Homestay attack victims yet to get over the shock

July 30, 2012

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Mangalore, July 30: Partying in the open was out of the question with moral goons prowling around. Now, partying within the confines of one's house, too, is under threat. "The minute I came home, my mother told me not to attend such parties in future and I promised her I won't,'' said a sobbing Rekha (name changed). "Even I don't think my friends will attend parties, other than the ones called at somebody's home," said the engineering student.

Vijay Kumar, 23, event organizer and DJ,who is still shaken by the events says:"We will think twice while holding parties here. We will not stop partying, but it definitely will not be in the city." Gurudath Kamath, an MBA, who is into event management, says: "They robbed us of our chains, wallets and beat us on assumption." Interestingly, it was Kumar's birthday party. It started at 2.30pm and was almost ending."We were preparing to leave when these goons entered and beat us black and blue,'' said Vijay,who is still sporting a black eye. "All of us had informed our parents about the party. In fact, some had their parents drop them off at the venue,'' he said.

"At 6pm we decided to leave. We were keeping our bags outside when I saw a crowd gathering. When they entered, I ran outside and jumped the compound. But the goons followed and dragged me by my hair all the way to the resort,'' sobs Lavanya. "I was lucky. I was put in a room and they locked it. I was out only when police came. They pulled Vijay's shirt and pushed him on the bed along with the other girls to make it appear like something was going on,'' said Rekha. For Vijay, it is his second brush with the goons. They had gatecrashed and stopped a party when he had organized a gig last year in a hotel near Yekkur.

One of the girls was a police official's daughter. "We will testify against these goons.We want them punished," said Vijay. But the girls said: "We have had enough to last us a lifetime.We don't want anything more to do with this case."

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News Network
December 7,2025

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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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