GANJAM NEWS

Olive Ridley turtles arrive on time near Rushikulya near Berhampur

Project Smile India

Rushikulya is one of the biggest mating grounds of Olive Ridleys in the world

Measures have been initiated to protect these mating Olive Ridleys

At present small number of mating pairs are visible which is expected to increase

Fishing has been banned in the area where these turtles are congregating

BERHAMPUR: Rare and endangered Olive Ridley turtles have started to arrive for mating near Rushikulya rookery (about 30km from Berhampur and 30km from the famous Tara Tarini hill Shrine) in Ganjam district is considered as one of the biggest mating grounds of Olive Ridleys in the world. According to officials of the forest department they are now gathering up at a distance of seven kilometres from the coast line. At present small number of mating pairs are visible. But a large number of turtles can be seen. Mating of Olive Ridleys picks up in this area in the last week of December and January. This year these endangered marine turtles have arrived in time.

The Olive Ridleys usually start their mating in the sea near their preferred nesting coast. According to experts these rare turtles have a single mating season in a year. After the end of the mating season most male turtles usually return back leaving behind the female turtles to lay their eggs. The nesting of Olive Ridleys starts from the end of January in sporadic manner which picks up in February.

Measures have been initiated to protect these mating Olive Ridleys in the sea. Fishing has been banned in the area where these turtles are congregating. This involves the stretch of sea up to a distance of ten kilometres from the coast line of Rushikulya rookery. Extension of fishing ban area extends to ten kilometres towards the north and ten kilometres towards south of the rookery.

Illegal entry of fishing trawlers to this region is being checked through regular patrolling at sea said Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer. A team of forest officials is also monitoring the Rushikulya rookery coast line where the turtles would lay eggs after two months. They are also documenting the carcasses of turtles found on this coast to assess the number and cause of deaths of Olive Ridleys out here. DFO said this year deposition was quite good at Rushikulya river coast, which means the turtles would have a good stretch of beach to lay their eggs.

Source: The Hindu, Photo source: Project Smile India & Flickr

New and extended trains that pass through Berhampur City

Haldia-Chennai (new weekly superfast), Paralakhemundi-Puri (Earlier Palasa-Puri) and Bhubaneswar-Jagdalpur (Earlier Bhubaneswar-Koraput) trains pass through Berhampur city
BERHAMPUR: As announced in the last Railway Budget the 2755 Chennai-Haldia weekly Super Fast Express has started operation from December 9 from Chennai. The train will leave Chennai at 2.35p.m every Thursday and will arrive at Howrah at 06.10p.m on Friday. In the return direction, 2756 Haldia-Chennai weekly Super Fast Express will leave Haldia at 11.30 am every Saturday and will arrive at Chennai at 5 pm on Sunday. This train has one AC-2 tier, five Sleeper Class, six General Second Class and two guard cum luggage vans having stoppages at Ongole, Vijaywada, Rajahmundry, Vizianagaram, Berhampur, Khurda Road, Cuttack, Jajpur-Keonjhar Road, Kharagpur, Panskura and Tamluk between Chennai Central & Haldia.

