BY: Faizan Wani

 Srinagar: Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (BOSE) on Wednesday declared the result of Higher Secondary Part-I examination for Kashmir division with 64 per cent students being declared successful.

In total, 49749 students were declared successful. According to the wire service—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), officials in the JKBOSE said that a total of 49749 students appeared in the examinations last year while 36956 out of them passed the examinations as per the result declared today.

They said the pass percentage of boy students has been recorded as 73 per cent while as the overall pass percentage of girl students is 76 per cent.

The officials told KNO added that 9896 students out of over 40000 students including boys and girls got distinction in the test. They further stated that 12105 students got reappear and 688 students have failed to qualify any of the subjects in their stream.

Pertinently, the Class 11th examinations started in the month of November and culminated in the month of December last year.

Notably, in wake of the internet gag in the Valley, the BOSE has switched to the manual procedure and has declared the results through gazettes.

Pertinently, the class 10th and 12th results were also declared via gazettes, SMS in view of internet clampdown in Kashmir.(KNO)

Srinagar: With apprehensions among people in Kashmir valley of getting new coronavirus through consumption of meat, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Wednesday said there is no risk to catch the disease from eating chicken or mutton.

Dispelling misconceptions, DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan said it is safe to eat properly cooked meat. “You can eat chicken or mutton without fear of getting coronavirus which is now named as COVID-19,” Dr Hassan said.

“However, one needs to make sure that the meat is not raw, uncooked or partially cooked,” he said, adding till date, there is no evidence that people have not got the disease after eating meat that has been properly cooked.

Dr Hassan said another misconception doing the rounds is that one might contract the virus from imported goods packed in affected countries. “The virus is not going to be transported on a box,” he said, adding “there is no evidence that anyone has gotten infected from a package.”

Dr Hassan said COVID-19 virus spreads from person to person via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. “People who are nearby can get infected by inhaling these droplets containing the virus. The droplets can travel as far as 6 feet; outside that zone the risk is much lower,” he said.

And, he said so far the novel virus has spread only among people who were in close personal contact.

He said studies have shown that the virus has infected more men than women and most of the patients were between 49 and 56 years of age. “An interesting observation was that children seem to be less likely affected by the virus,” he said.

“Majority of patients who died had underlying medical conditions like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.”

Dr Hassan said the most frequent reported symptoms of confirmed cases were fever and cough and in severe cases difficulty in breathing. “With no specific cure and vaccine for the virus, people should continue to take precautions like hand washing and cough etiquette,” he said

“So far, the novel virus has killed more than 1,100 people and infected over 45,000 people worldwide,” Dr Hassan added.

BY: SHEIKH QAYOOM

Srinagar: As humankind continues to breach nature’s borders to encroach into the habitat of wildlife species, more and more incidents of man-animal conflict are occurring across the Kashmir Valley.

Just two days back, a leopard and a mother bear with cubs were rescued in time by the officials of the wildlife protection department from a heavily populated area of south Kashmir.

“After rescue, these animals were set free in the forest area so that they return to their natural territory”, said an official of the wildlife protection department.

Ironically, instead of helping the rescue effort, dozens of locals were seen clicking mobile phone pictures of these wild animals as they remained dazed after being surrounded by so many people.

Environmentalists say the problem is much bigger and of greater consequence than it appears to the common man.

“Fast growing human population has pushed the boundaries of the wild animals far deeper into the forests and other habitats of these species.

“Look at any forest area of the Valley and you will find that humans have done serious encroachments there. Felling forests for timber and fuel, or claiming forest land for cultivation is a common phenomenon in J&K.

“This forces the wildlife species to move down into populated areas for food and sometimes in sheer bewilderment and fear”, said a local environmentalist.

Another important reason for man-animal conflict is the increasing numbers of wildlife species because poaching and unauthorised killing of animals for fur etc has almost stopped due to the presence of the security forces in forest areas.

“Poachers hardly dare to venture into the forests. Security forces deployed on counter insurgency duties dominate forest areas to check infiltration of militants. This has discouraged poaching and hunting in these forests”, said a police officer.

Srinagar city has an entire range of Zabarwan hills those have been declared as protected areas for wildlife species.

Areas overlooking the Raj Bhawan, hotel Lalit, Hari Niwas guest house and even the entire high security Gupkar Road and the Boulevard are protected areas.

There are leopards, bears, jackals, partridges and dozens of other wildlife species in these areas.

In addition to this, Dachigam national park is situated barely 14 Kilometres from city centre Lal Chowk in Srinagar.

Dachigam is home to ‘Hangul’, a sub-species of red deer found only in Kashmir and nowhere else in the World.

As construction of houses etc continues in areas surrounding the Dachigam national park, this has caused stress on various species living inside the park.

A government sheep farm which existed inside the park for decades was re-located two years back to avoid competition between sheep and other grazers among the wildlife species.

“There are pastures those overlap into the Dachigam park and flocks of sheep, goats and cattle are taken up into these pastures by nomadic goatherds during the summer months.

“This is another grey area that needs immediate attention to ensure that the population of Hangul and other species remains unaffected”, said Bashir Ahmad, a veterinarian who headed the sheep farm inside the national park for three years in the past.

Thousands of migratory birds come each year to spend the winter months in bird reserves and other lakes and water bodies of the Valley.

Vast areas of these bird reserves like the Hokarsar, Mirgund, Hygam and Shallabugh have been encroached as houses and other structures including shops and godowns have come up in these areas.

This has shrunk the areas of these bird reserves forcing the migratory birds to inhabit unprotected water bodies where poachers kill these birds.

In a nutshell, the man-animal conflict in Kashmir is the handiwork of human beings whose greed for land and space has obliterated the fine ecological borderline because of which the two had peacefully coexisted for centuries.