India

Nashik, May 4 (PTI) Twenty heads of cattle died after grazing in a jowar field in Maharashtra's Nashik district, a local official said Saturday.

Samples of the grass have been taken and sent for testing, the official said, adding that preliminary probe points to poisoning as the cause of death.

Indore (MP), May 4 (PTI) Officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Saturday raided a zoo here and rescued 134 foreign animals, allegedly brought into the country illegally.

On a tip-off, DRI officials raided the zoo located in Malharganj area, run illegally by the NGO Karuna Sagar, an official release said.

Creatures found in the zoo included a South American Marmoset, Australian Iguanas, a Persian cat, Red Eared Singapore Slider Turtle, North American Alligator Gar, South American Guinea Pig and South American Macaw.

Jammu, May 5 (PTI) Terming the killing of its leader Gul Mohammad Mir as a big loss for the nation, the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP Sunday said his sacrifice would not go in vain.

Mir, the district vice-president of the party, was shot dead by three militants in his house at Nowgam-Verinag area of Anantnag district late Saturday.

His killing is a big loss to the nation...he was a brave man who always fought against Pakistani terrorists and till the last breath of his life served the motherland, state BJP president Ravinder Raina said.

New Delhi, May 5 (PTI) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Sunday held the BJP responsible for the attack on him during a roadshow and charged that the police is merely following the script given by the ruling party.

Kejriwal was slapped allegedly by a disgruntled AAP supporter during a roadshow in Moti Nagar on Saturday.

Noting that it was the ninth attack on him and the fifth since he became the chief minister, Kejriwal said it was not an attack on him but on the mandate of the people of Delhi.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A mammoth preparation exercise that included the evacuation of more than 1 million people appears to have spared India a devastating death toll from one of the biggest storms in decades, though the full extent of the damage was yet to be known, officials said Saturday.

Cyclone Fani packed winds of 250 kilometers (155 miles) per hour when it made landfall in eastern Odisha state on Friday, equivalent in strength to a Category 4 hurricane, said Mohammad Heidarzadei, an expert on cyclones at Brunel University of London.

KANPUR: Various plans which were proposed by the Nagar Nigam in the month of January this year did not materialize. These plans were aimed at ending overcrowding on the road. Despite the completion of four months nothing concrete has appeared on the road. However, Santosh Kumar Sharma, Nagar Ayukt, said that there was an attempt to remove the deficiencies as soon as it could possibly be done.

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor Arvind Kejriwal was slapped by a man during a roadshow in Delhi's Moti Nagar area on Saturday. Arvind Kejriwal was slapped when he was holding the roadshow in Delhi for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

According to India Today, a man, wearing a red T-shirt, climbed atop Arvind Kejriwal's open jeep and slapped the Delhi chief minister before being taken down by AAP supporters. The 33-year-old man has been identified as Suresh of Kailash Park.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday took a dig at Rahul's late father saying, "Your father was termed 'Mr Clean' by his courtiers, but his life ended as 'Bhrastachari number 1' (corrupt number 1)".

According to Outlook, Modi was addressing a BJP rally in Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh, where he accused the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi of attempting to tarnish his image over the Rafale issue.

MUMBAI, May 4 (Xinhua): India's western state of Maharashtra is reeling under severe water scarcity with 151 out of 358 sub-districts in the state being officially declared drought prone.

The state has 4,774 tankers currently supplying water to 12,116 villages and 1,264 fodder camps catering to nearly 850,000 livestock, according to state officials.

The Indian government too has sanctioned 682 million U.S. dollars for drought relief work.

Bhubaneswar, May 4; PTI/GANASHAKTI: A day after cyclonic storm 'Fani' ravaged parts of Odisha, killing at least 12 people, a massive restoration and relief work was launched on war-footing Saturday across 10,000 villages and urban areas, officials said.

The extremely severe cyclonic storm, which made landfall at Puri on Friday, unleashed copious rain and windstorm that gusted up to 200 kmph, blowing away thatched roofs of houses, swamped towns and villages, before weakening and entering West Bengal, they said.