Sportstar in a new sleek look launched in Mangalore

Mangalore, July 26: Sportstar , the only surviving sports weekly magazine in the country, was re-launched on Wednesday in Mangalore, presenting itself with “renewed vigour” as a “new avatar”.

Published by Kasturi and Sons Ltd., which also comes out with The Hindu , Sportstar goes back to the magazine format after having experimented with the tabloid format for the past five years. First having been launched in 1969 asSport and Pastime , the latest avatar is one of many that has seen the magazine through many, albeit transient, competitors.

'It has substance'

“It (Sportstar) has survived because of its substance, and the quality has been maintained,” was how Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner N.S. Channappa Gowda described the magazine.

DC's tryst with magazine

Releasing the first copies of the sports magazine at a function, he said his first tryst with the weekly was in 1975 and the interest continued till the rigours of his career made it difficult to follow sports. “The magazine has news that benefits sportsmen and contains useful inputs sportspersons can use,” he said.

Honoured

In keeping with the ethos of fostering sporting culture, four sportspersons who have made significant contributions to sport in the district were felicitated at the event. Those felicitated included: Anand Shetty, distinguished athlete whose gold and silver medals at numerous South Asian Federation (SAF) games have won him laurels, including the Karnataka Rajyotsava award in 1991; Viani Antonio D'cunha, a St. Aloysius College student and a chess player who holds the highest FIDE rating in the District which won him the 2010 Ekalavya Award given by the Karnataka Government; Royston Pinto, who at just 23 has many medals for skating at the Special Olympics held in Athens; and Roshan Ferrao, a bodybuilder of international repute and the 2010 Mr. Asia-Pacific.

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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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