Don't celebrate Tipu Jayanti, BJP urges government

Bengaluru, Jan 15: The State BJP on Wednesday opposed the government's move to celebrate the 18th century ruler Tipu Sultan's birth anniversary as Tipu Jayanti.

Addressing a press conference, BJP?State president Pralhad Joshi said Tipu Sultan was communal and had forcibly converted people to Islam.

œThe government should not celebrate birthdays of controversial persons. If it is interested in projecting its religious tolerance, it should celebrate anniversaries of people like Shishunala Sharif, Joshi said.

Sharif was a saint-poet and philosopher of the 19th century.

Joshi said Rural?Development and Panchayat Raj Minister H?K?Patil and Minister of State for Food and Civil Supplies Dinesh?Gundu Rao had blamed the Centre for slashing funds for the State only to cover up the lapses in running the administrative machinery.

Patil had blamed the NDA?government for slashing the State's allocation under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act by Rs 1,200 crore.

Rao had recently said the Centre had cut Karnataka's quota of kerosene by 3,000 kilo litres from 43,000 kilo litres per month.

Joshi said there had been no deliberate cut of quota to the State, but the Centre was following the œexpenditure fund release system based on utilisation by a state, a policy implemented by the previous UPA?government.

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Elusive bamboo shrimp resurfaces in Mangaluru estuary after 70 years

News Network

December 7,2025

Mangaluru, Dec 7: A rare bamboo shrimp has been rediscovered on mainland India more than 70 years after it was last reported, confirming for the first time the presence of Atyopsis spinipes in the country. The find was made by researchers from the Centre for Climate Change Studies at Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, during surveys in Karnataka and Odisha.

The team — shrimp expert Dr S Prakash, PhD scholar K Kunjulakshmi, and Mangaluru-based researcher Maclean Antony Santos — combined field surveys, ecological assessments and DNA analysis to identify the elusive species. Their findings, published in Zootaxa, resolve decades of taxonomic confusion stemming from a 1951 report that misidentified the species as Atyopsis moluccensis without strong evidence.

The shrimp has now been confirmed at two locations: the Mulki–Pavanje estuary near Mangaluru and the Kuakhai River in Bhubaneswar. Historical specimens from the Andaman Islands, previously labelled as A. moluccensis, were also found to be misidentified and actually belong to A. spinipes.

The rediscovery began after an aquarium hobbyist in Odisha spotted a shrimp in 2022, prompting systematic surveys across Udupi, Karwar and Mangaluru. Four female specimens were collected in Mulki and one in Odisha, all genetically matching.

Researchers warn the species may exist in very small, vulnerable populations as freshwater habitats face increasing pressure from pollution, sand mining and infrastructure development. All verified specimens have been deposited with the Zoological Survey of India for future reference.

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