Bantwal-based Moosa Kunhi appointed as KAT judge

October 2, 2011

Bangalore, October 2: Moosa Kunhi Nayarmoole has been appointed as the lone judicial member of the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT) by the honourable President of India Pratibha Patil.

Mr. Moosa Kunhi, originally from Manila village of Bantwal taluk, was serving as the additional registrar of the Lokayukta since 2009. He has also served in various capacities in the judiciary for the past several decades.

61-year-old Moosa Kunhi is the son of Haji Moidin Kutti and Fathima Hajuma. He completed his primary education from Pakalakunja higher primary school and highschool education from Paivalike government highschool. Subsequently he joined Vivekananda college, Puttur, where he completed his BSc.

Then he joined law college in Udupi and stood sixth in the examination conducted by the Mysore University. He served as a lawyer in Mangalore first as an assistant of late T. Yusuf Haidar and then as a deputy of M. Seetharam Shetty.

In 1983 he entered the judiciary as the Munsif and first class magistrate. In 1992 he was promoted as civil judge and principal magistrate. In 2000, he became the district civil judge.

He has also served as the city civil and sessions judge, chairman of Karnataka Wakf tribunal, additional director of the Karnataka Judicial Academy, chief secretary to the chief justice of the High Court, additional secretary of the state law department before joining Lokayukta institution as the additional registrar of the investigation department.

Mr. Moosa Kunhi is the first judge to become the Judicial Member of KAT promoted from a district judge rank. Hitherto this position had been reserved for the judges of the High Court.

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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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