Bison parade spoils picnic

Picnickers at Kodaikanal’s Brian Park have company, and they are not amused.

A herd of bison, who come for a stroll at the tourist spot every noon and evening, is spoiling their party.

Not that anyone has been attacked so far, but the bison fight among themselves and run wildly through the park, creating a ruckus that the picnickers could do without.

“The children and women are very scared. Any attempt to shoo them away is responded with a stare,” said an official of the park.

The park authorities have sought the help of forest officials to permanently drive the animals into the jungle.

The bison also block traffic on the hill station’s roads and sometimes wander into residential areas, complained Williams, a bank official.

The forest officials said the bison were intruding into residential areas because humans were encroaching on their space.

“We are taking steps to provide better forest cover. We hope the bison parade will stop next year,” an official said.

PTI

 

‘Artificial’ heart pumps life

Venkata Krishnaiah has got a new lease of life, thanks to an artificial heart.

Narayana Hrudayalaya, a private super-speciality hospital in Bangalore, claimed to have performed “Asia’s first ever” artificial heart transplant on the 54-year-old earlier this month.

A team of doctors, guided by their counterparts from University of Minnesota in the US, performed the transplant on Krishnaiah, a chronic diabetic and heart patient.

Krishnaiah, an engineer, had quit his job in the state-owned Power Transmission Corporation following heart problems a few years ago.

The surgery cost about Rs 45 lakh, which the hospital bore. The amount included the price of a device named ventrassist, which comes to Rs 35 lakh.

Ventrassist is a blood pump that connects to the left ventricle of the diseased heart to help the ailing heart’s pumping function and assist in restoring a better quality of life.

PTI

 

Book yourself an investment

Before putting your money anywhere, you may want to flip through Investing in India.

The 163-page book deals with trading, capital market regulations, the taxation system and dispute resolution.

The book has also found favour with Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who released it.

The Speaker found the publication to be “better than those the government has brought out till date”.

There was a time “when we had to make many trips abroad to request investors to India. Now, times have changed and this book… will be a guide to even a layman interested to invest in the Indian industry”, he said.

The book has been published by Foxmandal Little Publications.

There are requests for the book to be translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian.

PTI

 

Poll rath rolls

Chandrababu Naidu is trying to spin old magic with a new yatra.

In a bid to recreate the pre-1985 euphoria that the Telugu Desam Party’s Mee-kosam yatra had triggered, Naidu took to the streets with Chaitanya Ratham ahead of the Assembly polls.

What’s more, the Desam put NTR’s son Harikrishna at the wheels of the rath, a 1954 model of the Dodge van.

“A combination of NTR and Harikrishna had driven the TDP to a stellar victory in the 1994 state polls,” said senior Desam leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu.

Naidu’s 150-day yatra is aimed at exposing “the corruption of the Congress” and YSR’s one-man rule.

PTI

chennai: Feast your eyes on royalty at a jewellery exhibition on April 27. Hosted by Alliance Francaise in Egmore, the show will present images of jewels created by Parisian designer houses Cartier, Mauboussin and Van Cleef and Arpels for Indian maharajas.