Mangaluru police continue to question Bannanje Raja in six cases

January 7, 2016

Mangaluru, Jan 7: The city police continued to question underworld operative Bannanje Raja in connection with some cases booked against him here.

On December 30, 2015, the city police brought to the city Bannanje Raja, who had been lodged in the Belagavi Central Prison following his arrest in Morocco sometime ago.

The II Judicial Magistrate First Class gave custody of Bannanje Raja to the Mangaluru South Police for five days in connection with the assault on activist P.B. D’Sa in 2002.

The police produced him again before the Magistrate on Wednesday and sought permission to question Bannanje Raja in connection with a case of assault on Richard D’Souza in 2000.

The court permitted the police to have Bannanje Raja in their custody till January 8. There are as many as six cases against Bannanje Raja in Mangaluru.

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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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