Dakshina Kannada: 6 students suspended for wearing hijab, 16 sent back

News Network

June 2, 2022

Mangaluru, June 2: Authorities today suspended 6 students for wearing hijab in spite of a series of warnings in Dakshina Kannada district. In another instance, 16 students were sent back for wearing hijab while attending classes.

Six students of the Uppinangadi Government Pre University College have been suspended for refusing to remove hijab. The principal of the college took the decision to suspend the students after holding a meeting with college lecturers.

The 6 girl students were informed about the government order and the decision of the High Court prohibiting the wearing of hijab in classrooms.

Incident repeats in University College

Meanwhile, though the authorities of Mangaluru University College near Hampanakatte have been sending back students wearing hijab, 16 girl students who came wearing hijab on Thursday demanded that they should be allowed to attend classes.

The college principal denied their entry into classrooms and sent them back. The decision was taken in the Syndicate meeting. The students had also gone to the District Commissioner's office and had complained about not being allowed to attend classes while wearing hijab.

The DC had counselled them to follow the rules of the government and the court order. However, the students did not budge and came to the college on Thursday wearing hijabs.

The hijab row, started by 6 students of Udupi Pre-University Government Girl's College, backed by Campus Front of India became a raging controversy in the state making international headlines.

The Special Bench of the High Court, which was constituted to hear the matter, ruled against wearing any religious symbols including hijab in classrooms. The court had also dismissed the petition filed by students seeking permission to wear hijab in schools.

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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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