Similarly, Ministry of Railways has decided to extend the services of Bhubaneswar-Berhampur-Koraput Hirakhand Express upto Jagadalpur and Puri- Berhampur-Palasa passenger to Parlakhemundi w.e.f. 18th December 2010 in East Coast Railway jurisdiction. 217 Puri-Palasa passenger which is leaving Puri at 07.50a.m and arriving Palasa at 03.25p.m will leave Palasa at 04.30p.m and will arrive at Paralakhemundi at 06.45p.m in the extended portion. In the return direction, 218 Paralakhemundi-Puri Passenger will leave Paralakhemundi at 07.45a.m and will arrive at Puri at 09.05p.m. This train will stop at Pundi, Rauthpuram, Naupada, Tekkali, Pedasana, Temburu, Ganguvada, and Pathapatnam between Palasa and Paralakhemundi. The timings of 217/218 Puri-Paralakhemundi-Puri passenger will remain unchanged between Puri & Palasa. The train will run as a special train on the flagging off day of the extended portion and the regular run will be from Puri w.e.f 19th December and from Paralakhemundi w.e.f 20th Dec’2010. 8447 Bhubaneswar-Berhampur-Koraput Hirakhand Express, which is leaving Bhubaneswar at 07.35p.m and arriving Koraput at 09.45a.m on the next day, will leave Koraput at 10.05a.m and will arrive at Jagadalpur at 12.40p.m in the extended portion. In the return direction, 8448 Jagadalpur-Berhampur-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express will leave Jagadalpur at 03.30p.m and will arrive at Bhubaneswar at 08.25a.m on the next day. This train will stop at Jeypore and Jagadalpur in the extended portion. The timings of 8447/8448 Bhubaneswar-Jagadalpur-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express will remain unchanged between Bhubaneswar and Koraput. The train will run as a special train on the day of flagging off of the extended portion and the regular run will be from Bhubaneswar on 18th December and from Jagadalpur from 19th Dec’2010.

BERHAMPUR: The department of journalism and mass communication has started the campus radio in Berhampur University. Vice-chancellor Jayanta Kumar Mohapatra officially inaugurated “Bhanjabani”. The vice-chancellor appreciated the efforts on part of the staff and students in this and also highlighted the decisive role of campus radio as to how it promotes one to be an effective communicator. He further encouraged the students to take part and gain much out of this opportunity. Third semester student Sulachana Nayak was the anchor of the day. Rajeev Lochan Rathan and Sangram Kesari Das Mohapatra, being at the desk, furnished news collected by the students. Mohapatra has also announced to set up a multimedia lab for the department by March 2011. Laxmi Narayana Rout, chairman of the post graduate council, encouraged the students to avail of the opportunity. Sunil Kant Behera, J.S. Giri Rao, Pradeep Mohapatra, Jaganmohan Mohapatra and Sanat Panda guided the students in running the campus radio.

Source: The Telegraph

Co-operative University proposed at Gopalpur near Berhampur city

Following story by Sunil Patnaik from The Telegraph            

BERHAMPUR: Berhampur Municipal Corporation, which was declared the firstmunicipality of Orissa 143 years ago, has initiated steps to construct a new building to accommodate various departments including administrative, engineering, planning, revenue, health and community welfare. “The building would be built at a cost of Rs 15 crore. Berhampur was declared as the first municipality of Orissa in 1867 and two blocks for housing the office of the mayor and commissioner, besides the office of the nizarat, were built by the British rulers then,”said mayor Siba Shankar Dash. “These two blocks would be untouched and kept as heritage structures. The present building, housing the PWD and the health department built half-a-century ago along with the mini park would be razed and we would build an attractive structure there,”he added. The architect of the proposed building, Prabir Kumar Dash, said it would be a five-storey structure with stilts and basement with parking facilities for two-wheelers and light four-wheelers. “The construction of the new building would start from January end. The green building technology to build the structure would be the only of its kind in south Orissa,” he said. The five-storey building would come up over an area of 18,200 square feet to accommodate 20 VIP rooms, more than 80 general rooms, two small conference halls of 720 sq ft each and one large conference hall of 5,100 sq ft. “We will also implement solar energy techniques. The solar cell panels would be embedded above the roof slab of the central conference hall on the fifth floor, said Dash. However, the corporation vehicles would be parked outside the campus.

