Need key steps to stop Hanguls from extinction

Need key steps to stop Hanguls from extincting

Several reasons fuel the decline: the animal’s habitat is fragmented, a challenge for a herbivore. This must be restored, on mission mode. Also, very few breeding females exist and deathly attacks by other predators reduce numbers. New Delhi With Kashmir in focus, let’s also focus on saving the Hangul, or Kashmir Stag- a critically endangered deer found nowhere else. I’ve schlepped across the steep paths of Dachigam, desperate to see a Hangul close-up. I caught a silhouette, far away. It was a thrill, for less than 200 of them remain.…

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Kashmiris need good administration, not statehood or elections

Kashmiris need good administration, not statehood or elections

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-led central government has started its first major political outreach in the Kashmir valley on 5 August 2019, when the special status of the erstwhile state was revoked and its geography was bifurcated into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Under this outreach, New Delhi convened an all-party meeting on July 24 with the valley’s elite club of political leaders—including the chiefs of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and National Conference (NC)—which was a significant development. After the meeting, New Delhi said that exercise of delimitation and…

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Asaduddin Owaisi targets PM Modi, Questions basis of Delimitation Process in J&K

Asaduddin Owaisi targets PM Modi, Questions basis of Delimitation Process in J&K

Asaduddin Owaisi questioned the centre on the discussions of delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir. On what basis will it be done? All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi called Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Kashmir policy “a failure”. He also questioned the Centre’s discussions surrounding delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir on how they intend to do it and on what basis will it be done. Asaduddin Owaisi said: “Delimitation has been talked about in PM Modi’s (Narendra Modi) meeting. What kind of delimitation is this? How will you do it?…

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We need a bold, imaginative approach to peace in Kashmir: Radha Kumar

We need a bold, imaginative approach to peace in Kashmir - Radha Kumar

The roadmap offered by the Modi administration concedes so little that it seems grudging at best and a diktat at worst Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir was understandably hyped, given that it came after almost two years, during which most of the then state’s political leaders were imprisoned by his administration. That the meeting was cordial and each of the 14 participants spoke freely is another plus. Yet, the broad framework presented by the Prime Minister is disturbing. By saying delimitation first, elections…

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Sikh body admits missing girl from Kashmir who converted to Islam does not want to return

Sikh body admits missing girl from Kashmir who converted to Islam does not want to return

Jagir Kaur informed that the girl’s family and relatives had approached SGPC, requesting them to try and convince their daughter to revert to Sikhism and come back home. Speaking to the media about the reported abduction and religious conversion of two Sikh girls in Kashmir, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) president Bibi Jagir Kaur informed that one of the two, who was married off to a Muslim man, does not want to reconvert and neither does she want to come back to her family. According to a report by The…

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Why GoI is suddenly ‘Looking West’, talking to the Taliban & Pakistan

Why GoI is suddenly ‘Looking West’, talking to the Taliban & Pakistan

Talks with Taliban, J&K leaders, thaw with Pakistan are strategic imperatives for the Modi govt. It can’t covet the US as Quad ally in the east & work at counter-purposes with them in the west. Shekhar Gupta Thank you, Mehbooba Mufti, for the cue for this week’s National Interest. As the key Jammu & Kashmir alliance, PAGD, announced its acceptance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation for the all-party meeting in Delhi, she said that India should also talk with Pakistan to find a final solution to the Kashmir issue.…

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