Fossil Park Proposed In Asifabad After Archeological Discovery In Telangana

A team of researchers recently found prehistoric tools in a limestone cave, along fossils that are around 6.5 crore years old in the district in Telangana.

A recent research project undertaken in Telangana’s Komaram Bheem Asifabad district revealed a new fossil site, adding to the collection of the already fossil-rich state. Researchers found gastropod fossils which, they say, lived around 6.5 crore years ago in the Ginnedhari forest range of Asifabad district. This discovery has led archaeologists and historians to demand a fossil park in the district. 

The team was led by Dr MA Srinivasan, General Secretary of Public Research Institute for History, Archaeology & Heritage (PRIHA). Forest Range Officer Thodishetty Pranay, who is also a member of PRIHA, conducted field surveys in the area to recognise and collect the fossils.
Speaking to #KhabarLive, Dr MA Srinivas said, “Mancherial and Asifabad are two districts in Telangana that are rich in fossils. In the south, Tamil Nadu has fossil parks but Andhra Pradesh and Telangana do not have a fossil park. There were plans to set up a fossil park in this area but it did not materialise. The government must consider the idea and take it up.” 

A fossil park is a site that is rich in plant, animal and even human fossils. Fossils can reveal very interesting details about lifeforms that existed on earth several millions of years ago, and help scientists study the process of evolution. Once fossils are found, geological research helps decide the age by studying the sedimentation process.

“For around a month, the members of the team have been surveying the area hoping to find fossils. The snail-like species has been identified as the Physa Tirpolensis by eminent paleontologist and retired Deputy Director General of the Geological Survey of India (GSI), Chakilam Venugopal Rao.” Interestingly, similar gastropod fossils were discovered three decades ago by a GSI official in Terpole village of Telangana’s Sangareddy district, from which Physa Tirpolensis— belonging to genus Physa— got its name.

Recently, the team also discovered a limestone cave in Asifabad with prehistoric tools including a hand-axe and a cleaver. 

“After the finding of a prehistoric limestone cave in the same region and now the fossils, the potential and importance for research in Asifabad is once again reiterated,” said Dr Srinivasan. #KhabarLive 

#OpEd: Appropriation Bill Imbroglio In Andhra Pradesh A Blow To Polity

By Dr. Shelly Ahmed

The Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, while commenting on the performance of duties, had once said, "The true source of right is a duty. If we all discharge our duties, rights will not be far to seek. If leaving duties unperformed, we run after rights, they will escape us like will­o'-the­wisp, the more we pursue them, the farther they will fly."

The imbroglio in the AP Legislative Council over the passing of the Appropriation Bill leading to sine die adjournment without even introduction of the Bill comes as a body blow to our polity. Does any government or its Opposition, for that matter, have a right to stretch its political agenda to such an extent that it buries its duty towards the citizens' fathoms deep?

A Tale Of Modern Slavery Has Horrified America, But In India It's A Familiar Story

It's the story of Eudocia Tomas Pulido, or Lola, the family nanny who was given as a "gift" to Alex Tizon's mother in the Philippines, who followed the family to the United States, and raised Alex and his siblings. She was not paid. She was not allowed to go back to visit her family. She was abused by Tizon's parents and, in the end, when she was finally "free", she had nowhere to go.

Genetic Isolation in Casteist India Could Could Render Some People More Vulnerable to Disease

There is reduced genetic variation among the people of some subpopulations because they have been genetically isolated due to various factors – such as caste.

The occurrence of genetic diseases in certain subpopulations in India and other countries in South Asia is well known. Indian scientists now suspect that this could be due to genetic isolation caused by endogamous marriages over generations.

At The Root Of All Lynchings: Vigilantes Don’t Expect To Be Punished, Victims Don’t Expect To Get Justice

Pehlu Khan, a Muslim, was lynched by Hindu criminals, professing to be cow vigilantes. The incident fills one with grief and anger. Around the same time, Farook, a Muslim atheist in Coimbatore, was lynched by Muslim criminals, claiming to be true believers.

Search deeper and you will find the case of a Hindu doctor lynched by a mainly Muslim mob, over a cricket dispute. Hindu rail passengers lynched a Muslim youth, in what began as a dispute over seats.

Inside Chandrababu Naidu’s plan to make Andhra Pradesh a sunrise state

Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s ‘Sunrise Andhra Pradesh-Vision 2029’ aims to make the state India’s most developed, overcoming the legacy issues that came with the creation of Telangana.