Source: The Telegraph

Flying Training Institute at Berhampur takes off

Excerpts from a report by Sunil Patnaik in The Telegraph

BERHAMPUR: After Bhubaneswar, Oissa’s second flying club started functioning from the Rangeilunda airstrip near Berhampur city last week. The club accommodates 100 plus pilot trainees of the Government Aviation Training Institute (Gati), Bhubaneswar. “As the Bhubaneswar airport runway suffers from traffic congestion most of the time, the civil aviation ministry was in search of a suitable substitute and considered Rangeilunda airstrip as the best,” Capt. M.S. Mander, flight instructor in-charge of Gati, said in an exclusive interview to The Telegraph. “We have at present 100 plus trainee pilots at Gati, Bhubaneswar, and we impart aviation training for one-and-half to two years. We mainly provide training on two courses — Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) and Private Pilot Licence (PPL). We are now doing six-day camp here and would again go back to Bhubaneswar,” Capt. Mander said. According to this provision, if one has 200-hours of flying experience, he or she is eligible to pilot a commercial plane and it is 50 hours for a private plane. Gati had five training planes including two Cessna-172 (four seater), two Cessna-152 (two seater) and one twin engine Pipper Seneca (six seater), Capt. Mander said. Indian economy is booming and aviation sector has greater prospects. “As corporate airlines are purchasing lots of aircraft and 34 airfields are coming up in the entire country, the future of Gopalpur and the trainee pilots is very bright. There is good connectivity between small airfields and more people are travelling in plane for business purposes,” said Capt. Mander.

However, Capt. Mander stressed on the need to improve the Rangeilunda airstrip. “We have urged the district administration to extend the present runway of the Rangeilunda airstrip so that regional aircraft can come. If that could be done, Gopalpur could bet air connectivity with Calcutta, Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad and other important places. This would help Gopalpur to attract more tourists,” Capt. Mander said. Capt. Mander had surveyed the Rangeilunda airstrip along with Wing Commander Pradeep Chakraborty and Gopalpur MLA Pradip Panigrahi on October 12. A senior pilot of the ministry of civil aviation also visited the Rangeilunda airstrip a few months ago and asked the works engineer to develop it as a visual flight rule (VFR) airstrip and to provide at least two rooms to conduct the pilot training institute. Rangeilunda airstrip is situated on 40-acres and is under the control of the public works department. “Though the runway of the airstrip is used only 8-10 times in a year, we are maintaining it regularly. The length of the present runway is 750-meter and it is ready now for the flying training institute,” said P. K. Das, executive engineer, PWD. Rangeilunda is located at a distance of around 5km from Berhampur and is adjacent to Berhampur University. The Britishers built the Rangeilunda airstrip during the Second World War.According to sources, the defence establishments at nearby Golabandha, chief minister, VVIPs and corporate executives use the runway very often to reach Berhampur and other places in southern Orissa.

Berhampur University authority had provided four quarters in the Teachers’ Colony to the PWD on rent after the civil aviation ministry had sought four residential quarters and an office building for the Flying Training Institute. “We agreed to provide the quarters on rent as per provision,” said Prof. Jayant Mahapatra, vice-chancellor, Berhampur University. “The Aviation Training Centre, Bhubaneswar, also requested us alert students of the six boys’ hostels (including Rushikulya Hostel, Bansadhara Hostel, Nagabali Hostel and Jogendra Hostel) who usually use the airstrip as a thoroughfare. Though we have our separate approach road from the hostel to the PG departments, I have already communicated the message to the hostel inmates and all have agreed not to use the runway when the flying training institute begins to function,” the VC said. But the runway is yet to be free from trespassers. Onlookers gather there to catch a view of an aircraft landing or taking off. “The obstruction on the runway must be tackled immediately,” said Capt. Mander. R.D. Kabilan from Chennai, who is a trainee pilot, is happy with the course and Gati. “We have one chief flying instructor Capt. M.S. Mander and four other Instructors including Capt. Sandip Pradhan, Capt. Sandip Hati, Capt. Sukhnaib Singh and Capt. Ashok Kumar Sanday,” he said. “Though I am far away from home, the hospitality of the people of Orissa have impressed me,” he said. Kabilian along with five other trainee pilots are presently staying at the Inspection Bungalow at Gopalpur.

Source: The Telegraph