MANGALURU  MONDAY  JANUARY 06, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS TO BE HELD IN BHUBANESWAR FROM JAN 8 EVENT BEING HELD IN ODISHA FOR THE FIRST TIME Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Droupadi Murmu will arrive in the city on January 8 to attend the 18th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas DIASPORA’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO BE HIGHLIGHTED The three-day convention will begin on January 8. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally inaugurate the event on January 9. A large number of overseas Indians, including top businessmen, entrepreneurs and economists, from over 50 countries are expected to participate. This is the first time that the convention is being held in the state of Odisha ■ ■ The theme of the convention is ‘Diaspora’s Contribution to a Viksit Bharat’. President Murmu will confer the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards 2025 on select members of the Indian diaspora Christine Carla Kangaloo, President of Trinidad and Tobago, will be the chief guest. She will address the convention virtually | P7 2003 WHEN PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS WAS OBSERVED FOR THE FIRST TIME 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 FRESH WOUND FOR INDIA, REPERCUSSIONS LIKELY India fall in Bumrah's absence; focus back on Gambhir after yet another series loss G O M E S H S @ Sydney IT all seemed doomed the moment Jasprit Bumrah walked out of the field here during the fifth and final Test on Saturday . Signs were ominous. There were scans followed by silence. So much was riding on Bumrah the entire series that his absence for a few hours seemed like an eternity.The lead up to the final Test match of the five-Test series here was not ideal after the Melbourne drubbing. There were reports of a distressed dressing room followed by India skipper Rohit Sharma’s decision to ‘rest’ due to failure of form. Sunday was another melancholic day for Indian cricket. The last four wickets fell for 16 runs setting up a target of 162 runs. Without Bumrah, Aussies had a psychological edge.Being Bumrah seemed very difficult on the day when the Indian team marched out without him. India were staring at inevitability Without Bumrah, the attack . lost its teeth as India pacers huffed and puffed to find the rhythm. Australia, despite a few hiccups, had a stranglehold Hoggenekal safari soon, visit Veerappan’s hideouts enroute K S H I V A K U M A R @ Mysuru TWO decades after sandalwood s m u g g l e r Ve e r a p p a n ’ s death, the Forest department is keen to tap tourism potential of the forests, and will soon start a safari from Hoggenekal falls on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border. The department, that has started a safari from Gopinatham, the native village of Veerappan, has registered high demand from tourists for ‘brigand tourism’. The safari will cover 22km of forest, particularly Veerappan’s hideouts in Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary , that has a high destiny of elephants, sambar, deer, bears and other wildlife. However, authorities at Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary wanted to star t the saf ari from Hoggenekal, a favourite destination with tourists on both sides of the border, especially for boating in the river Cauvery and traditional fish dishes. The department plans four trips -- two in the morning and two in the evening -- with a carrying capacity of 25 in two vehicles. They have placed an order for new safari vehicles that will cover deep inside the forest. It has also opened tent cottages in Gopinatham for accommodation, and the increased flow of tourists has made villagers open home stays and rent out rooms in their homes. Hoggenekal falls attracted 3,500 tourists in January 2024, and 9,381 tourists in March, with about 1,400 foreign tourists visiting prominent tourist spots in the district. The forest authorities want to tap local and foreign tourists, which will contribute to the local economy and generate direct and indirect employment. The new safari in Hoggenekal will be the sixth, after Bandipur, K Gudi, PG Palya, Ajjipura and Gopinatham. Lakhs of tourists visiting MM Hills temple can also avail of facilities that will give a major boost to the local economy . Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma (foreground) during the presentation ceremony after the fifth and final Test of the BGT in Sydney, on Sunday | AFP on the contest. Bumrah stood helpless as the TV cameras occasionally panned on him. The stand-in skipper, who bossed the show with the ball in the Border Gavaskar Trophy with 32 wickets in 9 innings, eventually had a resigned look on his face as Aussies won the match by six wickets and the series 3-1. The focus is now on some of the senior players and the team management. With India’s second consecutive Test series loss, there could A little disappointing that I probably missed out on the spiciest wicket of the series but that’s the way it is. I felt a bit of discomfort during my second spell in the first innings Jasprit Bumrah, India stand-in skipper is first 2014-15 This forthewon BGT Australia since 2014-15 series. India had the last four series before this (twice each in Australia and India) potentially be some shake-ups, even in the team management. Head coach Gautam Gambhir too would be facing some hard questions. The whitewash three Test series loss against New Zealand would be the added burden for him. Even Sharma’s future would be discussed. Gambhir felt it was too early to speak about any changes. “It’s too early to talk about it. The series just got over. I think we still have five more months to plan where we want to head towards. But it’s not the right moment right now for me to talk about where we are going to be after five months. A lot of things change in sport. So let’s see before the England series what’s going to happen. But whatever will happen, will happen for the best interest of Indian cricket,” Gambhir said. On the evidence of the series, India had multiple issues. Lack of big totals in the first innings, preference of batting depth over fielding five frontline bowlers, struggling seniors, lack of proper planning...the list goes on. Come England series, India will be hoping to regain order and get back to winning ways. EXPRESS READ Writer Na D’Souza passes away at 87 Stalin announces $1 million reward for decoding Indus Valley script Shivamogga: Kannada novelist and writer, Na D’Souza, 87, passed away at a hospital in Mangaluru on Sunday. He was admitted to Father Muller Hospital on January 3 and died due to kidney failure at 7.49 pm on Sunday. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter | P5 Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Sunday announced a prize of one million US dollars (B8.57 crore) to any individual or any organisation which aids in deciphering the Indus Valley Script which remains a mystery even after a century since its discovery by Sir John Marshal, the then Director General of the Archaeological Survey Of India. “Let us say, the history of the Indian subcontinent cannot be written ignoring the Tamil language,” he added | P5 student Coast Guard helicopter IIM-Bdead found goes down in Gujarat, on campus 3 crew members killed EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bengaluru D I L I P S I N G H K S H AT R I YA @ Ahmedabad THREE crew members of an advanced light helicopter (ALH-Dhruv) of the Indian Coast Guard were killed when the chopper crashed and caught fire at Gujarat’s Porbandar airport on Sunday The chopper, which was . on a routine training sortie, went down while trying to land on the runway The au. thorities have launched an inquiry to determine what led to the accident. According to an Indian Coast Guard statement, the ALH MK-III helicopter 859 met with a mishap at Porbandar airport runway at 12.15 pm on Friday It said the . helicopter had two pilots and one air crew diver. The crew were rushed to the Porbandar government hospital, where they were declared brought dead. “The reasons leading to the incident are being investigated by a Board of Inquiry,” the statement read. The crew members killed in the accident are Commandant (JG) Saurabh, Deputy Commandant S K Yadav, and Rescue workers at the crash site at Porbandar airport on Sunday | PTI Pradhan Navik Manoj. The incident comes four months after another Coast Guard helicopter crashed into the Arabian Sea off Porbandar, killing three crew members. The September 2024 crash occurred during a critical evacuation mission, as the helicopter was attempting to rescue an injured man from the oil tanker Hari Leela, situated nearly 30 nautical miles from Porbandar. The indigenously developed ALH-Dhruv is a twin engine, multi-role, multimission new generation helicopter. So far, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has produced over 340 Dhruv helicopters. A 28-year-old Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIMB) postgraduate student died after he accidentally fell from the second floor of the hostel building on the campus located on Bannerghatta Road in Bengaluru. The deceased has been identified as Nilay Kailashbhai Patel, a second-year MBA student. He hailed from Gujarat. The police said the incident happened on Saturday night when Patel was returning to his room after celebrating his birthday at a friend’s room on the campus. The police said that the incident came to light when Patel’s body was found by a security guard at around 6.45 am on Sunday. A preliminary probe has established that Patel, whose birthday was on Saturday had , gone to celebrate his birthday at a friend’s room in a different block of the hostel on the campus. He left the friend’s room at around 11.30 pm and returned P5 to his room in ‘F’ Block.