In the calendar of the state administration of Andhra Pradesh, the second day of the week is not a Monday. Instead, it is designated Polavaram day—after the ambitious multi-purpose irrigation project that entails interlinking the unruly waters of the Godavari and the Krishna to bridge the water deficit in the latter’s river basin.

Mother of all land scams has blown in the face of KCR government in Telangana

The illegal deal is reported to have caused a loss of Rs 587 crore to the state exchequer.

Just a week after K Chandrasekhar Rao claimed no government land in Telangana had passed on to private hands, the chief minister is on the back foot. It has now come to light that Telangana Rashtra Samiti senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Kesava Rao's family purchased 50 acres of land in Hafeezpur village in Ibrahimpatnam mandal near Hyderabad.

Drought-led migration makes girls prey to trafficking, pushes Andhra Pradesh's Kadiri towards HIV/AIDS

Dr Mano Ranjan has been working at the Institute of Infectious Diseases situated on the Anantapur-Kadiri Road in Andhra Pradesh since 2009. This is the premier institute for the entire Rayalaseema region (southern Andhra Pradesh) for those suffering from HIV/AIDS. Dr Ranjan gets 25 new HIV/AIDS patients every day. "It is a ticking time bomb," he says.

Thirty percent of the cases are from hamlets in and around Kadiri, unarguably the HIV/AIDS capital of Andhra Pradesh. The hospital has 26,000 plus registered cases, 8,000 of whom are widows. It is shocking that most of the victims are in the age group of 25 to 40. Another 3,000 cases are children born most often to an HIV-positive parent.

Farmers in Telangana’s tur belt don’t know whether they should grow the pulse this year

Constant swing in prices of the dal and tardy implementation of the government’s procurement mechanism have made life tough for farmers. 

Husnabad and Kadangal are just 110 km from the cyber city of Hyderabad. In the last week of March, it was a beginning of a long dry spell, with temperatures hovering around the 40-degree Celsius mark. The Kharif season of 2016 had ended. The villages wore a lazy look. Given the perennial water scarcity in the region, most of the fields were dry. Nothing could be cultivated after the autumn harvest except for a few patches where summer paddy was visible, thanks to some irrigation from private bore wells.

Telangana, Andhra Pradesh Reel Under Heatwave, But Petty Politics Takes Centrestage

As the mercury soared to a new 10-year record of 43 degrees Celsius in Hyderabad recently – a heatwave for the third consecutive year — the demand for spicy buttermilk or masala majiga too soared. This product of Heritage, a unit owned by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, notched an all-time high business of nearly 12 lakh sachets being sold by 17 April. It also kicked off a political satire on social media that summer did not take note of bifurcation of state and that it did not differentiate between people of Telangana and Andhra.

The Indian dogs that are dying out because everyone wants a Labrado

It’s easy to identify what a German Shepherd, Labrador, and Saint Bernard have in common: they’re furry, adorable canine companions with massive fan bases all over the world. But what about the Chippiparai, Jonangi, and Kombai?

Even ardent animal lovers might stumble a bit here, but these too are dog breeds which have another thing in common—they’re all Indian. Skilled, sturdy, and well adapted to the country’s tropical climate, these dogs are great workers and excellent companions. Unfortunately, the other characteristic Indian breeds share is that they’re disappearing.

This Great-Grandmother From Andhra Pradesh Is One Of India's Most Popular YouTubers

She has over 2.5 lakh followers on YouTube. With a cotton sari as her uniform and an open paddy field as her kitchen, Mastanamma isn't your usual celebrity chef. 

Yet, the grey-haired great-grandmother from Andhra Pradesh has become an unlikely YouTube sensation thanks to her traditional cooking techniques.

Mastanamma is the star of a nine-month-old YouTube cooking channel called Country Foods, with over 2.5 lakh subscribers from within and outside India. Though she has no birth certificate to prove her age, Mastanamma says she is 106, which makes her possibly the oldest YouTube star in the world.

Telangana IPS officer in trouble? News report alleges serious abuse of power

Tension is brewing between a newspaper and an IPS officer from Telangana. This after the newspaper  claimed to have accessed a report that makes serious allegations against the police officer.

In a piece for The New Indian Express on Thursday, Vikram Sharma reported that an enquiry by the Telangana State Intelligence Department had made several charges against IPS officer Tejdeep Kaur Menon, Director General, Special Protection Force.

Quoting the intelligence report, TNIE claims that Tejdeep was involved in misappropriation of funds meant for the Swachh Hyderabad programme and also harassed hundreds of Telangana SPF employees, including 32 posted at her house.

According to the report, these officers were allegedly used as "drivers, carpenters, cooks, attenders, gardeners and others."

