Sunil Kumar defeats Gopal Bhandary in Karkala

Karkala, May 8: V Sunil Kumar of BJP defeated sitting MLA Gopal Bhandary of Congress by margin of 4, 274 in Karkala Assembly Constituency in Udupi district.

Sunil Kumar managed to secure 64, 648 votes while Bhandary got 60, 374 votes.

It was an interesting battle because the constituency is well-known for giving a Chief Minister to the State- M. Veerappa Moily and Karkala is Mr. Moily's home turf. Mr. Moily, who is now the Union Petroleum Minister, represented Karkala by winning six times in a row in the 1972, 1978, 1983, 1985, 1989, and 1994 Assembly elections.

Sunil is now the president of State unit of BJP Yuva Morcha.

Mr. Bhandary and Sunil clashed for the third time as both have been re-nominated by their respective parties. In 2004, V. Sunil Kumar had defeated Mr. Bhandary by a margin of 9,769 votes in the Assembly elections. However, Mr. Bhandary defeated Sunil by a narrow margin of 1,537 votes in a straight fight in the 2008 Assembly elections.

In the March 2012 by-election to the Udupi-Chikmagalur parliamentary constituency, Sunil, who was the BJP candidate in the by-poll, led in the Karkala Assembly segment by a margin of 1,312 votes over the Congress candidate K. Jayaprakash Hegde (who won the by-election).

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

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.

Comments