Forest department officials examine the owl before releasing it in the forest. A Telegraph picture

A barn owl sits in judgment

It was 11am in the morning and Tezpur’s munsif court had just begun its proceedings when a big owl flew in and settled down on the judge’s table.

Murmurs broke the hush in the court chamber and official proceedings came to a halt.

Everyone’s attention was focussed on the magnificent bird, which was identified as a species resembling the barn owl.

Though the people present at the court made desperate attempts to shoo the bird away, it refused to budge.

After a round of coaxing, the judge was forced to adjourn the court and make necessary arrangements for the bird to be removed.

The forest department personnel were finally summoned to catch the bird. It was later “released” in a nearby forest.

“We simply have no idea where the bird came from. It suddenly flew in through a window and sat right on the judge’s table,” a lawyer said.

A forest official said barn owls were slowly becoming extinct in the region.

The verdict from experts: prompt measures should be taken to save this rare bird.

Fishy friends

The Assam government has decided to launch a scheme known as Matsya Mitra (friend of fish) to impart training and technical assistance on scientific fish breeding to unemployed rural youths.

At the end of training, the fisheries department will gift them special kits containing books, study material and equipment for fish farming.

Fisheries minister Nurjamal Sarkar said the participants would be given a certificate at the end of the training.

With funds from the government, the trained youths will, in turn, organise awareness programmes on fish farming in their villages.

By 2008, the fisheries department hopes to have trained over 1,000 youths.

New initiative

For students of the Northeast, lack of preparatory textbooks have always been a bane, and book hunting an onus.

But thanks to an initiative by a professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, their troubles may finally be over.

Scholars Without Borders, an initiative of Ram Ramaswamy, whose aim is to make books available to all, is now focusing on the Northeast.

All you need to do is log onto their website www.scholarswithoutborders.in or SMS the order of just about any book and it will be delivered without any extra charge.

To live up to its name and reach out to the people, who know little about this platform, they have decided to campaign in the Northeast soon.

Functional for the past two years, Scholars Without Borders has a wide range of books on its catalogue — agriculture, art and architecture, economics, education, law, film studies, children and music being some of the topics.