The report also alleges that she showed favouritism to Andhra personnel, while also "deliberately delaying the process of distribution of SPF personnel between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh by refusing to relieve AP-native personnel." 

Lastly, TNIE also reported that "a water tanker from the SPF academy, Ameenpur, makes 150 trips to Tejdeep’s residence every month and she was faking all bills."

Tejdeep was promoted to her present post in May last year. Before that, she had served as Additional Director General, (Sports), for the combined Andhra Pradesh Government.

She is known locally, for attempting to make the Ameenpur Panchayat, garbage-free, while also taking steps to clean the Ameenpur lake.

In a rejoinder to the TNIE report, Tejdeep issued the following statement: 

"The allegations about internal organizational and resource matters of what is a security organization coupled with imputed motives of working against the interests of the Telangana state are tenuous and baseless...It is apparent that the report was written and published only to tarnish my name and reputation. The reports are highly slanderous and intended to malign the work that the TSSPF and I are involved in...The report is per se defamatory as it is a deliberate attempt to needlessly, or at the behest of some, to project me in the darkest light possible and to scandalize me in public and tar my reputation."

The INNLive reached out and spoke to both, the TNIE reporter and the IPS officer in question. Both of them assured that they would revert shortly, but did not.

The copy will be updated if and when they respond. 

Will Indian Politicians Ever Stop Using Champion Athletes For Personal Glory?

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

Fights over Sakshi Malik, PV Sindhu and Dipa Karmakar highlight the disturbing mentality of our political class.

It is said that history only remembers the winners. History may well be kind to victors, but there is one section of society which uses them like trending topics on Twitter or Google, shamelessly riding their popularity to draw attention to themselves.

Health Crisis: India's Wealthier States Are Showing An Alarming Decline In Immunisation Process

By NEWSCOP | INNLIVE

The warning signs from the latest National Family Health Survey data have gone unnoticed so far.

A fair amount of media attention has been given to the resurgence of diphtheria in Kerala, which has been attributed to some Muslims rejecting immunisation efforts due to misinformation. However, a much more dangerous and widespread trend of declining immunisation rates as evidenced by the recent National Family Health Survey 4 data, seems to have gone entirely unnoticed.

Chennai 'Oil Leak' Contaminated Ground Water 4 Years Ago Hasn’t Been Cleaned Yet

By VINITA RAM | INNLIVE

Residents of Tondiarpet in Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s constituency say they don’t have the money to fight the case any longer and want an immediate solution.

Four years after an oil pipeline leak contaminated the groundwater in North Chennai’s Tondiarpet neighbourhood, those affected by the contamination are on the brink of despair after repeated appeals to authorities hasn’t led to a clean-up.

Analysis: A Dubious Encounter In Telangana Revives Memories Of A Decade-Old Mystery Over Sohrabuddin Case

By NEWS KING | INNLIVE

The killing of a Maoist renegade-turned-extortionist near Hyderabad by police raises uncomfortable questions.

A hushed silence can perhaps best describe the mood inside the Telangana police, 48 hours after Mohammed Nayeemuddin, a Maoist renegade-turned-extortionist, was gunned down in Shadnagar, 50 km from Hyderabad, on Monday.

An Alien Fish Is Wreaking Havoc In Krishna River After It Was Linked To Godavari River

By KRISHNA RAO | INNLIVE

Fishermen say the non-native rakashi fish, which no one wants to buy, is damaging their nets and keeping other fish away.

The linking of the Godavari and the Krishna rivers in Andhra Pradesh, which was inaugurated last year, seems to have led to an unforseen problem.

Fishermen in Guntur district’s Tadepally village on the banks of the Prakasam Barrage, which straddles the Krishna, are complaining that a species of fish,

Investigation: The Toil Of 20,000 Child Workers Are Behind The Healthy Exports Of 'Illegal Mica Mines'

By NEETA BHALLA | INNLIVE

At least seven child labourers have died in the mines since June, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation has found.

In the depths of India’s illegal mica mines, where children as young as five work alongside adults, lurks a dark, hidden secret – the cover-up of child deaths with seven killed in the past two months, a Thomson Reuters Foundation investigation has revealed.

Adivasis: Cheated Of The Constitution

By MOHAN GURUSWAMY | INNLIVE

Tribal people who account for 8.2% of India’s population can be broadly classified into three groupings. The first grouping consists of populations who predate the Indo-Aryan migrations. These are termed by many anthropologists as the Austro-Asiatic-speaking Australoid people. The Central Indian Adivasis belong to this grouping.