and sent to the Chengalpattu Government Hospital. Traffic was disrupted for two hours. race against time 229km covered in 3 hrs on green corridor to save 7-day-old baby E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Coimbatore Neonatal ambulance that transported the newborn baby | Express THE Coimbatore city police created a green corridor – a route without red lights – to transport a seven-day-old baby from Annal Gandhi Memorial G ove r n m e n t H o s p i t a l i n Tiruchy to Sri Ramakrishna Hospital in Coimbatore for an emergency cardiac procedure on Wednesday afternoon. An ambulance carrying the child departed at 12.55 pm in Tiruchy and reached Coimbatore at 3.49 pm, covering 229 km in under three hours on the corridor. The Tiruchy city police issued a “Green Corridor Alert” to facilitate the safe passage of the infant, daughter of Dur- gadevi of Navakudi near Manapparai. The baby was admitted to the Tiruchy government hospital three days ago with breathing difficulties and was then incubated. Despite doctors’ recommendation to treat the infant at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai, the parents chose to transfer her to Coimbatore. Coimbatore Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) S Ashok Kumar said 110 police 110 police personnel were deputed along the Tiruchy Road for the ambulance to maintain a speed of 90-100 kmph within city limits. The entire stretch was closed for public vehicles —DCP S Ashok Kumar personnel were deputed along the Tiruchy Road for the ambulance to maintain 90-100 kmph within the city. “The entire stretch was closed for public once the ambulance entered the limit,” he added. A team of doctors, led by surgeon S Vijay Sadasivam, started the treatment procedure, said the private hospital.