Letters to the EDITOR: Kukuha birds

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Kukuha birds

Kukuha birds (crow pheasants) are local birds. They are large, crow-like, gentle birds with a long tail and coppery brown wings. They are found in a wide range of habitats, from jungles to cultivation and urban areas. They roam in pairs, searching for insects. They cry in the jungles, and their loud sound can be heard from a far distance. In our childhood days, we often saw the kukuha birds on the grazing plots where we used to play village games like football, tangguti, cheumuri, dobolmuri, gaataaguti, dhaal, etc., while keeping cattle as cowboys. Or when we used to make search operations for wild fruits in the village jungles, the Kukuhas caught our attention. We noticed that they are peace-loving birds and avoid noise and noisy people. There were plenty of them in those days. But their numbers are decreasing day by day for various reasons, according to some bird lovers and conservationists in Darrang district. After spending 27 years in Majuli, I came back to my native place and have been living in a village at Dighirpar in Darrang district since 2022. To my amazement, a pair of beautiful Kukuha birds have started living somewhere nearby my residence. The sight and sound of the pair of Kukuha birds have made my surroundings lovely and sweet. The village people like us should take some initiatives to protect a magnificent creation of nature like the Kukuha and other local birds and their habitats.

Kulendra Nath Deka

Dighirpar, Mangaldai

Arrogance

doesn't pay

Recently, while watching the TV coverage of the return of the victorious Team India from Barbados on an English private TV channel, I saw two very contrasting scenes. In one, I saw Rohit Sarma very carefully polishing the T20 trophy with a piece of cloth, and in the other, the then victorious Aussie skipper of the last ODI world cup held in India was lying on a sofa wearing a yellow Aussie jersey with his feet on the trophy. What does it indicate? It simply indicates his arrogance and reflects the culture of the Australian cricket team.

We all know that the Aussies are bad losers in any format of sports. Arrogance never pays, as evidenced by their loss to minnows Afghanistan in the last T20 world cup.

Lanu Dutt Chowdhury,

Guwahati

The prime target

Never in the history of a nation's politics has one ever seen a particular individual of a political party become the prime target of attack. He is none other than PM Modi, the third-time PM of the nation after Pt. Nehru. Since the very day he joined politics by becoming a member of the BJP, to his ascendency as CM of Gujarat and then later on becoming the PM of the nation by sheer hard work and honesty, he has been the constant prime target of attack from the oppositions, Congress in particular. Some members of Congress, namely Mani Shankar Iyer, Shashi Tharoor, etc., allegedly even went to Pakistan, our sworn enemy, seeking support to dislodge Modi from power. He was called by names like Mout Ka Sadagar, Chor, Chaiwala, Neech, etc. by the Gandhi-Vadra family, only to be rejected by the bona fide Indians in three consecutive Lok Sabha polls. Even his personal life was not spared. A few, like Rahul, Akhilesh, and Tejeshwi, were projected on par with Modi. Recently, the opposition even termed Modi’s telephonic congratulatory talks with Team India after their T20 World Cup triumph as a publicity stunt. Perhaps they had no idea that it was the same Modi who consoled Team India after its heartbreaking loss to the Aussies in Ahmedabad in the 2023 World Cup ODI final.

Hitting Modi below the belt is not fair.

Dr Ashim Chowdhury, Guwahati

Midday meal scheme

Lakhs of underprivileged schoolchildren, struggling to overcome anaemia and malnutrition, have benefited from the "PM POSHAN scheme," which aims at addressing the two-fold challenge of hunger and education. India is one of the very few countries that provides its school-going children with one nutritious meal a day. Morning and midday meals ensure better digestion and good absorption because the body remains active throughout the day. A huge scheme like POSHAN—the erstwhile midday meal scheme—is prone to lethargy, corruption, and poor implementation. There are reports of food adulteration and food poisoning in midday meals across the country from time to time. After a reported incident from an Uttar Pradesh school in 2019 where Roti was served with salt as a "meal," the centre totally overhauled the midday scheme.

The Direct Beneficiary Scheme (DBT) of POSHAN hoped to take care of this, with funds being directly transferred to the school account for transparency and accountability. However, food adulteration and food poisoning are still being reported.

Recently, a dead snake was found in one of the "dal-khichdi" packets served to students of an anganwadi government school in Maharashtra's Sangli district. The godown that stored food packets before they were distributed has been sealed. Contractors responsible for the lapses should be hauled up. Enhanced enrolment, decreased dropouts, increased well-being—children stand to gain from the Centre's POSHAN, but transparency in the execution of the scheme is the key to its success.

Dr Ganapathi Bhat

(gbhat13@gmail.com)

Love offering in Church

If you go to church for the Mass on Sundays and don’t have change of Rs 500 to give it as a love offering, give the Rs 500 note you have instead. God will bless you and give you seven times more in return. The more you give to the Lord, the more blessings you will receive. I have experienced it; that’s why I am writing this.

Jubel D’Cruz,

(jubeldcruz@yahoo.com)